Do you agree the school completely messed up ?

Hats off to you Lorna being pastoral. I inwardly salute all our pastoral staff.

Attendance is a funny thing and seems to drag up the 'my case is special' side of some MNusers. This thread has stayed pretty good. Admittedly it probably helps OPs school was so far out of line.

Sorry if I've got it wrong on the big MAT things. Near me, the school's that have recently been eaten up by big MATS are the ones who seems to keep turning up in local chatter for one reason or another (often where parents dislike the fact there's rules being enforced that their child has to follow. But some where strict has gone too far according to the grapevine).

Whereas I'm in an academy (stand alone) that's been historically great, and still is. The level of discretion we show to different circumstances is amazing. I wonder whether us being a stand alone school that's not stressing about ofsted as such makes a difference.
Possibly! I'm in an academy which is part of a fairly large MAT. I think we show a lot of discretion and judge each case on it's merits, although are quite 'tight' on day to day attendance. I wouldn't say we stress about ofsted generally but our attendance data (I'm pastoral) is a constant stressor - trying to get that balance between being compassionate/lenient (and taking the word of each parent as true), and the pressures around data. Urgh. It's horrible!!

LornaD40
Yes. Our attendance person does most of the codes. We put N if they aren't in our lesson and attendance person picks up any N on the register, chases them and updates the register. Makes it easy for them to filter rather than us putting unauthorised when actually it has been and we just don't know as classroom staff.

It really isn't straightforward and I don't think it is fair to blame academies for being worse - they are often schools that have previously being failing and attendance will often have been poor.
That's why I asked about big academy chains because often they go into challenging schools and tend to offer less leeway on things.
Whereas I'm in an academy (stand alone) that's been historically great, and still is. The level of discretion we show to different circumstances is amazing. I wonder whether us being a stand alone school that's not stressing about ofsted as such makes a difference.

It will either be coded C or O - register shouldn't be left as N (attendance officer or whoever in that role will decide and amend).

Out of interest is it a free school or part of a large academy chain? Those types of school seem to be worse for things like that.

I'm not sure on this. All schools are under huge pressure and attendance is part of this. Poor attendance = poor ofsted (potentially) and this is going to impact a school's reputation and in turn whether you perceive it as a 'good' school and want to send your child there.

It really isn't straightforward and I don't think it is fair to blame academies for being worse - they are often schools that have previously being failing and attendance will often have been poor.

And afaik some of the codes are t counted in statistics. I know for educated off site for example it's not - they used that when my ds was attending a course for his sensory processing rather than M for medical. Because he was being educated technically!

They could probably have put it down as Code C Leave of absence authorised by the school.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance

Basically when we do registers there's different letters/signs we put in.
E.g. Most of the time it's either / (present) L (late) or N (not present).

But there are different letters that can be put in for different circumstances. E.g. somebody in my form brings me a note saying that Thursday morning they have a hospital appointment then I mark them as M (medical).
If a child is off poorly they get the letter for illness and there are other ones e.g. educated off site, dual registration, sporting event, school trip etc. Usually the school's attendance person will deal with those so they're already on when I come to take my register. Your average class teacher tends not to do those. But there's one for authorised absence and there's one for unauthorised absence.

They're the same list that's been in every school I've worked in. So your school will have the option of putting it down as authorised. They just have to be able to justify it when/if there is an inspection or audit for attendance.

Disgraceful behaviour on part of the school. I am very strict in absences but this is a total no brainier. Should be providing support where needed for losing a grandparent. Not creating new non-problems about absence.

Alonggoesthetit
That is awful!
Out of interest is it a free school or part of a large academy chain? Those types of school seem to be worse for things like that.

The thing to remember is that there are about 15 different attendance codes which they WILL use e.g. if they want a child educating off site/school trip/ illness/ medical app / other authorised/dual registration etc.
It sounds like they'll be using the other codes with the kids it suits them to not have on site

Actually i really don't think they'd behave like this though. They seem normal and nice

The teachers at dd's school seem quite reasonable so far, although I suppose you might not know until something had happened to test this out. Eldest is only year 8 though so we'll see.

From what I've seen locally Raspberry it doesn't surprise me - sadly.

Some common sense and compassion has completely gone out of the window in some schools.

Ironically the one ds now attends who is far more relaxed has better behaviour and better attendance and better results.

And by relaxed I don't mean soft - they have high eclecticism and clear and consistent consequences.

The mind boggles at the thought of a school giving 15 hours detention because they were spending time with their dying grandpa.

Astro55
I'm not saying the school was right in this situation. They weren't. They acted appallingly.

I'm staying fact which is that schools do not need parental consent to run detentions as long as it is clear that detentions are part of their behaviour policy. That's the law.

You said parents can outright refuse detentions and schools can't do anything. That's not true.

It is an entirely separate issue to the OP situation where she should be taking formal complaints against the school for the way they classified this absence and their subsequent actions.

IF THEY BEHAVE BADLY

I'm not sure where this is copied from but schools have the right to regard taking unauthorised time off school as "behaving badly" and impose sanctions. I think the deputy head's threat of 15 hours detention was unreasonable and unlikely to be followed through but the school could have imposed a punishment if the OP's child had not returned after the authorised half day off.

*Schools can punish pupils if they behave badly.

Examples of punishments (sometimes called ‘sanctions’) include:

a telling-off
a letter home
removal from a class or group
confiscating something inappropriate for school , eg mobile phone or MP3 player
detention

IF THEY BEHAVE BADLY

My mum has been a teacher for over 40 years. She said the past decade has seen leaders come in having gone on leadership courses who do run a school like an office full of 100/1000's staff. She said the same thing about them following manuals!
She said gone are the days of HT etc being experienced teachers who can run schools through knowledge and experience (partly because the job is so difficult nowadays many in their 50's don't want to take that on) and now you get 30 year olds as leaders who have only been qualified for a few years and who's sole leadership experience is a course. She said leaders are great at paperwork nowadays - very few are the inspirational motivating teachers who've take the next step up the ladder as a natural career progression.

But I've found schools in general have lost their pastoral care of the staff.

SparkleSoiree
The school have behaved awfully. I'd be willing to bet that it's probably staffed with inexperienced leaders who need a crib sheet to make decisions because they lack the sense to use the discretion that they have.

They probably justify it to themselves as "being tough". It's a total joke and the OP absolutely needs to go through formal complaints proceedings for it.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I'm also sorry that your DS is so stressed about ensuring no rules are broken at school. I understand about following rules but kids shouldn't be scared or anxious in that way.

But I have to ask, if the passing of a family member, parent at that, does not construe exceptional circumstances, then what the heck does?!

I am sorry for your loss and the way you were all treated.
Deputy head completely screwed up. I would ask to see the school pastoral guidelines and also the curriculum for PHSE which should cover emotional well-being and mental health. Then politely ask how the DT's decision & threats embodied any of that.

I haven't read the whole thread. However, looking at your posts, I would definitely lodge a complaint about the deputy head's behaviour on the following grounds:

• He said it was illegal to authorise this absence. That is wrong. Absence can be authorised in exceptional circumstances. The school has discretion to decide what is exceptional. He chose not to exercise that discretion but clearly it would not have been illegal for him to do so. Whether or not he should have authorised the full 2.5 days is another matter. Personally I think he was unreasonable not to authorise at least 1 or 1.5 days given the circumstances.

• He said you would be fined if you took your son out of school unauthorised. Without knowing which LA you are in it is impossible to be sure but that is almost certainly a lie. The school has to follow the LA's code of conduct on fines. Most require at least 5 unauthorised days of in one term or 7 over two terms before a fine can be imposed.

• He said your son would be regarded as a truant. Whilst that is technically true it was a very insensitive thing to say to you and your son given the circumstances.

• He said the school would impose 15 hours detention. That is clearly excessive. It is more than the amount of teaching time your son would have missed. I doubt the school would actually have followed through on this.

It sounds to me like he bullied you and your son. I would make that the focus of your complaint.

Oh good. That makes sense then.

Astro55
You can't refuse detentions unilaterally. Fact. If you want to refuse detentions then the school just moves through the behaviour policy with the child. If that means being suspended then it means suspension.
The laws say schools can use detentions and don't need parental consent.
They just have to make it clear that school policy includes detentions. That way if parents want to think their kid is too precious for detection they know not to send their kid there.

Can see how some kids are under the impression that sanctions never apply to them when you have adults denying the law.