Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Leanne Otene: Principals' Federation President on 1 in 4 schools at risk of failing to achieve government attendance target

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Leanne Otene: Principals' Federation President on 1 in 4 schools at risk of failing to achieve government attendance target · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: One in four of our schools need more help getting
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: kids to attend class. Data from the Ministry of Educations
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  Speaker 1: identified about six hundred schools struggling to get eighty percent
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  Speaker 1: of students attending more than ninety percent of the time,
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  Speaker 1: which is the government target they want to hit by
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  Speaker 1: twenty thirty. Leanne or Tenny is the Principals Federation president,
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  Speaker 1: joins me. Now, Leanne, good morning, Mordena. You say this
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  Speaker 1: is not about something the schools can control. This is
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  Speaker 1: about other stuff. What other stuff?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, let's just start with the fact that we'd
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  Speaker 2: like to see every single child attend school every day.
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  Speaker 2: Principals absolutely agree that we need to focus on attendance,
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  Speaker 2: but understanding the trends and why children away from school
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  Speaker 2: is something that we just need to really look at closely.
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  Speaker 2: There's two types of non attendants. So you've got you
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  Speaker 2: justified and you're unjustified. And unfortunately the data that you're
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  Speaker 2: you're you know, you've just quoted includes both. So you've
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  Speaker 2: got you justified. Where kids are away from school for
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  Speaker 2: family reasons, death in the family, the children are sick,
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  Speaker 2: and let's be honest, this winter has not been helpful
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  Speaker 2: and we've had a lot of kids away with sickness.
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  Speaker 2: We've got mental health up as well. Those are justified reasons.
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  Speaker 2: Unjustified that's a much smaller group of students and that
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  Speaker 2: includes turureancy which is very low. And then you've got trensience,
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  Speaker 2: which is what you're just alerting to the things that
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  Speaker 2: schools can't really control on their own. There as are
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  Speaker 2: kids shifting around the country for social housing rentals, you know,
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  Speaker 2: moving to live with family. And then you've got five
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  Speaker 2: percent of unemployment, so you've got families juggling to find
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  Speaker 2: a job, so they're moving a lot to find work.
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  Speaker 2: So although the data is showing that we've got high
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  Speaker 2: and non attendance, there are reasons for it and we
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  Speaker 2: need to look deeper into the data otherwise where it's
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  Speaker 2: a distortion of the reality.
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  Speaker 1: So we got like what forty two percent of students
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  Speaker 1: not attending regularly and do you know what proportioned justified
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  Speaker 1: versus and unjustified.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is what the data is that is coming
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  Speaker 2: out from you know on this, you know seamore, a
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  Speaker 2: Minister Seymour is saying, you know, we're looking at it
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  Speaker 2: on a weekly basis at a school every school. We'll
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  Speaker 2: be looking at that data and we'll be determining which
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  Speaker 2: is justified, which is unjustified, and they'll be working with
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  Speaker 2: those families where the first of all the justified reasons
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  Speaker 2: kids are sick. So you know we've now got health
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  Speaker 2: guidelines out, so ont of me staying to parents, you know,
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  Speaker 2: as a as a child well enough to come to school,
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  Speaker 2: I think that.
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  Speaker 1: Man, what about do you tell are you a principal
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  Speaker 1: of a school?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I am.
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  Speaker 1: What what's in yours? What's the percenter's breakdown in your school?
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  Speaker 1: Justified unjustified?
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  Speaker 2: It changes on a weekly basis. I can't tell you
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  Speaker 2: overall average and tree. Yes, we are looking at trends
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  Speaker 2: yet what the tree is telling you? So we're looking
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  Speaker 2: at around about sixty five to seventy percent. I'm in
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  Speaker 2: a load decil school. We've got children.
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  Speaker 1: Who justified or unjustified sixty five to seventy.
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  Speaker 2: Five, there would be both that would be including both.
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  Speaker 2: As we're looking at the unjustified reasons, you know the
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  Speaker 2: children that are are way because you're scoring out, we're
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  Speaker 2: probably looking about six percent. We're looking at six percent
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  Speaker 2: of unjustified. That's really small and I would say that's
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  Speaker 2: the same across the country of unjustified to say that
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  Speaker 2: parents are keeping children home because they just are too lazy,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the quote of sane. It's just not fear.
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  Speaker 2: That is not the reality. There's are so many other
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  Speaker 2: reasons and lee in.
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  Speaker 1: The twenty to thirty So you've got like what twenty
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  Speaker 1: to thirty percent of kids who are not attending school
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  Speaker 1: for justified reasons. That seems like quite a lot to
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  Speaker 1: be sick, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, there's been lots of reporting on
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  Speaker 2: illness this winter. We've had schools have had clothes because
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  Speaker 2: they had staff who are sick, and you know, they're
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  Speaker 2: sharing the bags. And this is the biggest concern we've
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  Speaker 2: had around these health guidelines. Parents are sending their kids
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  Speaker 2: to school sick or otherwise trying really desperately to meet
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  Speaker 2: the demands of the school. Send your kids to school,
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  Speaker 2: and as a result, we're sharing the bugs. Kids, Whole
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  Speaker 2: classrooms are going down with winter bugs. We've had schools
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  Speaker 2: who've reported that, you know, they've got a very high
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  Speaker 2: number of staff away.
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  Speaker 1: So thanks a lot of sick kids, Leanne, appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: This morning.
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  Speaker 1: Leanne attended the Principals Federation President. For more from Early
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