Senior Years and Wellbeing 

Dear Parents,

As we enter the business end of the school year, it is critical our students are maximising their time in class. Parents are able to view in PAM the attendance record of their children. We would ideally like all students at 100% but realise there are, at times, genuine reasons for missing school. If a child falls below 90% attendance this may start to negatively impact on their learning. Can I ask all parents to carefully consider the timing of appointments, driving lessons and family holidays, just to name a few.

The final weeks of the school year are crucial, and I am confident all our students will want to finish their school year as strongly as they can.

Michael Grose provides some valuable advice in his article below:

 “When kids miss school, not only is their academic progress impeded, forcing them to catch up on missed work (which some never do), they often miss important interactions with their peers which can compound issues of social isolation and low self-esteem.

“One of the most important things you can do to ensure your child has a bright future is to make sure he or she goes to school every day—and gets there on time.  It sounds simple, but it’s true. The correlation between school attendance

and children’s achievement levels is well established. The more time kids spend at school, the more likely they are to experience school success. Conversely, according to a report from the Victorian Auditor General, students who are regularly absent from school are the greatest risk of dropping out of school early, and of experiencing long-term unemployment. When kids miss school, not only is their academic progress impeded, forcing them to catch up on missed work (which some never do), they often miss important interactions with their peers which can compound issues of social isolation and low self-esteem. Also, many teachers tell me, it’s often the kids who can least afford to take time off school who are most likely to be serial absentees. Of course, most people know this intuitively, yet school absenteeism is a huge problem in Australian schools—and much of it is parent-condoned. It’s hard to get an accurate picture across the country but it would appear that Australian students miss an average of between 12 and 15 days per school year, with parent-condoned absenteeism highest among young primary-aged children. That adds up to a year’s lost schooling over the school-life of a child. In today’s highly competitive world, this rate of absenteeism is alarming, putting our kid sat a distinct disadvantage.

That’s not a reason to be away!

“It’s now commonplace for children to stay away from school for reasons that would have been unheard of just twenty years ago. These include staying away to celebrate their own or a sibling’s birthday; being absent because they stayed up too late watching television; going shopping for clothes; an extended long weekend; and kids not wanting to take part in a sports day or special school event. This type of absenteeism sends a strong message to kids that parents don’t really value learning or their children’s school experiences. Australian kids only spend 15% of their total time at school. They spend more time asleep than they do at school. So we need to maximise every day to get full value. That means turning up to school every day, on time.

Being late is not okay either

“Missing a few minutes each day may not seem like a big deal but your child may be missing more than you realise if he or she is continually late. Current research shows that mornings for most children are the most productive time of the day, with 10.00am the peak period for productivity. When children arrive late and take time to settle, as they inevitably do, valuable learning time is lost.”

Michael Grose Parenting Ideas

Kristen Waldron