Regular attendance is essential in order to satisfy course requirements.  All students are to attend school on all days the school is officially open.  No student is permitted to leave the school grounds before the official end of the school day without first gaining the permission of the Administration.  Students who are absent for any period of time or are late to school must bring a note explaining their absence or lateness.

A Student Absence Line has also been established so that parents can phone in information to explain absences – Phone 4924 7860 (any hour).  Alternatively, an email can be sent to absences@northrockhamptonshs.eq.edu.au

Text messages are sent home when your child has been marked absent from each lesson without an explanation.  Period 1 is from 9am to 9.15am every morning and this is the official roll.  At around 11am, once all home group rolls have been marked and our absence lines cleared, the Rolls Officer will start the process of sending out text messages.  If your child has been marked absent, you will receive a text message like this:

​North Rockhampton SHS “today's date" “student name" was absent from home group.

To explain this absence you can email or phone the absence line OR you can press REPLY on your text message.  If replying to the text message, type in the student's name and reason for absence. eg. John Doe is sick.

It is vital to your child's education that they attend school every day.  Poor attendance impacts on literacy and numeracy skills and may be associated with future unemployment, criminal activity, substance abuse and poorer health and life expectancy.

From some helpful hints, please read this article: How Can I get my teenager to go to school (PDF, 863 KB).

Contacting students during class time

Individual classrooms are not linked to the front office via an intercom system.  Therefore, Administration Officers cannot contact students during class time to deliver parental messages without leaving the office.  

This means that messages may take a considerable time to reach the students, especially if they are at an outside venue (eg HPE) or, in some cases, may not reach the students until the next day.  

In cases of extreme emergency, all attempts are made to contact the students as soon as possible.

Communication

Year level & Whole of School Parades are held regularly to celebrate individual and school success.

Newsletters are produced each fortnight.

Newsletters are available here.  Hard copies are available at Student Services​

Lunch Pass

All students wishing to go home for lunch require a Lunch Pass which will only be issued when requested in writing by a parent. Lunch passes should be carried by the student at all times and must be available for checking. No student may go anywhere but to his own home during the lunch hour, without the express permission of the Principal or the Principal's representative and a special pass will be issued on such occasions.  Lunch passes are issued for the 11:30 - 12:10am break, but not for the 1:20-1:50 break.​​

Care of students

Sickness:

Any student becoming ill at school must report first to Sick Bay.  It is imperative that the school has a contact phone number for such emergencies.  Generally, students who are admitted to Sick Bay will be sent home as soon as parents/guardians have been contacted.

Accident:

In the event of a serious accident, the ambulance will be called and, where necessary, the student will be transported either to the Base Hospital or a private doctor.

In cases where the ambulance is required, the student will be given necessary first aid and then transported.  Parents will be contacted as quickly as possible. 

Medication:

School staff are not permitted to administer unprescribed medication.  This includes headache tablets such as Panadol, Disprin, etc. If a student needs to take medication prescribed by a doctor during the school day and you wish school staff to administer this medication, the following procedures must be followed:

1. A parent or guardian must request the Administration, in writing, to administer the medication.
2. The dispensing pharmacist's directions for administration of the medication must be written on the container.

If these procedures are not followed, the school staff may not give the medication.

Emergency Contact:

It is important that we have current information about addresses, telephone numbers, etc.  Please advise Student Services of any changes as soon as possible.

Parent teacher interviews