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Attendance policy 1.1 Attendance Policy Little Yarra Steiner School
1. Responsibility for Managing and Supporting Attendance a. School b. Parents 2. Monitoring Attendance a. Roll books b. Absence notification c. Unsatisfactory Attendance 3. Process for Responding to unsatisfactory attendance 4. Authorised absence from school 5. Student Transfer Note 6. Interstate Transfer Note Attendance policy 1.1
1. Responsibility for Managing and Supporting Attendance The School’s Responsibility LYSS recognises its responsibility to its parent and student bodies to operate from 8:30 to 3:30 Monday to Friday for 38 weeks of the year (minimum of 180 days) Student’s attendance during regular school operation is the joint responsibility of the LYSS and parents. To ensure that all students are accounted for a monitoring system is in place. Records are kept of attendance in accordance with relevant legislation and all unexplained absences are followed up. The school has the responsibility to report truancy, but as a first measure Little Yarra endeavours to communicate with the parents and student to improve attendance and curriculum objectives. The Parents’ Responsibility According to the Community Services Act of 1970 Parents and guardians are required to send their children to school unless there is a reasonable excuse: A reasonable excuse is deemed to be: o being under efficient and regular instruction in some other wayo being prevented from attendance through illnesso being under correspondence instructiono because of distanceParents are obliged to inform the school of all absences in a timely manner. The school through its teaching body endeavours to cooperate with the parents to manage student attendance. 2. Monitoring Attendance Attendance Roll Records of student attendance are required for all students enrolled at LYSS because of the need to: o Monitor the legal requirements for students under 16 years to attend schoolo Discharge school’s duty of care for all students including those over the compulsory school ageo Supply accurate information for audit purposes.The attendance roll is a permanent record of the attendance of all students. The roll will be kept twice a day, the start of the day and after lunch, for each class (VCE classes are required to take attendance at each lesson) the marking of the roll book will be in accordance with the general instructions of the attendance roll. Any unexplained absences are reported to the office using the Absence slip system as soon as possible. Absence Notification Any students identified on the absence slips as unknown will constitute an unexplained absence. In this event an effort will be made to contact the parents or guardian to notify them of the absence and ascertain a reason for it. The absence slips will then be marked appropriately and returned to the teachers for information. Unsatisfactory attendance Unsatisfactory attendance can include prolonged absence or excessive absences from school, explained absences that are deemed unsatisfactory by the school, or unexplained absences. Attendance policy 1.1 3. Process for responding to unsatisfactory attendance When attendance is deemed unsatisfactory by the teacher or Guardian: o The parents are contactedo A meeting regarding the absences is held wherein the issues resulting in absenteeism and strategies for preventing them are discussed.o Agreed strategies are implementedShould the absences continue or a student be absent for a total of 10 full days within any one term, the teacher or Guardian should notify the College of Teachers, along with the provided explanations of absence. The College will determine whether in their judgement the student is being disadvantaged by their absenteeism. 4. Authorised Absence from school Absence from school for reasons other than illness can be deemed satisfactory. These absences must take place with the knowledge and agreement of the school. In general terms absences over a few days should be presented to the faculty for acceptance. Reasons for authorised absences can include: o Private tuitiono Medical treatmento Compassionate leaveo TravelIn all these cases the effect the absence(s) has on the educational progress of the student should be considered. 5. Transfer notes: Transfers are completed for students who are transferring out of one school into another. Where ever possible a transfer note should be completed and sent to the new school. If a student is transferring interstate the Interstate Transfer Protocol is used. The following forms are available from MCEETYA. Printable version of flow chartParental consent form (Form 1)*Student consent form (Form 2)Interstate Student Data Transfer Note (Form 3 – Editable Word doc)Interstate Student Data Transfer Note (Form 3 – Non-editable pdf)Protocol for use by non-government schools for students transferring from other non-government schools (Form 5)Protocol for use by non-government schools for students transferring from government schools (Form 6). Attendance policy 1.1 Approved by the College of Teachers 5/6/08
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