Lateness & Appointments During School Time

We are noticing an increase in student lateness at Berkley and would like to ask for parent/caregiver support to ensure your children are arriving at school on time.  Our first bell goes at 8.45am and this is when we expect students to already be in class, with their bag away and ready to start the day.  It's surprising how much time can be lost over the course of a week, term or year when a student is regularly late - even if its just a few minutes after the bell.  Have a look at the picture below for an idea of how lateness can impact.

Please also remind your children that they MUST sign in at the office if they arrive late - if they don't sign in and have missed the morning roll in class, they will be marked absent for the whole morning.

We also see students often leaving during the school day for appointments.  We understand sometimes medical or other important appointments can be hard to schedule, but we do ask that you try and schedule appointments outside of school hours, or at a time when it minimises the amount of time the student needs to be away from school.  If you want your child to attend a regular appointment outside of school, then approval is required from our school Principal, so you will need to email office@berkley.school.nz or principal@berkley.school.nz to request approval.

Reporting Absences

Please ensure you provide the school with information about why your child is absent.  We require a specific reason to be stated to ensure we code the absence correctly and ask that you communicate all absences with us before 9am each morning.  To report an absence, please phone us on 07 856 6537 and select the absence voicemail option or follow this link on our school website to fill out an absence form.

If you have any questions regarding the above information, or absences in general - please feel free to contact our office team on 07 856 6538 or office@berkley.school.nz