A new campaign, Let's Get to School - E Te Tai Tokerau - Hoake tatou ki te kura, started three weeks ago in a bid to encourage tamariki back through school gates after attendance numbers dwindled during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
The new initiative is a partnership between Northland schools and the ministry's Tai Tokerau office.
Jewell said giving out supermarket vouchers was about promoting good attendance because teachers could not increase students' learning and get them to achieve when they were missing a day here and there.
He said 67 per cent of the 502 students attended less than 70 per cent of class time. That's 13 per cent of the school roll.
"Mondays and Fridays tend to be days students don't come to school. A day off every week isn't okay because it almost equates to a term.
"You have a day of each week, that's eight weeks a year which is nearly a term of work.
"So while they think not coming on a Monday is not a problem, it's huge. Honestly, it's very difficult for teachers to catch up."
The junior, middle and senior syndicates will each get a supermarket voucher starting next week Friday.
After Jewell posted the new initiative on the school's Facebook early this week, he said the attendance improved.
"Attendance is really important, especially during these times with kids being home, being taught remotely over the years, so really all our Years 0 to 3 have only been educated in a Covid environment and our data shows they're not where they should be."
The school is looking at New World or Countdown vouchers and Jewell said any sponsorship they could get would be greatly appreciated.
He said it was a funny old world in that one minute the school asked parents to keep their sick children at home and the next they were being urged to get them into school.
"Things haven't changed with regards to sickness - it is important to keep your sick children home so that they can recuperate properly and not hand their bugs over to others.
"However, we have a reasonably large number of our children whose attendance rates are very low. Reasons for this may be anxiety displayed by the children or the parents themselves. Or it could be a lack of transport."
Whatever the reason, he said it was vital parents reached out to the school to discuss problems they may have with getting their kids to school.
A mere 34 per cent of students have attended school regularly this year in Northland, compared to 64 per cent in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
