Cape school attendance improving

A TINY Cape York school has shown how intimate classes and examples set by older siblings can keep kids coming back to class.

Department of Education figures reveal Laura State School had the Cape’s most improved attendance rate last year, up from 87.2 per cent in 2017 to 93.1 per cent, the second highest for the year.

This year there are just eight students going through school in Laura, along with three kindy kids.

Laura State School’s sole teacher, Gabriel Garate, said there was a good culture of school attendance in the community.

“All the core kids that come here have lived in Laura since they were babies; their older siblings went through and they’re following on,” she said.

“It’s always been good here;

94.2% 93.1% 86.6%

Lakeland SS ................... Laura SS .......................... Rossville SS ................... Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy ..... Cooktown SS .................. Western Cape College...78.6% Pormpuraaw SS ............. Northern Peninsula Area State College ........................... Kowanyama SS .............. Bloomfield River SS ........ Lockhart SS ................... Aurukun SS ....................

84.8% 81.4% 78.5% 72.6% 72.5% 71.3% 65.6% 53.9%

the difficulty mainly comes from when we have transient families from other communities whose values and way of schooling are very different.

Ms Garate also works parttime at last year’s best-attended school, Lakeland State School, which had 94.2 per cent attendance.

“Lakeland has a very differA ent dynamic. There, it’s mostly children of well-to-do farming communities that respect the school values,” she said.

The Department of Education said it would reaffirm its commitment to improving attendance levels at Aurukun State School, which reported the lowest attendance for the year at 53.9 per cent.

This was an increase of 6.1 percentage points from the same period in 2016, when student riots triggered an emergency response at the school.

“During 2018, the partnership between school and community was strengthened in an effort to further lift attendance,” a department spokesman said. “The school has developed and implemented a contextualised attendance policy in accordance with Department of Education guidelines.

“This is supported by the Parents and Citizens’ association and is a whole-of-community focus.”