Dear Parent and Caregivers

A warm welcome back to Term 3 at North West College. I hope the school holidays provided a chance for rest, reconnection, and a fresh start for the second half of the year. It has been wonderful to see our students return with enthusiasm and a strong sense of purpose.

A special welcome also to the new students and families who have joined us. We’re delighted to have you as part of the North West College community.

This term brings new opportunities for learning, growth, and connection. As always, we are focused on supporting every student to thrive, and one of the most important foundations for success is regular attendance.

At North West College, we maintain high expectations for attendance. We ask all students to aim for 95% attendance across the year. This reflects our strong belief that every day in the classroom matters. Each day offers valuable learning experiences, peer collaboration, and engagement with our enriched curriculum.

We understand that there will occasionally be times when students are unwell or circumstances arise. However, even a few days away from school can quickly add up. This demonstrates that even a few days of absence can translate into significant missed learning, impacting a student’s ability to keep pace with the curriculum and achieve their full potential.

To support students and families, we follow the Ministry of Education’s STAR (Support, Tracking, Action, Response) Attendance Strategy. This approach allows us to respond early to patterns of non-attendance and work in partnership with families to keep students engaged in their learning.

A reminder: All absences, including partial absences for appointments, must be communicated through our Attendance Inbox at attendance@nwcollege.school.nz.
This ensures accurate record-keeping and helps us support your child’s attendance in a timely and appropriate way.

We appreciate your continued support in maintaining consistent attendance. Let’s make Term 3 a positive, productive, and successful term for every student.

Kind regards,
Mrs. Randles
Founding Principal of North West College

Attendance at North West College

We want to reiterate an important message regarding student attendance that teachers have already shared with you. At North West College, we pride ourselves on maintaining an exceptionally high attendance rate of 95%. We monitor attendance very closely, and we will be meeting with families whose children do not consistently meet these high expectations.

Of course, we understand that legitimate absences occur, but these should be exceptions, not regular occurrences. Our aim is to support you in ensuring your child attends school every day.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ms. Oliver at soliver@nwcollege.school.nz. She’ll gladly meet with you to put a supportive plan in place.

As an academic and creative arts college, consistent attendance is crucial for our students to learn effectively and achieve success.

WhatsApp Group Usage

It has come to my attention that some students are participating in a group WhatsApp chat. We kindly ask that you monitor your child’s social media use, as we’ve been informed that some content in this group does not align with the expectations we have for our students.

Messages have been sent to phones at all hours of the night including most recently at 3am, many messages include a lot of inappropriate language.

It’s important to remember that WhatsApp has a minimum age requirement of 13. Next term, I’ll be conducting assemblies focused on online safety for the students, and I’m confident we’ll have your full support in working together to keep our children safe online.

If you would like any further information or resources to help you with structuring conversations with your child about social media please see a wealth of information on Netsafe. https://netsafe.org.nz/social-media-safety/whatsapp