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Early contact with whānau helps us understand the reason for absence and maintain positive relationships.
00 / WHĀNAU INFORMATION
Every day matters. Every ākonga matters.
Regular attendance supports learning, relationships and belonging. Haeata works alongside ākonga and whānau to understand concerns, respond early and help young people stay connected with their learning.
01 / OFFICIAL SCHOOL DOCUMENT
The official school document sets out strategic priorities, board and school responsibilities, attendance monitoring, whānau responsibilities and Haeata’s response to attendance concerns. This webpage is a plain-language guide; the approved PDF remains the authoritative school document.
Document reviewed: 27 November 2025 | Next scheduled review: November 2028
Read the full Attendance Management Plan ↗02 / HAEATA'S SCHOOL PROCESS
This accessible flowchart recreates the steps and conditional pathways in Haeata's published 2026 Attendance Process. It shows who follows up an absence, how whānau engagement is supported, and when the Attendance Team becomes involved.
Kaikōtuitui follow up missing learning blocks and send amendments to PeS. Puna Ako request notes for days missed because of sickness or other explained absences.
KAIKŌTUITUI / PUNA AKO
Make three attempts at contact within one week of absences, using conversation, telephone and/or email. Record contacts in Helix → Notes → Attendance.
IF WHĀNAU ENGAGE
Formulate a plan with whānau, provide feedback over the following week and record the plan and follow-up in Helix.
IF ATTENDANCE IMPROVES
Acknowledge improvements, encourage progress and maintain appropriate engagement.
Where engagement is unsuccessful or attendance does not improve, the process may move to Attendance Team intervention.
IF NO ENGAGEMENT — HANDOVER
After one week of unsuccessful communication, hand over to the Attendance Team, continue attempts to make contact and seek a whānau hui.
ATTENDANCE TEAM
The Attendance Team conducts a home visit and links with ACTIS Attendance Services where appropriate.
IF NO IMPROVEMENT — ATTENDANCE TEAM
The Attendance Team refers or hands over to ACTIS Attendance Services for further support.
The original Haeata flowchart also refers to NEN (for ākonga under 16) and UE (for ages 16+) after 20 days of unjustified absence and after other avenues have been exhausted.
Important: These are references to the school's existing diagram, not automatic outcomes or a complete legal eligibility test. The applicable notification, enrolment, unenrolment and safeguarding requirements must be verified by school leadership before this wording is approved for public use.
How to read this process: The green stages show initial follow-up and whānau engagement. Red/pink stages show Attendance Team follow-up if attendance concerns continue or contact is unsuccessful. The steps are conditional and do not imply every ākonga experiences every intervention.
03 / PRACTICAL INFORMATION
If your child is going to be absent, please let Haeata know as soon as possible and provide the reason. Whānau can use the existing Report Absence webpage or the Skool Loop school app. The approved plan also identifies telephone and email as contact options.
Report an Absence ↗School communication options ↗04 / OUR APPROACH
Early contact with whānau helps us understand the reason for absence and maintain positive relationships.
Where attendance is difficult, Haeata seeks to identify barriers and work with whānau on practical responses.
Attendance is recorded, reviewed and followed up, with additional attendance-service support where appropriate.
Regular attendance is attending more than 90% of the time. Haeata’s published plan records 72.4% regular attendance for 2025 and a 2026 school target of 90%. The national Government target is for 80% of students to attend regularly by 2030. These figures describe different measures, not a live attendance dashboard.
05 / MINISTRY FRAMEWORK
Ministry threshold clarification: STAR interventions are considered at 5, 10 and 15 days of total absence in each term, including justified and unjustified absences. Haeata’s published plan separately mentions communications after 5, 10 and 15 days of unexplained absence. The school must confirm how its current operational plan addresses both requirements.
The Ministry’s Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) applies when a student reaches 5, 10 or 15 days absent within one school term. These thresholds concern total days absent, not only absences recorded as unjustified. The count resets each term.
0–4 days
Early communication, accurate recording and regular encouragement.
5–9 days
Contact whānau, understand reasons for absence and offer support.
10–14 days
Escalate contact, meet where appropriate and develop individualised strategies.
15+ days
Escalated response, support-plan monitoring and consideration of other agencies.
Important distinction: Haeata’s current approved PDF separately describes email notifications at 5, 10 and 15 days of unexplained absence. The school should check that its documented and implemented procedures also respond to the total-absence thresholds required by STAR.
Read Ministry STAR guidance ↗06 / ATTENDANCE RECORDING
Haeata records attendance using Ministry attendance codes. The following is a quick reference to the Ministry’s decision tree, updated 1 April 2025. The formal descriptions are in the linked PDF.
* The Ministry marks these codes as secondary-school only. A justified absence and a STAR absence-day threshold are different concepts; some special codes have separate counting rules. Refer to the Ministry guidance for the precise definitions.
Open attendance code decision tree ↗07 / SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
08 / STUDENT SUPPORT
Attendance difficulties can arise for different reasons. The school’s process emphasises positive relationships, active follow-up and working with whānau to understand underlying concerns. Where needed, Haeata may work alongside attendance services or other appropriate support agencies.
Families are encouraged to contact Haeata early if health, wellbeing, family circumstances or other challenges make regular attendance difficult.
09 / MONITORING & REVIEW
Haeata’s approved plan states that attendance is recorded within the first 15 minutes of each class or learning block. The Manukura oversees daily attendance reporting and provides monthly attendance information to the board, including emerging patterns, barriers and areas of concern.
The approved plan was reviewed on 27 November 2025, with its next review scheduled for November 2028. Any updates to the approved plan must be made through the appropriate school governance process.
10 / REFERENCE MATERIAL
Haeata published plan (check for updated approval)
Open resource ↗School process summary (included in the approved plan)
Open resource ↗Stepped Attendance Response resource
Open resource ↗Attendance-code reference
Open resource ↗Current attendance-management guidance
Open resource ↗New Zealand legislation
Open resource ↗11 / COMMON QUESTIONS
Use Haeata’s Report Absence webpage or the Skool Loop app and provide the reason as soon as possible.
School staff follow up, talk with whānau and, where needed, work on a plan and further support.
These are the STAR response thresholds for total days absent within a school term. The nature of each response will depend on the circumstances and current school procedures.
An illness may be coded as a justified absence, but this does not automatically remove it from STAR total-absence thresholds. Special counting rules can apply to particular attendance codes.
The official Haeata Attendance Management Plan 2026 is linked at the top of this page.
12 / WE ARE HERE TO HELP
If attendance has become difficult for your child, please contact our team. We want to understand what is happening and work alongside whānau to find appropriate ways forward.
Report an Absence ↗Contact Haeata ↗Read the Official Plan ↗Parents, please support our local businesses
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