At St John’s we are committed to providing your child with an excellent education. The building blocks of a great education begin with all students coming to school each and every day.
Regular school attendance is vital.
A child absent for one day per fortnight will miss four full weeks of school by the end of the year. By the end of Year 10 they will have missed more than one full year of school.
When kids miss school, not only is their academic progress impeded, forcing them to catch up on missed work (which some never do), they often miss important interactions with their peers which can compound issues of social isolation and low self-esteem.
As a school we are mandated by the Government to account for all of our students, every day by 9:30am, we use an electronic roll to do this. (Regulations are listed lower down this page.)
With this in mind we ask parents to note the following:
Student Absences:
- Please submit student absences via PAM prior to 9am on the day of absence.
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- If you are unable to submit via PAM please call the office to advise the student absence prior to 9am and follow this up with a PAM submission later in the day (written notice of absences are required for all absences).
- Students who are absent without notification will receive an SMS at approx 9:30am – please action this when received.
- If no advice is received we are required to call you and/or your emergency contacts to ascertain the whereabouts and safety of your child.
Extended Absences:
- Such a request must be in writing and once permission has been granted, that correspondence will be treated as notification for the purposes of our attendance records.
- Where an extended absence is planned also speak with your child’s classroom teacher as early as possible to create a personal absence learning plan for your child.
- Unexplained absences will be followed up by an SMS notification or by telephone in the first instance, however where there are a number of unexplained absences, further follow-up will be in writing.
Attendance Issues:
- If you are having attendance issues with your child, please speak with your child’s classroom teacher or the principal so that we may work together to support your child in attending school every day.
The Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017 (Vic) reinforced the existing Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) in relation to compulsory enrolment and attendance at school for children and young people aged 6 to 17 years, unless an exemption from attendance has been granted.
In accordance with the legislation;
- parents are required to enrol their child at a registered school.
- parents must ensure that their child attends school on a regular basis.
- parents must provide a reasonable explanation for any absence from school.
- parents can now be fined for not sending children to school without an acceptable reason.
- schools have the responsibility to record student attendance twice per day.
- schools must document all reasons for non-attendance and unexplained absences must be also be noted.
- attendance data is regularly monitored and analysed to identify student absence patterns on a school, class and individual basis.
- the Principal must be able to determine from the attendance records if an excuse provided is reasonable in terms of the parents meeting their legal obligations.
Implementation of these procedures should help to determine the appropriate follow up required to ensure a child’s education and wellbeing is supported.
