To be annoyed over school attendance letter

Ignore. In year 9 we got a letter as DD’s attendance dipped under 80% due to ongoing illness. She left year 11 with 12 x grade 9’s. I was told I had to provide evidence for any further absences so I told them to go to their office as they sent her home constantly.

Well, nearly - ten minutes would be an L code, so Late but present, over 30 minutes would be a U or an M and absent (either unauthorised or authorised respectively).

If your school isn't doing that, they're making their attendance data look worse than it actually is - might be worth bringing it up with SLT in case they hadn't noticed this.

I've had this email every half term this year for 2 of my 4 children. I ignored it. Their attendance has not improved and nothing has happened because they don't actually want me to send sick children in to pass their germs on they just have to tick a box to say I've had the email.
One of the children had 100% attendance last year and was given an award for that so they know I'm not keeping them off unless it's necessary.

When I used to be a head of year these letters were the bane of my life. The hours wasted on the phone trying to reassure parents that yes, I know their son/daughter was sick, it’s automated, don’t worry, etc.
They’re there purely so that if there are real issues further down the line, they can say you’ve had fair warning. That’s literally it, it’s so the school has a paper trail of communication.

I sent one back detailing each period of illness, which NHS and school guidelines I followed and reassured them I would continue to follow that guidance whenever needed. If there’s a letter on file about it, it’ll be next to one from me that states absolute facts.

If it makes you feel any better I had an email from a college I was attending for a night course, I'm in my 30s and paid for the course myself. They warned me I was putting my place at risk
I basically emailed them back to remind them I was currently getting distinctions and had paid for the course myself. As a grown adult I can decide not to attend a lesson where more important things/illness has cropped up and to not email me regarding my absence again. They said the email was automated. I reminded them that some students would be upset to receive these emails threatening losing their college course if they were in hospital for a few weeks seriously ill and that there should be a process of filtering out communication to students who shouldn't get tied up in the automated email. I passed the course with distinctions in the end dispite not attending 100% of the time I'm sure they accepted my result in their pass rates. I get the need to monitor attendance levels, but complaining for a few days missed for genuine illnesses that the school is aware of just gets silly

They’re basically automated - you can chose whether to get cross about it or not. The school is just following protocol.

Ignore it. It literally does not matter.

Just ignore it - I would.
Keep records of all appointments and illnesses just in case

This has always driven me nuts, especially in primary school when illness is endless and pupil-led truancy is barely a thing.

I'm petty, so I used to write back asking for them to let me know what they are putting in place to ensure school is NOT a hotbed of germs (eg dds used to tell me plenty of kids didn't wash their hands)/what they suggested to improve my child's immune system. I also said that if they wanted my child to go against their own 48 hour policy following sickness etc, to please put it in writing. I then went on to remind them that as a decent person and mother, plus someone whose friend's child had had a heart transplant age 7 and was obviously immunocompromised, regardless of what they wrote I would be keeping my child off when, and only when she wasn't well enough for school.

They are perfectly capable of NOT sending out those letters to families who they know are due to genuine illness that they've been kept informed of. It's not that automated in any primary schools I've worked in or had kids attend.

My friend got one of those letters whilst her ds was actually still in hospital.

She was enraged.

I manage to get all mine seen in the school holidays (but these are routine check ups. For emergencies or treatment I'd expect it may interfere with school)

Write back and query them sending him home & requesting 48 hrs off school after a sickness bug- what should you do going forward?

I have refused to go to any meeting regarding my ds attendance . I told the HT that they are aware of the reasons he’s been off , they’ve had proof and I’m not sitting in a room being told to improve something I have no control over

The way it is worked out is stupid in my opinion.

The absence is calculated by expressing the absence as a percentage of the day's of the school year that have passed, not as a percentage of the entire school year. So if your DC is sick on day 2 of the September term 1 day divided by 2 days gives you 50%. If they have no further sickness then that percentage attendance increases.

It's just a routine, standard letter which takes no account of circumstances. It's not a bad attendance record either. I daresay several children will have had one.

Keep the letter and make a note of reasons next to each date in case attendance is again called into question but I don't think it is anything to worry about.

The letters are automatically and the school have to send them.

We got one recently for DDs attendance being low - after major planned surgery and an extended hospital stay and recovery.

This is one of the reasons Ofsted reform is needed because schools should be able to use their discretion about letters like this, but they cannot currently do so

Yes, I like this. But I would respond to the current e-mail with the points set out by @Punk4ssBookJockey