An attendance meeting at school for 5 days off since September

Education is compulsory - school is not. This is in the education act.
Remember this when dealing with the school this is school policy so they look good for ofsted.
While they are harassing you for genuine illness - I bet there are other kids who have worse attendance but their parents don't engage with the school so they don't tackle it .

I had one of these, said it would have to be after 5.30pm when I finish work. Didn't hear back 😬

And they wonder why the trust capital between parents and teachers is completely spent?

I wouldn’t go. I would compose an email reiterating her time off and reasons for the authorised absences.
As time goes on the percentage for attendance will increase. It’s just bad luck that it’s fallen below the threshold with it being the first term of the school year.

Your child is sick, you keep them home and look after them.
( as you did) If a school doesn’t like that tell them to fuck off clean up after you send your vomiting child into school.
British schools are beyond belief, no common sense whatsoever. Obsessed with ticking boxes.

Back in Ye Olde Days I missed around 15% of my schooling for years due to endometriosis( not diagnosed at the time due to having crap GPs). Nobody at school gave a stuff about it. Nor did my useless and often rude GPs.
I suppose it's a good thing they're taking an interest. But I hope they make the process one of concern, and not like it's a summons for a disciplinary.

You must have been super lucky! My nursery age child has already had 9 days off since Sept (fever for 3 days, another fever for 4 days and vomiting bug for 2 days), all following the nursery’s exclusion policy (24 hr for fever, 48 hr for vomiting).

As an adult you are able to make decisions about your own wellness & balance up things like risk to others etc.

Children cannot properly articulate their level of illness & so you make decisions for them. If your children were ill & you sent them in when they should have stayed home you will have unnecessarily spread that illness & then eventually it hits that person for whom it's much more serious. That's the point of vaccinations & guidelines for various sicknesses with returning to school/work after d&v. And with good reason! You send a child into school with something short-lived l, in terms of active illness, ike norovirus & you've got a huge (messy!) issue on your hands.

Wtf? Only SAHP do this? What a twattish comment. It's like saying only working parents send really sick kids in.

I personally think 5 days off since they went back is a lot. My daughter hasn’t had a day off (year 1) she goes in if she’s feeling a bit unwell (obviously not a temp or being sick) but by the time she gets there she’s usually fine. They will call if they need to be picked up. My daughter didn’t have 1 day off in reception and she had 2 days off in pre school cos she had chicken pox at the end of the term…

How incredibly overbearing - sickness policy at DD's school is much more sensible.

If your child has vomiting or diarrhoea, they should not return to school until a minimum of 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. If they have a temperature, they should remain at home until the temperature has remained in normal range without the use of paracetamol or ibuprofen for a minimum of 24 hours. If your child has been poorly and has not yet begun to eat and drink well, please give them that extra day so that they are fully fit to return.

I think they are being ridiculous especially at this time of the year but my ds is a sickly child and picks up everything going.
I think he gets a cold at least once every 2 weeks, 4 weeks ago he had a bug with a temp that lasted 4 days Monday to Thursday so was kept off school all week.
So 5 days for a 5 year old is a bit silly.. What are you supposed to do send in a sick child? They just spread the sickness and get sent home anyway, then you have an even worse attendance problem.

5 seperate occurances is quite a lot to be off in 3 months.

I wouldn't worry about it, it'll just be a tick box exercise for them. A certain number of occurances will trigger a process for them. Go to the meeting, just tell them the truth that she had a cold on this day, was throwing up this day etc.

Stuff like this is to try and catch issues, make sure kids with home life issues don't slip through the cracks. However in order to do that you sometimes end up inconveniencing parents of kids who are fine. Annoying, but better than the alternative.

"Try"? My god, that's awful. So the poorly children are encouraged to come in and spread snot and vomit everywhere before returning home? So instead of them being off for a couple of days, the whole class ends up ill? That's absolutely insane.

Last month me and DD (11) were struck down with covid, it was genuinely the most Ill I have ever felt. On the 3rd day of dds absence from school, the attendance officer came to complete a home visit, banging on the door until I dragged myself out of bed to see what was going on whilst he stood demanding that I bring dd to the window for me to prove we were not on holiday. In the midst of covid I was incandescent with rage.
But once I started to get better and calmed down about the whole thing I started to remember that some children who don’t attend school can be facing a safeguarding issue and for the most part, whilst this felt a little over zealous, most of these policies have been put in place because of a child that slipped through the net. I was glad that someone is looking out for these children and hopefully doing something to keep them safe. So while they do feel over the top, they are designed to make sure children don’t slip through the net not to penalise those with genuine reasons for absence.

5 days since September gives an approximate attendance of 90%. It's only the first term of Reception so it'll have been flagged by the school as a potential problem and something that they want to keep on top of.

The school don't know whether this is the only 5 days off that your DD will have in the whole of junior school or whether it's the start of a pattern that means she'll have had 6 weeks off sick by the end of the school year.

Go to the meeting, show willing to understand the school's approach to attendance, explain why she's been sick etc. They don't know you or your daughter well yet and will also want to ensure that they're doing the appropriate safeguarding checks just in case.

Not sure I would call it lucky, don't think my DC have had less bugs than anyone else's but I don't think it's a very good life lesson to teach, you just don't go to school or work or whatever else it may by anytime you feel a little under the weather. We also need the circulation of bugs in children to build their immune systems.

I had this is secondary school.
They wanted a meeting with me, form tutor, head of year, head of House and attendance officer.
I told them they were barking and the easiest way to bring attendance up is to let them come home when they I'll rather than me keeping them at home because the school won't send them home if needs be.
Schools are in dire straights and they waste time on pointless stuff like this.

I would go to the meeting to keep the peace with school. Politely point out that 5 days off school in the first term (assuming 8 weeks) equates to 88% attendance, but if it was 5 days off throughout the whole year then her attendance figure would be 97%. Any sick days at the start of the school year drastically skews the percentage and it's no indicator of poor attendance at all.
I'm a governor at a primary and they are obsessed with attendance and data, but in reality the staff have common sense and don't want sick children in school. They're stuck between this and ticking the boxes.

Absolutely ludicrous. Particularly the current crop of 4/5 year olds - I have one and she has been ill a lot more than her elder brother was at the same age because she didn’t get sick at all from age 1-3 because of Covid isolation measures. Their immune systems are just catching up.

I would go to the meeting, be polite and not give it a further thought.

Send an email asking them to confirm why they want a meeting to discuss authorised sickness absences. Then they'll probably list the % absence rate which you missed in the conversation.
Most schools have a standard procedure that when absence falls below a certain % they ask for a meeting. As a PP said it's a tick box exercise. Our DC were ill a lot - and every now and again we'd get this.

It seems silly. Last year my daughter was sick and on antibiotics for 4 days right at the beginning of the school year, so it took a couple of weeks for her attendance to be over 50% 😂 she was in no state to go in though! Didn’t get any meetings but she wasn’t 5 yet so that may be why.

Anyway, they know your reasons for absence, so it will be a tickbox exercise. Don’t stress. Reminds me of the form I have to fill in with my manager after a sickness episode. One of the questions is “what can you do to prevent further absence?” I always answer I’ll do my best not to get sneezed in the face by my children get ill 🙄🤷🏻‍♀️

5 days off since 1st September gives about a 92% attendance (just an estimate using 1st September as a start date so it's probably lower than 92%). Once it hits a certain % they'll have a protocol to follow. It's frustrating but they have to show they're doing something about it

I'd just email back so you can keep the record and say something along the lines of x has only been home when they've been too poorly to be at school or because I'm sticking to guidance following a stomach bug, I trust this is sufficient explanation and do not feel a meeting would be beneficial.

DS was off a lot when he started school, a cold would often hospitalise him even though we were under a consultant and he had preventative meds. I got really annoyed when we consistently got hounded after I'd provided letters from the hospital and proof of admissions etc. Eventually agreed to a meeting and said an action point is to ensure no other child comes to school with a cold which is unfair/unrealistic so something I'm sure you won't enforce- the offshoot is that DS will be off when he's too poorly and requiring regular meds. They soon stopped going on about it.

I know there are safeguarding concerns with some children who are off a lot and so they should follow it up, and I acknowledge that they are under pressure from councils and ofsted, but honestly when they won't accept they are ill it's annoying.

If your child is in reception they don't have to be in school period until January.

It would be better for your relationship with the school if you comply with their box ticking exercise.

Schools prefer children not to be ill as they are penalised for poor attendance, so they in turn penalise children and parents. Really everyone knows children get ill and it can not be helped.