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Speaker 1: We've got new stats on our school attendance and May

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Speaker 1: it was eighty two to eighty four percent for most days,

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Speaker 1: down from a high of eighty nine percent at the

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Speaker 1: start of the term in April. Meantime, a briefing paper

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Speaker 1: to David Seymour, who's the Associate Education Minister, says only

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Speaker 1: fifteen percent of students are meeting the government's benchmark. So

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Speaker 1: what are we makable of this? Darfield High School Principal

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Speaker 1: Andy England is with us on this. Andy, very good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, Cure and Mike. We stand a very

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Speaker 1: good chance of being run over by too many stats,

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Speaker 1: don't we. I mean, what do we read into this?

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Speaker 1: Is it eighty nine? Is at eighty four? Is a

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Speaker 1: too is at fifteen? What's going on?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, there are so many stats out there. It's

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Speaker 2: on the level. I'll just give you some from Darfield

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Speaker 2: High School. We were from last term we were ninety

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Speaker 2: one percent Tuesday to Thursday, eighty nine percent of the

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Speaker 2: Monday and eighty seven percent on a Friday.

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Speaker 1: See and then that is the cold hard reality of life.

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Speaker 1: If people can't be bothered turning up on a Friday

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Speaker 1: at work, why would you expect your kids to turn

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Speaker 1: up on a Friday at school.

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Speaker 2: Well, holl you, Yeah, I think there's a little bit

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Speaker 2: more to it than that. Actually, we're trying to dig

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Speaker 2: into it. So just on a survey, and here's another

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Speaker 2: stat forty seven percent of correspondence said that education is important.

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Speaker 2: But I am also I also value life skills with

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Speaker 2: a family.

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Speaker 1: Of course you do.

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Speaker 2: So we've got a few people, I think probably take

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Speaker 2: the kids out for a long weekend hunt or a

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Speaker 2: ski something else on a Friday, although to be fair,

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Speaker 2: they weren't skiing in turn one, were they. It's interesting

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Speaker 2: that trades academies that also operate on a Friday have

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Speaker 2: nearly one hundred percent attendance. Oh, I think we have

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Speaker 2: to dig behind.

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Speaker 1: The steps exactly. Do you think any of it's achievable

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Speaker 1: in the sense that I wonder if they're a bit

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Speaker 1: bogged down with statistics and in reality, if you once

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Speaker 1: you take out illness genuine illness, do you know, for example,

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Speaker 1: whether illness is genuine or not, or you just accept

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Speaker 1: the kids not there for a couple of days and

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Speaker 1: they said they're ill.

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Speaker 2: It is the letter. Yeah, we can't really test anymore.

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Speaker 2: It's only a way for a long period of time,

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Speaker 2: you might ask, But the reality is we have so

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Speaker 2: many it's like a rotating doors, so many people coming

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Speaker 2: and going, and I think thickness. Yeah, we can't ask

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Speaker 2: people for evidence exactly.

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Speaker 1: So how much pressure do you place on them around

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Speaker 1: Friday or a Monday.

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Speaker 2: Well, the way the Trades Academy is, it's very clear

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Speaker 2: you have to be there to pass the court. So

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Speaker 2: I think that's a great example where some of those

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Speaker 2: black and white rules can really help. There's one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent expectation of attendance on a Monday as well. The

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Speaker 2: sickness thing is interesting, isn't it, Because are you sick

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Speaker 2: on a Monday? Why would we have more people sick

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Speaker 2: on a Monday than a Tuesday, for example. So that's

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Speaker 2: why I say, I think we've got to understand it more.

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Speaker 2: I think the clarity of the rules will help. It's

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Speaker 2: a base level. But I also think that we've sort

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Speaker 2: of got a look at our model of education because

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Speaker 2: ever since COVID parents have been a lot more picky

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Speaker 2: consumers than in every aspect of life, and school is

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Speaker 2: still a sort of factory model that we've always had.

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Speaker 2: So I'm hearing more parents saying, well, we want to

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Speaker 2: homeschool one day or two days a week, and at

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Speaker 2: the moment the models are not really there for that

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Speaker 2: sort of learning, but in some ways it can be

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Speaker 2: quite helpful. It's not as easy for teachers, but it's

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Speaker 2: actually not a bad model for those families who are

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Speaker 2: motivated and do it their way.

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Speaker 1: Very good insight, Andy, well done, appreciated very much, Andy England,

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Speaker 1: who's the Darnfield High School principal and not the cat

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Speaker 1: of history. And that's before you get to the year

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Speaker 1: thirteen business. And you know, when you get to year thirteen,

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Speaker 1: you get a lot of kids who are sort of

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Speaker 1: by July August, they've got their credits and they sort

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Speaker 1: of don't need to be there anymore, and that will

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Speaker 1: affect the overall stats. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,

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