Principal's Report

Athletics Carnival

Last Friday I had the absolute pleasure of running the high jump at the annual Athletics Carnival. Two records were officially broken and one unofficially broken at my event. However, the highlight for me was the school spirit, comradery and encouragement that was on display throughout the day. From our youngest students who I joined for Duck Duck Goose to the normally grumpy 17/18-year-old boys, the spirit of fun and inclusivity was alive and well. It’s days like these that make me especially proud to be the Principal of such a great school.

Special thanks to our parent helpers for doing such a great job and for giving up your time. We cannot run these events without your ongoing support.

Attendance

For the first time since I have joined the school, our overall attendance has slipped below the state and network average. Our current attendance rate is 85%, the state average is 88.9%. This means that on average, our student body as a whole attends school only 85% of the time. This equates to one and a half days missed out of every ten.

Further analysis of this data informs us that the percentage of students who attended school this year for ‘90% of the time or more’ sits at 54.6%. This means that almost half the school (45.3%) is attending school nine days or less every two weeks. This equates to five days off a term or 20 days a year.

Whilst this may not seem like a lot of missed school, it can have a significant impact on your child’s education and the education of the other students in every class. For every day your child misses they have missed valuable learning that the teacher may not have the time to revisit. This then can potentially become a gap in their learning. If their teacher revisits missed work with absent students, this means that they are not teaching new learning to your child or others. A difficult situation for all. Fortunately, we have fabulous teachers who do their very best for every child.

Alarmingly, for 29.8% of students at Boorowa Central School, their attendance rate is lower than 85%. This is a significant concern. By law, school-aged children are to be at school unless unwell. When unwell, the parents are to provide notification and/or a doctor’s certificate. This is what is known as ‘justified’ absence.

All other absence from school is known as ‘unjustified’ absence.

For students who fit into this category, the Boorowa Central School Attendance procedure is as follows:

Step 1: When a child is absent without explanation, an automated text message is sent to a parent asking for the absence to be explained.

Step 2: Each week, absence letters are sent home to the parents of children whose absences for one week have not been explained/justified. These letters encourage parents to send their child to school each day and to notify the school if they are unwell.

Step 3: Twice a term (Weeks 5 and 10) the individual student attendance rates are generated to be analysed in the Learning and Support Team meeting. Students with below 85% attendance for this 5-week block and who have several ‘unjustified’ absences are identified. The parents of these students are then sent Attendance Letter 1.

This step repeats each term.

Step 4: If a child’s attendance rate has not improved, the parents will be sent Attendance Letter 2 and invited into the school for a meeting with the Principal. In this meeting, an Individual Attendance Plan is developed for the child with parental, child and school input.

Step 5: If a child’s attendance has not improved, the child is referred to the Home School Liaison Officer (HSLO).

The HSLO then contacts the family to develop a new Attendance Plan. The HSLO continues to work with the family to ensure the child’s attendance improves to above 85%.

Step 6: If the child’s attendance does not improve, the parents of the child may be required to appear in court and can be court-ordered to pay a fine or ongoing fines for the continued school absence of their child.

I aim to get our school attendance rate back up to 90% by the end of this year. Together we can achieve this and ensure our children have the best chance to succeed at school.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact me at school on 6385 3009.

‘N’ Awards

All students in Years 9-11 in NSW schools complete the Record of School Achievement or RoSA. This is a cumulative credential that contains a student’s record of academic achievement until they leave school. The RoSA requires that students complete and submit assessment tasks for each subject. If they do not complete an assessment task, the student will be issued an ‘N’ Award warning letter in the mail. This warning letter highlights the task that has not been submitted and the revised due date. If the task remains incomplete, the student may be issued an N grade for that subject. 

I write about this today because this week, I have signed many of these ‘N’ Award letters that have been sent in the mail to students in Years 9 and 10. Our Stage 5 students are not demonstrating one of our core expectations which is responsibility.

For each of these tasks, the students are given a minimum of two weeks to complete the task and submit it to their teacher. Every task is copied on pink paper so it is easily identifiable by students and parents alike as an assessment task.

All students in Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 received an ‘Assessment Booklet’ at the beginning of the year. Every assessment task a student will complete that year is listed in this booklet. The back page of the booklet is also a yearly planner. This planner includes every assessment task due date for the year.

A copy of the Stage 5 Assessment Booklet can be found here.

A copy of the Year 11 Assessment Booklet can be found here.

Further information regarding the RoSA can be found at the link below.

educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/leaving-school/record-of-school-achievement

Mr Graham Jones I Principal

Boorowa Central School