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Attendance

Parent Essentials

Attendance

Regular attendance at school is important for our students’ learning, wellbeing and their futures. Attendance is the first step in accessing learning and is essential for educational success, achieving qualifications and attaining wider social and economic outcomes. There is a well-established relationship between attendance and achievement.

Non-attendance and irregular attendance are two of the biggest barriers to student achievement. At Cromwell College we strive to maintain high levels of attendance and punctuality. Our procedures emphasize individual student responsibility, with clear consequences for persistent absence and/or lateness to school. We appreciate your support of this system which is designed to support quality learning.

As parents, caregivers, and whānau you play the most important role in helping our students regularly attend school.

Attendance

FAQ

Yes, if your child is under 16 years old they must go to school every day. Under the Education and Training Act 2020, parents and carers of children between six (6) and 16 years old can be prosecuted if their child is away from school without a good reason. If you don’t make your child go to school, you could be charged and fined up to $30 for every day your child is away.

The school has to do what they can, in accordance with the Ministry of Education, to make sure students are at school whenever it’s open. Schools have to keep accurate daily attendance records for all students, and follow the school policy for addressing Truancy (usually called an “attendance management plan”).
Steps the school could take if you’re regularly not going to school:
● Assess the situation at a meeting with whānau teacher, Dean or Deputy Principal
● Make sure that the whānau is clearly told about the problem, both verbally and in writing;
● Arrange a whānau meeting to discuss the problem;
● Contact other agencies if there are issues such as learning difficulties, or suspected abuse, neglect, or other issues at home.

Attending school every day is just as important at secondary school as it was at primary school.

The first four years of secondary school prepare your child for the NCEA years, so going to school regularly right from the start is important so students don’t miss any of this learning.

Once a student reaches year 11, or “old” 5th form, they begin NCEA. They will have an NCEA assessment regularly throughout the term. Many NCEA assessments and the majority of the learning takes place in class time, so if your child is away they will miss out on important NCEA work. For subjects with external examinations, it is crucial that students attend every day because the exams test their knowledge about what has been taught in class.

Going to school every day also sets your child up with good life skills like having a good work ethic, being reliable, and commitment. It teaches them that they can achieve and will help them stick with school for longer.

Attendance is also linked to wellbeing with studies confirming that attending school regularly predicts the best outcomes for wellbeing on average. 

A student who is regularly attending misses less than one week of school across a Term. This means they’re attending more than 90 percent of the time.

The key measure of attendance in Aotearoa, New Zealand is the proportion of our students who attend regularly, that is, the percentage of students who have attended more than 90% of the term or year-to-date. A more simplistic take on this is that students who attend regularly still miss up to one day a fortnight and even that adds up to one week of school time across a term and one month off school each year.

If a student is absent for two or more days a fortnight they are considered irregularly absent and at this point we become concerned and interventions designed to support attendance may be put in place. A child who is irregularly absent misses 1-2 weeks of school across a term. Students with an attendance rate of 80% will miss the equivalent of one year of secondary school across the course of their five years with us and with an attendance rate of 75% you begin to miss the equivalent of one term per year.

You can check whether your child is attending regularly via the attendance statistics produced and attached to regular school reports which you receive.

Your child should be attending school every day. But sometimes your child might need to be away from school because they are too sick to attend, have an appointment or need to be at a tangi or funeral.
If your child is going to be away from school, you should let the school know as soon as possible. All absence from school must be explained.

If students are going to be away from school a Parent or Guardian must contact the school. To report a student absence by using the KAMAR app or call the school office at ​03 445 1121 or email admin@cromwell.school.nz

You will need to let them know that they will be away, why and for how long.

If your child is going to be away for several days, talk to their teacher about getting some work to do while they are away, so that they don’t miss out on anything important. An out of school form can be collected from the office.

If you know your child will be late for a justified reason, please advise the school as you would an absence by using the KAMAR app or call the school office at ​03 445 1121 or email admin@cromwell.school.nz with the reason for the lateness.

If your child arrives late to school, they will need to go to the Office to sign in. Students who are very late to class may be recorded as absent. For instance, if the student arrives 15-20 minutes into the class then it is more accurate to record the student as absent.

Our procedures emphasize individual student responsibility, with clear consequences for persistent lateness to school. In the first instance, if a student is late to class more than 3 times in a term, they will be issued with a lunchtime detention. If they continue to be late, we will connect with whānau and an escalating series of support and outcomes will be put in place to address the issue. Continued lateness may also lead to missing out on out of class school activities

Any absence or lateness not explained by a Parent or Guardian communicating with the school within 3 school days of the student returning will result in fair and reasonable consequences being given in the form of detentions. Students will be informed of any consequences. They will have 2 school days to rectify any unexplained absence prior to the consequence of detentions occurring.

At Cromwell College we expect high levels of attendance and punctuality. Success at school is influenced by many things, and one of the largest is regular attendance, and being on time for school. Like fitness routines, or healthy eating, it is the cumulative effect of days, weeks and months of being on time, and coming to school, that adds up to a significant impact.

Arriving late for school has a negative impact on the learning of our rangatahi. Students miss out on opening greetings and whānaungatanga, key instructions, opportunities to co-construct their learning for the lesson with teachers, and this can also disrupt the teaching and learning of their class. Students can also feel whakamā (shame) about walking into the class late and this can lead to increased truancy. The more learning a student misses, the more they miss out on opportunities to make connections with their peers and teachers. This can have a huge impact not only on academic success, but engagement and wellbeing too. Arriving on time also helps prepare rangatahi for the punctuality expectations they’ll experience as adults in the workforce.

We are aware that occasionally other circumstances cause a lateness outside of the control of the student or parent/guardian. This is expected to be a rare event and kept to a minimum.

Being late to class is very disruptive for teaching and learning. If a student is late to class (more than 10 min) more than 3 times in a term, they will be issued with a detention. If they continue to be late, this will be escalated.

While it is nice to inform a teacher of your child’s absence, they are unable to amend your child’s attendance. If you are wanting to send your child’s teacher a courtesy message, then just CC in attendance admin@cromwell.school.nz so that the attendance officer can make the necessary adjustments.

The student should speak with or email whomever it was that they had the meeting with as they will be the only person who can confirm their presence at the meeting. It would also be good to CC the Attendance Officer too so that they are also aware that the student is following this up.

Where possible, please inform the office prior to collecting your child via email, phone or logging an absence in the portal. If you haven’t or are unable to do so prior, when your child signs out at the office you will need to speak with one of our administration team on the phone or you will need to come in and physically speak to one of the team.

The student must sign out at the office. This is for health and safety reasons so we know who is/is not onsite at all times. Please note that students signing in/out doesn’t update attendance, a parent/guardian still needs to notify the Attendance Officer- Maree Lapthorne

We strongly encourage you to make appointments (e.g. physio, driving lessons) outside of school time, as while these appointments may be explained, they are not justified by the Ministry of Education. Please note that being absent from school due to a doctor’s or dentist’s appointment is a justified reason to be absent from school, but when possible, our preference is that these appointments are also outside of school hours.

We ask that students bring a parent note or appointment slip, and sign in and out at reception if there is a need to leave school during the day.

Signing in/out doesn’t update your child’s attendance, a parent/guardian still needs to notify the Attendance Officer with confirmation that the student is/was allowed to leave and why. Ideally this should be done prior to a student leaving. The student must sign out at the office. This is for health and safety reasons so we know who is/is not onsite at all times.

The school must receive communication from parents explaining the reason and dates for the intended absence as far in advance as possible. It is then the student’s responsibility to check the assessment calendar (if appropriate e.g. for seniors) and speak to each subject teacher to determine what work will be missed. The student should then complete a ‘Out of School Leave’ form which can be picked up from the school office. It is also the student’s responsibility to ensure that any work missed is caught up on within the timeframe indicated.

We strongly discourage students from taking time off school to go on holiday because of the impact that this can have on their learning. The Ministry of Education now classifies this type of absence as unjustified.

No, a holiday is not a good enough reason to take your child out of school, so holidays should be planned outside of term time.
Events like a birthday or a special day’s shopping aren’t considered valid reasons for being away from school either.

We may require medical certificates for any absence longer than three days or for more than 10 cumulative days during a school term. The exception to this is when a student is applying for an extension for an NCEA assessment – in this situation a medical certificate is always required. If you are unable to or unwilling to provide this, the code will be changed from ‘M’ (Medical leave and justified absence) to ‘E’ (Explained but unjustified absence).

If your child misses a lot of school because of a serious illness you may be able to get help from a regional health school. As per the Ministry of Education recomendation, a medical certificate is to be provided after three consecutive days or after 10 cumulative days in a termIf your child misses a lot of school because of mental or physical health challenges you may be able to get help from the Southern Health School. Please contact your child’s Dean in the first instance if physical or mental health is preventing regular attendance at school.

This can be really upsetting for a parent. Truancy – wagging or skipping school is a serious issue. It often starts small and grows to more and more absences from school. Parents often wait until the problem is deeply entrenched before acting, so it’s important to act quickly and let us know so that we can support you.

Communicating with us if you are having difficulties with your child attending school is really important. Don’t let them have the day off just because they would rather be at home. Whether it’s mental health, bullying, a sense of overwhelm about workload, anxiety about assessments, or something else that they won’t disclose details of.

Talk to your child about why they don’t want to go. Be supportive. Make contact with a member of staff, in particular your child’s whānau teacher or Dean. Whatever the reason, you won’t be the first parent to talk to the school about that type of situation. We will have some good advice, and we’ll be able to work together to help your child.

It’s probably a sign that they’re having a problem, like:
● They’re having difficulty with their school work;
● There is a problem with other children at school;
● There’s an issue with a teacher;
● Bullying;
● Boredom;
● A family situation;
● A health issue;
● Drug and alcohol use;
● A mental health issue;
● A social or behavioral issue.

Expect them to go to school every day – don’t accept excuses, or let them stay at home unless they are too sick to be at school;

Talk to your teenager about why it is important to go to school regularly and encourage them to give themselves a fair chance to achieve. Let them know they are more likely to do well if they go to school each day;

Help them get to school on time by waking them early enough, having a morning routine and making sure their transport is reliable;

Get to know the whānau teacher and dean at the start of the school year – it will make it easier to talk to them if an issue arises;

Find out how the school manages attendance. What time does your child have to be at school? What happens if they are late? How should you let the school know if your child is going to be away? How and when will the school let you know if your child has not turned up?

Check often that your child is in fact attending class;

If you have any concerns about their attendance, talk to the school earlier rather than later – don’t wait until the end of the term or year when it’s too late and their non-attendance has started to have an impact on their learning;

Keep family holidays outside of term time – it’s more difficult to catch up if they have missed several days in a row.

There are two categories of absences: justified and unjustified. 

What you are able to see as a parent or caregiver on the ‘Cromwell College KAMAR Portal’ is a simplified and condensed version of what we have access to as staff. There are currently 26 different codes used in New Zealand to record a student’s attendance and you only see a few. There are perfectly good reasons for simplifying this system and like many schools, our ‘Portal’ only reflects so much information.

Unjustified absence is a grouping of several Ministry of Education attendance codes. An unjustified absence is an absence that is either unexplained or explained, but the explanation is not an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. The decision on whether this explained absence is ‘justified’ or ‘unjustified’ will be determined by the Ministry of Education guidelines and the school’s attendance policy.

Sometimes this causes distress for parents, caregivers, and students. However, the explanation for the absence is accepted by the school as the reason for the absence and we are not passing judgment or criticism. Put simply, the reason does not fit within the school’s policy as a justifiable reason to take the student off school even though the parents may consider the absence was justified and may have provided a written explanation. 

Examples of absence which are explained but unjustified are the likes of holidays during term time, mental health days, students taking time out of school to sit driver’s license tests (or driving lessons), hair cuts, days shopping and special family events. 

Please note, that very few absence reasons are considered ‘Justified’ as per the School Policy and the Ministry of Education. If you’re interested you can look further into this via this link: School attendance codes

A letter of concern is sent to families when a concerning pattern appears in a students attendance record or when a students attendance falls below the threshold of regular attendance (80-90%). This is a time for whānau, student and school to work together to support your child with regular attendance.

If your child is not at school and we have not heard from you then you will be contacted by text in the morning. Please reply to this with details of the absence including how long your child will be away for. 

If students are marked absent for a period throughout the day you will be contacted by text or an email to advise you of the absence in a timely manner.

Our procedures emphasize individual student responsibility. If your child was in class and present, they will need to speak to their classroom teacher to get their attendance corrected in the first instance. The teacher is the only one who can change this, as they are the only person who can confirm that the student was present. This should be done as soon as possible to avoid detentions being issued for unexplained absences.

If there was a reliever for that class, the student must send an email to their regular classroom teacher who will be able to amend their attendance if applicable. If the teacher is away for an extended period then the student can contact their Dean.

Parents may view their child’s attendance in real time on the Cromwell College KAMAR Portal. Please note that attendance codes are simplified on the portal to present, late or absent. Further details are maintained in our school system.

Each week you will be receiving an email outlining the attendance, engagement and achievement. These are to help you track your students progress and ensure that we have the correct coding for attendance.