Attendance
- The Education Act requires all students of school age to be enrolled in and attend school. Students’ attendances are recorded daily and absences are monitored.
- Parents/Guardians/Carers are legally responsible for ensuring their child attends school and are required to ensure the school is informed verbally or in writing of the reason for any absence. In a note explaining the absence there should be: the date(s) of the absence; the reason for the absence and the Parent’s/ Guardian’s signature.
- Partnerships with WA Police, Department of Communities will be engaged in 2019 as per policy for those students falling in the ‘at risk’ category of less than 90% attendance. To stay above this, students cannot afford to miss more than 3-4 days a term. This is an essential point to note for your students educational future.
- Any family holidays which occur during the term should be discussed with the Principal prior to departure. The Attendance Officer has made it clear that being absent from school to depart earlier for a holiday (even a day) is not considered a reasonable excuse. It is considered that given there is a two or six week time allocated to school holidays travel time should not require absence from school.
- Eastern Wheatbelt Education Network (EWEN) Attendance Strategy – the Network has written to local businesses across the Eastern Wheatbelt and gained their support not to serve school students during school hours unless they have an official out of school pass.
As a parent, you are required by the School Education Act 1999 to ensure your child attends school every day that the school is open for instruction (Section 23). Principals are responsible for monitoring and accurately recording the attendance of every student enrolled at their school in accordance with Section 28 of the School Education Act 1999. If a student is absent, a responsible person, usually the parent, must notify the principal of the reason for the student’s absence as soon as practical. If a student is prevented from attending school due to illness, the principal is authorised by the School Education Act 1999 to request a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner.
Lesson attendance codes are used by all Western Australian public schools to record the reason for every half-day absence. The use of these codes is determined by the principal. Accurate record-keeping ensures principals can identify patterns of absence at both a school and individual student level and implement appropriate measures to restore attendance where there is cause for concern. Absences are grouped as either ‘authorised’ or ‘unauthorised’ according to whether they meet the requirements of excusing a student from attendance pursuant to Section 25 of the School Education Act 1999. The total half-day absences are displayed on your child’s school report each semester.