text: WA parents slammed for taking kids out of school to suit their holidays | PerthNow
  WA parents slammed for taking kids out of school to suit their holidays
  PARENTS are being slammed for taking their kids out of school for holidays that suit their "work priorities" but put school attendance rates at risk.
  A new report into Denmark Primary School found as many as one-third of students were not attending school regularly last year.
  It warns that student attendance is a "significant concern" and the link between attendance and school success is "neither understood, nor accepted fully by parents".
  "The downturn in attendance levels is a cause for genuine concern," the Education Department report reads.
  "For some time, the school has not performed well in this regard and the figures for first semester 2012 are quite alarming, with the proportion of students in regular attendance dropping to 64 per cent.
  "The reasons given for this state of affairs include the chronic poor attendance of a small number of individual students and unusually high illness rates.
  "However, these issues appear to be exacerbated by a tendency for families to take holidays during the school term to accommodate parents' work priorities."
  But WA's peak parent group said parents would not intentionally hinder their child's education, although the lure of cheaper holidays and quality time for busy families was attractive to many.
  "We respect that travel can be an educational experience in itself but it can't come at the cost of their regular education," WA Council of State School Organisations president Kylie Catto said.
  "I don't think any family would set out to book a holiday with the intent of harming their kids. There are 12 weeks of the year that they do have school holidays ... but it is a much higher cost and the tourism industry here and abroad do appear to take advantage of that by escalating their costs. As money gets tighter and families want to give their kids these experiences, it just adds to the pressure."
  The Education Department has warned that for students to be successful at school "they need minimal interruptions to their learning".
  Although 2013 attendance data is not yet available, Denmark Primary School's overall attendance rate has fallen from 92.4 per cent in 2011 to 90.9 per cent last year.
  The state rate in 2012 was 92.3 per cent.
  Education Department director-general Sharyn O'Neill said students must attend school at least 90 per cent of the time "to ensure their learning is continuous and they are not falling behind".
  Ms O'Neill reminded parents of their legal obligation to ensure their children attend school.
  "Attendance is a community issue," she said. "We know that families are different today, we know that work arrangements are different today, but parents need to understand that school attendance is important.
  "Every day is important and children can't afford to miss out on the basic building blocks of learning that happen in every single day of every single year at school."
  Research indicates that missing an average of five days of school each term puts children back the equivalent of one year of schooling. Skipping two to three days of school each week causes them to fall behind four to six years of schooling.