LAURIMAR PRIMARY SCHOOL

International research demonstrates a strong correlation between students’ learning, long- term life outcomes, attendance at school and appropriate participation in education programs. For this reason, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has very clear policies and guidelines in relation to student attendance at school. These policies are the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, the Education and Training Reform Regulations 2007 and the Education and Training Reform (School Attendance) Regulations 2013. 

The Victorian Government’s ‘Everyday Counts´ initiative promotes the fact that regular school attendance enables students to maximise their full educational potential and to actively participate and engage in their learning. It is important that children develop habits of regular attendance at an early age. Students who are regularly absent from school are at risk of missing out on fundamental aspects of their educational and social development. Children with attendance of 80 per cent or less may be significantly disadvantaged in their learning. 

Children of compulsory school age (six years and up to the age of seventeen years) resident in Victoria are required to meet the National Youth Participation Requirement agreed by the Council of Australian Governments in July 2009. The agreed participation requirement includes a mandatory requirement for all young people to participate in schooling (meaning full time attendance at a government or registered nongovernment school or an approved equivalent such as registered home schooling or through the Victorian Distance Education Centre until they complete Year 10). For the purpose of this policy, the Laurimar Primary School Procedures for Attendance documentation must also be referred to.