Kia ora Matua families,

Regular attendance at school is one of the most important factors in supporting children’s learning and overall well-being. Each day in the classroom offers new opportunities for students to build their skills, strengthen relationships, and feel confident in their progress. When children attend consistently, they are better able to keep up with their learning, participate fully in class activities, and develop the routines that help them thrive.  The Ministry of Education has a national push to raise attendance rates across the country. For a child to be considered regularly attending school, they need to have fewer than 5 days absent in a term.  If they have more, for any reason, the MoE considers them to be at risk and will record them as not attending regularly.

As parents, we know how quickly absence rates can grow.  If your child has a few days off sick with the flu, and you take a Friday off school for a long weekend away, suddenly, your child’s attendance is outside the range of regular attendance at school.  When you look at it through this lens, it highlights the importance of taking attendance seriously and not being too casual about taking the odd day off school.

Matua School is required to have an ‘Attendance Management Plan’, which is available on the school website.  As part of that plan, when your child’s attendance reaches certain thresholds, the school will contact you.  That might be a classroom teacher checking in with you, a letter coming home via HERO or a phone call from our Senior Leadership Team.  Whatever the approach, our desire is to support you in having your children at school as regularly as possible.

Below is an image outlining the attendance steps.  The full Attendance Management Plan can be accessed by following THIS LINK.

ON LEVERS CAFE – GARDEN TO TABLE SPONSORS

I would like to give a special shout-out to the team at On Levers Cafe!  We are regular visitors to this local cafe, taking our CBA Draw winners there for a special treat.  This year, the On Levers Cafe Team have offered to sponsor part of our Garden to Table programme.  We need to purchase food and other resources to complement that programme, and this sponsorship is a significant contribution towards that cost.  If you are out for a coffee or meeting friends for lunch, consider trying On Levers Cafe!

TEACHER ONLY DAY REMINDER

This is a friendly reminder that we have an MOE-sponsored Teacher Only Day booked for Friday, 20th March. Our teaching team will work with a mathematics facilitator as we continue to develop teaching and learning practices aligned with the refreshed curriculum.  sKids are offering a special programme should you require childcare.

Ngā mihi nui,

SCHOOL INFORMATION