Time at school important for future benefits

Parents who become aware of reluctance to attend school should make immediate contact with the school to discuss their concern and to seek support.REGULAR attendance at school is fundamental to student learning. Regular attendance leads to student achievement at any level of schooling and promotes engagement, motivation, participation and the habit of "being there".
Students who attend school regularly are more likely to achieve educational success, and increase their career and life options.
Participation and enjoyment in sport, music, drama, kapa haka and other cultural activities also encourage enthusiasm and social development.
Promoting the benefits of regular attendance to students, teachers, early childhood centre staff, parents and community groups will help create a culture where regular school attendance is the norm.
Parents who become aware of reluctance to attend school should make immediate contact with the school to discuss their concern and to seek support.
Teachers are also crucial in providing a learning environment where students are encouraged to develop, to succeed and to want to know more.
Not only students benefit from regular attendance at schools. Teachers, parents and caregivers, and the wider community all benefit when students are attending school and achieving.
Benefits include greater student safety, community well-being and a sense of connectedness for all.
Ministry of Education guidelines suggest all students need to have an attendance rate of 90 per cent or more if they are to be successful and recent data collected supports this. An attendance rate of less than 85 per cent suggests that these students have at least one day a week off throughout their school year.
The ministry has been proactive in promoting and setting up programmes that support students, their families and schools in enabling improved attendance. These include Incredible Years for primary schools, Positive Behaviour 4 Learning for secondary schools and the Student Engagement Initiative in intermediate and secondary schools. The District Truancy Services and the Non Enrolled Truancy Service also contribute to the monitoring of students at risk.
In Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty, Truancy Action Groups (TAG) are formed in many areas and police, CYF and Health work with schools and teachers to ensure families and children at risk are identified and supported.
Everyone between the ages of 5 and 19 is entitled to enrol at and have their education funded at a state school if they are a citizen or resident, an Australian citizen or otherwise qualify for domestic student status.
Under the Education Act 1989, parents are legally obliged to enrol their children in school from the age of 6 to 16, and to ensure that their children attend school every day the school is open for instruction, unless there is a justifiable reason for their absence. It is an offence if parents refuse or fail to do so.
School boards of trustees are legally required to take all reasonable steps to ensure enrolled students attend school every day, unless there is a justifiable reason for their absence.
Schools should have policies, processes and personnel to monitor attendance, follow up on absences and take action quickly when instances and patterns of attendance emerge. Schools must make every attempt to return a truanting student to regular attendance.
Leonie Summerville is Tauranga Girls' College deputy principal and the chairwoman of Tauranga Moana District Truancy Service.