An attendance meeting at school for 5 days off since September

She becomes compulsory school age the term following her 5th birthday. So if she has turned 5 since September, she isn't of compulsory age until January.
Also if all of the absence is authorised, there's nothing they can do.

Not being funny, but NOT all schools do it in this exact fashion...

The fact there is a discrepancy between schools says enough for me.

Why can't you use Google and differentiate between schools being forced to do this by the powers that be and choosing to do this crap? 🙄

Exactly…

It’s people like you who are the cause of my currently sitting next to my sons beside watching him being stuck with needles for the 7th time in 14 months. Please consider how your actions impact vulnerable children.

Schools aren't obsessed, the idiot government and Ofsted are obsessed and drag us through the mud for it.

After just finishing the entire school journey, we have had many of these meetings! It isn’t because the school want to do them, usually they don’t. The local authority makes them do them. Anything below 95% attendance triggers, they definitely don’t like you going below 90 😬

@Peablockfeathers You have (intentionally?) misunderstood that we WANTED to take the child off roll. We did NOT want that - the child loved being in school when they were able. That was suggested by the family to get the LEA off their back. They had no issue with us and we had no issue with them. The doctors had said he should be able to attend school as and when he felt able and for that reason the EHCP was refused (again NOT by us but by the LEA).

I am sick of this absence obsession in schools .
I relieved a patronising letter regarding my youngest child's absence she had a few bouts of illness close together .
I replied with an eloquent email commenting on each point they made , i take my children's education seriously and if they looked back they would know that from the attendance of her 2 siblings at the same school.
I told them that should she be too ill for school in the future that again she would not be attending as they would not give her the care she needs as she would be genuinely ill not skiving and i will absolutely not be sending my sick child to school.
I ended the email thanking them for their concerns and received a sheepish response.
A 5 year old catches everything all schools know this , its just box ticking to pacify ofsted , i think they go after the soft target 'decent' parents first because they are easier to handle than the gobby feckless ones.

Politely decline and say thanks for the concern but she has been genuinely ill each time. They will do nothing.

They have to do it for every child who triggers the tick box. Happens every autumn term to loads of us parents. They only follow up where there are other indicators for concern.

Mine are past this now but the problem is endemic in our workplaces and schools.

If I am off sick again before March next year, I face a disciplinary as I've had 2 chest infections this year leading to time off.... the 1st time round I rushed back when not well enough and then ended up off again - counted as two separate periods of sickness.

When my dc were small I had the same issue ... be off as they were ill and I'd have been in a disciplinary.

It's crap and the Bradford scale needs cancelling- we need a common sense approach to managing children and adult sickness.

I sent mine back 5 dates after chicken pox - much to other parents disgust as I'd already had 2 weeks off (did caught it from ds)...

Damned if you take time off and damned by other parents if you don't ....

What’s the alternative? Lose my job?

Maybe sending a child in dosed up on calpol when they have a bad cold is part of the problem, not the solution.

I’d attend the meeting and ask why when absences were authorised you have been called in.
5 absences in 3 months does seem a lot tho.

my lg has had one day off in 2 years and that was due to her sister been in hospital.
when she had a bad cold was calpol and into school. I can’t just take the day off work and have her at home

Schools say to keep
them off for 48hrs after last bout of sickness/diarrhea so what are you supposed to do?! Think that’s ridiculous. I would decline and say you have no concerns as children get sick often and unfortunately you can’t control that

I'd just politely decline. There's no reason to have a meeting when your child has been unwell.

Schools can never get the balance right with these. The parents that need intervention aren't going to give one shiny shit about being asked for a meeting. The parents that don't, will.

Haven't read through all the comments, just some but IMO it's bloody ridiculous that we live in a world where as parents we are questioning what we're allowed to do.

She is your child, she was ill, you have better things to do. I would politely but firmly email them to say you don't feel that is necessary, it's not your problem what the school are doing RE the council/government. Who actually give a f?

Again, she's your child, you can do whatever you like. They have no authority.

my dd (14) has had 10 days off so far and attendance is 84.82% I’d ask them if they want you to send her in sick next time

I can't even articulate how abhorrent I find this. And why on earth would you even consider taking a child off role for having cancer unless they were nearly of school leaving age or the parents had not indicated they'd be returning if and when well:

(g)that he is certified by the school medical officer as unlikely to be in a fit state of health to attend school before ceasing to be of compulsory school age, and neither he nor his parent has indicated to the school the intention to continue to attend the school after ceasing to be of compulsory school age;

Schools should be citing the legal guidelines to LEAs who are seemingly unaware of them.

@Peablockfeathers i have read OPs posts and they have not mentioned any ongoing medical conditions which WOULD change things a little. BUT we did have a child undergoing treatment for cancer. They were frequently absent for treatment, for recovery after the treatment, when the cancer simply made them feel unwell (to put it mildly). Naturally we told Mum that we understood BUT the LEA were constantly on at us to hold the necessary meetings with the parents. In they end the LEA started sending the letters directly as we weren’t doing them. We COULD have taken the child off roll but then we may not have had a space for them when they recovered enough to return to school.
Fortunately the family understood that whatever the “paperwork” said we DID understand and would support their child as much as we could.
(The child recently returned to us for work experience and is fit and well).

@HideTheCroissants is right. Patchy attendance can often be the first symptom of something deeper and schools are not being professionally curious if they don't ask a few questions.

5 days out of around 60 is approx 85% attendance. It's not far off a day off every fortnight and it simply is more concerning if it's several instances rather than a solid week off with chicken pox with the fading scars to prove it.

Schools can't make discriminatory judgements based on their own prejudices. They can't give the kid from the leafy suburb a free pass but go steaming in to the kid from the run down estate. Parents need to get over themselves, let schools get on with their job and just communicate.

If someone has an on going condition and there's evidence of medical intervention etc it is ludicrous that common sense can't be applied. It causes so much stress and upset for parents in already stressful situations. I have had parents in tears at work with their poorly children asking when they'll be allowed home as they're scared of being in trouble with the school.

And I am "magically" the one who can be off sick from work for either the odd day/two or weeks on end despite the fact my long-term health conditions / disabilities are invisible...how very dare I?

Tone-deaf my love, tone deaf.
My son has time off reasonably regularly too...but he's 8 & has autism & adhd. Get with the now, this is a new world where we are supposed to be mindful of difference, not fit all the square pegs into round holes.

Thank you, we do use our brain cells but we have to follow policy which is NOT set by me, the head, or the governors but by the LEA (or senior leadership of the MAT) in order to satisfy Ofsted. Ofsted are shit but unfortunately their judgement is considered important by parents - so important that a judgement caused a head teacher to take her own life! There are also safeguarding considerations.
It’s “obvious a child has been ill” - isn’t always obvious. We’ve had children off with chickenpox who have then come to school full of all the fun they had at Centreparcs! When I was a child my school were happy to take my mothers word that I was very sickly and missed a lot of school, or that the doctor had said I was to be excused PE. In fact I was kept off school if the marks were showing outside my clothes and off PE if the marks would only be visible when changing for PE.
At one of our absence meetings we discovered that the mum was calling in sick for her child on days when she hadn’t been able to get the ONE set of school clothes they had dry overnight - we were able to help the family with more uniform, food bank vouchers and signposting to agencies who could help.
It’s about a duty of care to the child and where necessary providing support to the family.