A Canterbury principal says the nation needs to lift its game on school attendance.
Kaiapoi High School principal Jason Reid (Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga) said 51% of their students met the Ministry of Education’s regular attendance standards - being at school 90% of the time.
Reid said 73% of students were at school 80% of the time, which is considered irregular attendance.
“We need people to realise that attending school is important. 80 percent is actually poor attendance, as it means you are effectively away one day per week.
”You wouldn’t accept that [80 percent attendance] as an employer, so we need to ensure they are getting into good habits now.“It’s something we need to be pushing as a nation. It shouldn’t be that hard for the majority to be attending 90% or above.”
But Reid said “a sizeable chunk” of absences were due to sickness, with the highest levels of sickness recorded in term three.
“Last year, there were a lot of bugs going around, so it definitely had an impact.
“But we do need to watch out for it, because if you miss a week of school, you miss 25 hours of learning, and it’s very hard to come back from.
“There were some incidents of children being taken out of school for family holidays or for birthdays,” he said.
“There are some parents who are vigilant in making sure they are in contact with teachers to ensure the impact on learning is minimised.
“But it will still have an impact and it is not just the academic impact, it’s leadership, sport, socialising with their peers - all of these things are impacted.”
Schools are required to record and submit student attendance every day for public reporting.
The Government last week also announced a new reporting system for school students, which includes ongoing attendance information for parents.
Taking a restorative approach
Kaiapoi High School’s board of trustees presiding member Belinda Smith said the board support is backing a pilot for a new behaviour referral system this year, following engagement with parents.
The new system is based on the system used at another rural Canterbury school, which has seen a 70% reduction in referrals.
“The implementation of the new behavioural referral system is in its infancy and I’m really looking forward to seeing the impact it makes,” she said.
Reid said the new system focuses on restorative behaviour, rather than punishment, with whānau contacted to arrange “a restorative meeting” after school hours.
“We are moving it to an after-school setting so we’ve got time to sit down with the student and talk about ‘what was up today’.
“We want to know what is the root of this issue, but we also want the student to know the affect it has had on other students and the teacher.”
Reid said some parents had expressed concern that it would impact after-school commitments, but most had been supportive.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
