Schools putting pressure on students for good attendance.

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Secondary schools! I get it, they want children to have good attendance, I don’t disagree but my sons school read out their attendance level in form time and discuss it in front of others and get told to do better.

ds is in mainstream secondary, he is also autistic and needs to be moved to a SEN school but not enough places where I live. He’s doing okay in secondary socially but academically very delayed.he is high masking at school and eager to please so really worries about his attendance.

anyway, ds’s attendance has dropped to 70 something percent! Let me explain…

2 days this year he’s been sent home by the school as ds was too anxious and was in emotional shut down and they couldn’t meet his needs. He behaves at school but struggles still.

last month he had a chest infection. He was really poorly, 40 temp, of food, fatigue and on antibiotics. He was so ill and had the whole week off. He was weak and couldn’t possibly go in.

he’s also had 3 hospital appointments. Right in the middle of the day and hospital is an hour away so missed the whole day. I sent them appointment letters. One was for camhs due to having anxiety and ocd and finally getting an app with them and the others some tests at the hospital.

more recently he’s had a cold and had 2 days off. He was told he should have come in with a cold but with ds’s sensory needs he really struggles with the feel of a blocked nose and rubs his face raw where it bleeds. He needs to be kept home for his and the schools sanity until the worse is over. This was just 2 days recently.

so anyway, he’s been told he needs to work harder to come to school and should come to school even when poorly.

I don’t keep him off for no reason. I don’t want him off!

would you send an email to form tutor to say that his attendance is unfortunate but nothing we could have done differently?!

he is so upset as he’s so eager to please at school.

Government putting pressure on LA’s and schools.

Just keep in mind, the generally ( and not a dig at you) there are issues, around high absencevrates, especially in secondary where attendance sits at about 90%. That is a lot of children, missing a lot of school. Not good for their future and not good for children that need to be kept safe.

Government guidance. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance

The additional guidance will be useful to you too OP.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-issues-affecting-a-pupils-attendance-guidance-for-schools

When students are absent from school they are missing out on learning whatever was taught in the lessons on that day (obviously). As well as being a problem for the students it is a problem for the teachers, especially in subjects that build on what was taught the previous lesson. Maths, for example, is a particular problem. If today's lesson depends on the students knowing what was taught yesterday then anyone who missed it is stuck, and likely to need extra help from the teacher, which reduces the teacher time available to help others who do attend regularly. I am not surprised that the issue of several odd days off for hospital appointments and two days off for a cold has been commented on. There is a strong correlation between attendance and attainment, which is not surprising but it sometimes seems to be forgotten by indignant parents who are insistent that their DC's absences were justifed.

Absences can be justified AND it be true that higher absence rates damage attainment. Some absences are unavoidable, some are not. For the OP, the absences were unavoidable. Pressurising an autistic child who already suffers from anxiety is not the way to improve that child's attendance.

Yes you can blame Ofsten, they put a lot of presume on schools to improve attendance it's part of the targets for an inspection. If they didn't then schools wouldn't pressure children to be in.

We had to have an in face meeting with our DD's school as her attendance had dropped and they where insisting on a doctors note for any further absence. We told them that there was no way we where taking her to the doctors when she had a virus just to get a doctors note and spread it through the surgery. Lucky they realised we where being honest and not just keeping her off willy nilly.

Plus parking and however long stuck in waiting room and contingency for traffic.

70% is a lot of time off though, it equates to 1.5 days off every week..

I had the same blanket email this week, with a promise that kids with under 90% would be receiving meeting requests. My 4yo (reception) is on 64% following strep A twice, 1 d&v (little sister's nursery), several hospital appointments for ongoing health issues, 1 freak accident now requiring surgery, and 1 incidence of antibiotic induced diarrhoea where he was sent home for 2.5 days. And my ds has no diagnosis (was assessed last term, found neurotypical). He's just unlucky. His little sister is healthy as a horse in contrast.

I followed up with an email to the head echoing the tone of their email, detailing the issues, reminding them of the provided hospital letters etc. She called me the next day very apologetic, and we've come to an agreement on future antibiotic diarrhoea (he had 8+ doses of antibiotics last year, and has very loose tummy during it every time, but only once a day, usually at home...).

I have to assume that most people want their kids in school as much as possible, for education and work reasons! The schools must be under a lot of pressure re stats, but it's heavy handed, and unfair on unwell children.

Plus parking and however long stuck in waiting room and contingency for traffic.

Very true, I usually give 90 minutes for a hospital appointment an hour away because you can never get parked. It’s also not unusual for an hour long appointment to take longer if they decide to do a further test or scan. One appointment can take the best part of the day.

Across one term, yes but not across three... try looking at my post which explains the stats across the full academic year.

Does 12 days off equate to 70%? The days he got sent home should also count as partial attendance I think. Anyway, OP - discussing attendance in front of everyone is a shitty thing to do. Encouraging sick kids in is a shitty thing to do. Attendance awards full stop are shitty things.

Thanks all. It’s not 70 percent. I think it’s 78 or 79. I believe I did say 70 something but if not, apologies.

For the people saying I shouldn’t give him the whole day off for appointments, I have my reasons firstly that the hospital is an hour away so 2 hours travelling and due to road works it’s been longer lately, 90 mins one way last time, 3 apps was an hour long. He also had to fast before one of them so he wanted to get lunch straight away. He’s also severely autistic (shouldn’t even be in mainstream, he does have an echp but still no places) and going to school late is a massive anxiety trigger for him. I’ve tried, I really have on other occasions. He refused to wear his uniform to the app, so I’d have to travel home then back to the school (school is 20 mins away). Sometimes with an asd it is not that easy and on one of the occasions my grandmother was very sick in the same hospital so we used the opportunity to visit.

I totally get attendance is important but they should have spoke to me, not him. I’ve not had a letter or anything.

Bloody hell.

DD2 rarely attends form, I can understand why if they do this.

Her attendance is about 60% - but that is actually good compared with Y7-Y9 when she was barely in and didn't go in for weeks at a time. The most she has missed this term is two days in a row - it's huge progress. She has ASD, ADHD and has had a lot of anxiety about school which she is slowly getting over with counselling, medication and maturity. She is an able and well-behaved pupil in school but it takes a hell of a lot out of her.

Model pupil at primary school, regularly getting 100% attendance certificates (much as I disagreed with them even then) We hope one day she'll get 100%.

They may as well tell them well done for not being ill, or well done for being ill but coming in and spreading your germs around the school. Or well done for not having a long term physical or mental illness or condition which affects attendance.

I'm sure DD2 will do well in life, she is very able and well-supported by us. It just may not be on the school's timetable or to tick their Ofsted/GCSEs results or to bolster up government statistics.

My primary DCs come home with attendance certificates, and the newsletter has class of the week for attendance. Presumably those kids with fewer attendances don't get a certificate.
I am very clear with my kids that we attend school as far as possible, but that if you are ill you stay home. I also strongly believe that there are some experiences more important than an end of term school day, where no work is done, and so we have taken them out of school for extended family time, and will continue to do so.
It seems very unfair that the school are singling children out in front of their peers. I'm sorry this is happening, it must be difficult

They should NOT be sharing and discussing attendance levels with other students. Especially if it's medical related. That is such an invasion of privacy. That is disgusting and I would complain about that to every level you possibly can (School leadership, Governors, Ofsted, local MP).

Well OP obviously the best thing to do is send him in when he’s seriously unwell or needs hospital treatment he may end up dead but at last he won’t have missed school.

this is disgraceful bullying and disability discrimination that the school are doing. Health data is extremely sensitive and has special protection I would complain everywhere you can.

Department for Education guidance to schools and LA’s. This is where the pressure comes from.

Might be helpful to you OP in understanding/challenging/accepting the rules.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance

@LahnaMJA thank you but I understand the rules and I don’t disagree that attendance is important. I just wish the school spoke to me rather than ds at school and upsetting him - they know this would be a trigger. My children go school as much as possible, my youngest has pretty much full attendance as she’s been lucky not to get ill much. Ds had a week off when he had a chest infection but he couldn’t have possible gone in. He was so ill.

Had a similar conversation with a clinical psychologist specialising in autism. Her view was that autistic children experience illness differently due to their sensory profiles, plus are already off balance in school environments because of their communication and cognitive differences. Her view was that schools should acknowledge these differences and respond compassionately. What is appropriate will be different than for NT children.

Schools are damned if they do, damned if they don't but l think reading attendance out in front of the class is appauling

And DfE guidance specifically tell schools not to ask for GP notes in this way.

In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is ill can be
accepted without question or concern. Schools should not routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness. Schools are advised not to request medical evidence unnecessarily as it places additional pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointments system particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Only where the school has a genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence.

What this exposes is how autistic children are fundamentally failed in the education system. Their needs and experiences are very different to other children, but everyone expects them to behave as though they were neurotypical.

The distress and anxiety of trying to function in hostile environments designed for people with brains wired differently is very considerable. There is a reason why fewer than 30% of autistic peole are in employment. These reasons affect autistic childrens' ability to participate at school too. Adjustments and understanding are called for.

Does anyone know the correct procedure for contacting the school governors. The school refused to give me the email address of the governors, so I wrote to them. The letter was never passed to the governors the schools receptionist rang me to say I needed to speak to the head before I can speak to the governors. So she must have opened the letter that wasn't even addressed to her to know it was me. It was personally addressed to the head governess.