Attendance is about more than getting through the school gate

Pounamu taking shape during a workshop bringing together rangatahi and whānau supported through our Attendance Service.

For some young people, reconnecting with education starts with finding connection somewhere else.

Our Attendance Service works with tamariki, rangatahi and whānau to understand what sits behind school absence. Sometimes that means looking beyond the classroom and creating opportunities to build confidence, relationships, cultural connection and a sense of belonging.

Getting a young person back to school isn't always as simple as getting them through the school gate.

Behind ongoing absence there can be a lot going on, challenges at home, low confidence, difficult experiences at school, mental health, housing or financial pressures, or simply feeling disconnected from the people and places around them.

That's why our Attendance Navigators look at the bigger picture.

Recently, they brought several young people and their whānau together for a pounamu carving workshop, working with a local community provider to create an opportunity for connection, culture and shared experience.

The young people attending were all being supported through our Attendance Service. The workshop wasn't about sitting down and talking about attendance. It was about creating an environment where young people and their whānau could spend time together, meet others and experience something positive.

And those connections started happening.

Two mothers, whose children were both being supported by our Attendance Service, met for the first time at the workshop. As the day went on, they found themselves talking together and building their own connection.

One later shared how meaningful the experience had been. An opportunity like this was something she wouldn't normally have been able to afford, and being able to spend that time creating a taonga alongside her son gave them a shared experience they could take home with them.

For one young person, the change throughout the day was particularly noticeable.

He arrived quiet and withdrawn and didn't want to introduce himself to the group. As the day progressed, he began talking with the other young people and taking part more openly. By the end of the workshop, he independently thanked the facilitators.

It might seem like a small moment, but for someone who had started the day unwilling to introduce himself, it wasn't.

There were also new connections between the young people themselves. On the way home, two asked if they could stay in touch and spend time together outside the workshop.

That's the kind of thing that can be difficult to create in a classroom.

Looking beyond attendance

Experiences like this are an important part of how our Attendance Navigators work. The goal isn't simply to improve a number on an attendance register. It's to understand what is getting in the way of education and what might help a young person reconnect.

Sometimes that means working directly with a school. Sometimes it means supporting a whānau through a difficult situation. And sometimes it means creating an opportunity for a young person to experience something positive, meet people they wouldn't otherwise meet, and start to feel more connected to their community.

That is why working with local organisations and community groups is such an important part of our approach. We don't have to provide every answer ourselves. We can bring people together and connect whānau with experiences, relationships and support that already exist in their community.

The pounamu workshop was one example of that. A day spent carving a taonga isn't going to solve everything that might be sitting behind a young person's absence from school.

But it can create connection. It can build confidence. It can strengthen relationships between whānau.

And it can give a young person a reason to feel part of something.

Those things matter when you're trying to reconnect someone with education. For our Attendance Service, that's the work happening alongside the school gate, understanding the young person, supporting the whānau and finding the right pathways to help them reconnect.