An attendance meeting at school for 5 days off since September

But OP has already told them her daughter was ill. On the days she was ill. Having to reiterate this seems to imply the school didn’t believe her originally. It’s the way it makes it seem that parents aren’t the best judge of their child’s wellbeing and / or aren’t being truthful which is annoying.

I’m an attendance officer, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It will possibly be more of a support interview to check on your child's wellbeing/general health and see how the school can support in improving her attendance or support at home. We are all well aware of the lingering bugs going round at the moment. No sooner catch one thing and you get another, nobody gets enough time to recover either because we feel we have to get back to work or school before we are fully recovered and spread it about. At the end of the day, her attendance has been flagged off a report ran most terms to check attendance and stats. It will be a box ticking exercise and is a formality so just tell them that she’s been ill.

The govt have a major attendance agenda and schools are forced to act. Just go along, explain she's been genuinely sick and just make sure you don't keep her off unnecessarily (eg just a sniffle). It will average out over the year.

Why would you ask parents to come in rather than just calling them? It seems odd to want to waste everyone's time organising a face-to-face meeting, and far more likely to be met with parents refusing to engage. I can take a phone call from school at work, but I can't just down tools to go to a meeting.

When did she turn 5? If it was any point after the first day of term, she is not statutory school age and therefore all attendance is non-statutory. Children do not legally need to attend school until the term after they turn 5.

It’s a government thing regarding attendance and your school is just following procedure. I expect it was a standardised letter. This meeting is just a checking in meeting and to see whether any interventions are required to get your DD into school more often. They will look at whether you need support.

5 days off since September works out at 1 in 12 school days which is quite high really

but the OP said at least one of those incidences was 2 days, so that's only 4 incidences in total.

Anyway I don't believe all the people on here saying that their kids were never ill when they started school. My ds had everything at nursery so genuinely had very little absence at primary school (and he didn't have a single day off sick at secondary). But other kids in his class were off frequently for various bugs.

Totally ridiculous
i wouldn’t attend but I would invite the school to call me to discuss if they really want to

5 days off since September works out at 1 in 12 school days which is quite high really

But you have to think about it in context, which is that we’re only 13ish weeks into the academic year. Of course five days seems like a high percentage of sick days at this point.

Hopefully by Easter there will be fewer viruses flying around, and the present/absent ratio of this child will have changed massively.

Its the schools that insist they stay off 48 hours after vomiting.

Too bloody right they do. It’s bad enough that my son has a new cold every three fucking weeks; if people start playing fast and loose with D&V bugs I’m absolutely screwed.

If attendance is below 90% I would send what we call Attendance letter 1 which just informs you, definitely not a meeting. Attendance isn’t compulsory until the term after the 5th birthday. As an example I send Attendance letter 1, monitor for 3 weeks, send Attendance letter 2, monitor for 3 weeks then ask parents to come in, then it’s just to find out why the pupil isn’t attending & how can we support you. If the parents have been informing school then no need plus like i said only for pupils over 5.

Its the schools that insist they stay off 48 hours after vomiting. Only had to happen twice and theres your 5 days

5 days off since September works out at 1 in 12 school days which is quite high really. Schools regard odd days off here and there as more of a problem than if the child had a serious illness and was out of school for a week in one go, in the same way as employers. At the current rate, she'll have missed 3 weeks by the end of the year, which is a lot considering they're only in school 39 weeks.

They'll want to talk to you about the reasons she's off as most minor illnesses, you're expected to treat symptoms and send them in anyway.

Whether the absences are authorised or not, regardless of your daughter’s academic performance, it’s impacting her attendance figures, and the school have attendance targets to meet, so that’s why they’re trying to address it. Although if she’s in Reception and just turned 5, she won’t be if compulsory school age until January, so it shouldn’t be an issue currently if that’s the case (if she’s year 1 and turning 6 in this school year then it’s different).

Do you have Arbor or any other kind of school portal where you view her attendance %? My daughter has had one day off since September and is on 98.4% attendance, 95.1% in the last four weeks (the day off was this week).

5 days off since September will be severely impacting the annual figures because September was the start of the year. If she has no more days off then by the end of the school year it won’t look so bad, it’s just skewed currently because it’s all been at the start of the year

Personally I do feel like 5 days off since September is a lot - especially when it’s over multiple separate occasions. It would be for me anyway. My 5yo only had this one because she vomited over the weekend and was subject to the 48hr rule, and last year she didn’t have a single day off, but some kids are just more susceptible to illness than others

Not for a couple of days no. Well not more than a quick “are you ok now?”, “yes ok great”

School attendance procedures are usually bonkers and counter productive.

They are not going to improve attendance by going heavy on people who have simply kept their children home who were ill.

But they will alienate parents who are normally supportive of school rules

I got a message near the end of the school year saying my son only had 96% attendance and they needed to archive 97%, I went in and asked how I could of improved that when in addition to only a 2-3 days of illness, 2 lates due to being less than 10 minutes late due to bus shortages (they are counted as half day absent if the are not in before the door shuts at 9am and it is only open for 10 minutes). he had 3 days off when he got concussion falling off a zip line on a school trip, which the school did not inform us about.

Exactly that. Parents are stuffed really - work is king, so they send their sick kids to school when they really should be at home. Sucks for the kids, and for their peers who catch it from them.

This is ridiculous given that it is so hard to get an appointment when you are seriously ill and there is a shortage of GPs.

I think you'll find they just send their sick children into school, making others sick...

”…a slippery slope” for what, exactly? Their child being unwell? How?

That's a week she's missed out of 11 weeks so she's fallen below what's deemed acceptable. For some parents it's the start of a slippery slope, if it carried on for the year she'd have missed three weeks which is a lot. They're just asking you in to get across to you when she can and can't come in to school and the impact it has on friendships and education if it startd to become a habit.
Go along, tick the box and hopefully it'll never happen again.

Illness is the prime reason for absence. What do you think is going to happen to attendance figures when we push sick kids into school and ignore the wide ranging impacts of that? It's certainly not good for kids, teachers or schools (or the workforce generally). It's certainly not good for the kids with long covid now.

I’m so sorry about your child’s accident. One of the reasons I left my job in a school was for something similar, the cover up made me feel sick to the stomach.

My grand daughter has been off way more than 5 days. Her school has a policy that if they are vomiting or have the runs they have to stay off until they are clear for 48 hours.

My child was off school for 3 months following a serious injury that was entirely the fault of the school. The teachers concerned lied and attempted to cover it up. It was a very difficult time. They did not, however, dare to send me a letter about absence. I sent them an update in writing every week, a letter from my gp and the letter from the hospital where the MRI was done.
Not a peep out of them. I assume they lied about the attendance records.