i either missed 34 days of prelim or 60. My report wasn't clear, both my half yearly and yearly report came in saying a number somewhere in the 30s, dunno if it was for both semesters put together or them seperately...
Either way, I explained all my absences, so nothing happened to me, but the teachers did get down on me a lot, I'd get in heaps of trouble in class, with teachers making comments like "You're away so much, why do you even bother turning up at all? You're behind now and it's up to you to catch up..." etc. So when I'd do badly in tests, they'd blame it on me being absent. But most of my teachers are incompetent anyways.
But I think you have to turn up for 90% of school days at my school. I think that's flexible though if you explain all your absences with a good reason etc...
And as for the comment of why would you miss school if you're doing the HSC? I agree with Sarah, there are some classes there is just no point turning up to. Like my chemistry class, one of the girls who was pretty much topping it dropped it because she couldn't stand the amount of time she was wasting attending class when she was learning it all on her own.
And this week my trials end on Wedneday, and year 12 is having some first aid course thingy so no classes, but I have a trial the week after...so why go to school for no class when I could be home all day studying for that...