Regular school attendance enables students to maximise their full educational potential and to actively participate and engage in their learning.  It is important for your child to attend school every day. Regular learning provides building blocks for their future.  Schools help children to develop important social skills, such as friendship building, teamwork, communication skills and a healthy positive self-esteem. We cannot teach your child if they are not at school.

Children who are ill must be kept at home. The college does not have adequate facilities to cater for sick children.  We request that a note explaining each absence be sent to their class teacher when the student returns to school or this can be communicated via Compass.



Your responsibility as a parent/carer is to make sure your child:
 

• arrives at school on time every day
• attends school on ALL school days unless unwell

 
Please

• notify the school, on Compass, of your child’s absence on the first day of the absence
• provide the school, on Compass, with an explanation of the absence
• contact the school if your child does not want to go to school
• arrange doctor and dentist appointments out of school hours
• arrange personal shopping trips with your son/daughter or birthday celebrations out of school hours
• not allow your child to stay at home for minor reasons
• plan extended holidays during the term breaks
• notify the school in advance if an absence of any extended period is planned

Sudents who stay away from school:

• miss the introduction and application of new work
• miss important assessments
• may lack confidence and feel embarrassed because they cannot do the work the class has been studying
• feel left out of class discussion when they have missed a special class activity and cannot do the associated work
• miss valuable skill development in Visual Art, Performing Arts, Physical Education and Language other than English (LOTE)
• miss notices and newsletters
• miss celebrations such as class awards, excursions, school visitors, assemblies
• can find it difficult to break into established friendship groups and develop good friendships with their peers
• can develop a poor attitude towards school believing ‘I won’t miss much if I am not at school’
• fail to realise that the teachers and students miss them

Students who arrive late to school.
It is also not okay to be late to school.  Students who are late arriving affect the start of a school day in the following ways

• miss out on talking to their teacher before school
• miss out on playing with their friends before school
• miss out on getting  themselves organised
• miss out on hearing what’s happening for the day
• are often unsure about what they have to do in the lesson
• find their learning becomes disjointed or difficult
• they distract other students when they arrive

Did you know that when a student is late, teachers:

• have to find the time to spend one–on–one with the student to ‘catch them up’ with what they have missed
• need to repeat instructions, find materials and work sheets before late students can begin working
• need to give late students extra attention so that they know what has happened or what the class is doing
• are taken away from their planned teaching of working with groups of other students from the class

All staff at Baden Powell College worry when students regularly miss school or arrive late.  Please make every effort to have your child at school every day and arrivie on time.