Any education welfare officers out there ?

rainsuncloud
Not sure if that is correct. I still get requests from SLT (an academy school) to explain my 6th former's absences as they need to justify everything to the DofE. On the positive side, once medical evidence has been provided they leave us alone. I do have to provide regular letters though which our surgery has started to charge for.

Can an EWO visit your home without an appointment. Ours has visited twice over the Christmas/New year when our teen was off school. His attendance is really bad but he is unwell and has autism

I have just found out that Academies don't have to report any absentism to the Education Authority and that is probably why I haven't received anything yet. I still might, but I spoke to a lady at Parent Link and this is what she told me.

I had a letter from an EWO when my daughter's attendance was at 92.5%, saying that they informed parents when it went below 95%. I think they were just being overzealous though because I'd also had a letter from them about her lateness, so they'd then pulled all her attendance stats. The school records weren't very accurate though, with several mistakes (e.g. she was marked as late when she was on a school trip, and as ill when she was at a funeral). It was a really snarky letter, full of nasty implications, and we had great fun writing an equally snarky one back, pointing out all the mistakes in the records.

A year later, but my son has been off a lot this school year and I haven't received any letters and no one has called. He was off for whip lash after car crash, off more back problems since then, migraine, flu etc and in total about 20 days, which i know is really bad and apparently only 75% attendance, after reading all these threads it is a bit worrying and I don't know why i haven't received any letters. My DS2 is another matter, but his on a different thread.

Jolene

I would call the school office and ask who you need to speak to about attendance, then fix a meeting. Whilst they have been really heavy handed, there is probably some background unrelated to you that is causing them to be like this. For example, some schools have been marked down by OFSTED for poor attendance stats - if they have had this then the approach they are taking may be the schools reaction (albeit an overreaction). So a friendly chat explaining that you want to resolve things would be my first choice. A good relationship with the school is important for both you and your DD, so that you can approach them easily in the event of future issues where you may need their help.

Jolene - I would contact your local MP and say what you've said here. School are being totally unreasonable, and to be fair I have never heard of schools doing this before with such a low unattendance level. But fight like with like and get formal yourself about the whole thing and go to your MP.

I'd be tempted to write to the Governing Body to ask for a copy of their absence policy.

Jolene - you are correct you do have to ask for permission for your child to be off. It is the head who has the authority to determine whether illnesses are authorised or unauthorised, not you.

Althouth I though children had to miss 63 half days before they were referred to an EWO.

I've just had a quick read round here
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/attendance/laduties/

and it doesn't state anywhere how much time children can have off for reasonable absence before school's take coercive measures. It appears it is left to common sense, which in the case of your school and loumums, seems to have been thrown out of the window.

Greetings,

I am originally from Canada and have grown up in a school environment where the parents told the school when the child would be there and when the child would not be there. In this Country, I've come to realize that you have to 'ask' permission.

I found this out the hard way. We took my daughter out of reception for 1 week more during easter holidays to go on holidays. I notified the school by letter that we would be doing so but only found out upon our return that we would not have authorized absence from the school for doing so.

Each week since the holiday, we received threatening letters from the school stating that they were going to contact the Educational Welfare Officer to discuss attendance issues.

What is wrong with this system? Firstly, the school never once picked up the phone on a personal level to discuss this. Secondly, my daughter was 4 years old. It's not going to affect her in any way. In fact, she will learn more from experiencing another part of the world.

I've come to realize that my daughter represents only a number and status for the school and that the school misleads parents into thinking they actually 'care' about the child but never once sit down to talk to you about it but try to make you think you're a bad parent by threatening you.

I've never heard of anything so ridiculous in all my life. My daughter is healthy, happy, and leagues ahead of her classmates (not that it's a competition). But you can't write a letter telling me she's falling behind because of attendance when she is so far ahead. It only tells me that they don't even know her and that the attendance is not even about her.

Nevertheless, I endured endless letters and the year finally ended. Thankfully.

A new year now and I've again received another letter. This time, they will contact the Educational Welfare Officer. My daughter has been on/off ill since September and has missed 6 days of school (so they say). This doesn't seem like a lot to me considering all the flu bugs going around. I am thankful it's not been more than that.

I am tormented by these letters. It drives me crazy knowing that they don't even give a toss and treat me like I'm a careless parent.

It's annoying and totally disappointing to me that my daughter is part of a system that doesn't really care. It's just about numbers.

As it turns out, I have to take my daughter out of school for 2 weeks as my mother is unwell and I have to go home to Canada to see her. I don't know how to approach the school about this.

Any help guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

None. It would have to go to court, and the LEA would have to produce evidence.

What legal authority would a LEA have to fine a parent for a child being ill?

The Educational Welfare officer should be trying to find solutions to problems, but they seem very selective in choosing which children to help and support.

In my opinion, it is EWOs who should all be sacked by local authorities trying to cut their budgets.

Seriously lou - if it's just been 10 school days since September I wouldn't give it another thought. And the Education Act says you can't be guilty of an offence if your child is prevented from attending school due to illness.

Oh absolutely cory.

I do have to say that in the last couple of years OFSTED have got to grips with the fact that schools need to challenge and support so whilst a poor attendance record will prevent an 'outstanding' the judgement isn't limited to just the figures; the safeguardingpastoral aspect is considered too.

My current bugbear is that my hugely multicultural school with children who rightly take time off for religious festivals can in no way compete in the attendance stakes with the school up the road who have a wholly white Britsh intake. Absences on religious groundsaren't disregarded by the DCFS and we have to carry it. We cannot, due to our multicultural intake, meet their required attendance standard. It's a bit rubbish really.

"The problem is that the parents who do sit up and take notice or get worried about them aren't the ones the school/EWO has an issue with."

That does depend on the individual school or EWO though,saggermaker. From dd's headteacher we had such wonderful comments as "yes, we do realise Corydd is ill, but you can't expect us to be happy about it. He tried hard to bully us into changing schools, even suggesting that dd ought to attend a special school (only special schools around here cater for children with severe learning difficulties: dd is g&t, but has a bad back). His sole motivation was to get shot of a child who was pulling his attendance record down as he had set his heart on an Outstanding at the next Ofsted and the school's attendance wasn't good enough. He bullied all families with medical problems/long hospital stays. Most EWOs were fine and stood up to him, but the last one we saw was very inexperienced and basically did whatever he told her.

So I would definitely say that school had an issue with even very conscientious parents. Still, there was no prosecution- and if there had been, we had quite enough paperwork to impress the court; in fact, we did at one point threaten to sue the school and would have done so had the head not been due to retire.

But I don't think ours is a typical case, and even in our case the EWOs were far saner and more understanding than the school.

I agree cory. TBH that's the point of the letters; to get you to sit up and take notice. The problem is that the parents who do sit up and take notice or get worried about them aren't the ones the school/EWO has an issue with. Some parents are unreachable frankly

Ime the standard letter (or even the personalised-but-still-standard-letter) with the threat will go out a long time before you are actually at risk of fines or prosecution. We have had alot of attendance problems over the year, with the added bonus for several years of a ghastly headteacher who refused to accept letters from paediatrician and hospital as evidence that dd could not help her absences. And even so, we have never been prosecuted or paid a fine.

Basically, the EWO will only prosecute as a last resort, after they have exhausted more civilised options. So as long as you can show them that you are taking attendance seriously, that you are willing to work with them and discuss any ways to improve the situation- you'll be fine.

The letters sound a lot scarier than they are.

We start proceedings at less than 80% attendance but preceding that there would be;

Letters advising of your child's percentage
Letters advising of an increase in absence and enquiring wrt to underlying illness, offering help and contact with school nurse/community paed
Request to attend attendance meeting/possible home visit depending on no show at meetings or lack of contact
Penalty warning notice ; basically a legal notice to improve usually requiring full attendance during the next 20 days.

School is unlikely (unable really) to go to the fine stage if you can evidence illness.

In your situation any letter you have received is basically a standard advisory letter. School have to let you know your child's attendance if it is below certain levels. They have to challenge parents with regard to falling attendance because it's the only way to sort the parents that condone poor attendance from those that don't. They have to tell you the consequences of poor attendance otherwise any subsequent court proceedings (which won't happen in your case) would fall down as parents will claim that they were not advised what would happen if the attendance didn't improve.

If you child doesn't have a history of poor attendance with no good reason you have northing to worry about. Honest

Two weeks over how long? I'm a bit puzzled that you have had a lot of letters about 2 weeks - did you send notes in with him when he went back?

How much school has he missed?

HAve you got medical evidence e.g. letter from the doctor/specialist saying your child cannot be in school?