In Aotearoa, all children under 16 years of age are required to attend a registered school every day, unless they have a justified reason within their school’s policy for being absent, such as sickness or attending a funeral or tangi.
We know there is a direct correlation between regular attendance and NCEA achievement. (Source: He Whakaaro Report: Relationship between attendance and attainment, 2020). A Year 11 student who attends school every day has about a 90% chance of achieving NCEA Level 1, but this drops to a 1-in-5 chance if they only attend school half of the time.
But that’s not all. Schools are the hub of any community and are places where our children and young people learn – find out what they are interested in, learn more about who they are or who they want to be, their communities, our histories, different cultures, and the wider world. It’s also where many people meet their life-long friends.