•      Swedish Education Act (2010:800)

•      Chapters 7 and 15: “The principal is obliged to initiate an investigation of reasons for absence when a student has repeated or longer absences, whether valid or invalid.”

•      Social Service Law (2001: 453) and Health and Care law (2017:30)

•       “When a child needs interventions from both health care and social services must be established by the region and the municipality together create a CIP-coordinated individual plan.”

•      IB Standards and Practices (2020)

•      the school “fosters the social, emotional, and physical well-being of its students and teachers” (8) through strategic use of resources, processes and policies; and that support is to be carried out by the pedagogical leadership team and teachers.

•      Swedish Education Act (2010:800)

•      Chapters 7 and 15: “The principal is obliged to initiate an investigation of reasons for absence when a student has repeated or longer absences, whether valid or invalid.”

•      Social Service Law (2001: 453) and Health and Care law (2017:30)

•       “When a child needs interventions from both health care and social services must be established by the region and the municipality together create a CIP-coordinated individual plan.”

•      IB Standards and Practices (2020)

•      the school “fosters the social, emotional, and physical well-being of its students and teachers” (8) through strategic use of resources, processes and policies; and that support is to be carried out by the pedagogical leadership team and teachers.

Our mission statement sets the foundation for what we believe is important in our work:

Hvitfeldtska is a modern  school steeped in tradition and our IB Diploma Program is an inclusive and caring international learning community. We find joy in the autonomous and collaborative lifelong learning journey and value open and respectful communication that promotes understanding of ourselves and the world. We have high expectations and set challenging goals for ourselves, so that we may ultimately create a positive change in our local and global environment.

Started in 1988, the IB Diploma Program is committed to offering a course selection with breadth and depth.  Throughout our program, we collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure each student reaches their highest potential.

As is implied in our mission statement, the most important work we do in this regard is that each of us are caring and work to building relationships with students. Next we strive for engaging teaching and learning situations that allow for students to experience as much autonomy, competence, and relatedness as possible.

Some concrete routines that make explicit our work to promote attendance:

• Teaching and learning practices that emphasize student autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

•  Mentor Teachers

• Welcome letter from Principal includes attendance and absence routines

• Welcome Assembly Year 1, Welcome Assembly Year 2-3 (students)

• In the welcome assembly, the Principal And DPC emphasize the importance of attendance and the routines.  This along with other important policies in the program.

• Parent meeting where we also emphasize the same.

•  Health talks with School Nurse

•  Development talks and subject development talks.

• Student Health Team  

  •  School nurse: works systematically, proactively and preventatively.  Follows vaccination schedule and has health talks with all new students. Feeds back to EHT or teachers as relevant. 

  • Special Pedagogue:  visits lessons, works in small groups and one on one with specific students. Ideally is a partner/advisor to teachers when they need advice.

  • Counselor:  social/emotional support for students and meets them mostly one on one.  Also visits classrooms for some preventative or proactive work regarding stress and/or wellness in general.

  • SYV:  study and career counselor, helps with guidance both at the group and individual level. 

  • Principal:  attempts to see the broad overview of the program’s quality as well as ensuring students’ individual needs are met. The principal invites students to take a mandatory “Inventory of School Attendance Problems (ISAP)” when attendance appears to become problematic. 

• Early Warning System: the 6 periods of time are identified in the school calendar. Meeting time is given for teachers and student health team to collaborate regarding the needs of individual students. 

The Attendance Routines:

• Every teacher takes attendance at the start of every lesson in Vklass.

• If you are running late, there is no need to message the teacher. They are busy trying to get the lesson started.  If a pattern emerges, we'll see it and be following up.

• Student or parent informs mentor directly about why a whole lesson or day has been missed. (no need to notify about lateness)

• Vklass will show as "giltig/valid" when a guardian or 18 year old announces it.  Ultimately it is the school who decides if it is valid.  That is why we need to know what happened. 

Valid absences: sickness or an appointment for which the student can provide us with a note (i.e. dentist, dr., etc) or data about traffic problems. 

• Responsibilities when a student is absent:

  • The student references the online platform where the teacher has posted their plans and resources. The student takes direct communication with the teacher if they have a question about what should be done. The student completes homework/work that may have been assigned. The student asks for help if they need it. 

• At the end of each of 6 periods of time the team review attendance concerns and follow them up with the student health team to determine what are the next steps. 

Malin Gren Landell is an expert in school attendance problems. She has reported that the "tipping point" in many countries has been identified to be between a 10-15% absence rate. She's also stated that long term invalid absences often begin with valid absences. Identifying a school attendance problem may not be easy and the key to ensuring transparency is respectful and caring communication.  If we are contacting you out of concern for your or your child's absence, it's because we care and want to help.  

What happens when we become concerned? 

o   The Principal confers with the student health team and any of the following actions may follow:

• A letter of concern is sent, it initiates dialogue and details next steps

There is a separate institution to which we are accountable and that is with an outside agency called CSN (Centrala studiestödsnämnden).  These measures are only relevant to those who receive the CSN study support money.

• CSN warning will be received, as part of concern letter. It's the only warning the student will get in a school year.

Note: A warning letter is only a warning and it is not a statement that we have reported a student to CSN. It's a warning that if things don't improve, the school must report you to CSN. Only one warning will be sent in a school year, even if there is improvement in between periods of concern or non-concern.

• CSN revocation can happen at any time after a warning letter has been sent if there was a temporary improvement. The Principal decides on informing CSN. 

Learning is negatively affected by absences and so is the teacher's ability to do their job.  Examples of this are reflected in our Assessment Policy and Academic Integrity Policy.

As a last resort, and after measures are taken, followed up and evaluated, when attendance problems are continuing to prohibit student learning progress, the principal may decide to de-register the student from the subject or subjects affected by the attendance problems. This means the student may become a course candidate. There are other discussions that will have happened before this outcome, for example, meetings with the study and work counselor will be offered to explore the student's motivations and learning goals or to determine if another school form suits the student's needs better.  

The IB DP must meet the requirement for teaching hours: The information below is an extract from DP assessment procedures 2023, A2.1.2:

· HL courses represent 240 teaching hours

· SL courses represent 150 teaching hours.

· EE is expected to occupy approximately 40 hours.

· CAS continues regularly on a weekly basis for at least 18 months.

 If we cannot verify the student has reasonable access to the teaching hours the IB requires, we may need to consider not registering the student for the subject or subjects affected, meaning the student will no longer be a Full Diploma candidate.

Our mission statement provides a basis for which we do this work:

 Hvitfeldtska is a modern school steeped in tradition and our IB Diploma Program is an inclusive and caring international learning community. We find joy in the autonomous and collaborative lifelong learning journey and value open and respectful communication that promotes understanding of ourselves and the world. We have high expectations and set challenging goals for ourselves, so that we may ultimately create a positive change in our local and global  environment.

Started in 1988, the IB Diploma Program is committed to offering a course selection with breadth and depth.  Throughout our program, we collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure each student reaches their highest potential.