Regular school attendance is vital for the success and wellbeing of our tamariki. Attending school every day supports our tamariki to build strong foundations for their learning and social development. Regular attendance also promotes achievement success as tamariki are able to consistently build on their learning.
Our government has set a national target of 80% of students attending school at least 90% of the time. This means that tamariki should be absent for no more than one day a fortnight to ensure that they can have continued success at school.
At Te Kura o Wairau our school mission underpins our approach to attendance by:
Valuing and celebrating the identities and aspirations that our whanau have,
Valuing and celebrating the identities and aspirations that our whanau have,
Nurturing the well-being, confidence and creativity of our tamariki,
Enhancing understanding of being excellent kaitiaki for our learning and our environment,
Our Stepped Attendance Response outlines our process for monitoring, supporting and improving attendance - so every tamaiti can strive to be the best they can be.
| Term 2 Attendance 2024 (from Every Day Matters) | |
|---|---|
| Regular/Good Attendance | 38% |
| Worrying/Irregular Attendance | 26% |
| Moderate/Concerning attendance | 15% |
| Chronic/Very Serious Concern | 21% |
Success would look like a shift in the 3 categories of Irregular, Moderate and Chronic attendance.While we will also focus on the other two categories, the most positive shift can be made focusing on these tamariki and whānau with Serious Concern by using the school van to assist with picking up the students in the morning (10 students).
| Term 2 Attendance 2025 (from Every Day Matters) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Regular/Good Attendance | 50% | ↑ Up 12% |
| Worrying/Irregular Attendance | 18% | ↓ Down 8% |
| Concerning/Moderate Attendance | 13% | ↓ Down 2% |
| Very Concerning/Chronic Attendance | 19% | ↓ Down 2% |
We aim to increase Regular Attendance by 10% every year until 2030, which would meet the government target of 80% of children attending 90% of the time by 2030.
Rationale for 10% increase: From Term 2 2024 to Term 2 2025, our Regular Attendance improved by 12%. We are therefore setting a realistic target to move at least 10% (15 children) schoolwide from their current category.
Our Attendance Management Plan sits within our 2023-2026 Annual Implementation Plan:
Te Kura o Wairau has procedures to record and monitor attendance, and to identify and follow up concerns. We share attendance expectations with tamariki and whānau and staff are responsible for reminding our community of these expectations.
As required by the Education and Training Act 202 (s35), all students between six and sixteen years old must be enrolled at school. Once enrolled, it is compulsory to attend school regularly, unless a specific exemption has been approved by the school and Ministry of Education. The board takes all reasonable steps to ensure all students enrolled at Te Kura O Wairau attend when it is open for instruction (Education and Training Act 2020 s36).
Whānau have legal obligations to ensure their tamariki attend school (Education and Training Act s24). Whānau are expected to:
● Notify the school as soon as possible if their child is going to be late or absent.
● Arrange appointments and trips outside of school hours or during the school holidays, where possible.
● Work with the school to manage attendance concerns.
Further supporting information can be found in our School Docs Attendance Procedures.
We regularly communicate with our tamariki and whānau about attendance expectations, consisting of:
● Communication in the termly newsletters.
● Phone calls with our whānau from our kaiako/office staff/DP, when needed.
● Korero at assemblies.
● Korero at parent interviews or when the need arises.
● Korero on enrolment.
1. Roll to be taken by the Kaiako BEFORE 9:05am.
2. Any tamaiti who arrives late to school is to report to the office to register that they are late. The office staff will record the day and time and issue the student a late pass.
3. Should a tamaiti arrive in class after the register has been taken, ask if they have reported to the office. If they haven’t, they MUST go to the office and report in.
4. Afternoon roll must be taken BEFORE 1:50pm.
5. There should be no need to send over paper absences to the Office, unless there is a reliever in the room or the internet is down.
6. If a parent has informed you that their child will be absent for a specific reason, ie: tangi, appointment, holiday, please add a note to their attendance (through the Roll on Etap) to inform the office.
1. The office manager checks the texts and emails and takes phone calls of absences in the morning.
2. The office staff checks all classes' attendance on eTap from 9:05am
3. Any children marked with a ? are then followed up by the office manager:
a. A text is sent out to all children who are marked with an ?
b. When replies are received, the office manager updates the absence with the appropriate code.
c. If no reply is received, the child is marked as Truant. After three days, the office manager will complete a Referral to Attendance Services.
4. The office staff will check the afternoon roll from 1:50pm.
5. The office manager will print out the attendance for each class weekly.
6. Twice termly the office manager and deputy principal will meet to discuss referrals, concerns and updates.
Whānau have legal obligations to ensure their tamariki attend school (Education and Training Act, s244). We expect whānau to:
● Notify the kura as soon as possible if their tamaiti is going to be late or absent.
● Arrange appointments or trips outside of kura hours or during school holidays, where possible.
● Work with us (kura) to manage attendance concerns.
Every week, the Deputy Principal will:
● Using the weekly print outs of classes, check patterns of attendance.
● Check for any discrepancies or errors with coding and follow up with the teacher/office.
● Liaise with the office manager and follow up on Truant codes if no communication has been had with the whānau.
● Adhere to the STAR advice and guidelines.
● Provide a termly attendance report to the School Board showing the analysis of data, trends and narratives.
● Adhere to the STAR thresholds.
● Review the plan termly after considering the Every Day Matters Report.
Attendance patterns and concerns will be discussed at our Senior Leadership hui every fortnight.
Every term, attendance concerns will be raised at our Manawatū Rock On hui.
| Stepped Attendance Response | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Good Attendance | Worrying Attendance | Concerning Attendance | Very Concerning Attendance |
| Less than 5 days absence in a school term | Up to 10 days absence in a term | Up to 15 days absence in a term | 15 days or more absence in a term |
| Whānau | Whānau | Whānau | Whānau |
| ● Ensure student attends every day they are able. ● Reinforce good attendance habits with their whānau and others. ● Follow school attendance management plan and procedures. |
● Return student to regular attendance. ● Contact school to discuss reasons for absence and impact on learning. ● Support student to catch up on missed learning. ● Engage in supports offered. |
● Return student to regular attendance. ● Participate in meetings with school to discuss reasons for absence and to collaborate on a support plan. ● Implement strategies at home. ● Engage in support plan. |
● Return student to regular attendance. ● Engage in setting up a support plan. ● Review and participate in regular meetings. |
| Kura | Kura | Kura | Kura |
| ● Upon enrolment, communicate attendance expectations. ● Communication to parents at the start of the school year and each term. ● Communicate with whānau about every absence. ● Maintain contact details of all parents. ● Provide students with regular updates on their own attendance. ● Report regularly to whānau on attendance of their child. ● Support students getting to school. ● Using MOE approved wellbeing or transitional plans, health schools to access other education pathways where appropriate. ● Promoting good social and learning environments by celebrating attendance. |
● Contact parents to discuss reasons for absence and impact on learning. ● Support student to catch up missed learning where required. ● Use in-school resources as appropriate to remove barriers, eg: wellbeing specialist, adjusted timetabling (transitions), PB4L, van. |
● Contact parents to escalate concerns. ● Hold meeting to discuss and analyse reasons for absence. ● Collaborate, develop and implement an improvement support plan tailored to the reasons and circumstances around the child’s absence. ● Use in-school resources as appropriate to remove barriers. ● Request support from Attendance Service or other agencies as needed. |
● Contact parents to inform of escalated response. ● Request support from Attendance Service or other agencies as needed. ● Work alongside Attendance Services to request school or MoE led prosecution. ● Participate in multi-agency response. ● Maintain implementation and monitoring support plan. ● When considered appropriate if supports are offered and not taken up, follow Ministry of Educations guidelines and unenrol a student after 20 consecutive days off school. |
Ongoing communication with whānau about attendance expectations and follow up, is critical to lift attendance expectations.
In relation to STAR, our kura may use the Ministry of Education resource "Communicating with parents about attendance" to support communication with whānau and if required, escalation of attendance concerns.
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