28 Jun 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
Alexandria Park Community School recognises that every day of attendance at school helps students progress in their learning and develop a sense of belonging and that supporting positive school attendance is the shared responsibility of schools, families, students, and the wider community.
This Term, the school community has been working collaboratively involving Parents/Carers, staff and students with an expert educator in the area of student wellbeing, in developing the new APCS Attendance Procedures that are directly aligned with the NSW Department of Education School Attendance Policy. These school procedures will be published on the school web site and be provided as a link in the School Newsletter early in Term 3.
Educational research clearly shows that consistent school attendance improves student outcomes, increases career options, and helps students build relationships and confidence. Our attendance data shows that we need to work together as a school community to improve attendance overall and support individual students with unsatisfactory attendance in a more supportive and targeted way.
For the Primary School, many of the processes and supports that are already in existence will remain, as they have only recently reviewed and updated their attendance protocols.
In the High School, we will be implementing several improvement measures to help improve student attendance, including truancy and partial days attendance.
The following changes will be implemented from Day 1 ofTerm 3 2023 to support the school's new drive to help students with attendance:
1) All High School students will attend Roll Call at 8.40am each morning. Students will be given information of how Roll Call will work before the end of this Term. To cater for this, the school day for High School students will be changed to 8:40am to 2:50pm.
2) Students who truant will need to make up time lost from learning in a Reflection Program after school, where they can catch up on their learning supervised by Executive Teachers. Parents/Carers will be advised if their student is attending a session as a result of truanting.
3) A reminder that Mary Lis working in the office to support attendance. Please ensure that you call or email the school if your child will be absent from school. Mary is also running our Phone Home Program for Years 7 to 12.
I am looking forward to these Attendance Procedures having a positive impact on our student's educational outcomes.
Yours faithfully
Debra Lade
Relieving Principal