Attendance up at Amaroo

AMAROO Primary School is experiencing its highest attendance levels in five years.

As of Monday, overall school attendance is at 92.4 percent, just over the state government expectation of 90 percent.

Principal Ben Rätz said the school has not managed to get past 89 per cent “for many years”.

“Authorised attendance is at 87 percent and 70.3 per cent of students are attending 90 per cent of the time or more,” he said.

Mr Rätz said he attributes the great start to the year to engagement pro- grams at the school, such as structured play.

“Many students find school a lot more 'fun' and engaging than it has been in the past, thus boosting attendance,” he said.

“Secondly we have strengthened our processes to follow up students who are absent from school, increasing accountability for parents and communication between home and the school.”

He added that in the past five years, three years had been heavily affected by COVID-19.

“Some of the spikes and dips need to be read with that in mind,” he said.