85 percent school attendance. What will happen?

[Kagb12]

Ds (year 6) has not had a day off school since jan but had a bad run between September - January of illnesses including covid in which he had the 2 weeks off just before Christmas . As well as a nasty cold/cough/chest infection in November, which was the week his class were on residential so anyway he was off school and didn't miss any learning apart from the residential.

in January he had a bug with sickness and diarrhoea and missed 3 days off school.

theu were things that I couldn't have sent him in with.

this has amounted to 85 attendance, with no days off since January as not been ill at all since.

i hear all sorts of stories how people are threatened with letters and welfare officers etc. Does it actually happen? Will they look at it and see that although his attendance dropped, he's not had any time off since.

also, in previous school years his attendance has been in the high 90 percents. One year he even had full attendance. It's just the first term of year 6 he was extremely unfortunate to get ill.

dd's attendance can't be much better as she's had covid twice in the last year school but slightly less time off school with it as she caught it first just before Christmas and again 6 weeks later but she was negative within 5 days the second time. So not as much time off school as Ds. But no one has mentioned her attendance.

neither have had a single day off since January apart from Dd who left early for a hospital appointment.

to add he has sen and an EHCP. His attendance is listed as 84 percent on his EHCP, will it reflect badly on there?

I just feel crap. I don't keep them off for no reason. Feel like can't win either way. Shouldn't send them in ill but attendance should be kept at a reasonable level.

Don’t feel bad. My DC have had attendance well below that due to disability/chronic health conditions. My one DC is actually running at 63% attendance for the year, but it cannot be helped and she does a lot of work from bed to keep up. The most that might happen is an attendance officer might call you and request a meeting to see if you need any support. It’s to get to the bottom of a pattern of low attendance really to ensure it’s not you failing to get children to school. But once you explain as you have above, it will be fine.

The reason most schools are hot on attendance is it is an Ofsted measure that impacts their rating. Only the very good schools are more accommodating because they don’t need high attendance rates to boost their Ofsted rating.

So long as you are in contact with the school and they know it's for genuine reasons, I wouldn't expect there to be any comeback. DS's attendance has been dreadful since January, he's had all sorts but it's certainly not his or my choice for him to be off.

Attendance generally has really been hit by covid and the resurgence of other bugs, so I am sure we are not alone.

Ps, I hope your DS stays well and that you don't feel too bad.

I think if they were going to moan about attendance in the autumn term they'd have done it by now.

I know it's impossible not to feel guilty. DD's attendance this year is ~75%. (Last year it was 0%, but before covid it was always 97-100%.) I know DD can't attend better than she has been this year, but I still feel bad about it.

Please do not give this a second thought.

Your dc have been off for covid and d&v.

Many, many dc will have similar - or worse! - attendance this year now the DfE have decided to include covid in school absence figures.

If it is mentioned at his next ehcp review just make sure you have all the dates and reasons for absence to hand.

If the school Have authorised the absences nothing will happen. Action is only taken for unauthorised absences. Even if they haven't been, it may be monitored but that's it. Don't worry.

Nothing will happen.

You are possibly creating drama where there isn't any.
If he was ill, he was ill and you're secure in that knowledge.
There will probably be some kind of contact over an 85% attendance rate, because facts show that attendance at that level or below points to less education and usually a poorer school outcome.
The best you can do is try to help him catch up on what he has missed, so he can thrive when he gets to Yr7.

We had exactly the same. Similar story, Covid and then weakened immune system every virus going. Primary school aware but still had to send letter and ask for interview as part of procedure. Headteacher understanding and just had a little chat!

Thanks all! I know I probably worry over nothing but the school always makes you feel bad about not sending them in but also not wanting them in when ill - not that I would send them in when too poorly of course!

In primary school I doubt anything will happen. There’s children my DC tell me about who barely seem to go in, one had a day off to celebrate a deceased cousin’s birthday who died years before she was even born for example. Baffling but there you go. Your child was genuinely sick, it can’t be helped. I think my DC’s was around 90% in their first year at school because they kept catching illnesses like chicken pox, stomach bugs etc and the worst that happened was a bit of whinging on the end of year report.

I used to work in attendance and student welfare.

We’d have had a meeting with you to set up a pupil support plan. It would have read something like:

Fred’s attendance dropped to 85% due to illness. Fred to ask teacher for help if there are things he does not understand. If Fred’s attendance drops below 80% a second meeting will occur to ensure Fred can access all the curriculum.

The meeting would have been tick box exercise as we knew why he was off, but the standard letters and meetings had to be done for our records/governors/safeguarding. It would be different if there was a different reason for the drop in attendance though.

DS's first year of school was a bit like that too. He got chicken pox, numerous bugs and colds and his attendance was around 90 j believe. Since then it's been pretty good, but this year he's just been unfortunate with covid and other illnesses. I don't feel he's missed a huge deal of learning. In November he had 5 days off with a bad chest but his class were ok residential anyway so he didn't miss class room time(he didn't want to go residential anyway!). Covid he got in the 2 weeks of term before Christmas, although it totally sucked to miss that period before Christmas, it was the end of term. When he got D&V half the school also had covid and barely any teachers were in anyway! He's been there for all the important bits!

I wouldn't worry, I think since the pandemic schools have been a bit more understanding with absences.

Someone I know has taken her child out of school during term time for holidays on 5 or 6 occasions just this school year, and the school haven't said a word. That's on top of genuine illness absences too, for which there have been a few (they've had at least 2 weeks off with covid). Their attendance must be absolutely shocking. I wonder how they don't know, not many 7 year olds would keep that many holidays a secret.

For as long as the school insist children cannot attend with covid, they have to deal with the change in attendance that this brings.

In many children, the difference in symptoms between a cold and covid is impossible to see - yet if a test tells them it's covid they have to have a lengthy absence, when they may not have even take one day off with a cold.

This is out of your control and is bound, overall, to have an impact on attendance.

I'd suspect average attendances are commonly below average this year, partly Covid isolations in the first half of the year, but also just poor immunity to everything else after two years. We seem to be in a particularly enthusuastic chicken pox season at present as so many younger children are being exposed under normal conditions for the first time or since they were very young.

DS had 100% last year but between a half term where he was constantly in and out with horrid disgestive cramps that took weeks to resolve with medication, and a short-ish Covid isolation, he's probably missed as many sessions this year as he had in the previous 4 put together!