Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on school attendance falling short of Ministry of Education benchmarks

School attendance is consistently falling short of Ministry of Education benchmarks. 

Attendance hasn't surpassed 85% since May 15th, meanwhile Friday attendance hasn't exceeded 83% all year.  

Only 15% of students last year reached the benchmark of being in class more than 90% of the time.  

Canterbury's Darfield High School Principal Andy England told Mike Hosking that trade academies operating on a Friday have nearly 100% attendance.  

He says the trades academies are clear you have to be there to pass the course, so that's an example of where black and white rules can really help. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got new stats on our school attendance and May
it was eighty two to eighty four percent for most days,
down from a high of eighty nine percent at the
start of the term in April. Meantime, a briefing paper
to David Seymour, who's the Associate Education Minister, says only
fifteen percent of students are meeting the government's benchmark. So
what are we makable of this? Darfield High School Principal
Andy England is with us on this. Andy, very good
morning to you, Cure and Mike. We stand a very

(00:22):
good chance of being run over by too many stats,
don't we. I mean, what do we read into this?
Is it eighty nine? Is at eighty four? Is a
too is at fifteen? What's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, look, there are so many stats out there. It's
on the level. I'll just give you some from Darfield
High School. We were from last term we were ninety
one percent Tuesday to Thursday, eighty nine percent of the
Monday and eighty seven percent on a Friday.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
See and then that is the cold hard reality of life.
If people can't be bothered turning up on a Friday
at work, why would you expect your kids to turn
up on a Friday at school.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, holl you, Yeah, I think there's a little bit
more to it than that. Actually, we're trying to dig
into it. So just on a survey, and here's another
stat forty seven percent of correspondence said that education is important.
But I am also I also value life skills with
a family.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Of course you do.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
So we've got a few people, I think probably take
the kids out for a long weekend hunt or a
ski something else on a Friday, although to be fair,
they weren't skiing in turn one, were they. It's interesting
that trades academies that also operate on a Friday have
nearly one hundred percent attendance. Oh, I think we have
to dig behind.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
The steps exactly. Do you think any of it's achievable
in the sense that I wonder if they're a bit
bogged down with statistics and in reality, if you once
you take out illness genuine illness, do you know, for example,
whether illness is genuine or not, or you just accept
the kids not there for a couple of days and
they said they're ill.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It is the letter. Yeah, we can't really test anymore.
It's only a way for a long period of time,
you might ask, But the reality is we have so
many it's like a rotating doors, so many people coming
and going, and I think thickness. Yeah, we can't ask
people for evidence exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So how much pressure do you place on them around
Friday or a Monday.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, the way the Trades Academy is, it's very clear
you have to be there to pass the court. So
I think that's a great example where some of those
black and white rules can really help. There's one hundred
percent expectation of attendance on a Monday as well. The
sickness thing is interesting, isn't it, Because are you sick
on a Monday? Why would we have more people sick
on a Monday than a Tuesday, for example. So that's
why I say, I think we've got to understand it more.

(02:24):
I think the clarity of the rules will help. It's
a base level. But I also think that we've sort
of got a look at our model of education because
ever since COVID parents have been a lot more picky
consumers than in every aspect of life, and school is
still a sort of factory model that we've always had.
So I'm hearing more parents saying, well, we want to
homeschool one day or two days a week, and at

(02:45):
the moment the models are not really there for that
sort of learning, but in some ways it can be
quite helpful. It's not as easy for teachers, but it's
actually not a bad model for those families who are
motivated and do it their way.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Very good insight, Andy, well done, appreciated very much, Andy England,
who's the Darnfield High School principal and not the cat
of history. And that's before you get to the year
thirteen business. And you know, when you get to year thirteen,
you get a lot of kids who are sort of
by July August, they've got their credits and they sort
of don't need to be there anymore, and that will
affect the overall stats. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,

(03:17):
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