The Education and Communities Branch of the NSW Government released information brochures for parents, students, teachers and principles in order for everyone to be made aware of the Public Schools NSW's scheme to get kids to school. The School Attendance Policy reformed in 2010 states that "Schools support parents by monitoring student attendance and helping to address attending issues when they emerge."
Lyndale Greens Public School have begun their own intiative in order to get their students to regularly attend classes, in order to combat the concern that "too many parents are keeping children home for trivial reasons like shopping expeditions, birthdays and appointments" (Hosking 2013). The principle of the school, Victoria Golding, has therefore introduced a way of getting her students to attend school, and a way of rewarding those who regularly attend. Golding has introduced 'attendance excursions,' which are only available to students who are absent for three or few days over the school term. The destinations have so far included a koala park near Phillip Island and tenpin bowling days. Students who have five or fewer days absent in the term are also put into a prize draw - so far a bike and a scooter have been given away to some of these lucky students.
Other schools have caught the rewards intiative bug, and have implemented it to adapt to their own goals. Ferntree Gully North Primary School have used the same plan, and have also added: "those who are absent and late for no more than four days a year are invited to a special principal's breakfast." The results speak for themslves - the school's principal Stuart Edwards claims that the average number of days that children were absent have fallen to just 10 days a year, compared to the average of 14 days from five years ago, as well as "Almost a third of students achieve 100 percent attendance each term" (Hosking 2013).
Victoria Golding, again from Lyndale Green Primary School, claims that "Often you would have families that might have one day off a week, that is what the pattern was, and we are breaking those cycles down." More importantly however, Golding claims that "It's about changing the cultural attitude to attendance" (Hosking 2013). Because we are examing the public school system within NSW, there is a higher prevalence of financial issues, drug abuse and Indigenous background within these students' families. It is because of these social pressures on students, that they may find it easier and 'cooler' to not attend school.
Apple (1996:5) claims that "a good education is only one that is directly tied to economic needs." What about materialistic gains? Does enticing these children into coming to school actually affect their educational standing, or their greediness? Golding asserts that this methodology affects her students in a postive way: " The kids see themslves as learners - they want to be here and they understand the importance of their learning. If they are here we can educate them and they get the consistency of their education" (Hosking 2013). And that's what school is all about - the conditioning and nurting of a young mind.
Reference list:
Apple, M. (1996). Cultural Politics in Education. New
York, America: Teachers College Press. Print.
NSW Government: Education and Communities, Public Schools NSW. Compulsory school attendance: information for nsw government school principles. 2010. Accessed online at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/student_admin/attendance/sch_polproc/PD20050259.shtml
I found this post extremely engaging in its topic, not only did it refer to a range of issues within school attendance, but it encouraged me to think about the issue through reflection on my own experiences. My school attendance pattern was high and consistent. My families motto for school attendance was if your not in hospital or severely contagious, you went to school. If you had a migraine, you took some Panadol. Throughout my primary school education, it seemed as if the majority of families in the small school community shared this perspective. When I went to high school, this changed drastically. It was easy to notice that some students would be away more than others, generally for trivial reasons that could be organised for other times such as doctor’s appointments. I vividly remember in year 8, one Thursday of the two week timetable cycle consisted of a 6 period day. The six periods were Language, Maths (recess), English, Maths (lunch), Geography, Maths. I’m sure you’d find it no surprise that the attendance rate for this class group dropped from 30 students to about 18 each time that Thursday rolled around. While the incentives scheme may encourage materialistic perspectives on education, I think anything that encourages parents to send their kids to school each day, will be beneficial to their learning and achievement outcomes, regardless of how it is enforced. In my school, this could have reduced the number of students that consistently missed three periods of maths each fortnight.
ReplyDeletePosted by Emily Mitchell
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post and it raised the same questions for me as it did for you. Is this initiative encouraging students to attend school for the wrong reasons? To me it indicates a failure on the part of our current pedagogical methods. If parents find a day off for their child more rewarding than a day at school, the system has failed to make education valuable in the eyes of the public. Material compensation for a lack of genuine interest in learning seems to me a glib solution to a serious problem. I'm also slightly confused by the reasoning behind rewarding attendance with excursions which are often perceived as an opportunity to disengage from school and learning.
Another issue that comes to mind is whether attendance equates to learning. It's possible that by being in a classroom a student will learn something, but from my own memories of school it was undoubtedly a personal choice on the part of the student. In your blog you mention that truancy is often the result of socio-economic pressures in the lives of the students at these schools. We all know that education is a pathway to improving ones socio-economic-status, so it is of course vital to try and keep these students maintaining good attendance, I'm just not sure if the opportunity to play tenpin bowling improves ones socio-economic status.
What also comes to mind is the plausibility of this kind of initiative in schools - some schools have the resources and support to provide incentives to students, and many don't. I believe fundamentally that if we fail to make school a supportive, interesting place, most especially for those with difficult home lives, our education system needs a thorough overhaul.