Un authorised absence at school. What do you think?

[Eaney]

Just had a very accusatory letter from my ds's school saying that as he had 4 unauthorised absences from school he would be closely wathched over the next year.

Well I lost it. He has never had an unauthorised absence. We always phone up and what really irritates me is that I had a chat with his teacher to explain that his asthma is triggered by viral infections and I wanted her to know that he would probably have more time off than other children. She said that was fine. He recently ha had three bad asthma attacks of which she was well aware of.

The tone of the letter was really aggressive and I took exception. I phoned the eduactional welfare officer (who wrote the letter), demanded a letter retracting their accusation and told her that I was offended by the tone and style of the letter. I ranted on a bit in my best pompous voice. My ds's teacher later phoned me and apologised and said that there was some error their side and that she knew how thorough I was and that it was just a standard letter. I said they should consider rewording it.

Did I go too far? I take ds's schooling very seriously and would never dream of not contacting them plus I had about 3 hours sleep last night so not sure if I was being reasonable.

[bundle]

do you not have to write a note to school? (i mean as well as phone up)

[Janh]

Primary school is usually satisfied with a phone call (well ours was) - secondary school likes a phone call at the start but insists on a note as well.

[Weatherwax]

No I would be very cross too. There letter should not be so aggressive IYKWIM. If you hadn't given them enough written notes the teacher should has asked for more formal communication. If its anything like my dd's school the note would have got lost in the system anyway.

[Eaney]

No. I asked this before and was told there was no need.