Daily Attendance
Daily attendance at school is essential so that children can achieve their educational best. Learning at school will usually follow a series of sequential lessons that flow on from one another. When students miss a day here and there, they are missing the necessary knowledge they require in order to understand and complete class tasks. These carefully planned lessons begin as early as Kindergarten, where students are learning the basics of reading, writing and numeracy. Without establishing and ingraining these basic skills in the early years, students can often find themselves with gaps in their learning. As well as affecting academic achievement, frequent absences can also impact on children’s ability to maintain social relationships and feelings of belonging. If you have difficulties with getting your child to school, reach out to your child’s class teacher or to our admin office staff.
Greenacre Public School values daily attendance. Our students and staff have collectively been involved in choosing slogans and logos they can best relate to which demonstrates our commitment to daily attendance at school. Joining our school community means supporting our attendance targets and promoting its significance with students.
Supervision
There is no supervision of students before 8:30am. Students should be dropped off at school after 8.30am and picked up at 3pm each day. If a student has not been collected by 3:10pm they will be escorted to the waiting area near the front gate and parents will be contacted. Children can often feel worried when parents or carers are late to pick them up. Parents should contact the school if they are going to be late. The school office closes at 3:30 pm.
Lateness
Students at Greenacre PS are expected to arrive at school on time each day. Arriving at school and class on time;
Ensures that students don’t miss out on the important learning activities scheduled early in the day and the introductions to lessons.
Helps students to learn the importance of punctuality and routine.
Gives students time to greet their friends before class and therefore reduces the opportunity for classroom disruption.
When students arrive late, they can often feel uncomfortable or embarrassed as they walk into an already settled classroom. They may feel confused if they’ve missed the beginning of a lesson or if classes are in other areas of the school, students who are late can often feel worried and upset when they see their empty classroom.
Students arriving at school after 9:20am need to be brought to the office by a parent where their arrival time can be entered onto the class roll.
Early Departures
There may be times where you need to pick your child up early for an appointment. While we discourage early departures as they are disruptive to student learning, we understand that there are times when this is unavoidable. It is best to notify the admin staff or the class teacher before the day of the appointment. Parents will also need to provide a medical certificate or show the SMS confirmation for the appointment. Regular early departures for specialist therapies will need approval from the principal.
Absences
The Education Reform Act (1990) requires parents to ensure their children maintain attendance at all times that the school is open. Parents are required to explain their child’s absences and failure to explain them will be recorded on the child’s records as an ‘unjustified absence’. Reasons such as birthdays, shopping, or minding brothers and sisters are deemed unjustified reasons. When students are absent, parents will receive an SMS notification asking for an explanation for the absence. Responses should be sent back to the SMS received. We encourage all students to have an attendance rate of 90% or above. This allows for 4 days of absence each term when students are sick. Students who have frequent absences will be monitored by school executives and the Home School Liaison Officer and parents/carers will be contacted
School Rules
As well as following the department’s operational policies, we have developed frameworks for our students in line with our school’s values and commitments.