Attendance

Absences:

All absence from school must be explained.  If students are going to be away from school a Parent or Guardian must contact our Attendance Officer, Ms Talei Smith - 636 6006 ext 8022.

Attendance:

Attendance at school is a necessary pre-requisite for success. At Onehunga High School we strive to maintain high levels of attendance and punctuality. Our procedures emphasise individual student responsibility, with clear consequences for persistent absence and/or lateness to school. We appreciate your support of this system which is designed to support quality learning.

We encourage students to play their part by…

Being at school and in classes on time.

Getting parents or guardians to contact the school explaining any absence.

Bringing a note and getting an EXEAT PASS from the Attendance Officer if there is a need to leave school during the day.

Taking responsibility for their own attendance and FACING UP to any consequences they may receive as a result of lateness or truancy – LEARN FROM IT

Early Notification

If your child is not at school and we have not heard from you then you will be contacted by text or email in the morning.  Please reply to this with details of the absence including how long your child will be away for.

If students are marked absent for a period throughout the day you will be contacted by text or an email, in the afternoon to advise you of the absence.  

Monitoring attendance

We monitor attendance with the use of attendance percentages which give the percentage of time a student has been present in school. We believe that to be successful in school, students need to maintain a high level of attendance both in school generally and for each of their subjects. We have set a minimum level of 85% attendance to be eligible for co-curricular activities such as sport, performing arts and the school ball. This includes 85% attendance for each subject and tutor time.

Holidays during term time

We strongly discourage students from taking time off school to go on holiday because of the impact that this can have on their learning. The Ministry of Education now classifies this sort of absence as unjustified.

Medical Certificates

Medical certificates are important to justify absence from school due to illness. In general we require medical certificates for any absence longer than three days. The exception to this is when a student is applying for an extension for an NCEA assessment.  In this situation a medical certificate is always required.