Hal High has been singled out as one of the shining lights of a student attendance pilot Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) rolled out at five schools during the 2024-25 school year.

The project was designed to spark engagement in the classroom and get students with persistent absences excited about going to school. It was implemented in the County at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School (HHSS) and J.D. Hodgson Elementary School, and beyond at Parkview Public School in Lindsay, Riverside Public School in Huntsville, and Gravenhurst Public School.

“During this project, we monitored over 800 students, and we did see an average eight per cent increase in students at these schools attending 90 per cent or greater of their school days last year,” said TLDSB superintendent Tanya Fraser.

The sole high school participating in the program, HHSS saw a 16 per cent increase in the number of students boasting a 90 per cent attendance record or higher.

Last year, the Ministry of Education issued attendance benchmarks to public school boards, challenging them to ensure individual schools have an overall attendance record of 90 per cent or more. At the time, TLDSB had 68 per cent of elementary-aged students and 46 per cent of high schoolers hitting that target. TLDSB spokesperson Carolynne Bull said the board also tracks the number of students attending school 80 per cent of the time. At Hal High, 88 per cent of students are hitting that number, so too are 85 per cent of elementary-aged kids.

Fraser said the five pilot schools altered the way they took attendance, moving to tracking period-by-period with messages sent home for any unexplained absence. Each school also picked an existing staff member to serve as dedicated ‘attendance champions’ responsible for monitoring and analyzing attendance data, meeting with youth to find out what was keeping them from schools, and developing individual plans for students to improve attendance.

She said common barriers included: lack of a foundational routine (sleep, hygiene, nutrition and screen time limits); social and separation anxiety; bullying; food and housing insecurity; and parent-child conflict.

Fraser said staff would “assess the barriers and try to understand the root causes of absenteeism,” which she said turned up positive results.

“In terms of solutions, we found that understanding our communities and what an individual child needs was very important. Increasing communication, building positive relationships between home and school, and ongoing mental health promotion all helped,” Fraser said.

She talked about how students can help motivate one another to attend class – three Grade 6 classrooms in one school ran a two-week attendance contest last year, with the winning class getting a pizza party. The average attendance for the three classes was 97.5 per cent.

“As students get older, they’re old enough to set their own goals, to be motivated and know why coming to school is important. We found students started to have conversations in their morning friend circle… about going to bed at good times and coming to school in the best shape possible,” Fraser said.

TLDSB director of learning Wes Hahn said a high number of students are exhibiting signs of anxiety – he said all schools have access to mental health counsellors, who can offer some supports and refer students to specialists in their community should they need further help.

The board has expanded the pilot board-wide this coming school year, with it being implemented at seven high schools and 27 elementary schools.

“We are moving beyond the pilot because every school in TLDSB needs to address the students who aren’t there.

This is all of our work… to make our schools as inviting a place as possible for students to learn,” Fraser said.

Work to do

Hahn said TLDSB has data that shows students living in poverty and/or challenging situations aren’t achieving as much as those with more stable backgrounds.

“We have a report that looks at our student census in conjunction with EQAO (public education testing in reading, writing and math)… it looked at Indigenous students, students with disabilities, students with either one, three or four parents/guardians in the home, and students who do not have parents or guardians in full-time employment.

“We’ve been able to look at our results the way students are achieving in our system and apply to those areas in the census to see what we can do to make things better for those experiencing socio-economic difficulties,” Hahn said. “Socio-economic diversity was the greatest source of achievement disproportionality.”

He said the board is striving to help students even when they’re not at school. One way of doing that is ramping up engagement with parents – he said a new platform where parents can ask and answer questions and provide student/ course feedback went live Oct 28. You can access it at engage.tldsb.ca

Hahn said the board is also planning a series of meet and greets with parents, saying he hopes to set up meetings with school principals and parent councils from all schools this school year.

On Oct. 20, SIRCH Community Services officially launched Nathan’s Farm Project at the SIRCH Bistro & Bakery, at 49 Maple Ave. in Haliburton.

The initiative introduces 12 hydroponic grow towers inside the Bistro, producing fresh, nutritious greens year-round. The harvests will be used daily in Bistro offerings.

For the first time, produce grown from the towers will also be featured in SIRCH’s Lunch Is On Us program, where every Wednesday community members are welcomed into the Bistro for a free nutritious meal.

Guests will now enjoy salads and dishes featuring tower-grown greens, even in the middle of winter.

“This project reflects our values of levelling the playing field and creating a ripple effect of positive change,” said Gena Robertson, executive director of SIRCH.

“By investing in hydroponic towers, we’re ensuring that everyone in our community, regardless of income, can access healthy, locally-grown food in a safe, welcoming space.”

At the launch, people heard about the history of Nathan’s Farm, why the towers were introduced, and SIRCH’s future vision for food security in Haliburton.

For more information on Nathan’s Urban Farm go to www.enuf.farm. Nathan’s Farm Project is made possible through the Nathan T. Deslippe Memorial Fund and Medavie Foundation, honouring Nathan’s legacy of compassion, innovation, and community impact.