From MasterChef competitions to grocery vouchers: How Northland schools reversed declining attendance

A positive campaign in Northland schools has seen some classrooms return to 100 per cent attendance. Photo / 123RF

By john Gerritsen of RNZ

A campaign to stop Northland children wagging school is proving surprisingly successful.

"Let's Get to School Tai Tokerau" is running in 150 schools across the region and at its heart are messages from children explaining why the classroom is a good place to be.

They include: "I get to play with my friends", "I like what the teachers teach us", and "I can have fun and learn about new things".

Tai Tokerau Principals Association president Pat Newman said schools were using the campaign slogan in their newsletters and social media posts and were holding events and competitions to encourage children to come to school.

"We've had things like MasterChef competitions, we've had some schools giving kids percentage points for attending and at the end of the term depending on their attendance they may get some grocery vouchers.

"There's all sorts of things happening but each school is designing its own to fit its own community."

Newman said principals developed the campaign with support and funding from the Ministry of Education.

He said it was working because children were behind it.

"It's the kids. We've gone for the students' voice.

"Even the campaign slogan of 'let's get back to school Te Tai Tokerau' has come from kids and also on top of that what we're trying to do is show kids that schools are fun."

Manaia View School principal Leanne Otene said the campaign had a dramatic effect at her school.

"We're for the first time this year seeing 100 per cent attendance in some of our classrooms and that just happened overnight as a result of the children talking about all the positive things that are happening at school."

Otene said the scheme was a departure from the usual practice of writing to truants' families asking where their children were.

"That's what we've done in the past, a letter home to tell parents 'look your child's not been at school, we want to meet with you, we want to know the reasons why your child's away' and that can put parents on the defensive.

"So what we've done is we've flipped the script and we're actually starting to see some real move towards more consistent attendance, which is what we're after."

The principal of Northland College in Kaikohe, Duane Allen, said there was good reason to expect teenagers would respond positively to the campaign.

"For our young people hearing from their peers, that can sometimes hold a lot more mana and provide a great deal more sway than listening to the crusty old principal."

Allen said it was hard to measure the impact of the scheme because bad weather and flooding disrupted attendance in the area recently.

However, he said attendance at the school improved at the end of August and appeared to be trending up.

Allen said persuading some teenagers to go to school regularly could be difficult.

"It can be a massive challenge. Like many schools we have those kids who never miss a day and then we have others who by ministry definition are chronic non-attendees and we invest a lot of time in trying to find out what the barriers are to those young people coming back.

"It's not always as straightforward as we might like to think and sometimes there are very practical solutions that we can support as a school, but unless we're reaching out and communicating effectively with our whānau we can't even begin to address those issues."