Learning Diversity 

Everyday Counts - The importance of attending school

Being at school is very important for your children.

Teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor influencing student achievement (Hattie, 2009). However, the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement is mediated by the amount of time students spend in the classroom. Irrespective of the reasons for absences, non-attendance affects student outcomes.

There are two ways to measure attendance: 

• Student attendance rates: the number of actual full-time equivalent student days attended by full-time students in Years 1 to 10 as a percentage of the total number of possible student days. 

• Student attendance levels: the proportion of full-time students in Years 1-10 whose attendance rate is greater than or equal to 90 percent in semester 1 of a school year (ACARA, 2015b).

While the Australian attendance rate is 92%, the attendance level is 75%.

Dealing with School Refusal