IS YOUR CHILD AT SCHOOL?
Attendance Information For Parents/Caregivers

Parent / Caregivers Responsibilities

• School Hours are 8.55am – 3.25pm.
• Let the school know if you require support with your child’s attendance.
• Phone, email, send a note or notify in person, for every day absent. This is to ensure that the teacher has records of all your child’s absences.
• If your child needs to be collected from school before 3.25pm, please go to the front office where staff will fill in details in the Student Departure Register and give you a note to take to your child’s teacher, indicating that the information is recorded.
• Please be aware that it is the school’s legal responsibility to ensure that students attend school. If a staff member contacts you it is to find out if we can support you in your child’s early return to school.

Student Attendance Counsellors are employed by DECS to visit schools and support families with attendance issues.
You can make appointments with the Attendance Counsellor.

Attendance

Under the Education Act of South Australia, parents and guardians are legally responsible for ensuring the regular attendance of their children,
from the date of enrolment to 15 years of age.

Is regular attendance important?
Yes:

• From the first day! If students miss the basic concepts and skills in the early years of school, they often experience difficulties later
• For young children, opportunities for important play activities which help development (social and educational concepts) are interrupted
• Children may be unable to maintain close friendships due to absences, and may experience social isolation
• As children get older the less success they experience academically, the less they will want to attend school. This leads to poor attendance at high school

Must I send my child every day?
Yes: Unless

• The child is too sick to leave the house
• The child has an infectious disease like chicken pox, mumps, measles or untreated head lice
• The child is injured and is unable to move around the school
• The child is going on a family holiday which cannot be taken during school holidays
• The principal is provided with any other genuine and acceptable reason.

Whenever possible medical appointments should be made out of school hours

Is my child expected to be at school by a certain time?
Yes: The roll is called at 8.55am and your child must arrive at school before that time

Must I notify the school if my child has been away?
Yes: Absences must be explained by notes, email, phone calls or in person. If your child is going to be away one day or more please notify the
school.

Should I notify the school if my child refuses to go to school?
Yes: You should notify the class teacher or Principal and seek help immediately.

PROCEDURES

Absences

If a student is absent:

1. Parents/caregivers must notify the school by phone, in person, by sending a note or email.
2. If the student’s absence is unexplained the school will contact you.
3. With continued non-attendance and unexplained absence the Area Attendance Counsellor will be notified.

Leaving Early

If a student leaves school before 3.25pm:

1. Parents/Caregivers inform the front office staff and sign the student out before collecting their child from the classroom.
2. Parents/Caregivers take the “sign out” note to the class teacher.

Late Arrivals

1. Parents/Caregivers must notify the school if the child is late.
2. Teachers or leadership will contact Parents/Caregivers if lateness continues to be unexplained or happens regularly.

If a student has established a pattern of absence, late arrivals or early departures, they are considered to be at risk.

Did you know that…

• 10 days absence per term equals 20% of schooling missed.
• 40 days absence is nearly a term, by the end of the year this equals one year of schooling missed every five years.
• 15 minutes late every day equals two and one half days each term and ten days each year. By the end of Year four the student has had one term off from school.