Dear Parents and Caregivers
You would have seen that we have started to include attendance as part of our online reporting. The inclusion of this has raised some interesting questions by parents about justified and unjustified absences. I hope the information below clarifies this for you.
The recording of attendance is a legal process and we follow the absence coding provided by the Ministry of Education. One important thing to note is that an absence is not automatically justified just because an explanation is provided. The explanation provided must still meet the criteria set.
Justified absences are generally limited to:
- Being sick ( A doctors certificate can be requested after three days)
- A medical or dental appointment
- A family bereavement/funeral, visiting an ill relative, and/or exceptional family circumstances (these fall under school discretion and would normally involve a conversation with a senior leadership person)
- Attendance at an alternative education provider e.g. One Day School
Unjustified absences include but are not limited to:
- Staying home to look after siblings
- Weather
- Overseas holidays during term time
- Leaving early for a long weekend to avoid traffic
- Fear of Covid-19 (outside official lockdown periods)
- Clubs and hobbies eg ballet recitals
- Birthdays
School days are recorded in half days. When reading the report please note the number is indicating half days e.g. Present 72 ½ days equals 36 full days at school. Absent 7 1/2 days equals 3 full days and one ½ day away from school.
If your child is required to attend an interview or sitting exams e.g. music at another school, we expect their time away to be limited to the interview or exam and reasonable travel time. If so they will be marked as Present or Late, which will not impact on their overall absence rate.
Kind regards
Janine
亲爱的家长们您们好
您看到我们已经将出勤作为网络报告的一部分。因为这些内容引起了父母们关于有理由缺席和没有理由缺席的一些问题。希望以下信息能够为您澄清这一点。
出勤记录是一个法律程序，我们遵循教育部提供的缺勤编码。需要注意而且是非常重要的一件事是，如果只是因为您提供了不上学的说明和理由，并不代表您的孩子就不缺勤，也不代表理由是可以接受的。提供的说明必须符合教育部设置的标准。
合理缺席的原因通常限于：
- 生病（三天后学校可要求医生证明）
- 医疗或牙科预约
- 家庭丧亲/丧葬/丧礼，探望生病的亲戚和/或特殊的家庭情况（这些情况由学校酌情决定，通常必须先与学校领导干部沟通/交谈）
- 参加替代教育机构的培训，例如: 一日学校 (由教育部认可的学校)
不合理的原因包括但不限于：
- 待在家里照顾兄弟姐妹
- 天气不好
- 学期中的海外/国內假期
- 提前离开学校，因为是长周末, 为避免交通拥堵
- 对 Covid-19 的恐惧（除了正式官方封锁期间）
- 参加俱乐部和爱好活动，例如：芭蕾舞表演，演奏会，比赛
- 生日
上课时间记录以半天为单位。阅读报告时，请注意该数字表示半天，例如：出席 72.5 天等于有 36 天在学校。缺席 7 ½ 天等于不在学校 3½ 天。
如果您的孩子被要求参加面试或参加考试，例如：到另一所学校考音乐，我们希望他们的时间仅限于面试或考试以及合理的行车时间。如果只是这样，它们将被登记为 “ 在校 ” 或 “ 迟到 ”，这样就不会影响他们的整体缺席率。
