To be annoyed over school attendance letter

And when exactly was it that you were able to make these appointments at the time that suits you. Unless you pay for private you have to happily take whatever is offered to you and for the vanishingly few number of NHS dentist appointments still available they do not tend to offer the prime time after school/weekend/school hols as they know their private patients want them.

These letter really annoy me. My DD has a disease which requires her to be admitted to hospital once every six weeks for drug infusions. She also has to have additional appts with various consultants to check her treatment plan.

School know all this and yet they sent me a letter threatening to report us to social services if her attendance percentage went below 90%

I pointed out to school that I would also be reported to social services if she didn't attend her medical appointments so what the hell was I supposed to do!

There was a school in my county a few years back trying to do a big crackdown on absence, and they sent out a letter to all the parents which included telling them there was no need to stick to the 48 hour rule after a vomiting bug and if the child seemed well, just send them back into school. At least one parent put in a complaint.

We are one of the honoured few NHS patients at our dentists. The dental surgery is slowly, slowly going more and more private. If you are an NHS patient you are given a day, a time and a dentist- no choice. Refusing the appointment or not turning up leads to you been kicked off the NHS list and only added back on as a private patient. Mornings before 9am, Afternoons after 4pm, Saturday morning appointments and school holidays appointments are for private patients only. All NHS patients are seen between 9.30 and 3.30 Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays term time only. As an NHS patient you must ring up 3 months before your next appointment to book in, you will get no reminder when you need to book in and if you don't book in then you are removed. If you are a private patient, you can book your next appointment before you leave your current appointment, you get a reminder by text the week before and then a reminder the day before. You can chose any day or time you like.

I hate this approach, it's just ridiculous.

Do they really think that the crap parents who can't be arsed to take their kids to school are going to be bothered by a letter? Of course they're not! It's the good parents whose children Jave missed school for no fault of their own who are going to feel stressed and judged by it.

But the parents who take their kids on holiday in term time or just can't be arsed to take them to school aren't going to be at all bothered by these letters. But to tell parents of a sick or emotionally struggling child that they are a crap parent and need to start doing better immediately or be prosecuted as they are destroying their child's life - thats absolutely soul destroying. Battering a parent's mental health isn't actually helping the child. It's very clear now that attendance numbers trump welfare concerns regardless of circumstances.

To the OP - absolutely ignore, you won't get a sensible conversation with anyone in the school on this point. Just bin any and all attendance letters.

I think you are being OTT to be “outraged”.
These are generic, automatic letters. School attendance is important and when it drops below certain levels attainment suffers.
There are, sadly, some feckless parents who simply keep their children at home because they can’t be bothered to bring them in, or keep them at home for very minor issues. The letters are aimed at parents like these.
OP your child has been off for genuine illness, you know his absences were justified, school know they were justified.
I’m sure everyone can see the benefit of encouraging certain parents to get their children to school - these children are vulnerable and low attaining as a result if their absences. The letters are one part of the jigsaw in improving vulnerable children’s attendance.

OP clearly values education. So this is just a dick comment really.

DD high school recommended this. I thought I have read the letter wrong as they end up missing more school this way.
we are lucky to have an nhs dentist who does an evening surgery but I’m guessing not many people are that fortunate. OP ignore and file in the bin.

I think they have to send them if attendance falls below a certain level, so they can show they are trying to improve attendance.

We had one because attendance had dropped below 95 %. There had been one day off for a hospital appointment, but it was middle of September, so not that many days into the term, which made more of a difference in the percentage. Seemed a bit daft to have sent it after 1 day being missed but I suppose difficult to determine a cut off.

We couldn't refuse the hospital appointment or request a different time. It was offered the day before because there was a cancellation, abd if not taken would have been 7 months for another one.

It'll just be an automatic letter but its really not the way to deal with absences. My DD has missed 13 days of school this year due to illness (plus several lessons for appointments), the school's response (well, her teacher's response) is to ask if she needs any help and now she's getting an appointment with the school curator (pastoral support person) and the school nurse to see if stress is causing her to be ill so much and if so, how the stress can be reduced. So no negativity which would only cause more stress but actions to try and reduce absences.

But don't be outraged it's only admin.
It really isn't personal.

They are obliged to send those letters.

Further action is sometimes just offering you a school nurse check over or if you need additional help.

Try not to overthink it or let if feel bigger than it is. It's a statistic.

School sent my son home constantly in the post lock down time and sent me one of those letters.

Really? Last time I booked a routine appointment for DS the first appointment they had available was three months later in term time.

It’s an automatic letter. Bin it. My daughters attendance is around the 50% mark and they keep saying they’ll have no choice but to fine us (because that’ll help her get over her anxiety and depression) but as yet nothing.

Arrange dentist appointments so they don't miss registration. I know it's crazy because that way they miss potentially more lessons. All that matters is your DC is at registration. It doesn't matter if they leave immediately afterwards.

Fab, I'm sure OP can easily make an appointment with your dentist in whatever decade you're talking about, rather than the one she's got in the teetering world of NHS dentistry in 2025.

Well, first of all, stop making dentist appointments during school time, FFS. What's wrong with 4pm, which is when we always had our appointments.
Take note that his education is important, and don't keep him off school for trivial illnesses.

They are a requirement from the local authority to be generated and won't take into account individual circumstances.
That said, the only next steps that they will take providing further absence is authorised is an attendance meeting usually with the head and an attendance officer from your local authority. I had this with my DD who caught bug after bug one year and her attendance went to 90%. I just explained what illnesses she'd had and when- they didn't do anything and it was a pointless meeting but it's to try and catch those children that would otherwise slip through the net. Ridiculous approach though and a waste of money!
I really wouldn't worry.

The MAT may change their minds if they realise that it's perfectly legal to record a late if registers stay open for 30 minutes and this would avoid the arguably more disruptive issue of people leaving for more of the day.

Or they might not, maybe they like having attendance figures look worse than they need to be so they can change their minds at a certain point to show 'improvement'? <shrugs from experience of them going ballistic over a 'decline' in attendance/increase in both types of absence when they refused to listen until somebody more important a man told them>.

Just ignore it, OP. Why get so emotional about it?

L is lateness before registers close. Our registers close after 10 minutes (as designated by the MAT and the LA before we joined the MAT) so after 10 minutes we give the M code as that is an authorised absence. Some parents / carers are under the impression that authorised means it doesn’t count in the absence figure but it does.
We encourage our parents to use the “revolving door” method mentioned up thread and explain why.

You need to provide evidence of dental and medical appointments.