Contract with parents regarding attendance results in win-win situation

NOT so long ago, Cairns West State School was dogged by seemingly insurmountable problems.

Adeline Uwingabhire

NOT so long ago, Cairns West State School was dogged by seemingly insurmountable problems.

Many of the kids weren't turning up for class, academic results were poor and 70 children were being suspended for bad behaviour each semester. There were serious fights, as well as playground scraps, and teacher morale was low.

Now it's a different story at the primary school, which caters mostly for indigenous students in the city's inner suburbs.

Credit is being given to a ground-breaking attendance program as one of the catalysts for the transformation.

The Academic Success Guarantee was introduced at Cairns West in 2009 and involves a signed contract between eligible parents and the school.

The parents promise to send their children to school at least 95 per cent of the time and the school guarantees the children will meet or beat their year-level minimum academic benchmarks.

Students who struggle are given extra learning support until they make the grade.

Since the program was introduced, attendance has risen from 82 per cent to 87 per cent and 57 per cent of children are meeting their academic benchmarks, compared with 32 per cent in 2008. Instead of 70 suspensions a semester, only 56 students received the punishment in the whole of last year.

Principal Michael Hansen said behaviour had improved markedly since the introduction of the contract with parents. "We haven't had a serious fight in the school for quite a number of years."

The principal, a veteran of remote schools on Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria, said ASGs meant parents had a closer relationship with the school and that made the children less likely to play up.

The improved academic results also led to better behaviour. "If kids are being successful at school, their behaviour changes," Mr Hansen said.

"A lot of kids get up to mischief to mask the fact they're having trouble (with the work)."

He recalls a Year 4 child who was regularly called to his office and suspended for misbehaving. "We convinced mum and dad he needed to come to school all the time, he got one-on-one attention . . . joined our mentoring program . . . and we never saw him in the office except for positive things."

He said many of his students came from disadvantaged backgrounds, but that was left at the school gate.

Of the school's 650 students, 450 are indigenous. Of those, 375 identify as Torres Strait Islander -- the largest islander population in a primary school outside of the Torres Strait and the tip of Cape York.

Only three families at the school have a mortgage. The rest were renting, in public housing, or living rough, Mr Hansen said.

"The Academic Success Guarantee really is the talk of the town." he said.