The last weeks of the school year are full of prizegivings, reports, camps and end-of-year events. They’re also when term-time holidays start to bite.
Ministry of Education figures for Term 4 2025 show holidays taken during term time made up 1.2% of class time across the whole term. In the final week, that jumped to 3.8%. Absences that were explained but not justified under school policy also peaked in the last week, at 3.7% of class time.
Across the whole term, 57.3% of students attended regularly in Term 4 2025, meaning they were present for more than 90% of the term. That was up 0.9 percentage points on Term 4 2024 but well short of the 68.8% recorded in Term 1 2026. The data rules affect which senior secondary students are counted in Term 4, though, so those two terms aren’t a perfect match.
The Government’s target is 80% of students attending regularly by 2030. Associate Education Minister David Seymour leads it.
Why the last fortnight still counts
It’s tempting to treat the final days as a write-off. The evidence doesn’t back that up. The Ministry’s own research found each extra half-day of absence is linked to fewer NCEA credits later, whether a student drops from 100% attendance to 99% or from 71% to 70%.
Students who are away 5 to 10% of the time still count as regular attenders. They still gain fewer credits than students with higher attendance.
Recent evidence on what keeps students coming comes from the Education Review Office (ERO), the Government agency that evaluates schools and early learning services. Its October 2025 report, Back to class, surveyed 5,082 students, 6,683 parents and whānau and 1,967 teachers.
Belonging mattered most. Students who felt they belonged at school were five times more likely to think daily attendance was important. When students were asked what their school did best to keep attendance up, the most common answer was learning that was interesting and fun.
The flip side shows up too. One in five students said they’d miss school because they didn’t like, or weren’t interested in, what was being taught.
Practical moves for the final weeks
Keep real learning on the timetable right to the end. A project that builds to something in the last week, a performance, an exhibition, a cook-up or a class publication, gives students a reason to be there that a movie and a classroom tidy-up don’t.
Give students jobs. The review found students with a role or responsibility at school were twice as likely to think daily attendance was important. End-of-year events need ushers, sound crews, MCs and set builders, so hand those jobs out early.
Talk to whānau about December before they book. Teachers and leaders in the review named term-time holidays as their biggest attendance challenge, with 74% listing it as a main challenge.
Families often travel in term time because it’s cheaper, and nearly half of parents (47%) said they’d let their child miss a day or two for a family holiday.
Parents told the review that school messages made them less comfortable with long absences, especially when the messages spelled out the effect on achievement. Name the learning still happening in the last week, not just the dates.
Think hard about closures and short days. The review found closures on a Tuesday or Thursday can turn into long weekends, and half-day closures can become full-day absences. Parents said they’d prefer closures tacked onto term breaks.
Recognise attendance, fairly. One school in the report hands out certificates for 90%, 95% and 100% attendance at end-of-term events, so more students have a target within reach.
Collective rewards, like form group points, can be especially motivating, because students don’t want to let their peers down. “I don’t want to miss school—not just for me, but for my form group,” one student said.
Go carefully with consequences. Students who said their school used consequences for poor attendance were a third less likely to report attending regularly, and they described being put off by consequences they saw as unfair.
Changes coming in 2027
Schools will have new rules to work with from Term 1 2027. New attendance exemption rules set out the reasons a student can be excused, such as medical absences, bereavement and cultural or religious events. Absences of 11 or more consecutive school days will need reliable evidence before a principal can approve an exemption.
Principals will still make the call, and schools don’t need to change anything yet. Webinars on the new rules and attendance codes run in November 2026 for principals, tumuaki and staff who record attendance.
