Helping kids get to school: a job to be proud of

“I’m really happy to come and do this work, being a School Attendance Officer. I like to pick up kids and talk to them and encourage them to come to school.”

Mornington Island elder Uncle Leon Roughsey will proudly tell this to anyone who asks about his involvement in the Australian Government’s new Remote School Attendance Strategy.

Working in partnership with schools and communities in locations in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the strategy aims to ensure all children attend school every day.

Local people, like Leon, have been engaged as School Attendance Officers, to work in a community team with a local School Attendance Supervisor to help families get their kids to school every day. It’s an approach that is driven by the community, to benefit the community now and into the future.

Leon has recently been promoted to a supervisor, based on his excellent work as a School Attendance Officer.

Leon and his team drive a bus around the community each morning to collect students and bring them to school, which has really helped to boost attendance rates.

“The teachers are very pleased that we’re doing this job,” Leon said.

“Attendance lately has been very good. I’ve been talking to the principal who said there’s been a lot of change with the kids coming to school.”

The Mornington Island School Attendance Officers also spend time talking to parents and students about the importance of school and finding out what issues may be preventing kids from coming to class each day.

“When we talk to the parents, we see what’s happening,” Leon said.

“If parents are getting involved in major drinking or something like that and then have problems at home, the kids stay at home.

“Sometimes the kids get sick; maybe not enough fruit. But when kids come to school they can get food at the breakfast program. That’s been really good.

“I was talking to some of the kids today in the high school, grade 10 or grade 9, and explained that with a good education, if they attend every day, then they’ll have a door open so they don’t have to depend on other people to look after them.”