From the Desk of the

Inclusion & Engagement

AP 

Inclusion and Engagement: Attendance 

Welcome back everyone for a wonderful start to term 2- school is certainly better when you’re here!

The break gave me the opportunity to analyse Mitcham Primary School’s term 1 attendance data and below you will see a graph outlining the total absences by tier for term 1. 

As you can see, 81.9% (413) of our students had less than 10 days absence in term 1, 14.5% (73) of our students had between 10-19.5 days absence and 3.57% (18) of our students had missed over 19 days of the term.

The Department of Education class students with 10-19.5 days absence in a school year as ‘At risk of chronic absence’ and students with 20-29.5 days in a school year as ‘Chronically absent’. 

It is important to note that missing one day a fortnight is the same as missing 4 whole weeks of school a year and from Foundation to Year 12, that adds up to 1.5 years of school! 

We would be grateful if parents and carers remind the students that school is better when they attend and that their friends and teachers notice when they are away.

Right now, being at school is the most important thing students need to do for their future. School helps to build good habits for later in life. We might think school is just about Maths and English but we’re also learning about how to work with other people, how to solve problems and to practice life-long values.

Being an adult probably seems far away but we know that young people who attend school more frequently have better outcomes after school too. This means they earn more money, have better job opportunities and are generally healthier. So being at school really does make a difference!

At Mitcham Primary School, being at school every day means students are becoming more independent as a learner when interacting with their friends and teachers. If for any reason your child is struggling to attend school regularly, we would encourage you to reach out. As the Inclusion and Engagement Assistant Principal, I will be more than happy to meet to discuss strategies and supports.

Kavita Parmar

Inclusion & Engagement Assistant Principal