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Students must come to school every day the school is open. This is known as regular attendance.

Students are more likely to want to come to school and achieve if they feel:

• included
• valued
• respected
• supported.

Students who miss school often

The attendance policy defines the following groups of students as at risk because of how often they miss school.

• Habitual non-attendance: a student misses 5 to 9 school days in a term. This is for any reason.
• Chronic non-attendance: a student misses 10 or more days in a term. This is for any reason.

For students in these groups, we assess the level of risk to their learning and wellbeing. When a student is at risk we will talk with the family about the issues.

Our school's vision

All students have a right to an education. This gives them the best opportunity to reach their full potential. We have a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment where students can learn and grow. Each student is engaged in their learning. Parents and carers are important partners in this process. We keep a check on any students who might fall behind. We work with parents, carers and students to find out why someone is missing school. We provide supports that are specific to each student’s needs.

How we follow up if a student misses school

This is an overview of how we follow up student absences. We might change these steps to fit in with a family’s needs. A quick follow up helps us to manage risks early and reduce absences. The roll needs to be carefully taken within the first 10 minutes of each class in Teacher Toolkit a component of EMS. Where a student is marked absent in Learning Block 1, a text message will be sent home by our Administration staff. Responses from families will be amended with the appropriate absence code for subsequent lessons. Should a student be absent ‘unexplained’ for a whole day, the Connect teacher is required to contact the family to verify the absence and amend this on EMS. Should contact be unsuccessful, attempted communication should be documented on EMS.

1. If a student misses school, we record their absence. We also record the reason given by the parent or carer.
2. If we receive no reason, we follow up with the parent or carer. This is usually by phone or text (SMS).
3. If the absences continue or there are concerns raised by the absence, we keep following up. This might be by phone, email, meeting or a letter.
   • We support the family to look at any issues that stop the student from going to school.
   • If needed, we connect the family to other services. For example student support services.

Our data

At Goolwa Secondary College our student attendance records help us to plan how we improve school attendance.

We routinely analyse data. We look at patterns. For example the attendance of different year levels. We also look at individual student attendance.

Goolwa Secondary College was opened in 2022 with a progressive enrolment strategy. The college currently has students enrolled in years 7-9 and will not have all year levels until 2026. As a result of this our attendance data will be variable each school year and some trends will not be able to be captured until future years. The college has effective strategies in place for following up unexplained absences as per our strategy listed on the previous page. Barriers to attendance were observed throughout 2022 due to stay at home quarantine restrictions in response to COVID-19, some of these barriers are still occurring in 2023. Goolwa Secondary College is a pilot school for many new initiatives, one initiative is EMS (Education Management System). We working continuously with this team, however some attendance data and reports are still being developed to meet the needs of our context. The college has a number of proactive strategies to support attendance including a daily breakfast and lunch club as well as comprehensive well-being services.

Our approach to improving attendance

At Goolwa Secondary College our attendance strategies are guided by the ºÚÁϳԹÏn Department for Education's attendance policy.

We will plan, implement and review the following attendance improvement actions. We will do this with our governing council, staff, students, families and local community.

Promote

We will promote the importance of education from the earliest years of life and throughout the schooling years as a school community priority of the highest value.

Our actions

Assess

We will assess patterns of non-attendance and circumstances. We will use this to inform the development of appropriate targeted, intensive and coordinated interventions.

Our actions

Engage

We will actively engage and include all children, young people and their families in education and interventions which support attendance.

Our actions

Support

We will provide support to address the barriers to attendance, learning and wellbeing. We will make sure there is inclusive support for children and young people so they can be physically present and engaged in education.

Our actions

Monitor

We will monitor attendance to make sure that risks are identified, supports are in place, and progress is monitored.

Our actions

Evaluate

We will evaluate the need for further or ongoing interventions, referrals for external support and mandatory notifications.

Our actions