Attendance and Leave

Consistent attendance and well-managed leave are essential to the wellbeing, safety, and academic success of students in a boarding environment. At Hurlstone Agricultural High School, clear expectations and structured processes govern attendance and leave to ensure that boarders remain fully engaged in their learning while maintaining appropriate balance with family commitments and personal wellbeing. Our approach emphasises accountability, transparency, and communication, supporting students to develop independence and responsibility within a safe and orderly residential setting. By aligning attendance and leave procedures with the rhythms of school, boarding, and academic life, Hurlstone ensures that every boarder is present, supported, and able to make the most of their boarding experience.

Attendance and Leave recording on REACH

Whilst all students are enrolled at HAHS, all boarder enrolment and attendance is managed on the third-party application called REACH. It is used to record attendance within the boarding school and apply for short, medium, and long-term leave, and provides residential supervisors with a quick snapshot of which boarders are on site and who has taken leave.

Parents can apply for and approve leave for their child. REACH enables parents to remain highly involved with the request and approving of leave, so they have the capability to know where their child is after school hours.

Leave Policy / Reach Leave

Before leave is granted for all students, a leave on REACH must be entered by parents/carers and approved by the Executives. Please ensure all leave is submitted at least 48 hours (2 school days) in advance. Students must confirm their leave with boarding school staff before they leave the school premises.

When entering leave, please complete all sections with appropriate details to avoid rejection. Some important features:

• Reason for leave: please supply detail of why the leave is being requested (this includes the activities to be undertaken) If this involves leave from the day school, it should only be for serious family or medical reasons (for non ‘emergency’ medical/dental appointments, please ensure that these are scheduled out of school hours).

• Destination: Please be specific about the destination. An example of this is for students travelling ‘home’ when the parents do not reside at the same address – please provide more specific information. If travelling to another location, include the address and any identifying names.

• The host details should also be included. A host is considered any adult that will be supervising and responsible for your child during this time, e.g. parents of a friend that the students will be visiting. If no host is present, select ‘no host is necessary’.

• Closed weekend and end of term leave includes a ‘travel day’, usually students depart Friday morning. This day is approved leave in the day school attendance records. Leave requests that include days beyond the travel day must also contain a reason, or else will be entered into the day school attendance records as unapproved leave.

Leave Breaches

The school discipline policy will be followed in the event of students failing to follow leave procedures or for providing false leave information.

Leave during School Hours

The NSW DoE Attendance Policy requires that students attend school on all days that the school is open. Therefore, no leave will be approved during school hours unless there is a family emergency or serious medical need.

Leave during school hours can only be approved by the Deputy Principal or Principal. This includes the day preceding closed weekends and the conclusion of each term. Principal approved leave will only be granted if students are required to travel long distances and no other suitable travel arrangements can be made. Principal approved leave will be granted for students utilising school organised Transport NSW travel.

Afternoon and Weekend Leave

Every leave application must be made on the REACH boarding software.

Unless accompanied by an adult, junior students must return to school by 5.30pm for dinner. Senior students should return to school before dark.

Residential supervisors complete active duty and close the boarder administration office for arrivals by 11.00pm each night. Overnight Security staff patrol the site throughout their shift (from 11pm to 7am). They do not perform any boarder admissions or sign out.

Students must return to boarding school from leave no later than 30 minutes before their lights out time on any given day.

Leave will not be approved for senior students to attend parties that have them return to the boarding school the same day. We are also unable to support leave that involve independent (no host, host pick up and drop off) swimming activities.

Wednesday Afternoon Leave

Most senior students are normally dismissed at the conclusion of period 2. Day students are then able to leave the school grounds to travel home. Senior boarding students are required to undertake private study in the library for period 3, or else can go on leave, directly from school. All students finish school on Wednesday at lunch and those onsite must attend lunch in the dining hall for rollcall. All students are permitted to apply for leave on Wednesday afternoons and is a great opportunity to go out to buy essentials and build some confidence and independence on leave. It is recommended that junior students undertake that leave in groups. Students in the boarding school during this time will be supervised by the teaching staff.

Leave Categories

REACH leave is to be entered using the following guidelines (This information is available as a drop down when entering leave):

Note:

1. Leave is not required for day school activities. However, students must be signed in/out using the Kiosk view with the duty team.

2. Students are to return to school 30 minutes prior to lights out for their year group.

Closed Weekends

A closed weekend normally occurs around the fifth weekend during each term of the scholastic year and/or based on public holidays that occur during term. On these weekends, all students must leave for home or go to a host residence of their choice.

Boarder administration staff will organise transport for boarders who require transport to their home and back to the boarding school (if they qualify for SSTS travel).

All travel arrangements are made on application through the boarder administration at least four weeks prior to travel (Transport NSW requirement). Students can return to school on the Sunday afternoon, or the Monday of a long weekend after 3.15pm. No supervision is available prior to this time.

Students living within the metropolitan area or within a reasonably close distance to the school are required to attend school on the day and depart for home at the conclusion of the school day. Unless exceptional circumstances exist, which have been communicated to the head teacher welfare or Deputy Principal, all students should leave the boarding school by 8.15am and the day school by 3.05pm on the day of each closed weekend. Students will store their luggage for the school day near the Boarding School DP’s office, that they can collect before departing for leave.

Boarders who will attend school on the Friday of a closed weekend for the day or part day, must leave the boarding school with their luggage and store their bags in the front office until they sign out. If returning to school during a school day they will need to store their bags and proceed straight to class on return. This may mean that they will need to pack supplies for their school day. Students are not permitted to enter the residential buildings during a school day.

Unscheduled Staff Supervised Outings/Activities

On occasion, staff members may organise to take students to local shops or markets for a short period of time for the purpose of school shopping, student shopping or other boarding school business, or may also include visits to the local pools in terms 1 & 4.

Boarding School Excursions/Outings

Boarding school personnel will organise and supervise a variety of excursions throughout the year as part of the school recreation program for boarding students. These outings will be arranged in accordance with the DoE Excursion Policy and will be authorised by the Deputy Principal. The excursions will involve travel by a variety of means according to the destination and may include travel by school vehicle/bus, or public transport.

These activities may include:

• Local Markets
• Local Shopping Centre
• Local Swimming Centre
• Factory Outlets
• Local Cinema
• Darling Harbour / Sydney CBD
• Local Restaurants
• Go Kart Racing

Many of these will require permission for the event from parents, using a School Bytes consent notification. These are generally sent out via email. Some events will also require parents to pay when they consent, and others may require students to pay at the venue. Some events that require pre-payment may mean that the payments are not refundable - please discuss with your child their desire to attend the event BEFORE giving permission and note if the payment is non-refundable.

Signing In and Out of School for Leave

It is advisable for students to check the status of their leave the evening before their leave (junior can do this with a duty team member, seniors can check on their app). This will provide opportunity for leave to be approved in time for the event. It is a requirement and a responsibility of students to see a duty team member as they depart for leave and as soon as they return from leave. This is so the staff member can change the student’s status on REACH as ‘on leave’ or ‘in boarding facility’. This is best done when students depart from the duty room or common room and when they return. Failure to check in with staff will result in a consequence (please see ‘Right Place. Right Time’ documentation). Student are required to ensure that their whereabouts is understood by the duty team.

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