May 1, 2014
by Marcus Priaulx
A group of local people have been hired by Cherbourg State School to help boost students’ attendance.
The new faces are teacher aides Allirra Fisher and Lesley Bell and Student Attendance Officers (SAOs) Shantelle Georgetown, Alex Speedy, Corey Sullivan, Keith Walsh, Kathleen Combo and Dean O’Chin.
Their roles will include:
- Working with parents and carers to get children to school
- Helping with the school bus as well as other fun ways of getting to school
- Assisting classroom teachers with roll call
- Making a daily check on children not attending school
- Visiting homes of children not attending school and places where children “hang out”
- Providing information to parents about their children’s progress
- Supporting parents to identify what assistance is needed to get children to school and where to access help
- Working with other services in the community so families are getting the help they may need to improve their children’s school attendance
- Liaising with local business such as shops and cafes, and
- Helping to promote the importance of regular school attendance
The school attendance team will work with the Barambah Parental and Community Engagement Programme (PaCE) and other organisations to ensure everyone is working together to improve school attendance in Cherbourg.
The initiative was formed after Cherbourg State School was given funding and direction as part of the Federal Government’s national Remote Schools Attendance Strategy.
