Dear parents and caregivers,

Welcome back to Term 2! I hope that you had a great Easter break.

In Term 1 of 2024, across all year levels, 64% of absences remain unexplained – something that we hope our college community can assist us with by accessing Compass and attending to your student’s absence reason.

Of the absences provided with a reason, 20% are due to Medical, 10% listed as Parent Choice (unapproved) and a combined 6% noted as Truancy, Refusal or Family Holiday.

At Newcomb Secondary College, we strive for high attendance to support your child’s learning, and social, emotional and mental wellbeing. We endeavour to work with and support all families in our community; we all want and need to do better for our students.

We can provide the best supports for students and families when absences are explained. Protecting the safety and well-being of students through the reporting and monitoring of absenteeism is the responsibility of both parents/carers and Newcomb Secondary College.

Communication is a critical component in ensuring all students can maximise their learning and engagement. If your student is struggling with attendance due to anxiety, health, truancy, refusal or another barrier, please let us know so we can work together to support your student. We understand that there are barriers preventing attendance and prioritise support for those families. There are a range of resources available to support you with helping students to re-engage and improve school attendance.

• 95% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing 10 days per year.
• 90% = 1 day per fortnight or 20 days per year.
• 85% = 30 days per year (chronically absent)
• 80% = one day per week or 40 days per year.

Research has shown that consistent student attendance at school is directly linked to better health, social and employment outcomes.

We have 30 students with perfect attendance of 100% and 130 students above 95%; a huge congratulations and thank you to these students and their families.

A few friendly reminders:

• If your student has any outstanding unexplained absences for Term 1, please access the Compass portal to view and enter reasons for these absences.
• If your student must be absent, please contact the office as soon as possible on the same day.
• Please avoid booking family holidays during the school term.
• Please aim to only keep students home if they are too unwell to attend.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your student’s attendance, or if you or your student requires any support with school refusal, please contact the school on (03) 5248 1400 or the school’s attendance officer.