May 8th Principal's Report

Posted: May 6, 2009 5:05 PM by Stephen Brewer | Updated: May 6, 2009 5:27 PM
Tagged with: Attendance issues

Attendance: At the end of last term the school sent letters to parents of students who had been absent (according to our rolls) and where we had not received a letter or note from home with an explanation. Many parents were upset/concerned by the letter because they said the dates were wrong or notes had been sent in to the school or that the student was on some school business (excursion, sporting event etc). This process is mandatory - it's a directive from the DET. We recognise sometimes the data is not as accurate as we all would like. However, that happens. There are many reasons for this.

Some of them are:

1. The teacher in Home Room has entered the wrong name and/or the wrong day,

2. The office assistant has entered the wrong name and/or the wrong day,

3. The student did not answer when their name was called out,

4. The student got to school late and did not have their name marked off in the office,

5. The student was away with the knowledge of their parents, had a note but it is still in their bag somewhere or in a book or diary etc,

6. The student was going to be away (excursion, sporting team, swimming, tennis etc) and the teacher in charge did not notify the office.

There are probably a few more reasons but I hope you get the idea. There can be one or more reasons for this error. We try very hard not to make errors but they happen. We are constantly looking at ways to reduce our error rate. Next area to be examined is SMS texting of student absences on the day of the absence along with letters home. We thank you for your anticpated understanding in this matter.