​Attendance Policy

Stella Maris recognises that every day of attendance in school contributes towards a student's learning and that maximising school attendance enhances academic outcomes.

Purpose:

The purpose of this document is to document obligations and procedures that must be followed to meet those obligations.

Obligations:

Our school has a responsibility to record student attendance and respond to instances of irregular attendance.  Our school needs to investigate the patterns and underlying causes of non-attendance so that appropriate strategies addressing the specific type of absenteeism can be implemented.

Our school, and by their employment, our teachers, are legally required to monitor and record the attendance of students in their care daily, whether absent or present in class, on an excursion or at a school-based activity.

Legal guardians of children have a legal obligation, as set out in the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006, to ensure a child is enrolled at and attends school.

Class rolls, whether electronic or paper-based, can be required as evidence in court and assist in establishing that a school has met their common law duty of care to students. Attendance records are required as part of a school's Workplace Health and Safety requirements and can be a critical factor in identifying serious student protection concerns. In addition, student attendance records are used for student reporting, fee allocation and government reporting.

Attendance Procedures

Attendance Marking

Rolls must be marked twice a day:

• AM rolls by 9.00 am
  
• PM rolls after second break and by 2.00 pm

Rolls will be checked by the Office Staff by 9.00 am each day. A phone call will be made to teachers if their rolls are not marked. If rolls are frequently not marked this information will be passed on to School Principal.

School Leadership will be advised of unmarked and incorrectly marked rolls.

Incorrectly marked rolls will be corrected by the teacher responsible for the class.

Present Categories

Refer to Attendance – Description of Attendance Categories to determine which category will be used for each Present circumstance

​Students who are:

• In class will be marked ‘Present – In Class’
• Participating in activities (excursions; camps etc.) will be marked accordingly by the teacher responsible for the activity.  
• With Counsellors will be marked as ‘Present – In-School Appointment’
• Receiving treatment in the First Aid Room will be marked as ‘Present – In First Aid room’​

School Sanctioned Activities

An activity will be entered into eMinerva for students attending excursions, camps and other school-based activities.

Activities will be marked by the staff member responsible for the event, e.g. Present – Sport/Arts; Present - Excursion. This attendance category will be inherited through the rest of the student's timetable for the day.

These attendance categories must not be changed, unless the student is present at school and then the category should be changed to 'Present – In Class'.

Students will only be marked as 'Present – Not Required to Attend' in special circumstances and upon instruction from School Leadership.

Absent Categories

Please refer to Attendance – Description of Attendance Categories to determine which category will be used for each Absence circumstance.

​When marking the roll, if teachers have received written information from Legal Guardians regarding a student's absence from school, they should enter the details into a log-in eMinerva.

 Unexplained Absences

An unexplained absence occurs when the student is not present at school and the Legal Guardian does not contact the school.

SMS Messages for Unexplained Absences

An SMS message will be sent to students' Legal Guardian/Carer (Main Contact) at 9.30 am each day advising of any 'Unexplained' absences.  The child's legal guardian/carer will be required to contact the school to advise the child's absence, and reason for the absence.

If contact is not received within 15 minutes, Office Staff will contact any further legal guardians or carers listed in eMinerva to seek confirmation of the child's absence, and the reason for this absence.

Any incorrect Absentee messages caused by incorrect roll-marking will be made known to the APA.  The teacher will follow up by telephoning the student's Legal Guardian.

Past unexplained absences are indicated by the red Unexplained Absence Alert icon on class rolls.  When teachers receive a written explanation of the absence from the student's Legal Guardians they must update the absence category in eMinerva and include any details in a log.

Late Arrivals

A student is considered to have arrived late any time after the 8.40 am bell.

All students arriving late must be signed in by a Legal Guardian at the School Office and will be given a late slip.  This slip needs to be presented to the teacher when arriving in class.  If they do not have a late slip, they are to be sent to the School office to sign in.

The late arrival information will be entered by office staff via the ALLE Attendance System and a late slip generated.

School Office staff will contact the Legal Guardian of any student arriving late unaccompanied.

If teachers observe a student has made a habit of arriving late or is late for three consecutive days, they will contact the student's Legal Guardian as per the policy for absentee students in this document.

 Early Departures

A student is considered to be leaving early any time before 3.05 pm.

As with Late Arrivals, all students leaving early must be signed out at the School Office by a Legal Guardian.

The early departure information will be entered by office staff via the ALLE Attendance System.

Non-marking of Electronic Roll

Emergencies

If the school computer system is offline, hard copies of all Class rolls will be provided by the School Office.  Once the system is online the teacher will mark the roll in eMinerva.  This may be done the next day if necessary.

In the event of an evacuation, hard copies of rolls will be taken to the evacuation area to be marked by teachers.  Teachers will advise the Evacuation coordinator of any unexplained absentees.  Should there be any doubt as to the attendance of a student, the Mobile Attendance Application will be used to confirm the presence or absence.

During a lockdown, the roll will not be marked. After a lockdown, all persons on the school grounds will be assembled at the Emergency Evacuation Point and all rolls will be marked as per an Evacuation.

Attendance Marking Training

School leadership will provide attendance marking training to teaching staff annually.

School leadership will ensure all staff receive a written copy of the Attendance Policy and Procedures document and will review this document annually.

A copy of the Attendance Policy and Procedures document will be included in Relief staff folders.

​Relief Staff

Relief staff will have access to the school portal and eMinerva using their own BCE Username and Password and are to mark attendance in eMinerva​ for each class they are supervising.

​Part-time Students

 Part-time students will sign in and out of the School office on arrival or departure as per arrangements made.

Mobile Attendance Application

Teaching staff wishing to use this application can access it by using the URL https://staffportal.bne.catholic.edu.au/mawa and entering their own BCE Username and Password.  The User Guide – Mobile Attendance Application should be read before use.