Alwyn Poole
Alwyn Poole founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. MH Academy is now an in-person private school for Year 11–13. There is now a nationwide online provision called Mt Hobson Academy Connected for Years 1–13.
Labour delayed the release of the term-two attendance data until after the election. It came out [last week].
Some low-lights:
– Only 47 per cent of students came to school regularly in term two this year. An improvement on the same term last year, but one of the worst figures on record.
– 12.5 per cent of students were chronically absent in term two, meaning they had attended 70 per cent or less of their classes.
– The figures were a slump from term one this year when 59.5 per cent of pupils reached the regular attendance benchmark of attending more than 90 per cent of their classes.
– In term two this year, only a third of Maori and Pacific students attended school regularly, compared to half of Pakeha students and 59 per cent of Asian students.
– The Tai Tokerau region had the lowest percentage of students attending regularly (32.8%).
– Unjustified absences reached 6.1 per cent of class time, the highest term two figure on record.
The first thing the new minister can do towards this is make the submission of attendance by schools compulsory and require each school to publish their Wednesday to Wednesday every Friday on their website. Make [this] a local community problem to see school quality and parental involvement/responsibility increase.
Alwyn Poole
Innovative Education Consultants