Columnist, China Hill recently addressed this and gave this advice:
Prioritise your child’s attendance.
Children shouldn’t be kept home to babysit. When parents do this, they make attending school even more difficult, causing the child to complete multiple assignments upon their return and struggle to make sense of what is being taught.
Model presence and punctuality.
Your best teaching is done by example, so leaving for work five minutes late tells your child that being punctual is not important. This will affect their children’s success and future prospects.
Teach strategies that lead to punctuality.
A late bus, misplaced shoes, a crowded bathroom can hold people up, but appropriate strategies can be explicitly taught to your children. For example, preparing clothes the night before can save time when a bathroom is shared. Waking up half an hour early allows for extra time to find a lost shoe.
Teach children the appropriate tools to use in order to increase their chances for perfect attendance.
Allow natural consequences for absences and tardiness.
Take a no-excuses approach with your children when it comes to absences and punctuality. Give your children natural consequences that show them the results of lateness. Consequences prepare your children for the real world, where they really do miss out on learning, opportunities and even wages because they did not show up on time or at all.
Teach your child that good attendance is not something that just happens. It takes planning, preparation and persistence, but it pays off. Ensure that your child will reap the rewards by instilling punctuality.
Communicating with Teachers and the College
There have been a couple of instances recently where parents have used social media vehicles to contact a teacher to address a concern. This is not the appropriate way to deal with these matters. Please use the processes in place so that teachers are able to use their personal social media links comfortably, knowing that they will not suddenly encounter a work matter.
Please find our Procedure for Parent Communication with the College outlined here (PDF download).