Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Catherine Law: Avonside Girls High Principal on the dropping number of holidays being taken during the school term

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Catherine Law: Avonside Girls High Principal on the dropping number of holidays being taken during the school term · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Morning. How about these travel numbers. Right, the government crackdowns
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: on cracksdown on school truancy, and it seems to be working.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Bookings dropped thirty percent during term time, while winter bookings
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: during the holiday season were up ten percent. So yes,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we're still going on holiday and more of us, but
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: just not the way we used it. This is new
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: data from flight Center comes after the introduction of the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: government's traffic light system back in April. Now, Catherine Law
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is the principle for Abanside Gills High and is with us. Catherine,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: very good.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Mike, how im well.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you? Did your school change anything specifically because of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: what the government said?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I think Look, what the government helped us to really
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: think about was to make a new focus onto attendance.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: So yes, we didn't we didn't change a lot of
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: the systems and things, but we certainly got stuck into
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the messaging around attendance.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And would you say, you know that it's changed at
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: your school. Have you noticed any sort of pattern change?
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, we got some patterns from trends from turn
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: one and we've noticed some significant pattern changes think upwards, definitely,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So our attendance overall is better and the holiday attendance
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: has gone down. Okay, we probably only have on our
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: data about two students a term that we'd go on holiday,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: but we're down to just one last term, and it's
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: trending downwards. So away from those higher numbers that came
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: after COVID, what I think people decided to go away.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Did people just go off and say, my child is sick,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: or did they come to you and go, look, we're
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: going to Europe. It's an extra week, it cost a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: lot of money, blah blah blah.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so parents that go away for a day or
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: two somewhere in New Zealand tend to just go. But
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: when they're going away overseas, they tend to come and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: ask permission or to email you to let you know.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised it's had such an effect, and I mean,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: it's good that it's had such an effect, but I'm
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: surprised that just took a government going tell you what
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we need to improve ourselves a little bit here and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: people did.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's about focus. You know, schools have
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a lot to focus on, and so lots of schools
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: have great it's a systems around attendance. But then you know,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: we're busy talking appearance about achievements, and then bang, we
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: start talking about attendance and parents start listening and changing
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: their mindset. It's like anything, really, isn't it. Yeah, I
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: guess about the focus that we put on.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you still have a Friday Monday thing or not? Really?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, we do a little bit, definitely slightly lower Monday
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and definitely slightly lower Friday.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And there's anything you can do about that or it
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: is what it is.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: No, we are we're picking up particularly Fridays because knowing
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: where our students are. Some of them are at courses
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: and things like that. But yeah, no, we're working really
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: hard with our systems to make sure we try and
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: find out where students are. So those question marks that
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: sit around on attendants are being erased.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: What about the sort I've been fascinated? What about the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: year thirteen thing? Year thirteen to me and having going
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: through it several times over, it's different. You know, sometimes
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you take time off to do a project or study
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: or a test or whatever, and therefore that will show
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: up in a lack of attendance. But is that the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: end of the world.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily No, And that's about knowing your students really
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: really well, You're absolutely right, Mike, have some year if
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: it means, but halfway through they're beginning to really look
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to the next chapter and get off to that, or
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: they might be going to an apprenticeship or doing trades
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: or you know, got their level three and ready to go.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: And I think our job is much more, as you say,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to support them to be going off to their next chapter,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: not necessarily hammering them about their attendance.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Well, I'm Catherine, nice to talk to you. Appreciate
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: it very much. Katherine Law, who's the principal of Openside
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Girls High School.
• 3:22
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• 3:26
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• 3:28
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