Attendance

Attendance at school is compulsory under New Zealand law. The Ministry of Education expects all students to attend school daily.

At St Joseph’s, our attendance procedures ensure students are accounted for during school hours and activities, as well as emergency events. This allows school staff to identify and respond to student attendance concerns. We recognise the importance of regular attendance to support student welfare and help students achieve their educational potential.

Parents and guardians have legal obligations to ensure their children attend school. We expect parents/guardians to:

notify the school as soon as possible if their child is going to be absent through the @school App
arrange appointments and trips outside school hours or during school holidays where possible
work with the school to manage attendance concerns.

We share attendance expectations with students and their parents and caregivers, and require students to be present and attend classes on time.

Regular attendance at school is vital if your child is to maintain a satisfactory rate of learning.

It is very important that the children arrive at school on time, ready for the school day. They need to stay the FULL day. When a child arrives late and/or leaves early, it is disruptive for the class, unsettles the child, it is discourteous to the teacher and can form a bad habit for the child. Ultimately it impacts on their programme of learning and their classmates programme of learning.

Students are not allowed to leave the school during school hours unless permission is requested by parents/caregivers and given by the school. The student must sign out at the office by the adult accompanying them.

Late Arrival

Students arriving late must be signed in at the office by the person dropping them at school. If you are arriving after 8.50 am please park your car and bring your child to the office to sign them in.

Advising Absences

Parents need to inform the teacher, through the @school App, when a child will be absent and the reason why. This needs to happen before 8.45 am.

The school accounts for every child’s attendance or absence each day and families will be contacted if there is an unexplained absence.

Appointments

The Ministry of Education expects students medical/dental appointments to be made outside of school hours.

If a child has a medical/dental appointment during school hours, the teacher is to be advised before 8.45 am of the day of the appointment. The student needs to be signed out, at the school office by the adult accompanying them.