Missing a day of school?

[bananna]

Hi
I'm currently conflicted since tomorrow is a school carnival and everyone misses out on 3 classes. The last 2 classes are still on (maths and chem).
I'm still debating as to whether I should stay home and study or go to school.

Will an absence affect me when I apply for universities? (I'm in year 12).

Thank you

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi
I'm currently conflicted since tomorrow is a school carnival and everyone misses out on 3 classes. The last 2 classes are still on (maths and chem).
I'm still debating as to whether I should stay home and study or go to school.

Will an absence affect me when I apply for universities? (I'm in year 12).

Thank you

Whether you stay home or not is your call, but it definitely won't affect you for universities. Or at all, really. Unless your school is picky about missing the day then it really doesn't matter, no different to chucking a sickie on any other day. Pick your poison! Universities don't look at reports or attendances or anything of the sort (+1 absence on your report won't do anything by itself anyway)

I mean, you should probably go so as not to miss classes, but I can empathise with not wanting to go to carnivals. I know I'd rather use that time to study too

[Aaron]

What's your current attendance rate? If you're doing the VCE, the 90% attendance rate applies across the board. Skipping to study at home is basically an unapproved absence.

However, as a student I skipped nearly every single carnival (apart from ones in Year 7 and Year 12). I went to all of them in Year 12 because I recognised it'd be my final year that I attended school events (turns out it wont be after all.. given im about to go back to school in the opposite role).

I agree with jamon - i'd go, but I can also understand why you wouldn't. I think going to the carnival is a nice relief from study.. you need a break every so often

In terms of it affecting the ability to apply for university... it will not affect you in any way unless you fall below that 90% over the year as defined by VCAA (if you're a HSC student I have no idea about these policies).

[jamonwindeyer]

In terms of it affecting the ability to apply for university... it will not affect you in any way unless you fall below that 90% over the year as defined by VCAA (if you're a HSC student I have no idea about these policies).

I've never known of any specific attendance requirements actually! I think it is just at the school level such that you can be deemed as being competent with the course content but from what I know of you bananna, you don't sound like a truant or someone who's skipping class every other week

[RuiAce]

(if you're a HSC student I have no idea about these policies).

It's around 80%, maybe 85%

[vox nihili]

Why not just go the carnival and enjoy the damn thing?

There's a lot more to life than school and a lot more to school than school work. Come the end of your year 12, you're not going to be disappointed with yourself because you actually took some time to enjoy yourself.

[Joseph41]

^To add to this:

In Year 12, I decided to enjoy the sport days etc. as much as humanly possible - and this is coming from somebody who generally dislikes any sort of social interaction or attention lol.

So I dressed up, I participated in as many events as I could (and was awarded as the U21 Athletics Champion as a result, which is actually the biggest injustice of all fkn time hahahahaha), and had a great time.

I honestly don't think studying on that day would have had any impact on my results whatsoever. It did have an impact on my body though lol - I pulled up extremely, extremely sore.

[howey]

Yeah, I have to agree with the last couple of posts.

At the end of the year, that one day of studying isn't going to make a massive difference, and I found that the fun of sports days etc. are some of my best memories from Year 12. My advice - take a well earned break and enjoy it!

[elysepopplewell]

For what it's worth, I thought our senior retreat was a big waste of time, which is a shame because they ran a new program on our cohort and lots of teachers put in a lot of effort and all of that, but to me it was real tedious and our half yearly exams were 10 days after retreat finished. I know I'm the kind of person who needs to keep momentum going with study or else I find it way too hard to fall back into. I really felt like I knew best by wanting to study on retreat (not going wasn't an option, I was excited to go until I was there and thought it was severely ehhhh), but by the time the half yearlies came I wasn't regretting not studying on retreat. I didn't think, "damn if I studied for those three days, ten days ago, I would feel more confident now." So even though I thought retreat wasn't really worth the disruption to school and study for, in the time before my exams I wasn't wishing that I could go back and rewrite those days so I can fill them with study.

I know it's tempting to feel like you're twisting the system to get yourself ahead, but as everyone's said, just roll with it and try enjoy the events of your last year at school (even if it is a 3 day slow retreat). There will be other things you can sacrifice to gain study time (video games, facebook time, etc..) (although I know you're not the procrastinating type, bananna), that won't be days at school that have the potential to give you great memories

[heids]

Hahahaha oh my gosh so this is really embarrassing. Swimming carnival in year 12 I was actually in Australia and I hadn't signed up for anything but on the day I randomly decided to really get into it for the kicks. I swam in my school uniform and came last in everything wheeeeeeeeeee

There isn't any point going to things if you don't get really into them, yes, but if you can just let go of the stress and join right in then you will surely not regret it.