Principal’s Notes – August 2024

Education is a hot topic politically at the moment – as it should be, and the two hottest items appear to be attendance and mathematics achievement in Year 8.

Let’s just focus on ATTENDANCE for this Newsletter piece as there is a very strong correlation between attendance and achievement (who would have thought!).

We are pretty proud of our students attendance record overall here at Springs. Our EveryDayMatters report from the Ministry of Education (MOE) for Term 2 shows that daily attendance is consistent every day of the week in the mid to high 80% range. Breaking that down for clarity – 85% of our student roll turned up for school on Mondays; on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this rose to 86% last term, dropped to 84% on Thursdays before rising to 85% on Fridays. Anecdotally I would expect an absence rate of 10-12% due to sickness etc, so we’re not doing too bad using that yardstick.

What our government is concerned about are the national figures around regular attendance. Regular attendance is categorised as 90% attendance or above. In real terms that means a student missing fewer than 5 days across a term, or only 1 day per fortnight away. As a nation we are miles away from attaining that and our government has set a goal for us to reach 90% nationally by 2030. As a school we work hard on attendance, because we know how important it is for engagement and attainment, let alone the harsh reality of employment requirements post school!

How can parents help us with this?

As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school.

You must let us know if your child is going to be absent or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure. Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not recognised by the MOE as acceptable reasons for being absent. The MOE’s absence coding for holidays taken during term time is “G”, and it is emphasised that a parent’s note does not provide justification and the student is, therefore, recorded as absent.

We know that winter has certainly brought its crisp mornings and all its chills, bugs and colds. Knowing if your child is well enough to come to school can be tricky at times. Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora have refreshed their guidance for schools and parents to use to help make that call. Check out the Ministry of Education website here for more information. If you are still unsure, get in touch with us.

Here at Springs/Waiōrea, we have strong processes and hygiene practices in place to make sure our school environment is as healthy as possible for our students and our staff.

If you’re struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us! We are committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance by having:

• School staff who build strong relationships with students and whānau.
• A school culture that recognises your child and your family for who they are, where they come from and who they want to be.
• A school community that does everything to make sure students are at school, and they are participating, and progressing in their education.

Ngā mihi,
Ivan Davis
Principal