Attendance and Absences

It is compulsory for students to attend all of their timetabled classes unless they have a reasonable cause for absence.

Under the Education Act, it is not sufficient for a parent to give permission for their child to stay home unless there is a reasonable cause e.g sickness, medical appointment. Unreasonable reasons include driving lessons, staying home to revise for tests etc.

Parent permission must be provided for any absences. Early departures must be explained with a phone call or email from a parent/guardian on the day. Due to the flexible timetable at the College, there will be periods where a number of students may not be timetabled to attend a class. This will include a number of Workplace Learning students who may have up to 3 hours during the week without a class as they will have completed their commitments on Wednesdays.

Students may leave the College grounds when they are not timetabled for a class, as well as during lunch and recess. If students leave the College grounds during these times, they are no longer under the reasonable control and supervision of the College. The College is therefore unable to accept responsibility for injuries that befall students, or for any misconduct on the part of the students, while they are away from the College grounds during these times. Students may use the library and Café facilities during non-contact periods. Students will not be given permission to leave the College early to catch buses home.

Attendance Information For Families

How to Report an Absence

Parents are asked to notify the College when their child has been / or will be absent from the College. We have a full time Attendance Officer, Ms Andrea Talbot who records all advised absences.  Text messages are sent home twice a day (10.00am and 5.00pm) if your child is not at the College.  To avoid receiving a text message, please advise the absence before 9.30am.  

Reporting an absentee to the College can be done in three ways:

Students who need to leave the College early:

  • Parent/caregiver permission is required – please use the above methods to communicate the time and reason for leaving early.
  • The student must go to Student Services to sign out and will not be released without parent/caregiver permission.
  • If a student leaves the College without parent/caregiver permission or without signing out in Student Services, they will be marked absent and an SMS message will be sent home.

Students arriving late to the College:

College commences at 8:25am. If students arrive to College after 8.30am they are to sign in at Student Services and parents should contact the Attendance Officer via the above methods to advise why the student was late.