The government鈥檚 Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) is the support programme that the Ministry of Education is rolling out to help clarify why attendance is so important and what we can do to maximise educational opportunities by having more children with 鈥渞egular attendance鈥� at school.
The Education Review Office (ERO) reports a direct relationship between attendance and school achievement, stating that regular attendance leads to higher academic achievement and that even minor absences can impact learning and long-term outcomes.
The Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) is to help the educational community in New Zealand to set clear expectations and have a regulated, formalised and graduated approach when attendance starts to slip. When students reach certain “absence thresholds” that would take them below the 90% for “regular attendance”, the government has set up a guide to the responses that schools will take. These responses are designed to bring students and their families back into school. We will send formal emails to inform you if absences grow, and we will use resources and systems inside the school to remove barriers to attendance for your child. We may also need to use outside agencies to help you get your child back to regular school attendance.