Education Department data reveals which year levels and areas have the worst school attendance
A high school principal has revealed why some parents in Melbourne’s southeast are allowing their kids to miss as much as a month of school. New data on absenteeism also reveals which year level is the worst.
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Some parents in Melbourne’s southeast are allowing their kids to miss as much as a month of school a year, one of the region’s principals says.
Year 9 students missed more school than any other year level across Melbourne’s southeast, new Victorian Education Department’s data reveals.
Mornington Peninsula year 9s missed an average of 26 days a year in 2017, while their neighbours in Frankston missed, on average, 25 days.
The Victorian average across all classes was 17 days.
Their Casey counterparts missed 22 days a year while teenagers in Greater Dandenong, Glen Eira and Bayside lost an average of 21 days and Kingston, 18 days.
Boroondara students were a little more reliable with year 9s only missing an average of 16 days a year.
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Frankston High School principal John Albiston said attendance was a a serious issued being faced by schools across Victoria.
“One common thing that seems to be happening across the board is parents taking students out of school to go on holidays to take advantage of things such as cheap airfares,” Mr Albiston said.
“Every precious minute of learning is critical for students.”
Mr Albiston said schools were working hard to increase attendance.
In Port Phillip it was year 8 students who were most likely to miss school and, heading into primary school territory, year 6s were the most absent across Stonnington.
Across the state year 9s were the worst culprits, taking off about 23 days a year, while indigenous children were almost twice as likely to miss school.
The figures represent state school absences outside school and public holidays but do not explain whether they were for truancy, sick days or school avoidance due to mental health issues.
Headspace senior clinical advisor Nick Duigan said students might want to avoid school due to anxiety, bullying and friendship problems or if they were struggling with class work.
In particular students aged 14, 15 and 16 were dealing with significant biological, psychological and social changes — from making career and subject choices to navigating friendship groups and intimate relationships — which could affect their mental health, he said.
Warning signs of “school refusal” could be a child being anxious on a Monday morning or at the start of a new term, sleep disturbance, feeling sick often or coming up with lots of different reasons not to attend classes.
Mr Duigan advised parents to talk with their children and try to identify the reasons they wanted to avoid school.
“Try to have the conversation when they are not worked up about it, so not on a Monday morning,” he said.
“The important thing for parents to know is that this can be resolved, particularly if you get on top of it early, and there is help out there.”
But Department of Education and Training spokeswoman Linh Salisbury said Victoria’s absence rates were among the lowest in Australia, thanks to a joint effort from schools, families and students.
Last year the department introduced new measures to improve school attendance rates, and the State Government invested in a number of programs to identify and address the issue, she said.
These included the Navigator initiative, which engaged at-risk teenagers, and LOOKOUT Education Support Centres, which provided support for students in out of home care to stay in school.
For information on headspace, visit headspace.org.au
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