Summary

Importance of this collection

For students to gain the numerous benefits of school, a high level of attendance is critical. Attending school helps set children up for life. Principals and their boards and staff help ensure that parents/caregivers and students all take student attendance seriously and that children go to school unless they are sick.

Ministry analysis shows there is no ‘safe’ level of non-attendance; every day matters. Every day at school has a cumulative impact on students’ learning. A child with an average of 90% attendance will miss the equivalent of one year of schooling in ten.

Attendance data submitted by schools is used to monitor attendance patterns and to inform research and interventions aimed at improving attendance. For instance, improving understanding of the drivers and patterns of attendance and feeding this to regional offices for supporting schools with attendance.

Context for this collection

Nationally, even prior to Covid disruptions, between 2015 and 2019 there were substantial declines in the number of students going to school ‘regularly’ (90%+ of half-days in the term). This trend was similar just about everywhere: all regions, all deciles, all school types and all year levels show declines. Other Ministry data sources also showed a rise in the number of students who report ‘skipping’ school.

Because of these worrying trends and the importance of attendance, in 2020 the Ministry’s Term 2 attendance survey changed to a term-by-term collection of school attendance data, known as the Attendance Data Collection (Every Day Matters).

More information about this collection’s purpose and measures can be found here: Attendance | Education Counts.

The data collected are reported at an aggregated level here: Attendance Statistics | Education Counts.

Every Day Matters reports

Schools that submit attendance data receive a summary report of their data for the term, entitled Every Day Matters, to support discussions and opportunities to improve attendance.

After the collection has closed and the national and regional statistics have been publicly released, schools also receive an Every Day Matters supplemental report, which compares their data for the term to national, regional and similar-school statistics.

These reports support schools leaders and board discussions around improving attendance by identifying target groups to help establish interventions or measuring the impact of implemented attendance initiatives, and providing valuable comparisons for context or benchmarking.

How to send the data

Most of the approved Student Management Systems (SMS) above have ‘DEX’ functionality, which mean you can send the Ministry your attendance data directly and securely from your SMS. Please contact your SMS vendor if you require any further assistance on how to do this.

Alternatively, term attendance files can be submitted via the Ministry’s Secure Data Portal – just ensure that you select ‘Attendance Survey’ when choosing the file type.