[As published in July/August BayBuzz magazine.]

The level of a child’s school attendance is linked to their achievement, wellbeing and lifelong outcomes. The more often they’re in the classroom, the higher their performance. So why are more and more Hawke’s Bay kids absent from school? 

Non-attendance is a huge issue for many schools around the country. Short-term illness and medical absences remain the main reasons for non-attendance, according to the Ministry of Education. However, there are many other underlying causes of non-attendance, which are varied and complex, as the educators BayBuzz talked to here in the Bay make clear. 

Attendance categories are defined as regular attendance, where a student is at school at least 90% of the time, irregular absence, students attend 80%-90%, moderate absence, students attend 70%-80% and chronic absence, students attend 70% or less. 

Evidence suggests there is no ‘safe’ level of non-attendance. Each additional half day of absence from school is associated with a consistent reduction in the number of NCEA credits gained, according to recent research from the Ministry of Education. 

New Zealand attendance rates are poor by international standards. Regular attendance has dropped from 69.5% in Term 2 of 2015 to 39.9% in Term 2 of 2022. Latest figures show regular attendance has improved since then, reaching 53.6% in Term 4 of 2023. However, our ongoing trends and international comparisons are concerning. England’s attendance rates in 2022 were 75.1% and the United States was 70.3%. Australia is similar to New Zealand at 49.9%. 

In April the Government announced a high-priority plan to address student non-attendance and has started implementing changes. These include publishing weekly attendance data, a campaign to improve awareness, and updating public health guidelines to help schools and parents decide if a student is well enough to go to school. The aim is to get 80% of students attending schools more than 90% of the time by 2030. 

How does Hawke’s Bay compare? 

Hawke’s Bay Tairāwhiti has one of the lowest levels of attendance in the country. In Term 4 of 2023, 50.1% of Hawke’s Bay students attended school more than 90% of the time. Bay of Plenty Waiariki had the same attendance level, and only two other regions had lower attendance: Tai Tokerau 41.4% and South and South-west Auckland 40.9%. 

Otago/Southland region had the highest level of regular attendance in Term 4 2023 at 60.9%, followed by central and East Auckland 59.1%. 

A snapshot of attendance numbers in our region from the Ministry of Education shows how it has declined in recent years. In the wider Heretaunga area 218 students were chronically absent in Term 2 in 2015. Eight years later, in Term 2 of 2023, the number of chronically absent students was 774. In Napier the figure jumped from 70 to 477 over the same period. This upward trend of chronic attendance is the same across the region. 

A complex issue 

Illness, chronic medical conditions, anxiety, poverty, disengagement, and perhaps most surprisingly, changing parental views towards education are among the reasons for the shift in school attendance. 

The barriers that prevent kids from coming to school have always been there but they’re getting worse, says Ministry of Education director of education for Hawke’s Bay Tairāwhiti, Daniel Murfitt. “There seems to be a greater acceptance by individuals and families that it’s OK for their child to not be at school, whereas 20-30 years ago the common value was that your child goes to school every single day,” he says. 

While data shows students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to miss school, the rise in non-attendance is being seen across all regions, communities and family backgrounds. 

And poor attendance is not just a teenage problem. Educators say years 1-6 are the biggest concern, as young children can develop poor attendance habits that continue throughout their school life. 

Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle have put more financial pressure on Hawke’s Bay families already grappling with the cost of living. Heightened awareness about illness since Covid-19 has also caused more parents to keep children at home for very mild sickness. Attendance figures were declining in the five years before Covid, but the disruption of the pandemic and a cyclone have steepened the trend. 

For many students these events have forced a change in priorities. In 2020 after the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, schools reported students leaving and taking up jobs to financially support their families. Now, more than 15,000 teenagers are working up to 50 hours a week on top of studying to support their families, according to a Child Poverty Action Group report released in February.

It’s hugely concerning that some young people are in this situation, says Hastings Youth Council chair, Chris Proctor. “School is a decision between ‘do I want to have an education or do I go out and work and support my family to put food on the table?’ I think it’s so hard for young people to do that.” 

Local government has an important role to play in addressing some of the underlying causes of non-attendance through providing support services to students and families, says Proctor. 

Students need support, not sanctions 

Attendance is a “huge issue”, says Hastings Girls’ High School/Ngā Rau Huia O Ākina principal Catherine Bentley. “Like any other school across the country, it’s been on the radar for some time.” Before Covid they weren’t proud of their attendance, “And then when Covid hit, the bottom just fell off.” 

During that time their focus was around soft rather than hard caring, says Bentley. “That was not a time to be punishing kids for not coming to school. That to us became a time of embracing the fact that they had come to school when they could.” Staff phoned families every day to see how they were and what they could do to help. During this time the school fed 150 families with repurposed food from the Healthy School Lunches programme. Soft caring, like this, builds trust and community, she says. 

Then the cyclone hit, forcing a lot of senior students to leave school, says Bentley. “There was no choice: it was either go to school and learn or go and provide for your family.” At the end of last year staff reconnected with every student who left to see if they needed help finding further paid work, study options or to transition back to school.

The school now employs two youth workers who have become their attendance team. Their role includes building relationships with students, visiting families, and providing support. And it’s working. Attendance at the school has improved 20% since it was at its lowest. 

Over at Bledisloe School, a primary school in Taradale, most of the students are at school 90% or more of the time. For the small number of children who have issues with attendance, staff work closely with them and their families, says principal Carol Bevis. “It’s about relationships and understanding what might be causing absenteeism,” she says. 

When students are absent, the reasons include food poverty, transport costs, anxiety, illness and family circumstances. “Very rarely it’s just because parents can’t be bothered. “For our families, they want their children to be at school generally,” says Bevis. If a student is refusing to come to school, staff visit the student personally to persuade them back. “Often it does work because it’s someone that’s not your mum telling you that actually you do have to get out of the bed and come to school.” 

It takes compassion and relationship-building to interpret and act upon attendance data, says Bevis. If a child is regularly absent, it’s the school’s job to find out what’s happening and how they can help – this can come in the form of food parcels, counselling and connecting them with other support services. Schools are working hard to do this, using every tool at their disposal, says Bevis, who doesn’t support punitive measures for non-attendance. “A child can’t necessarily be held to account for this because they have to have their parents’ support to get to school.”

Every day counts

Attendance has been a topic of conversation for local principals, says Bevis, who is secretary for Hawke’s Bay Primary Principals Association, as they will be the frontline for the new Government mandates. “No one in teaching or principalship would argue that being at school every day is not a good thing.”

The statistics show regular attendance lifts academic achievement. Missing a lesson can mean a child struggles to keep up when they do return to school. But it’s more than that. Schools are social environments, and long-term absences can impact a student’s friendship groups and their ability to build connections with their classmates and teachers. 

Building good attendance at a young age and making parents understand the lost opportunities is key to a positive shift, says Murfitt. “The longer you’re at school, the better labour market outcomes, the better health outcomes, the better social wellbeing outcomes.”

Parents and families have the greatest impact on getting students to attend school. For parents, this means making sure their child goes to school every day and calling the school to explain the reason they’re away. 

Short term illness and medical reasons are the main reasons for non-attendance, the Ministry of Education tells us, but unjustified absences, such as a family holiday to Fiji or frequent long weekends, have been creeping up since Covid-19.

It’s this mindset Murfitt wants to see change. “What I’d love to see is everyone in the community really understanding the value of education. Schools need to drive the importance of regular attendance and reinforce with parents their legal obligations,” he says. 

Getting back on track

Murfitt, alongside Te Puni Kōkiri senior advisor Jamie Mitchell, is leading a multi-agency group in Hawke’s Bay to find solutions to attendance and engagement issues. Tēnei Tamaiti, Tēnei Whānau (3TW) works with schools to remove or reduce barriers to attendance. As part of this, last month they launched a public campaign to raise awareness and promote the value of attending school. The campaign has a strong Hawke’s Bay focus – featuring local principals, personalities and students – so young people can see themselves reflected in their community, says Murfitt. 

At a national level, under the Government’s action plan are nine targets, with the ultimate aim of getting 80% of students in class for more than 90% of the term by 2030. The plan has four key points:

• Weekly attendance reporting by the Ministry of Education 

• A national marketing campaign about the importance of attending school

• Clarifying expectations on attendance to school boards

• Updating public health guidance to be more specific about the symptoms of illness and when it’s safe for students to come to school

Educators spoken to for this article were pleased attendance was a focus for the Government and said it was a good first step. However, there were concerns the action plan leaned towards punishment rather than addressing underlying issues. “My worry is if we’re doing punitive, who’s holding the stick? I can’t do that to my community”, says Bentley.

Attendance is a measure of engagement. Therefore, making school feel relevant and relatable is a top priority, so students can feel a deep sense of belonging, says Bentley. As part of this, staff work hard to create a curriculum that engages students and whanau, “where they can see themselves reflected back”.

Proctor agrees school doesn’t feel relevant for a lot of students. He wants to see the education system evolve to teach more life skills, such as writing a CV, applying for a job, and getting a loan to buy a car. “It all boils down to youth engagement. That’s the question we need to address. If school becomes a lot more relevant to real life, that’s a key driving factor.”

Every child deserves a quality education and those who regularly miss school are being robbed of future opportunities. For too long, the number of kids attending school has not been good enough. Getting kids to school and keeping them there requires meaningful action by the Government, schools, and communities. 

Schools work incredibly hard alongside families to identify and address underlying issues that are barriers to attendance. But they can’t do it alone. Children need their parents’ support to go to school. To tackle our poor attendance rates we need a shift around expectations and the way we value education so our kids don’t pay the price. 

CASE STUDY 

When Mia* started school, she loved it. Passionate about music, sport and connecting with her Māori culture, school was a place for fun, learning and friends for the Hastings girl. However, after suffering a family death at a young age, school started to become a struggle: “It was a really hard time for me.” 

At Intermediate Mia learnt more Māori language and culture. As a result she developed a deeper connection to her heritage and her learning flourished. 

Life took another turn however, when Mia transitioned to high school as family and personal issues started to have a major impact on her schooling. She moved in with a family member, but with little support around her, Mia lost interest in learning and her attendance suffered. 

At her lowest, she was barely showing up for any classes, and if she did make it to class she would find an excuse to leave halfway through. She also started making choices she now regrets. “I was doing stuff that I wasn’t supposed to do like smoking dope, like vaping – all of the above in school, until I got snapped.” 

When Mia reached the threshold of 20 days’ absence, she was taken off the school roll. She left and switched to another school. But struggling with the same issues, her attendance remained low. After three months she left and last year spent six months not going to school at all. 

During that time Mia decided she wanted to turn things around. “I realised who I really wanted to be. I didn’t want to do that kind of stuff that I was doing. I don’t want to smoke dope, I don’t want to drink, I don’t want to do none (sic) of that.” Her biggest motivation though, was being a better role model for her younger sister, who was starting high school. “I really want a better life than I have now and I really want my sister to grow up knowing that I did good (sic) and looking up to me.” 

This year Mia re-enrolled herself at her original high school. She was grateful to get a lot of encouragement and help from the school for her and her sister, including uniforms and stationery. Feeling supported and connected to school have been the key to her engagement, she says. 

Now 15, Mia is taking her education seriously. “I came back and proved to them that I would do better and I would be better.” True to her word, her attendance is now 83% and she’s considering future study options. 

*[not her real name]