Explaining Absences
Parents have a responsibility to ensure their children attend school. The best way to notify us of absences, planned or unplanned, is via the Sentral Parent Portal App for mobile phones. See the poster below for more information.
Sometimes your child may be absent, justified reasons include: sickness, infectious disease, unavoidable medical appointments, attending a recognised religious holiday, exceptional or urgent family circumstances eg. attending a funeral. If you have not entered this absence in the Sentral App you will receive an SMS messages advising of whole day and partial student absenteeism, you can reply to this SMS message to provide an explanation.
All absence explanations should contain: the date, student’s name, year and roll class, contact name, parent or carer signature, phone number (for verification) and a valid reason for the pass. Comments or reasons such as “I give permission for my child to leave” or “I want my child to leave school” are not sufficient.
Explanations of an absence should be provided to the school within a period of seven days, otherwise we will record the absence as unexplained on the student’s record.
If you can't reply to the SMS service, a note explaining the absence should be provided. If you anticipate your child being absent for more than 5 days, depending on the circumstances, you will either be required to provide a Doctor's Certificate (for illness/injury) or make application to the Principal for exemption from attendance (family holiday)
Late Arrivals
Late arrivals are classified as partial absences.
Students who arrive late to school must report to administration to have their attendance recorded.
Two slips will be issued to students who arrive late without a note: a late slip which is to be given to the classroom teacher; and an absence notification slip which is to be filled out and signed by a parent/carer and returned to the mentor teacher the following day.
All late arrivals must be explained via the Sentral Parent Portal App, to avoid being recorded as ‘unexplained’ on their student record.
Exemptions
Students requiring extended absence from school make an application to the Principal for a Certificate of Exemption. Application forms are available from the Student Services office and must be supported with impartial evidence.
Approval is at the School Principal’s discretion. On approval a Certificate of Exemption will be issued. Reasons for exemption from attendance such as: exceptional personal circumstances; extended illness or injury recovery; employment in the entertainment industry; participation in elite sports.
As per the Department’s Attendance Policy, family holidays are no longer considered reasonable grounds for an exemption.
Early Leaver
Early leave is classified as a partial absence.
Students who need to leave school early must notify us via the Sentral Parent Portal App, including a satisfactory explanation.
An Early Leave Pass will be available for collection from the Student Office in administration during the recess/lunch breaks. Sport is a compulsory school requirement.
Medical appointments should be made outside school hours where possible. Sport days should not be used for appointments.
If an appointment is on a sport day, students must apply for a leave pass before the date and present their appointment card (for specialists) at the time. Students with passes are required to sign out via the Office before leaving the school.
ROSA and the HSC
Poor attendance can affect your child’s ability to achieve their Record of School Achievement (ROSA) and Higher School Certificate (HSC); both are valuable records of their schooling.
Poor attendance affects a student’s ability to learn content, meet course outcomes, complete assessments and follow their courses of study with sustained and diligent effort.
When any high school student fails to satisfy the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) requirements for courses they will be issued with a Non-completion (N Award).
A minimum of two course-specific warnings must be issued prior to a final ‘N’ determination being made for a course. These awards can result in students failing to gain the certificates they are hoping to achieve. And students may need to repeat these courses the following year.
