Attendance matters: every student, on time, every day

A system-wide approach supported schools to raise awareness of the importance of every student attending on time, every day, through local initiatives with common messages, strategies and resources.

Key principles included:

• attendance being everyone’s responsibility
• the need to engage with the school community and parents on the importance of attendance
• celebrating and acknowledging high attendance
• supporting and re-engaging students when attendance is below the expected benchmark
• tracking, monitoring and following up on unexplained absences

Family engagement

In 2019, Brisbane Catholic Education schools partnered with families to improve the engagement, progress, achievement and wellbeing of each student. As the first educators of children, families were involved in an open two-way dialogue with schools to have an active voice in their student’s learning journey. Brisbane Catholic Education acknowledges, respects and recognises the significance of the family in providing care and nurture for each child and young person, and the cultures and traditions of families.

Student engagement

A student engagement model was piloted in schools with the aim to foster deep student engagement through four lenses in collecting evidence and assessing impact: teaching practices, student agency, learning environments and enabling leadership. Teachers involved in the pilot shifted their mind frame by improving their understanding of how teaching practices can increase the impact on student learning through engaged learning. Overall, the engagement drivers had a positive impact on student engagement and attendance.