Version 1.4 | 03-04-2019
Attendance policy
As a student, you are responsible to:
- maintain full attendance to all scheduled or programmed training sessions and assessment sessions; to a standard of at least 90% of the sessions for a course;
- attend all appointments made for you with staff and with any third parties designated by us;
- be punctual and arrive for any session or appointment on or before time, prepared and ready to engage in the purpose of the session or appointment;
- notify us in advance of each and every non-attendance (note: there is zero tolerance for non-attendance without notification or reasonable excuse); and
- notify us as soon as practicable of any circumstance that will effect your ongoing attendance and/or progress in a course.
Full-time students and all students in Tertiary Courses are expected to:
- be in general attendance on-site for specified days and times per-week applicable to your course; and
- attend and engage onsite as your sole and primary educational / vocational priority during your course – on a similar basis as you would for full-time employment.
Full-time attendance is scheduled as follows (unless otherwise stated for a specific course):
- study weeks are Monday to Friday (5 days per week)
- hours are 8:45 am to 4:30 pm each day
- study is not scheduled on public holidays or in break weeks, however some study (including flight lessons) may be scheduled on public holidays, weekends or after-hours with individual students. This is used as catch-up time if required and is negotiated with each student in advance
Unsupervised self-study onsite is permitted Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Unsupervised self-study and simulator use outside of these days and hours requires permission from a staff member on each and every occasion.
We may cancel your enrolment if your attendance does not consistently meet these requirements.
We take reasonable steps and care to assist you to complete your course within the required or intended course duration. Our ability to support you in this is directly limited (in-part or completely) where you do not attend reasonably, as required by this policy. If you do not complete your course within the stated course duration or by the course end date, refer to our policy on course extensions.
Attendance procedures
Attendance recording
Instructors, trainers and assessors may record attendance for:
- scheduled/programmed classes on an attendance sheet, which is then recorded and stored by the Education Manager
- individual briefing sessions on an attendance sheet, which is then recorded and stored by the Education Manager
- simulator training and flight training sessions in the Airside system.
If you do not fully attend a session (eg you arrive substantially late or leave substantially early) or do not reasonably engage in a session, the staff member has the discretion to mark this session as a non-attendance.
General monitoring of attendance
Instructors, trainers and assessors generally monitor student attendance and:
- may approach an individual student to verbally discuss their attendance; and
- notify the CFI and/or Education Manager where non-attendance or punctuality trends or issues are evident.
The Education Manager or delegate will monitor attendance records and trends and may take action with individual students as appropriate to remedy non-attendance, poor punctuality and/or unsatisfactory progress.
Student notification of non-attendance
When you become aware that you will be unable to attend a session of any type:
- if you are notifying us ON THE DAY you are first absent due to illness etc, you must call us by phone in business hours as soon as possible and speak with one of our staff to inform us of the reason for your non-attendance, when it will commence, and when it is likely to conclude;
- if you are requesting permission to be absent BEFORE THE DAY you are first absent, you must send an email to our ‘instructor admin’ email address (which we provide at induction) and provide the reason for your requested absence, when it will commence, and when it is likely to conclude.
- in all circumstances you must supply us with a medical certificate where your non-attendance is in excess of two consecutive days of the course for medical reasons.
Where you are booked-in for a simulator session, flight training session, flight test, formal test or examination:
- your notification of non-attendance must be received by our staff (as above) at least 24 hours before the session is due to commence – unless there are serious, compelling and unforeseen circumstances that reasonably prevent this – which you must inform us of in advance;
- if you do not notify us within the 24 hour requirement (as above), we will, on the second and all subsequent infringements of this requirement, invoice you separately for that session and require you to re-book and take that session at a later date at full-cost to you; and also
- you are fully responsible for the fees for every examination that you do not attend or provide notice of non-attendance within the 24-hour requirement.