The start of a new semester (June 15) gives us all a chance to start afresh. This comes with an opportunity to reflect on the achievements, attitudes to school work and behavioural patterns that were set in semester one. It also gives us an opportunity to adjust or improve the things that may not have worked so well. One of the areas of concern is the number of days that some students are absent from school or late to school. Our college works hard to maintain good standards of attendance but over the course of a year we are surprised by the number of days that students can accumulate away from school. In many cases school absenteeism is generated by genuine reasons; however, there are many instances where the student simply isn’t interested in attending school on the day and convinces the parents not to send them. One of the concerns that we have here is that the student’s level of resilience is affected as well and the patterns of absenteeism increase.
We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. Missing school can have a major impact on a child’s future. A student missing one day a fortnight will miss four full weeks by the end of the year. By Year 12 they’ll have missed a significant portion of school.
There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes. Coming to school every day is vital, but if for any reason your child must miss school, there are things we can do together to ensure they don’t fall behind:
Speak with the Homeroom teacher and find out what work your child needs to do to keep up.
Develop an Attendance Improvement Plan with the Year Level Coordinator.
Remember, every day counts. If your child must miss school, speak with the relevant Homeroom teacher as early as possible so we can work together to get your child to school every day.
Mobile phones
At the start of this new semester we also re-set the number of times that a student has breached the mobile phone policy. We pride ourselves on being as transparent as we can be over issues like this to ensure that there is no misunderstanding over what happens when a student chooses to ignore the mobile phone rules. Please refer to the process we apply for breaches of the mobile phone policy as per the table below:
Mobile phones and/or other personal digital devices (eg blue tooth headphones, smart watches) are banned and should be stored in locked lockers. This rule is also enforced on school related excursions, except when a staff member permits the use of the technology for educational purposes.
Students who refuse to hand the phone over to the staff member will incur the consequences of the next offence
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First offence |
The phone will be confiscated and taken to the Campus Office. If this is a first offence the student can collect it at the end of the day. |
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Second offence |
The phone will be confiscated and placed in the office until the end of the day. A text message will be sent to the parents by the Campus Office telling them that on the next breach they will have to collect the phone |
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Third offence |
The phone will be confiscated and placed in the office. The Campus Office staff will text the parent that they will be required to collect the phone |
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Fourth offence |
The phone will be confiscated and placed in the office. Year level Coordinator will schedule a meeting with the parents for the phone to be returned. A Saturday Detention will be applied. Campus Office staff to record the |
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Wishing all students a successful Semester Two.