Colwill School Massey - Attendance Management Plan and supporting STAR p

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.

As required by the Education and Training Act 2020 (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 attend when it is open for instruction (Education and Training Act 2020 s36).

The board is responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the school’s students attend the school when it is open for instruction.

The board will comply with the provisions in the legislation in relation to student attendance by:

• having a commitment to support students return to regular attendance
• having processes and procedures in place to support a Stepped Attendance Response to student absence that uses data-based thresholds to identify students
• recording all absences, and responding accordingly
• having an effective method in place for identifying and monitoring student absence, including identifying patterns and barriers to student attendance
• publishing this attendance management plan on the school’s website  

The principal is responsible for:

• developing and implementing a stepped attendance response aligned with the thresholds to support student attendance
• ensure that student absence is investigated, responded too and actions taken recorded aligned with the thresholds
• ensure all students, whanau and staff understand the processes and procedures that support student attendance
• Report to the board on any trends, barriers to attendance and interventions being used to support student attendance.
• provide a termly attendance report to the School Board showing the analysis of data, trends and narratives

The principal will maintain reporting of daily attendance data.  

The board will receive termly attendance reporting- including information provided by the Every Day matters report. Included in this reporting will be any emerging trends, barriers to attendance, and areas of concern for the board's consideration.

Education and Training Act 2020

Education Attendance rules

Education (School Attendance) Regulations 2024

What would success look like?

Success would look like an increase to Regular/Good Attendance, whereby more of our tamariki are attending regularly. The category where the most positive shift could be made is with the Worrying/Irregular Attendance - reducing this category would have a positive impact on Regular/Good Attendance.

While we will also focus on the other two categories, a greater shift can be made focusing on these tamariki and whānau with Worrying/Irregular Attendance.

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

Tumuaki Responsibilities

The principal will appoint staff and delegate duties, so as to manage the recording of electronic student attendance register and the follow-up procedures for non- attending students.

Senior leaders are responsible for monitoring student attendance for their respective groups, ensuring that parents are informed of attendance concerns.  Senior staff and relevant personnel will be kept informed of serious student absence situations.

Students will be identified at the thresholds.  Follow-up response actions will be tailored to the reasons for absence.

Patterns of attendance and specific interventions being used will be evaluated by the pastoral team/SLT termly to review outcomes and effectiveness of these interventions

Kaiako Responsibilities

1. Roll to be taken by the Akomanga Kaiako  9.15am.
2. Any tamaiti who arrives late to school is to report to the Tari to register that they are late on the Late list.
3. Should a tamaiti arrive in class after the register has been taken, ask if they have reported to the Tari. If they haven’t, they MUST report to the Tari.
4. Afternoon roll must be taken BEFORE 1.30pm.
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 to inform the Office.

Tari Responsibilities

1. The Office Managers check the texts and emails and take phone calls of absences in the morning.
2. The Office Manager checks all classes' attendance on ETAP from 9.15am.
3. Any children marked with a ? are then followed up by the Office Manager:                                                                                                                     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.
4. The Office Manager will check the afternoon roll from 1.30pm.

Attached is the Stepped Attendance Response Activities for our school.  Any action taken can be considered at any threshold.  All actions taken to respond to absences will be recorded in student management system.