All in for Learning
An update on the Attendance and Engagement Strategy and the launch of the nationwide campaign to get more kids attending school regularly.
Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti will today join students, teachers, parents and principals to help launch a nationwide school attendance campaign - Every School Day is a Big Day.
The campaign was filmed on 5 August, simultaneously in nine schools across New Zealand, capturing a typical school day experienced by our tamariki across the country.
The message? Parents can forget how big each school day can be for their children. How every day is filled with learning moments, fun moments, sporting moments, cultural moments, connection moments and all those in between little moments that make school too big to miss.
Launched in June this year, the Attendance and Engagement Strategy – now called All in for Learning, Kia kotahi te ū ki te ako - is a nation-wide response to help our ākonga go to school more regularly, participate and make progress.
Led by Te Mahau with support from Te Tāhuhu, it sets clear expectations for everyone - parents, whānau and communities, schools and kura, in essence all of us - to help our tamariki and ākonga attend and engage in their learning.
The national campaign forms just one part of a wider All in for Learning strategy which is a multi-year kaupapa.
"This Government has laser sharp vision on the issue of improving attendance at school and that is why we are taking action," Jan Tinetti said.
School attendance is a long term challenge, gradually declining across-the-board since 2015. That trend has been further accelerated by COVID-19. Only around three in five kids attend regularly – or just 60 percent. And even more of a concern was that only five per cent of kiwis considered attendance a top-of-mind issue.
"I launched the Attendance and Engagement Strategy in June which set some pretty tough targets. I want to see the number of kids attending school regularly increased from 59.7 per cent in 2021 to 70 per cent in 2024 and 75 per cent in 2026,” said Tinetti.
"The campaign supports practical measures to encourage attendance already underway by schools around the country.
"There are no quick fixes to attendance especially where there is chronic non-attendance. There can be many barriers but we are working with schools to help turn our school attendance rates around.
"Going to school regularly is our how our kids learn. It means they are better able to pass exams and get qualifications - that’s obviously important. But being at school also helps children and young people develop in other important ways. It strengthens their social, cultural and mental wellbeing. Attending school means that these young people will grow up having more choices.
"Together, parents, teachers, students and communities can make a difference. Together we can lower the number of students who are moderately absent and those who are chronically absent from 8.5 per cent in 2021 to 6 per cent in 2024 and from 7.7 per cent in 2021 to five per cent in 2024, respectively.
Find out more about All in for Learning(external link)
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