Attendance
When to keep your child home
Sickness or emergency
School behaviour
Unacceptable behaviour and discipline
Bullying

Attendance

Your child must attend every day while school is in session.

The exceptions to this are if your child:

• is excused from daily attendance because they are sick or because there is another acceptable reason why they cannot attend;
• is exempt from enrolment;
• has been suspended or excluded; or
• has a certificate of part-time attendance.

If your child is going to be away from school for a short time (for example illness), notify the school office as soon as possible to let them know that your child will be away from school and the reason for the absence. If your child is absent from school for three or more days because of illness, you may be requested by the principal to give the school a medical certificate.

If your child is going to be away for an extended period of time (more than a few days), contact your child’s teacher to work out a learning program so that your child doesn’t fall behind.

If your child is not at school and an acceptable reason has not been provided,

the absence will be recorded as ‘unexplained’ or ‘unauthorised’ and you will be contacted by your school. If your child is frequently absent from school, your school will work with you to find ways of helping your child continue or resume their education.

You have a legal obligation to ensure that your child attends school each day as required and you can be prosecuted for unexplained prolonged absence of your child from school.

If your child has been suspended or excluded from school due to unacceptable behaviour, you have a responsibility to provide appropriate supervision during the period of suspension or exclusion.

If you have any questions about attendance, contact your school.

When to keep your child home

Your child may be excused from attending school if they are sick or have a temporary medical condition that prevents them attending, or for any other reasonable reason approved by the principal such as bereavement.

You may be asked to keep your child home from school if they have an infestation such as head lice, or suffer from an illness that is infectious, contagious or harmful to the health of others at the school.

If there is an outbreak of vaccine preventable diseases such as Rubella, Measles or Mumps in the community and your child has not been vaccinated against it, they will not be allowed to attend school until the outbreak is over. This is to help prevent the disease from spreading.

For information on the types of illness and the period of non-attendance required, contact your school. You should tell the school if your child has one of the listed diseases so that the absence can be properly recorded and the health of other children monitored.

Sickness or emergency

If your child becomes ill or is injured at school, your school will contact you and seek the necessary medical attention. In the event of an emergency, your child will be moved to a safe place for appropriate care or treatment without prior permission. This may be by ambulance or other form of transportation.

It is therefore very important for you to keep the school updated about any medical conditions or allergies that your child may have, and that you keep contact numbers for you and your doctor up to date.

Schools keep records of accidents and follow guidelines for dealing with them and for removing any dangers.

School behaviour

Your child’s school will have a behaviour support plan. This is to create a positive environment so that teachers and students can work together.

The rights and responsibilities of each person are recognised and respected. A set of rules protects these rights and there are consequences for those who do not accept their responsibilities. As part of the behaviour support plan, your child’s school will have established processes so that conflict can be resolved in a positive, non-violent way.

Students have rights to:

• learn in a purposeful and supportive environment
• work and play in a safe, secure, friendly and clean environment
• be respected and treated courteously.

At the same time, they have responsibilities to:

• ensure their behaviour is not disruptive to the learning of others
• ensure that the school environment is kept neat, tidy and secure
• ensure that they are on time and prepared for work
• behave in a way that protects the safety and wellbeing of others
• treat others in a respectful and courteous way.

Unacceptable behaviour and discipline

Each school has a disciplinary policy that outlines unacceptable behaviour and disciplinary measures that the school can use.

Unacceptable behaviour by students includes:

• refusing to participate in the education program
• refusing to follow instructions about conduct
• behaviour that disrupts or affects the learning of other students
• actions likely to be detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of staff or other students
• behaviour that causes or is likely to cause damage
• Behaviour that is likely to bring the school into disrepute.

Students who behave in an unacceptable way may receive a detention, be removed from regular classes, be suspended, excluded or expelled from a school, depending on the level and frequency of the behaviour. In the worst case, a student may be prohibited from attending any government school.

Detention- when a student is detained at school during recess, lunch time or after school, or excluded from regular classes.

Suspension- a temporary part-time or full-time withdrawal of a student’s right to attend school for up to 10 school days.

Exclusion- a temporary part-time or full-time withdrawal of a student’s right to attend school for a period of more than 10 school days.

Expulsion- the withdrawal of a student’s right to continue attendance at their present school, with enrolment at another school being arranged.

Prohibition- the full-time permanent withdrawal of a student’s right to attend any government school.

You can discuss decisions of exclusion, expulsion and prohibition if you think they have been made unfairly. You should first talk to your school principal and if matters cannot be resolved, contact the General Manager of the Learning Service in your area.

Bullying

In spite of the best efforts of schools, bullying sometimes occurs.

Bullying is deliberately hurting, threatening or frightening someone repeatedly or over time. This can involve teasing, name-calling, preventing others from going where they want to go or from doing what they want to do, or physically hurting someone.

It can be done directly, through other people, or by using technology such as email, text messaging or social media such as Face Book, My Space and internet chat online.

If you believe that your child is being bullied:

• Encourage your child to talk about what is happening.
• Write down when, where and with whom problems seem to be happening.
• Make an appointment to see your child’s teacher or the school principal to discuss the matter.
• Ask about the school’s policies on bullying and acceptable behaviour.

Keep in contact with the school until you are happy that the problem has been sorted out

Bullying is an issue that schools take extremely seriously. All Tasmanian Government schools have clearly established procedures to deal with bullying.