Private schools in Dubbo have outperformed their public counterparts when it comes to the attendance rate of their students.
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Three schools topped the list, according to MySchools data from semester one last year: St Pius X Primary School, St Laurence’s Primary School and St John’s Primary School.
The primary schools all recorded a 95 per cent attendance rate for the semester.
The lowest attendance rate was awarded to Dubbo College Delory Campus on 85 per cent, followed by Dubbo College South Campus and Buninyong Public School at 88 per cent.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said parents of school-aged children were responsible for ensuring that their children are enrolled at a school and attend it regularly.
“There will be times when students need to be absent such as illness, unavoidable medical appointments or exceptional urgent family circumstances. At public schools, these absences are recorded against attendance returns,” the spokesperson said.
“The majority of absences are absences for which parents have provided an acceptable explanation.”
In 2015, it was St Laurence’s alone that had the highest attendance rate for its first semester, again at 95 per cent.
St John’s and St Pius’ were both slightly lower at 94 per cent.
The private schools in Dubbo all recorded attendance rates above 92 per cent in the first half of 2016. However, many of the public schools also had high percentages.
Orana Heights Public School and Dubbo Public School were both just off the top at 94 per cent, while Dubbo South Public School was not far behind with a 93 per cent attendance rate.
St Mary’s Primary School had the biggest difference from one year to the next. The school improved from an 89 per cent attendance rate in 2015 to 95 per cent.
Meanwhile, Dubbo North Public was the only school to have a worse attendance rate in 2016, dropping from 94 per cent to 91 per cent.