Mental Health & Wellbeing

Attendance and missing school

It’s the law that children 6 to 17 years old go to school or be home schooled. You are legally responsible for making sure your child goes to school every day.

Why going to school is important

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

  • important skills and knowledge to help them learn
  • social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and team work.

Children who attend school every day and complete year 12 have:

  • better health
  • better job opportunities
  • higher income across their lives.

There is no safe number of days for missing school. Each day a student misses puts them behind.

What to do if your child can’t go to school

Let the school know by entering it directly on Compass as soon as possible.  If you do not let us know, we may contact you to make sure your child is safe.

Talk to us if your child needs to take and extended period of time off, prior to the time please.

If your child misses a lot of school

We will work with you if your child has more than 5 days of unapproved or unexplained days off in a school year.

If this does not work, we might refer your child to a school attendance officer. The school attendance officer will monitor and investigate your child’s attendance. You might receive a warning, an attendance notice or a fine.

 

 

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