To be pissed off with this text message from the school..

[WorzselMummage]

"last weeks school attendance was very poor at 90%. We need to aim for a minimum for 95%. Please send your children to school every day. If we feel your child is too ill to be in school we will send them home"

How's about fuck off.

It's really riled me. My DD was a 100% attendance this term anyway but surely parets are in the best position to decide what it best for their own children.

I get PISSED OFF when DD gets ill because some other parent has sent their child to school when they obviously ought to be laid on the sofa feeling sorry for themselves.

What is the sense im sending children to share their germs around

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

YANBU. That would piss me off to. I can't bear those patronising, we know best missives from the school.

[ConnorTraceptive]

That's terrible and I speak as an attendance officer from my life pre children. Sounds like they want bums on seats for registration so they are marked present and then the ill may return to their sick beds.

I would ignore it

[itisnearlysummer]

Ofsted take a dim view of low attendance figures - for whatever reason.

The school may know something you don't.

I get pissed off when my DCs catch something at school because a child has been sent in when they shouldn't, but some parents keep their children off school for all sorts of reasons that the school wouldn't authorise.

[redskyatnight]

Maybe it's aimed at parents who keep their DC off school for the slightest sniffle, or who "can't be bothered" to take them in and ring them in sick? And they felt they had to send it to everyone so as not to be accused of vicimising?

If it doesn't affect you, then ignore it ...

[WorzselMummage]

Oh I will ignore it, don't worry

I dont know who they think they are sometimes

[Sharney]

YANBU- You decide if your child is not well enough for school. No-one else. Surly that's obvious?

[ragged]

I suspect some people are taking the P... if you know it's not you, I wouldn't get riled about the text.

[Rosebud05]

Ofsted and their ridiculous grading systems are such a nightmare.

Schools do get very heavily judged on attendance. It isn't their fault and it's an unhelpful measure of a school in many respects but that's how it is.

The 'we'll send your child home if they're ill' is clearly bonkers and completely counter productive if one ill child infects the rest of the class.

[KilledBill]

So the teachers at your child's school are medical professionals now are they?

Or do they just know your children better than you do?

YANBU

[IDrinkFromTheirSkulls]

Of course attendance is low at the moment... Most of the missing 10% are probably on holiday and their parents have told the school they're sick!

[Fifis25StottieCakes]

Our schools good boardering on outstanding and they went through a phase of sending these letters home. Any other time they would tell you not to bring them in.

[izzywhizzyletsgetbusy]

It's the 'blanket' approach that gets me.

Your dd hasn't got a problem with attendance so why have the school sent that text to you? Can't they be arsed to concentrate their efforts to improve their stats on those pupils who are frequently absent for non-verifiable ailments/other spurious excuses?

As for the school diagnosing severity of illness, they certainly can fuck off because no sane or reasonable parent would send a sick child to school if said child was in need of medical treatment/aid.

In my humble opinion that text is a patronising load of cod, and if I'd received it I'd be as riled as you are so YANBU but the school is BU.

[swash]

I hate general letters like this. It's a cop-out - the school should target specific parents to avoid alienating the rest of us. Our school newsletter has included requests not to swear in the playground or shout at teachers! Very annoying - and also depresses me to think that the school my dcs go to has parents who need telling. Not a good way of keeping parents onside imo.

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

I also hate the blanket tickings off. The ones to which it doesn't apply feel aggrieved, and the ones who really need to change won't take any notice. If absenteeism is a problem, they know who the culprits are... why tar everyone with the same brush?

[WorzselMummage]

Our newsletter frequently have 'children are arriving late' messages on. DD has never been late in 4 years and i suspect that parents who's kids are arriving late every day are not the sort to give much of a shit about newsletters.

[itisnearlysummer]

Unfortunately, they have to send these letters to everyone so as not to single out the families it does apply to.

I think they just assume that you will ignore it if it doesn't apply to you. I do.

The problem is, the people it is aimed at are the people who will ignore it and the people who feel that they might fall into it (genuinely ill child) feel unfairly victimised.

[blackeyedsusan]

yes, sending your child to school ill will really get the attendance figures up... all that sharing of bacteria/viruses that goes on whilst litle jonny is waiting for mum/dad to pick him up. children are not noted for their sense of hygeine, iI can predict a bout of d and v sweeping through the school, hope a fair proportion of it lands on at the heads feet...

[fedupofnamechanging]

The way to stop schools (amongst others) from being patronising and talking down to you is to make your objections known. If you ignore this, on the grounds that it doesn't apply to you, then the school will continue to speak to you in this manner.

I would write a polite note to the head teacher, saying that I object to correspondence of this type and that as the parent I will decide whether my child is well enough to attend school.

It never ceases to surprise me that schools, which are filled with people educated to degree standard, have such little concept of how to compose a polite, non offensive letter.

[waitfortheblackout]

Not illness related (and name changed in case this outs me - paranoid!!!) but this goes to show how it's all game playing for Ofsted.

I used to work in a school that struggled to stay open during the snow. The teachers all left extra early in the morning and we were fully prepared to teach very small numbers of children who managed/bothered to make it in.

Unfortunately, when we were ofsteded a few weeks later (so the bad weather was still very much in people's minds) we were criticised for opening and told that we should have closed because it had seriously affected our attendance figures.

Where is the sense in that!

[Triggles]

I do tend to get a bit riled up over this type of thing. I don't really even like it when I call in saying DS2 is not coming in due to illness and they ask "what's wrong with him?" I have, on occasion, followed up with "oh, I'm sorry, didn't I say? He's ILL." And wait..... He's got a good attendance record, and I only keep him home when he is either too ill to be in school or contagious. Thankfully the people in the office at DS2's school are not too pushy about it, as generally when he is ill enough to miss school, we've been up with him throughout the night, so my temper is somewhat frayed at that point.

That being said, I do think my feelings are directly related to my mother, who routinely sent notes in with us to school the day we returned after an illness saying "Triggles was absent yesterday because it was necessary." The school secretary challenged her ONCE over it when my older sister had been ill... it was spectacular. (Mum won ) They never questioned it again - "necessary" equals illness, and that was all they were getting.

YANBU. It's MY call whether or not DS2 is well enough to attend school. Not theirs.

[MilaMae]

I think it's awful for a child too. Little children need the security of knowing that if they're poorly they can curl up on the sofa at home.To be under so much pressure and being told you'll be in school whatever and school will decide if you're ill would make a lot of kids feel quite insecure.

The person best qualified to say if a child is ill is it's own mother.A teacher who will only have known a child for a few months alongside 29 other kids won't know or often notice if a child is battling on quietly feeling shite.

I find as a parent you can't win on this subject.Mine have good attendance but as an ex teacher I agonise over wether my dc are ill enough to keep off.A few times when they've been slightly poorly but had no temp or not had d&v I've sent them in and they've deteriorated rapidly during the day.

Basically I've sent them in because even though I'd have liked to have kept them off I know school would prefer they attempt to go in-you're then met with a cuts bum face when you pick them up and tales of how they were practically on deaths door .

I'm far more cautious now and keep them off if I feel they're poorly as ds was very upset that I sent him in once pre tonsillectomy and I had to come and get him.It was like he felt I didn't care.I know from my previous life what it's like to be in school feeling rough and it's not nice.

To be frank i think you need to complain otherwise they'll continue sending blanket warnings out.