Merivale School

(07) 578 6900 25 Kesteven Ave, Tauranga, 3112



Attendance Management Plan


The Purpose of this plan is to set the schools expectations and process in responding and reducing student absences, in line with the Ministry of Education's Star Attendance Plan and the education and training act sections 137A-137D. 

Our focus is on supporting students and whānau to ensure consistent engagement in learning.

Regular attendance has been proven to be beneficial for students' wellbeing and supports achievement. Our school promotes attendance through strong relationships, clear communication and Support

Board responsibilities 

The board is responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the school’s students attend the school when it is open for instruction. The board will comply with the provisions in the legislation in relation to student attendance by: 

having a commitment to support students return to regular attendance 

having processes and procedures in place to support a Stepped Attendance Response to student absence that uses data-based thresholds to identify students 

recording all absences, and responding accordingly 

having an effective method in place for identifying and monitoring student absence, including identifying patterns and barriers to student attendance 

publishing this attendance management plan on the school’s website.  



Identification of absences. 

The electronic attendance roll is completed at 9.20 and 1.45 daily by your child’s teacher.

The office staff check the absentee messages on the phone and email and record these on electronic roll.

Unexplained absences are followed up by a text or phone call.

Patterns of absence are monitored by the D.P. When there is a concern Whanau will  be contacted to discuss. 

Patterns of irregular attendance are flagged weekly through the student management system.




School Support Strategies for Tamariki and Whanau.


Meeting with the Deputy Principal/ SENCo responsible for attendance.


Referral to the public health nurse if there is a medical issue.


Referral to Social Worker in Schools to support tamaiti with attendance


Engage with other external support providers where appropriate.


In collaboration with Whanau develop an Attendance Improvement plan (AIP) for tamariki in the serious concern category. 


D.P and whanau regularly discuss and review progress from AIP 


Develop individualised attendance programmes to improve attendance.. 


Blue house token for Tamariki who attend 5 days in a row.


Incentive of Tamariki’s name being displayed on the Deputy Principals window if they have attended 5 days in a row.


House points awarded to students who are at Monday Morning Hui.


Class trophy for the class that has the highest attendance. Present at Friday hui.


Magic Moments with the chronic attenders from Teacher assistants.


Extra curricular activities to encourage tamariki with concerning attendance. 



Further Support Actions If Non Attendance continues despite Intensive Support and no valid reasons are identified.

Continue to implement actions/initiatives as per AIP


Maintain clear and supportive communication with Whanau


Refer to ministry of Education-Taurnaga Moana Attendance Service via ENROL


School participate in multi-agency process


Unenrol students who will not be returning to school. 


Review and monitoring.


Reviewed termly by the board or in accordance with any updated regulations.


Attendance data is monitored daily


Regular communication by phone, letter to students in the irregular, concerning and very concerning behaviour categories. 


Leadership termly reviews AIP for individual students.


Record all conversations/actions on SMS


Each day, like all other schools in Aotearoa, the attendance data is automatically fed to the Ministry of Education who track our school attendance and students who are late.


Each term the principal receives an attendance report showing the percentage of students in the good, worrying, concerning and serious concerning categories. This report is shared with the Board of Trustees each term and put on our Web Page. 


The attendance information is on our website.


All Attendance policies and procedures for Merivale School can be found on 



Schooldocs


User name 1825




Further STAR information from the Ministry of Education 


Individual attendance plan information 


Blank STAR individual attendance template