Attendance

When students experience prolonged absences from school due to serious illness, it can bring up unique emotional, social and educational challenges for the student, their teacher and classmates. In this article, Year 5 teacher at Waverly College, Jennifer Hoare, shares some strategies the school uses to support students experiencing illness.

Student welfare has come sharply into focus over the past few years as the pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for students and teachers alike. There’s a lot to explore around student welfare in the Teacher archives, and this month we’re bringing you some recent examples.

School closures have undoubtedly affected all students. However, some impacts have been more pronounced for students experiencing disadvantage. A recent study looks at the unequal impacts of COVID-19 school closures on the attendance rates of high-SES and low-SES secondary students in a quasi-experimental analysis.

Most schools will have students who experience some level of menstrual pain during their schooling years. So, how well are teachers prepared to deliver menstrual health education, and how can they better support students whose education may be impacted by menstrual pain?

Students miss school for a whole range of different reasons, such as illness, suspension, or family holidays. Today, we’ll be speaking with Kirsten Hancock, Honorary Research Associate from Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia about how different types of absences affect student outcomes, and what families and schools can do to tailor their support to students who are missing school.

Back in 2018, we brought you the story of a new intervention program for disengaged male students at Cherrybrook Technology High School in New South Wales. Nearly four years later, in today’s article, we hear how the program has evolved over the years and the impact it’s had on student learning and wellbeing.

The FlexiSpace initiative in Queensland is aimed at reconnecting disengaged students and supporting them to stay at school. Evaluations of the pilot and first phase of expansion provide early evidence of their effectiveness. Peter Kelly, Deputy Director-General at Queensland Department of Education, shares details of the approach, and the impact it’s having in participating schools.

Australia’s annual Closing the Gap Report communicates progress towards government targets for Indigenous Australians in areas like education, health and employment. In this infographic, we take a look at results detailed in the 2020 report related to education targets.

Mental disorders are a significant cause of absence, particularly in high school, a new examination of data from the Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing shows. Today’s infographic looks at some of the results across Years 1-12.

Issues with school attendance at South Coast Baptist College are followed up early and consistently by teachers at the West Australian school. This all forms part of their school-wide approach to wellbeing.