School News

Attendance Matters

‘By ensuring our children are in school, we will see stronger school communities and better educated children.’ John Gardner Minister for Education

At LNPS we maintain a priority focus on student attendance and engagement, and recognise that educational success is central to the lifelong achievement, wellbeing and success of our students. Consistent school attendance from the early years is fundamental to ensuring children gain a strong foundation for later learning.

While poor attendance is a strong indicator of lower levels of achievement in learning, it also highlights as the potential for problematic social skills and difficulty in forming and maintaining relationships. 

The Department for Education has defines non-attendance in the following categories: 

• Habitual non-attendance where a student has 5 to 9 absences for any reason in a term (average of 1 day per fortnight)
• Chronic non-attendance where a student is absent for 10 days or more in a term for any reason (average of 1 day per week).

These measures are different from other methods of student absences as they count the number of

school days missed for any reason. They focus on individual students and the levels of schooling missed.

This acknowledges that children can be absent for many reasons, and there can be a varying degree of risk for students in relation to their learning and wellbeing within the parameters of these definitions.

LNPS has adopted these definitions and is in the process of reviewing our whole school approach to attendance and engagement which now frames the habitual and chronic definitions against a level of risk. This allows us to identify the students early and prioritise students and families who may require more targeted, intensive and coordinated interventions and support.

Our current Attendance Improvement Policy is in DRAFT as we wait for the Department for Education policy finalisation. We encourage all community members to familiarise themselves with our policy. 

Ensuring regular attendance at school is a shared responsibility between parents/caregivers and schools.

Mirjana 

e: mirjana.grubor793@schools.sa.edu.au

Enrolments 2020

All in-zone and  sibling enrolments for 2020 are now due to be completed at the front office.

We also encourage families outside of the school zone to complete waiting list enrolments to be considered for 2020.

If you are not sure if you have completed an enrolment form for your child please check with us as soon as possible.