With the new school year now well under way for all students, an initiative to combat absenteeism has been rolled out across the district.

Attendance packs have been distributed to all students to help visualise, for parents and pupils alike, the importance of showing up for all school days.

At the end of last year, data from the Ministry of Education “Everyday Matters” reports showed that schools in Ōpōtiki Kahui Ako were 25 percent below the national average for regular attendance, which is 20 percent below the ministry target, so in effect 45 percent below the target that the Ministry of Education has set for all children in New Zealand.

Kāhui Ako, also known as Communities of Schools or Communities of Learning, is a group of schools approved to receive resourcing under the Investing in Educational Success initiative announced in 2014.

Despite the 2025 Budget disestablishing the programme at the beginning of this year, Kahui Ako leads Susan Impey and Debbie McKillop had put together a comprehensive study of attendance rates and issues locally, including a whānau survey that helped bridge the gap between ministry expectations and the numerous cultural and location specific variables within the community.

The study helped Mrs Impey lay the groundwork for this collaborative approach to raising attendance across the Ōpōtiki collective of schools.

“Attendance is a major focus of the MOE nationwide and all schools are now required to have attendance management plans in place and really work at increasing attendance. Unfortunately, Ōpōtiki attendance rate is below the national average which is below the MOE target,” she said.

“We had one last initiative which was the design, production and distribution of our ‘Attendance packs’ to all the schools in Ōpōtiki. Debbie did an awesome job of this.

“The attendance packs are designed to share the ownership and awareness of attendance to not just the schools, but the whānau and the children themselves.

“The packs contain a magnetic marking system that they can all put on their fridges and keep a record of their own attendance and set goals. This was an Ōpōtiki initiative as we really wanted students to be aware of how many days they might have missed at school.”

She said the packs were delivered to schools in the past week and would be going home with students soon.

Each pack also includes an explanation sheet to the STAR (stepped attendance response) plan that all schools must monitor.

Waiotahe Valley School principal Tai Miskell has wholeheartedly embraced the initiative, and has been distributing the packs to all students.

“This is our first week using the packs and we are having a big push to get all students to fewer than five days absent a term.

“Obviously there are factors beyond our control such as illness, weather and family commitments, but this encourages all the kids to be here as much as they can and eradicate the random days off.”

He said attendance had improved over the past few years.

“The hope is these packs can improve on that by involving parents and the community more. Our cards are already on the fridge at home and the parents I have spoken to are also using theirs with the kids getting involved too.”

Under the STAR model, the ministry uses four measures for absence: regular, irregular, moderate, and chronic. Data is collected every day from schools, with the regular attendance goal being that 80 percent of children attend school 90 percent of the time.

“What it boils down to is understanding why attendance is important, awareness and knowledge of what schools must do to follow Ministry of Education requirements and open communication between school and whānau about why a child is or isn’t at school that day,” Mrs Impey said.

“Left unchecked, the results of missing significant numbers of school days could be grim for the individuals concerned.”