St Francis Xavier Primary School recognises that every day of attendance in school contributes towards a student’s learning and that maximising school attendance enhances academic outcomes.
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to document obligations and procedures that must be followed.
Obligations
Our school has a responsibility to record student attendance and respond to instances of irregular attendance.
It is important for our school to investigate the patterns and underlying causes of non-attendance so that appropriate strategies addressing the specific type of absenteeism can be implemented.
Our school, and by virtue of their employment, our teachers, are legally required to monitor and record attendance of students in their care on a daily basis, whether absent or present in class, on excursion or at a school based activity.
Legal guardians of children have a legal obligation, as set out in the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006, to ensure a child is enrolled at and attends school.
Class rolls, whether electronic or paper based, can be subpoenaed and assist in establishing that a school
has met their common law duty of care to students. Attendance records are required as part of a school’s Workplace Health and Safety requirements and can be a critical factor in identifying serious student protection concerns. In addition, student attendance records are used for student reporting, fee allocation and government reporting.
Attendance procedures
Attendance marking
Rolls must be marked twice a day:
- AM rolls by 9.00am
- PM rolls after second break and by 2.30pm
Rolls will be checked by the APA daily. Teachers will be emailed/called as a reminder if rolls are not marked. If rolls are frequently not marked this information will be passed onto the school principal.
Each day at 10am an automated text message will be sent to all parents whose children are marked as an unexplained absence.
Incorrectly marked rolls will be corrected by the teacher responsible for the class.
There is a provision for specialist teachers to mark rolls if required by a leadership team member.
Present categories
Students who are:
- in class will be marked ‘Present – In Class’
- participating in activities (excursion, camps, sport and/ or cultural activities) will be marked accordingly by the teacher responsible for the activity depending on the time of departure. For example:
- if activity begins after 8.45am, the classroom teacher marks the roll.
- if activity begins before 8.45am the teacher responsible for the activity marks the roll.
These attendance categories must not be changed, unless the student is present in class and then the category should be changed to ‘Present - In Class’.
Absent categories
Students who are:
- not in class, and notification has not been received from a Legal Guardian, will be marked ‘Absent – Unexplained’
- not in class and notification has been received from a Legal Guardian advising the student is unwell, will be marked ‘Absent – Illness’. Other absence reasons will be marked accordingly e.g. ‘Appointment’, ‘Personal/Family’
When marking the roll, if teachers have received written information from legal guardians regarding a student’s absence from school, they should enter the details into a log in eMinerva.
If legal guardians have informed the school office of the absence, the secretary will enter these details into a log in eMinerva.
Class teachers should enter any information regarding future planned absences of students by entering a notified absence into eMinerva.
For planned absences longer than two days an absence notification form is to be completed and returned to the school office.
Students will only be marked as ‘Absent - Internal Suspension/external suspension’ upon instruction from a leadership team member.
Unexplained absences
An unexplained absence occurs when the student is not present at school and the legal guardian does not contact the school.
Class teachers will follow up any unexplained absences of more than two days, by emailing a leadership team member who will make contact with the student’s legal guardians. When an explanation has been received, this is to be added to eMinerva.
Past unexplained absences are indicated by the red unexplained absence alert icon on class rolls. When teachers receive written explanation of the absence from the student’s legal guardians they must update the absence category in eMinerva and include any details in a log.
Late arrivals
A student is considered to have arrived late any time after the 8.35 am bell.
Our school has implemented ALLE Attendance Receipting in the front office. ALLE Attendance Receipting is a software application which allows students to be electronically signed in to school as a Late Arrival or signed out of school as an Early Departure on a Student Kiosk.
Parents and Caregivers are encouraged to bring their child to the office if they arrive after the commencement of school (8.35am) and electronically sign them in using the barcode scanner. Our office staff will be on hand initially to assist. Students will then be given a receipt to hand to their teacher advising them that they have been marked present. Similarly, should you be collecting your child early from school, you may now use the system to record their departure. Parents who proceed directly to classrooms will be re-directed by teachers to contact staff in the main office for a receipt to be issued.
Good record keeping is paramount in ensuring the safety of our children, in particular in the event of emergency evacuations or lockdowns. The adoption of ALLE Attendance Receipting is a tool by which both teachers and staff can be confident that students' attendance records are accurate and up to date.
Your support of this routine is greatly appreciated and helps us to ensure everyone is safe at our school.
If teachers observe a student has made a habit of arriving late or is late for three consecutive days, they will contact a member of the leadership team who will contact the student’s legal guardian.
Early departures
A student is considered to be leaving early any time before 2.55pm.
As with late arrivals, all students leaving early must be signed out at the school office by a legal guardian.
The early departure will be recorded via the ALLE Attendance Receipting process.
Non-marking of electronic roll
If the school computer system is offline, hard copies of all class rolls will be provided by the school office. Once the system is online the teacher will mark the roll in eMinerva. This may be done the next day if necessary.
Emergencies
In the event of an evacuation, hard copies of rolls will be taken to the evacuation area to be marked by teachers. Teacher will advise the evacuation coordinator of any unexplained absentees.
During a lockdown the roll will be marked accordingly.
Activities
An activity will be entered into eMinerva for students attending excursions, camps and other school based activities.
Activities will be marked by the staff member responsible for the event, e.g. Present - Sport/Arts; Present - Excursion. This attendance category will inherit through the rest of the student’s timetable for the day.
These attendance categories must not be changed, unless the student is present at school and then the category should be changed to ‘Present – In Class’.
Attendance marking training
School leadership will provide attendance marking training to teaching staff annually.
School leadership will ensure all staff receive a written copy of the Attendance Policy and Procedures document and will review this document annually.
A copy of the Attendance Policy and Procedures document will be included in Relief staff folders.
Relief staff
Relief staff will collect a paper roll on arrival, mark and return to the school office by 9am. Office staff will enter the data and return the paper roll to the relief teacher for the 2.30pm marking. The roll will be returned to the school office and data input completed by office staff by 3.30pm.
Alternatively, relief staff will have access to the school portal and eMinerva using their own BCE username and password and are to mark attendance in eMinerva for each class they are supervising.
Part-time students
Part time students will sign in and out of the school office on arrival or departure as per arrangements made.
Mobile Attendance Application
Teaching staff wishing to use this application can access it by using the URL
https://staffportal.bne.catholic.edu.au/mawa and entering their own BCE username and password. The User Guide - Mobile Attendance Applications should be read prior to use.
Other
In the event of an evacuation, paper copies of rolls will be taken to the evacuation area and marked by class teachers. Class teachers will advise the evacuation coordinator of any unexplained absentees.
During a lockdown the roll will be marked.
11 July 2016