Absenteeism


As parents may be aware, problems can arise if a student misses a lot of school.  Northam Senior High School is committed to improving individuals attendance and ultimately to their success.

Explaining absences can be done via letter, phone or text to 9621 0028 (dedicated absentee line available 24/7) or email to Northam.shs@education.wa.edu.au by 9.00am on the day of the absence.  Notes should be dated and specify the actual date(s) and reasons for each absence. 

Northam Senior High School participates in an SMS communication system where parents with a valid mobile phone number, will receive a text message after 10.30am daily to advise of student morning unexplained absence and then again after 4.30pm to advise of student unexplained absence during the day.

Students are expected to attend school on any day when the school is officially deemed to be open.  This means that parents are not to keep students at home when activities like carnivals, standardised testing or alternative learning programs are running.

Over the duration of the school year, Northam Senior High School will make contact via letter with parents where students have low level, unresolved or unexplained absences.  Unexplained absence reports are posted to the family mail recipient for explanation twice per term and need to be returned to the school as soon as possible.

Parents are encouraged to make contact with the school to discuss specific attendance concerns relating to their child at anytime during the school year.  The number of half day absences, whether explained or unexplained, will also be shown on student semester reports.

A computerised record is kept of each student’s attendance from information provided by the student’s Form Group teacher initially and then period by period from classroom teachers.  This computerised record of attendance is provided to the appropriate Government Departments daily for Police and every term for every term for recipients of Youth Allowance, Isolated Students Assistance of Abstudy.