Auckland’s Finlayson Park School is one of many New Zealand schools missing more and more students as 2020 drags to a close. Principal Shirley Maihi notes that she has battled non-attendance for all of her 52 years in education, but this year has been particularly bad. The pattern in her decile 1 south Auckland primary has played out across the country, with data collected by the Education Ministry showing that attendance patterns at lower decile schools still hadn’t recovered.

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