Regular attendance at school is important for our students’ learning, wellbeing and their futures. Attendance is the first step in accessing learning and is essential for educational success, achieving qualifications and attaining wider social and economic outcomes. There is a well-established relationship between attendance and achievement. Non-attendance and irregular attendance are two of the biggest barriers to student achievement. At Wakatipu High School we strive to maintain high levels of attendance and punctuality. Our procedures emphasise individual student responsibility, with clear consequences for persistent absence and/or lateness to school. We appreciate your support of this system which is designed to support quality learning. As parents, caregivers, and whānau you play the most important role in helping our students regularly attend school. Below is some further information about attendance and our systems and expectations at Wakatipu High School: Attendance is compulsory. Your child should go to school every day. Holidays should not be taken during term time. Attendance is compulsory at all school activities including events such as Participation Day, Matatū, and prize givings unless otherwise advised.
If students are going to be away from school a Parent or Guardian must contact the school. To report a student absence, please complete this form, use the form on our WHS Schoolzine app, call the school office at 03 442 7370 or email [email protected]
Students are to complete a student leave form for all planned absence. A medical certificate may be required for extended illness/injury, or as per the assessment policy. Students are to refer to the assessment guidelines for information around absence and NCEA assessment. Note: Students in Year 12 and 13 must have less than 5% of unexplained absences at the time tickets are on sale to be eligible to attend formal (this also applies for Year 13 graduation).
Frequently asked questions:
Why is regular attendance important?
The evidence is clear: every day of school matters. School attendance is considered the most crucial part of a quality education and missing school leads to lower achievement. Attendance is also linked to wellbeing with studies confirming that attending school regularly predicts the best outcomes for wellbeing on average.
What is considered regular attendance?
A student who is regularly attending misses less than one week of school across a Term. This means they’re attending more than 90 percent of the time.
The key measure of attendance in Aotearoa, New Zealand is the proportion of our students who attend regularly, that is, the percentage of students who have attended more than 90% of the term or year-to-date. A more simplistic take on this is that students who attend regularly still miss up to one day a fortnight and even that adds up to one week of school time across a term and one month off school each year.
If a student is absent for two or more days a fortnight they are considered irregularly absent and at this point we become concerned and interventions designed to support attendance may be put in place. A child who is irregularly absent misses 1-2 weeks of school across a term. Students with an attendance rate of 80% will miss the equivalent of one year of secondary school across the course of their five years with us and with an attendance rate of 75% you begin to miss the equivalent of one term per year.
You can check whether your child is attending regularly via the attendance statistics produced and attached to regular school reports which you receive.
How do I advise the school of an absence?
Your child should go to school every day. But sometimes they might need to be away from school for a variety of reasons. If your child is going to be away from school you should let us know as soon as possible. All absence from school must be explained. If students are going to be away from school a Parent or Guardian must contact the school. To report a student absence, please complete this form, use the form on our WHS Schoolzine app, call the school office at 03 442 7370 or email [email protected]
MY CHILD IS RUNNING LATE TO SCHOOL, WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DOES MY CHILD DO?
f you know your child will be late for a justified reason, please advise the school as you would an absence via this form, use the form on our WHS Schoolzine app, call the school office at 03 442 7370 or email [email protected]with the reason for the lateness. If your child arrives late to school, they will need to pass through Reception to sign in. Students who are very late to class may be recorded as absent. For instance, if the student arrives with only 15-20 minutes of the class left then it is more accurate to record the student as absent. Our procedures emphasise individual student responsibility, with clear consequences for persistent lateness to school. In the first instance, if a student is late to class more than 3 times in a term, they will be issued with a detention. If they continue to be late, we will connect with whānau and an escalating series of support and outcomes will be put in place to address the issue.
WHAT IS AN UNEXPLAINED ABSENCE? WHY DOES MY CHILD HAVE A DETENTION FOR AN UNEXPLAINED ABSENCE?
Any absence or lateness not explained by a Parent or Guardian communicating with the school within 3 school days of the student returning will result in fair and reasonable consequences being given in the form of detentions. Students will receive an email to their school email address informing them of any consequences. They will have 2 school days to rectify any unexplained absence prior to the consequence of detentions occurring.
Why has my child received a detention for being late to class?
At Wakatipu High School we expect high levels of attendance and punctuality. Success at school is influenced by many things, and one of the largest is regular attendance, and being on time for school. Like fitness routines, or healthy eating, it is the cumulative effect of days, weeks and months of being on time, and coming to school, that adds up to a significant impact.
Arriving late for school has a negative impact on the learning of our rangatahi. Students miss out on opening greetings and whanaungatanga, key instructions, opportunities to co-construct their learning for the lesson with teachers, and this can also disrupt the teaching and learning of their class. Students can also feel whakamā about walking into the class late and this can lead to increased truancy. The more learning a student misses, the more they miss out on opportunities to make connections with their peers and teachers. This can have a huge impact not only on academic success, but engagement and wellbeing too. Arriving on time also helps prepare rangatahi for the punctuality expectations they’ll experience as adults in the workforce.
We do understand that traffic in Queenstown can be difficult but urge all caregivers to plan for this if they are dropping students to school. We are aware that occasionally other circumstances cause a lateness outside of the control of the student or parent/guardian. This is expected to be a rare event and kept to a minimum.
Being late to class is very disruptive for teaching and learning. If a student is late to class more than 3 times in a term, they will be issued with a detention. If they continue to be late, this will be escalated.
I told a teacher that the student would be absent, but I have still received an unexplained absence letter.
While it is nice to inform a teacher of your child's absence, they are unable to amend your child's attendance. If you are wanting to send your child's teacher a courtesy message, then just CC in attendance ([email protected]) so that the attendance officer can make the necessary adjustments.
My child was in an in-school appointment (deans, careers, counsellor, hub card etc) but has been marked absent. What can we do to correct this?
The student should speak with or email whomever it was that they had the meeting with as they will be the only person who can confirm their presence at the meeting. It would also be good to CC the Attendance Officer too so that they are also aware that the student is following this up.
More detailed information on many school policies and procedures such as attendance can be found at school docs. Please sign in using username: 'wakatipu' and password 'Ad Alta' (please note 'Ad Alta' includes a space).
Please reach out to your child’s Dean if you have any further questions or queries about attendance.
I need to collect my child from school, during school time - what do I need to do?
Where possible, please inform attendance prior to collecting your child via email, phone or logging an absence in the portal. If you haven’t or are unable to do so prior, when your child signs out at Reception you will need to speak with one of our administration team on the phone or you will need to come in and physically speak to one of the team. The student must sign out at reception. This is for health and safety reasons so we know who is/is not onsite at all times. Please note that students signing in/out doesn’t update attendance, a parent/guardian still needs to notify the Attendance Officer.
Can I take my child out of school to go to an appointment?
We strongly encourage you to make appointments (e.g. physio, driving lessons) outside of school time, as while these appointments may be explained, they are not justified by the Ministry of Education. Please note that being absent from school due to a doctor’s or dentist’s appointment is a justified reason to be absent from school, but when possible, our preference is that these appointments are also outside of school hours. We ask that students bring a parent note or appointment slip, and sign in and out at reception if there is a need to leave school during the day.
My child signed out at reception. Why have I received an unexplained absence letter?
Signing in/out doesn’t update your child's attendance, a parent/guardian still needs to notify the Attendance Officer with confirmation that the student is/was allowed to leave and why. Ideally this should be done prior to a student leaving. The student must sign out at reception. This is for health and safety reasons so we know who is/is not onsite at all times.
My child needs to be away from school during term time for more than one day. What process do I follow?
The school must receive communication from parents explaining the reason and dates for the intended absence as far in advance as possible. It is then the student’s responsibility to check the assessment calendar (if appropriate e.g. for seniors) and speak to each subject teacher to determine what work will be missed. The student should then complete a ‘Student Absence Form’ which can be found on the Wakatipu High School website homepage or here. It is also the student’s responsibility to ensure that any work missed is caught up on within the timeframe indicated.
Note: If you are overseas and need access to the network please email [email protected]
My child has been sick - do I need to provide a doctor's certificate?
We may require medical certificates for any absence longer than three days or more than 10 cumulative days during a school term. The exception to this is when a student has Covid-19 or is applying for an extension for an NCEA assessment - in this situation a medical certificate is always required. If you are unable to or unwilling to provide this, the code will be changed from ‘M’ (Medical leave and justified absence) to ‘E’ (Explained but unjustified absence).
Where possible, please inform attendance prior to collecting your child via email, phone or logging an absence in the portal. If you haven’t or are unable to do so prior, when your child signs out at Reception you will need to speak with one of our administration team on the phone or you will need to come in and physically speak to one of the team. The student must sign out at reception. This is for health and safety reasons so we know who is/is not onsite at all times. Please note that students signing in/out doesn’t update attendance, a parent/guardian still needs to notify the Attendance Officer.
What if my child is often off school sick?
If your child misses a lot of school because of mental or physical health challenges you may be able to get help from the Southern Health School. Please contact your child’s Dean in the first instance if physical or mental health is preventing regular attendance at school.
What if my child is reluctant to go to school or refuses to go to school?
This can be really upsetting for a parent. Truancy - wagging or skipping school is a serious issue. It often starts small and grows to more and more absences from school. Parents often wait until the problem is deeply entrenched before acting, so it's important to act quickly and let us know so that we can support you.
Communicating with us if you are having difficulties with your child attending school is really important. Don't let them have the day off just because they would rather be at home. Whether it’s mental health, bullying, a sense of overwhelm about workload, anxiety about assessments, or something else that they won’t disclose details of.
Talk to your child about why they don’t want to go. Be supportive. Make contact with a member of staff, in particular your child’s kaiārahi or Dean. Whatever the reason, you won’t be the first parent to talk to the school about that type of situation. We will have some good advice, and we’ll be able to work together to help your child. Depending on the age of your child, if the plan doesn’t work then we can refer on to other organisations such as the Attendance Service to help.
Why has my child been marked as ‘Unjustified Absence’ when I submitted information about the absence to the school?
There are two categories of absences: justified and unjustified.
What you are able to see as a parent or caregiver on the ‘WHS Portal’ is a simplified and condensed version of what we have access to as staff. There are currently 26 different codes used in New Zealand to record a student's attendance and you only see a few. There are perfectly good reasons for simplifying this system and like many schools, our ‘Portal’ only reflects so much information.
Unjustified absence is a grouping of several Ministry of Education attendance codes. An unjustified absence is an absence that is either unexplained or explained, but the explanation is not within the school's policy as an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. The decision on whether this explained absence is 'justified' or 'unjustified' will be determined by the Ministry of Education guidelines and the school's attendance policy.
Sometimes this causes distress for parents, caregivers, and students. However, the explanation for the absence is accepted by the school as the reason for the absence and we are not passing judgement or criticism. Put simply, the reason does not fit within the school's policy as a justifiable reason to take the student off school even though the parents may consider the absence was justified and may have provided a written explanation.
Examples of absence which are explained but unjustified are the likes of holidays during term time, mental health days, students taking time out of school to sit driver’s licence tests (or driving lessons), and special family events.
Please note, that very few absence reasons are considered ‘Justified’ as per the School Policy and the Ministry of Education. If you’re interested you can look further into this via this link: School attendance codes
Can I take my child out of school during term time to go on holiday?
We strongly discourage students from taking time off school to go on holiday because of the impact that this can have on their learning. The Ministry of Education now classifies this type of absence as unjustified.
No, a holiday is not a good enough reason to take your child out of school, so holidays should be planned outside of term time. Events like a birthday or a special day’s shopping aren’t considered valid reasons for being away from school either.
Why have I received a letter of concern regarding my child when I have already explained my child's absences?
A letter of concern is sent to families when an abnormal pattern appears in a students attendance record or when a students attendance falls below the threshold of regular attendance. This is a time for whānau, student and school to work together to support your child with regular attendance.
What happens if my child misses a class during the school day?
If your child is not at school and we have not heard from you then you will be contacted by text in the morning. Please reply to this with details of the absence including how long your child will be away for.
If students are marked absent for a period throughout the day you will be contacted by text or an email to advise you of the absence in a timely manner.
My child was present in class and was marked absent. How can I get their attendance changed?
Our procedures emphasise individual student responsibility. If your child was in class and present, they will need to speak to their classroom teacher to get their attendance corrected in the first instance. The teacher is the only one who can change this, as they are the only person who can confirm that the student was present. This should be done as soon as possible to avoid detentions being issued for unexplained absences. If there was a reliever for that class, the student must send an email to their regular classroom teacher who will be able to amend their attendance if applicable. If the teacher is away for an extended period then the student can contact their Dean.
What should I do if I have concerns about my child’s whereabouts during the school day?
Parents may view their child’s attendance in real time on the Wakatipu High School Portal. Please note that attendance codes are simplified on the portal to present, late or absent. Further details are maintained on our school system.
More detailed information on many school policies and procedures (such as attendance) can be found at school docs. Please sign in using username: 'wakatipu' and password 'Ad Alta' (please note 'Ad Alta' includes a space).