Eligibility Criteria
Attendance Standard
Purpose
This document outlines the attendance expectations for all students at the College and specifies the requirements for students to maintain satisfactory attendance as set out in the Eligibility Criteria for Extra-Curricular Activities.
Background
Attendance and active participation in classroom activities is critical to the learning and success of students. The College will monitor students for their attendance and participation during each term in order to provide support, for example to identify those who may be at risk of not meeting satisfactory progression as a result of low attendance levels.
Additionally, students who do not maintain satisfactory attendance will be contacted in order to improve their attendance or will receive targeted intervention as per Toowoomba Catholic Schools policies and procedures.
Attendance Expectations and Monitoring
School is considered your child’s full time job. It is a legal requirement for children who are of compulsory school age to attend school every school day unless there is an acceptable reason, such as family emergencies and poor health.
Teaching staff are responsible for recording student attendance in every class using the College’s management system, Sentral. If a student is late or leaves early, the teacher will only record the time the student is present. Students and families can view the attendance record through the Student Portal and Parent Portal.
The College expects students to attend 100% of the school days offered annually. However, we understand that at times students experience circumstances that impact their ability to attend class, such as family emergencies and poor health. Below are the College’s attendance categories for monitoring purposes:
Legal responsibilities about attendance
Children who are of compulsory school age are legally required to attend school every school day unless there is an acceptable reason, such as family emergencies and poor health. A child continues to be of compulsory schools age until they have completed Year 10 or turned 16, whichever comes first.
After the compulsory school age ends, the compulsory participation phase begins. At school, a young person’s compulsory participation phase continues from the end of the compulsory school age, until they graduate from the College or cease enrolment to enter a traineeship, apprenticeship, or the workforce.
Explaining Absences
Parents/carers are required to inform the College of the reason for the absence as soon as possible, either before or on the day of absence. Where possible, parents/carers are asked to arrange necessary medical and dental appointments out of school time.
When is it not okay to miss school?
It is also not okay for students to miss school to sleep in, finish assignments, to attend a part-time job, or to shop. It is a legal requirement to attend school everyday. While family holidays in term-time may be convenient, these are not considered emergencies and will have a negative impact on a student’s attendance.
Parent/Carers Responsibilities
- ensure your child goes to school on time, every day
- provide a satisfactory reason for any absence, lateness, or early departures
- work with the College if any attendance problems arise
Student Responsibilities
- attend classes on time every day, and be ready to learn
- never leave the College without permission
- report to the office if late or leaving early
College Responsibilities
- let parents/carers know about any unexplained absences
- ask parents/carers to provide reasons for unexplained absences
- support students and families if there are trends of at risk or unsatisfactory attendance
Who can help?
Support is here for you. If you need to discuss attendance issues please contact your child’s Assistant Principal, the College Guidance Counsellor, or the Student Wellbeing Officer to arrange a meeting.
Industry Equivalent: A Real-Life Comparison
The yearly entitlement is based on an employee’s ordinary hours of work and is 10 days for full-time employees. The 10 days of sick leave comparison, when calculated off a standard 48 week work year, is 95.8% attendance. Our target of 93% is therefore reasonable and aligns to the expectations students will have when entering the workforce.
The minimum standard of 85% attendance still allows for over 25 days of full absence (or over 5 full school weeks) due to illness and family reasons in a single school year. This is very generous, considering the equivalent industry standard for the same period of the school year is 8 days.
The Impact of Unsatisfactory Attendance
Unsatisfactory attendance has profound and far-reaching consequences for students. This extends well beyond missed school days. It can hinder the development of critical skills, reduce academic success, reduce a student’s social capital among their peers, and create lasting challenges through a student’s life.
While there are more obvious links to unsatisfactory attendance negatively impacting student achievement outcomes, being absent from school also harms social-emotion skill development, especially those related to self awareness, self regulation, and self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to complete a task or achieve a goal. It encompasses their confidence in themselves to control their behaviour, exert influence over their environment, and to stay motivated in the pursuit of their goals.
Developing a strong sense of self-efficacy can play an important role in very aspect of a student’s life. As life within school and beyond is full of challenges, a high level of self-efficacy can better help a student deal more effectively with any challenges they may encounter.
Attendance Monitoring & Warnings
When a student’s attendance has dropped below 85% at the time of data gathering, the College will issue a formal letter to the family outlining the attendance concern. The early phases of the Managing student absence procedure invites parents/carers to attend a meeting to discuss and jointly problem solve solutions.
Gathering information and completing a Student Attendance Profile are strategies to plan for attendance improvement. The student’s attendance will be closely monitored to ensure a swift return to satisfactory attendance goals.
Due to the significance of attendance and active participation in relation to student success, if a student does not maintain a satisfactory level of attendance they are at risk of being ineligible to represent the College in extra-curricular activities until they have worked towards sufficiently achieving the established attendance goals through the Managing Student Attendance procedures.
In addition, the ongoing inability or refusal to attend over 85% of school days will ultimately result in the cancellation of a student’s enrolment.
Extra-Curricular Activities
The College strives to grow great people by building and enhancing each student’s overall development by creating a cooperative environment which values self-discipline and commitment. We believe that through participation in a range of activities from any of the College’s domains - Living Your Faith (LYF), Sport, Arts, Academia - students will develop a better understanding of themselves, their peers, and the community wholistically.
We cherish commitment and a dedication to fair play, ethical behaviour, integrity and general good will towards others, especially our opponents. As such, our Eligibility Criteria for Extra-Curricular Activities will be equally applied to every College domain.
Members of our College give freely and generously of their time to prepare students for all extra-curricular activities. The College expects similar generosity and loyalty of its students in return. We understand that external influences can be contributing factors to student participation in extra-curricular activities, and there will be periods of time where students may be prevented from participating, for instance, due to poor health or injury. However, representation in College teams/activities should take priority over involvement in external activities where possible.
Priority of Activities
1) Core Purpose of Education
Extra-curricular activities are recognised as important to the overall growth of the student but must never take precedence over academic development. Engagement, achievement, and a positive disposition as representatives of the College will always be a mandatory expectation.
2) College Extra-Curricular Opportunities
The College supports various opportunities to engage in activities outside the regular scope of the curriculum. Student participation is expected in all carnivals that occur during school time. Furthermore, if a student signs up for an extra-curricular activity, they are expected to engage in every part of the activity, including every instance of rehearsal / training / performance / game / carnival.
3) External Options
Student participation in external clubs, organisations, and competitions are the decision of the student and their family, however, prioritisation of external commitments over College commitments must not impact satisfactory attendance at school or commitment to College activities. Multiple instances of this will result in the student being removed from the College activity.
Eligibility Criteria for Extra-Curricular Activities
Our College sets high standards and expectations. The Eligibility Criteria is implemented in relation to student involvement in extra-curricular activities. This ensures that students who wish to participate in these activities are both ambassadors for themselves and the College by consistently meeting our standards.
There are three keys areas that students must maintain a satisfactory standard in order to be considered eligible to participate in any extra-curricular activity, for any of the College’s domains.
When students are ineligible they will be unable to participate in any aspect of extra-curricular activities. This includes but is not limited to:
o No involvement in the activity (e.g. running water/backstage)
o No travelling with the team/squad
o No participation in training or rehearsals
Each of the criteria are outlined in the sections that follow:
1) Attendance - Assistant Principal
It is expected for continuity of learning that all students have attendance of at least 93%. Students with an attendance under 85% will require targeted intervention to resolve this issue and as such will also not be permitted to attend, trial, train, rehearse or participate in extra-curricular activities.
When selecting teams/casts/squads, the selectors, coaches, and managers will prioritise students in the Ideal and Satisfactory categories before they consider selecting the students in the At risk category. Students in the At Risk category in any area, will require Principal approval to be eligible. If a student is in the Unsatisfactory category in any area, they are automatically ineligible.
The College will conduct attendance checks in Week 1 and Week 6 of every term. Attendance rates for this criteria will be calculated on the combined attendance data from the student’s last three terms. Should a student be flagged as ineligible at one of the attendance checks, they will be classified as ineligible for any extra-curricular activity in that five week bracket and will have the 25 school days between attendance checks to meet the standard.
Should any student be missing regular school days through representative commitments external to the College, parents/carers can apply for Special Consideration via the process in the Appendix.
Should students be absent for extended periods of time (more than 10 consecutive school days), families should seek an exemption from schooling through the Application for Exemption Form - Part A. This document must be completed and submitted to the student’s Assistant Principal for consideration. It is likely that a conversation will be necessary.
Absences due to a medical emergency, such as long-term hospitalisation and recovery, will also be considered on an individual basis.
2) Account Balance - Business Manager
The timely payment of College fees is of high importance to facilitate the ongoing delivery of high-quality education to our students. Our expectation of families at the College are:
- Fees, levies, and accrued expenses are paid in full by the due date of each invoice.
- If families are unable to meet this, a payment arrangement is made with the Business Manager for regular Direct Debits to the College so that all fees are paid over an agreed period of time, or;
- In cases of financial hardship, parents/carers contact the office to arrange a confidential meeting with the Business Manager to discuss their circumstances. We are here to help.
To be considered for all extra-curricular experiences, it is a requirement that the balance of the family account be under $800.00 at the time of the activity, including the cost of the activity, and have an approved payment plan in place with a consistent payment history.
NB: Please note, when payment is made to the College, it is applied against the oldest outstanding debt first.
From 2025, College fees will include the one major year level camp as a core component of the curriculum. This means that year level camp expenses will be distributed across four terms so families can budget more easily for the expected engagement.
3) Behaviour - Assistant Principal
Student behaviour records will be examined prior to students being selected to represent the College in extra-curricular events. Students who do not meet the College’s expectations regarding behavioural choices may be ineligible for inclusion in these events.
If a student has been suspended, there are additional requirements that apply upon their re-entry. Their return to an eligible status is dependent upon completely satisfying the terms of this re-entry process and the support plan established at the time of re-entry. Approval by Assistant Principal, Deputy Principal or the Principal after meeting all behaviour improvement requirements is required before the student is considered eligible.
In Summary
Our primary purpose is to grow great people. The foundation to this is providing a high quality education. For those who engage in the high quality education provided, we provide an abundance of opportunities for further enhancement. The standards outlined in this document are achieveable by each and every student and are not exclusive by nature. We value those who strive to achieve the Ideal category in every area. In fact, the majority of our students already do.
Special Consideration Procedure
The College has developed a process for any student and their family in the event they wish to discuss the possibility of an exemption from a school activity, including attendance, to fulfil higher honours external to the College and it’s extra-curricular offerings. This process could support families by limiting the impact of small scale and partial absences on the student’s Eligibility Criteria. These absences must be directly associated with the external activity, which includes travel when events are outside of the Dalby area.
Please note, exemptions will not be granted without an application process being completed in full and they will not be applied retroactively. This includes Part A and Part B of the process, along with an agreement or commitment from the student and their family to uphold the conditions of the exemption agreement. Failure to uphold the terms and conditions of the agreement will nullify the agreement.
Application for Special Consideration Process
Please note:
- The Principal may approve an application for a student to compete in an external competition only if it is deemed that this participation does not disadvantage the College or any of its teams in their own competitions.
- If the Principal declines to approve an application, information outlining the decision will be provided for the family.
- Retroactive applications will not be processed.
- All applications must be submitted prior to events/competitions taking place and supporting documentation supplied by the family as part of the application.