Attendance
Regular school attendance is vital for your child to achieve their full educational potential. Our school is committed to working with whānau to ensure every student attends regularly.
To report an absence please message 027 584 2592 and include the child’s name, room number and reason for absence.
Our Goal
The government target is 80% regular attendance by 2030. Our school's current regular attendance is 71%, and we are targeting an increase to 80% by the end of 2026.
Our Approach: Stepped Attendance Response (STAR)
We use the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) procedure to proactively identify and respond to student absences. This approach ensures support is tailored to the level and reasons for absence.
Parent/Whānau Expectations and Responsibilities
Parents and guardians have a legal obligation (Education and Training Act, s 244) to ensure their children attend school regularly when it is open for instruction. We expect parents/guardians to:
Notify the school as soon as possible if your child is going to be late or absent.
Arrange appointments and trips outside school hours or during school holidays where possible.
Work with the school to manage any attendance concerns.
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We will stay in regular contact with you about your child’s attendance.
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We will work with you to identify any barriers to attendance.
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We will work with you to develop a plan to support their attendance and learning, and may provide support to help them catch up and stay on track.
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We will continue to work with you to implement the plan and will seek support from the Attendance Service or other agencies to support their return to school.
What you can expect if your child ….
For more detailed information on procedures and responsibilities, please refer to the the below Attendance Management Plan.
Attendance Management Plan
Strategic Priorities
Regular school attendance is important for students to achieve their educational potential. The government target is that 80% of students will be regularly attending school by 2030.
Our school currently has 71% regular attendance and a target of lifting regular attendance to 80% by the end of 2026.
Board Responsibilities
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
Principal Responsibilities
The principal is responsible for:
developing and implementing a stepped attendance response aligned with the thresholds to support student attendance
ensuring that student absence is monitored, responded to and actions taken recorded aligned with the thresholds
ensuring all students, whanau and staff understand the processes and procedures that support student attendance
reporting to the board on any trends, barriers to attendance and interventions being used to support student attendance
Parent/Whanau Responsibilities
Parents and guardians have legal obligations to ensure their children attend school (Education and Training Act, s 244).
We expect parents/guardians to:
notify the school as soon as possible if their child is going to be late or absent
arrange appointments and trips outside school hours or during school holidays where possible
work with the school to manage attendance concerns, ask for their child to be excused from certain areas of the curriculum for religious or cultural reasons. The principal reviews these requests and considers the preferences of the student. The school provides supervision for any students who do not participate in certain areas of the curriculum
We share attendance expectations with students and their parents/guardians and caregivers, and require students to be present and attend classes on time.
School Responsibilities
Clear communication to parents and students on attendance expectations on enrolment, at the start of each year and each term (facebook post)
Communicate to parents what steps the schools will take if the student is absent from school
Monitor student attendance termly
Report to parents on the attendance of their child
Report to BOT termly on student attendance
Attendance Management Procedure - Stepped Attendance Response
We recognise the importance of regular attendance to help our students achieve their educational potential
At Ōtūmoetai Primary School, our attendance procedures ensure students are accounted for during school hours and activities as well as emergency events. This allows school staff to identify and respond to student attendance concerns. We recognise the importance of regular attendance to support student welfare and help students achieve their educational potential.
As required by the Education and Training Act 2020 (s 35), 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 the Ministry of Education. The board takes all reasonable steps to ensure all students enrolled at Ōtūmoetai Primary School attend school when it is open (Education and Training Act, s 36).
Ōtūmoetai Primary School records and monitors attendance using stepped attendance procedures. We have annual targets for student attendance, and work with students, parents and caregivers, staff, and external agencies where necessary to improve our levels of student attendance. We share our attendance information with the Ministry of Education, which ensures we receive correct funding and staffing entitlements. We keep our attendance registers for seven years from the date of last entry.