Dd school attendance very low

[Schoolstress14]

66%

Due to lots of medical appts (didn’t think these were counted towards attendance?)

Frequent illness (severe gynae issues possible endometriosis?, Viral illness with very high fevers, one episode of d and v (lasted a week) and time off after a minor injury

Ive sent proof of everything as requested but now school want a meeting I can’t get more time off so explained it has to be a phone call as well but they’ve said I’m not engaging so they have to involve the LA? Can they do that ?

Why would the GP care if you went to a private gynae?

Look up your La and Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions

My sister has had very similar issues with regards to my niece’s education. My niece had cancer and missed almost a whole year of school whilst being treated and had nothing but issues with the school. She is in remission, but still has hospital stays at least every month as both the treatment and the cancer have affected her health. My sister had nothing but threats and and endless meetings with the school, even being forced to leave my niece in hospital attend. So, she took the decision to home school and has not looked back since :)

I work in secondary as HTLA and we have some very low attendance. I am forced to make phone calls home each week for kids who have been off that week (Yes, even for 1/2 days!).
I absolutely hate it as I have my own 3 kids in school and know how things work with longer term illnesses. It is constantly being drummed into us and our weekly meetings ALWAYS start with attendance figures.
As long as I make calls home and parents can explain their child's absence, it doesn't go any further and it usually ends up in a friendly conversation over the phone which I log. Some parents do get very annoyed with me though especially if they've called in absent (and I would too tbh!).
Persistent absence however is picked up by people higher up and meetings will take place. Staff have actually gone around to students' houses and tried to get them into school so be aware of this potentially happening.
One comment above noted about staff being off sick. Some have been off for months and so really should understand long term illness.

I'm sorry but even though they dress it up as YOUR child missing out on their learning, the school is MOST worried about their attendance figures in comparison to other schools in the locality.
Yes, they do care about your child's education but the people pressing on attendance in the offices have often never even met them personally and just like to send their message through the teaching staff on the frontline.

Local authorities must arrange suitable full-time education for children of compulsory school age who, because of physical or mental health illness, would not receive suitable education without such provision. This applies whether the child is on the roll of a school or not and whatever type of school they attend

look for the statutory guidance .gov.uk

The school’s position is ridiculously out of date. You are ‘engaged’ and you have agreed to a meeting, they’re the problem refusing to have it online. Don’t they know how to use Zoom?!

Lawyers, politicians, journalists, management consultants, and many other professions have most of their business meetings online. Schools are stuck in the dark ages.

Send something in writing saying that you welcome the opportunity to have a meeting with them to discuss how they can best help support your daughter during her time of illness, but that the meeting will need to be during lunchtime online because you have already missed huge amounts of work in managing her illnesses and it is unreasonable and unaccomodating to insist on an in person meeting when a virtual meeting will be sufficient. Send them a zoom link to login but say you can change it if another date suits them better.

If they refuse the online meeting say, in writing, that you are very disappointed that they have refused to meet with you and in the circumstances you find this very strange and unsupportive behaviour which you are reporting to the Governors and Ofsted.

Let them refer you to LA I don’t see why that would matter. Just be careful not to get bullied into home ed.

I had issues as a teen and went on the pill and even then it didn’t sort out the problem. My lovely dad used to pick me from school every month.

I don’t know whether you do this but your DD needs to go into school even if she’s sent home 10 mins later. It will immediately make her attendance 50% better.

We had the same in year 8-9, DD was quite healthy before her first period came. It was normal for 5 days and seemed to be stopping when it literally just went mad, non stop bleeding for 28 days when two lots of medication taken together finally stopped it. She lost a lot of blood before they took it seriously and went for normal range (lower end) after 2wks of bleeding to emergency transfusion level in 7 days. It took a long time for her iron to stabilise and even now ferritin is low. The school kept ringing me to take her home as she would become dizzy in class, a lot. Attendance under 70% and I was asked to provide proof. Things settled down (she still can’t do PE) and she’s doing GCSE’s this summer and on track for mainly 9’s. Super proud of her, not only because she’s amazing to be able to achieve top grades but to do it when you’ve missed a lot of school is amazing. Good luck to your daughter, not much you can do if she’s too sick for school

Usually it’s around £250 in London for initial appointment. They can then transfer you to NHS for treatment. I’ve done that in the past many times for myself and it’s definitely saved me a lot of time.

Never not amazed by the lack of joined up thinking around school attendance. Blame the Tories that have made attendance an impossible conundrum by insisting on perfect attendance as a key school metric, all whilst dismantling the NHS, CAHMS, family support like Sure Start, pushing millions of families into food and fuel poverty- and then are unable to comprehend why kids have long term absences due to lack of timely treatment, are endlessly sick and can’t make it into school?

This country drives me mad.

Sorry OP, not what you asked. Hope your daughter is well soon, and you find a solution that works for her.

I think it is standard. My DD's attendance fell to below 90% because of a nasty virus and a few odd days here and there for more minor illnesses/ bad period pain. I was invited in but it was more about school getting the bigger picture and looking to support. It actually turned out to be useful. I couldn't make the date requested so just emailed with a few options I could make and they were fine about rescheduling.

Not sure if finances would stretch but friend of mine, her daughter attends an online school. So they have classes timetabled, stricture is same as a school day but at home. You can also catch up later as lessons are recorded, so if your DD needed a lie down she could. Downside is the cost, which I’m not sure about but I want to say £600 a month but that might be when friend had 2 schools overlapping as she was changing to another online school provider. It’s a good idea if finances permit

My DD is also on back to back pills, has been since she was 13 as she had terrible periods with flooding etc. I have adenomyosis, was only diagnosed in my mid 40s after a lifetime of pain and I wasn’t willing to let my daughter suffer like that.

It’s been life changing for her. She is so much happier, secure, she trains for her sport 5 days a week (national level) and this gives her the confidence that she can carry on training.

The NHS isn’t proactive with gynae issues, but if you go to your GP with a specific request and articulate your reasons, they should help your DD. The back to back pill is perfectly safe, there’s lots of research available online. The NHS recommends a break every 3 months but even that is not necessary, you can carry on for years without pause and no adverse effect. Period are pointless at that age!

I used to be a Head of Year and I always hated doing attendance meetings - with attendance at that level I always knew the answers to all the questions I had to ask anyway! It was always the same format: check that all the data was recorded accurately (it almost always was); reiterate the link between attendance and attainment; create action plan for school and home (which in most cases was already what we both were doing); let parent know next steps if attendance remains an issue. Could easily be done on the phone but it had to be in person for some reason.

The only times it was useful would be if I’d noticed some kind of pattern, like always having Wednesday mornings off, and then parent reveals that their child hates their French teacher or something that we could then do something about. Or sometimes the meetings would reveal a bullying issue we weren’t aware of. The saddest/most unexpected one I had was the mother who broke down in tears and disclosed that the days her daughter was absent were the ones when she’d gone to relatives to hide from her abusive father.

Not really sure if anything I’ve said is of any use to you, OP. Just showing what the meetings felt like from the other side. If I were you I’d continue to request a video call if you really can’t do face to face, with a view to maybe booking in a face to face review in a few weeks time at a time that you can make.

This makes my blood boil. So because your DD has migraines, this means her other debilitating condition (periods) is ignored? This is a textbook example of misogyny in the NHS and why women suffer for years without treatment. You need a new GP.

You mention you are considering employing tutors, if you have the funds the money may be better spent on a private gynaecologist to obtain a proper diagnosis and treatment, after all if she does have endometriosis she will need to try to manage it long term so she can attend work regularly in the future. How long has her attendance been poor, just this academic year? Does the school have a nurse on site? If so, can she support her if she is feeling faint. How is she managing academically with missing so much school? Is there a plan in place to ensure she catches up?

Home education can absolutely look like the above and also doesn't need to be between 9-5 mon- Fri.

Complain to governors that you’ve explained it all and are being harassed.

Hi OP, so sorry to hear your daughter is experiencing this. I’ve suffered with gynae problems since I got my period. It took 15 years to get an endometriosis diagnosis! I was put on the pill at 13 with mefanemic acid and basically just told to suck it up. Hot water bottles, tens machines and dissolvable solpadeine are the most useful things you can buy. You can also buy low does co-codamol without a prescription at the pharmacy. I missed a lot of school towards the end of my time there as I struggled terribly with UTIs too, I also have chronic anaemia so completely understand how hard it is. I have adjusted my diet to suit my endo, I have switch to decaf tea and coffee - caffeine is a major trigger for endo pains and try to eat anti inflammatory foods. Exercise is also incredibly helpful, it may not feel like it at the time but even walking or stretching will absolutely help improve symptoms. There are lots of support groups for endometriosis sufferers and we welcome even those not yet diagnosed as sadly it usually takes a very long time (plus a surgery) to revive an official diagnosis.
Lastly, I was seen by a private consultant who wrote a letter of recommendation to my nhs GP and the GP then prescribed me additional pain killers and referred me to a female physiotherapist as he had asked. Please advocate for your daughter and push for as much help and support you can get for her. Good luck!

Consider home schooling or private school as state school always want 100% attendance which I actually feel is ludicrous personally , I'd love to home school but mine are at private and my son has asthma and get colds on his chest and need time off in the winter often and we get flexible learning from home if he's able , if you have Dr's notes there is little they can do so I would try and get those regularly or you will get fined

Absolutely this. I hate questioning children on absence and 9/10 it is genuine illness which seems particularly bad post covid. OFSTED and Tory govt pushing on attendance means schools have to push - even when we know the reasons and it makes us seem like the bad guys!

School are just covering themselves to be honest. Ask for the email address for the relevant person at the LA and request medical tuition whilst you are waiting for appropriate medical care. They will either provide this, meaning she will get tutors at home or (more likely) go strangely quiet on you…….. Don’t allow them to treat you or DD as if you have done something wrong. You haven’t.

The GP can prescribe the progesterone only pill (mini pill) for women and girls with a history of migraines. Might be worth your dd trying the progesterone only pill (eg Cerazette) if she's missing nearly half the school year.

No evidence to suggest she’s not engaging. She’s sent proof of genuine illness. Are you suggesting she send DD to school when she’s unwell ?