This term Ellesmere College implemented a new attendance system where once a week parents or caregivers receive an email with all the classes the student has attended or been absent from.
Principal Ronan Bass said he’s already received positive feedback on the system.
“We have had lots of positive feedback from parents. It’s one less thing for parents to think about, logging in to check their child’s attendance.”
Like many schools, parents could already check attendance by logging into the online portal Kamar.
Bass said the new system is designed to make it easier and more convenient for parents to access attendance records.
Schools have come under increasing pressure by the Ministry of Education to solve the national attendance crisis.
The ministry defines regular attendance as being over 90 per cent attendance, irregular absence as being between 80-90 per cent attendance, moderate absence as being between 70-80 per cent attendance and chronic absence as below 70 per cent.
This term the average attendance rate is 79.5 per cent.
“It has been a quite settled start to the term . . . I’m quite pleased by the vast majority of our students who have quite high levels of attendance,” he said.
The most recent Education Counts attendance report from term one of this year said Canterbury had the second highest average attendance rates at 63.2 per cent, 0.1 per cent behind Auckland.
Elsewhere in the district, Darfield High School sends an attendance report every fortnight, Rolleston College sends a letter to parents only when a student’s attendance drops below 90 per cent, and Lincoln High School sends a monthly report to parents that includes an attendance percentage.
