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Speaker 1: Morning. How about these travel numbers. Right, the government crackdowns

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Speaker 1: on cracksdown on school truancy, and it seems to be working.

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Speaker 1: Bookings dropped thirty percent during term time, while winter bookings

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Speaker 1: during the holiday season were up ten percent. So yes,

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Speaker 1: we're still going on holiday and more of us, but

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Speaker 1: just not the way we used it. This is new

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Speaker 1: data from flight Center comes after the introduction of the

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Speaker 1: government's traffic light system back in April. Now, Catherine Law

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Speaker 1: is the principle for Abanside Gills High and is with us. Catherine,

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Speaker 1: very good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Mike, how im well.

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Speaker 1: Thank you? Did your school change anything specifically because of

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Speaker 1: what the government said?

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Speaker 2: I think Look, what the government helped us to really

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Speaker 2: think about was to make a new focus onto attendance.

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Speaker 2: So yes, we didn't we didn't change a lot of

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Speaker 2: the systems and things, but we certainly got stuck into

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Speaker 2: the messaging around attendance.

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Speaker 1: And would you say, you know that it's changed at

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Speaker 1: your school. Have you noticed any sort of pattern change?

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, we got some patterns from trends from turn

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Speaker 2: one and we've noticed some significant pattern changes think upwards, definitely,

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Speaker 2: So our attendance overall is better and the holiday attendance

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Speaker 2: has gone down. Okay, we probably only have on our

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Speaker 2: data about two students a term that we'd go on holiday,

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Speaker 2: but we're down to just one last term, and it's

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Speaker 2: trending downwards. So away from those higher numbers that came

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Speaker 2: after COVID, what I think people decided to go away.

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Speaker 1: Did people just go off and say, my child is sick,

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Speaker 1: or did they come to you and go, look, we're

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Speaker 1: going to Europe. It's an extra week, it cost a

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Speaker 1: lot of money, blah blah blah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely so parents that go away for a day or

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Speaker 2: two somewhere in New Zealand tend to just go. But

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Speaker 2: when they're going away overseas, they tend to come and

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Speaker 2: ask permission or to email you to let you know.

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Speaker 1: I'm surprised it's had such an effect, and I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's good that it's had such an effect, but I'm

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Speaker 1: surprised that just took a government going tell you what

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Speaker 1: we need to improve ourselves a little bit here and

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Speaker 1: people did.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's about focus. You know, schools have

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Speaker 2: a lot to focus on, and so lots of schools

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Speaker 2: have great it's a systems around attendance. But then you know,

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Speaker 2: we're busy talking appearance about achievements, and then bang, we

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Speaker 2: start talking about attendance and parents start listening and changing

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Speaker 2: their mindset. It's like anything, really, isn't it. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: guess about the focus that we put on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do you still have a Friday Monday thing or not? Really?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we do a little bit, definitely slightly lower Monday

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Speaker 2: and definitely slightly lower Friday.

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Speaker 1: And there's anything you can do about that or it

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Speaker 1: is what it is.

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Speaker 2: No, we are we're picking up particularly Fridays because knowing

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Speaker 2: where our students are. Some of them are at courses

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Speaker 2: and things like that. But yeah, no, we're working really

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Speaker 2: hard with our systems to make sure we try and

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Speaker 2: find out where students are. So those question marks that

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Speaker 2: sit around on attendants are being erased.

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Speaker 1: What about the sort I've been fascinated? What about the

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Speaker 1: year thirteen thing? Year thirteen to me and having going

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Speaker 1: through it several times over, it's different. You know, sometimes

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Speaker 1: you take time off to do a project or study

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Speaker 1: or a test or whatever, and therefore that will show

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Speaker 1: up in a lack of attendance. But is that the

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Speaker 1: end of the world.

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Speaker 2: Not necessarily No, And that's about knowing your students really

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Speaker 2: really well, You're absolutely right, Mike, have some year if

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Speaker 2: it means, but halfway through they're beginning to really look

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Speaker 2: to the next chapter and get off to that, or

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Speaker 2: they might be going to an apprenticeship or doing trades

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Speaker 2: or you know, got their level three and ready to go.

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Speaker 2: And I think our job is much more, as you say,

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Speaker 2: to support them to be going off to their next chapter,

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Speaker 2: not necessarily hammering them about their attendance.

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Speaker 1: Exactly. Well, I'm Catherine, nice to talk to you. Appreciate

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Speaker 1: it very much. Katherine Law, who's the principal of Openside

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Speaker 1: Girls High School.

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