Batshit attendance policies

[sunhasgotthis]

Hmmm WTAF?!

x.com/trumpetlill/status/1825815386085859379?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa1_pR7aKkbHQ

Agree. My child has adhd related issues. They school refuse occasionally. Our school has similar policy but I keep them informed and don't make up false excuses.
I'm honest.,no need for home visits.
We have kids at our school where anything could have happened

Schools are judged on efforts to improve attendance.
It's at an all time low.
They can't print 'we will check if your child is off sick and not just on Xbox as you are at work / just not bothered coming in / are busy running county lines.
All that goes on

Why are these self-righteous documents always written in such a slovenly way? Do the school's staff not take pride in consistent punctuation and formatting, avoiding comma splices, choosing the right spelling of a word, and proofreading?

Thankfully the kids school doesn't have such a daft policy.

However should the school feel the need to bring in such a policy then I would happily invite them in to see my pox ridden/vomiting/something equally unpleasant child. At very close range. I'd even be more than happy to show them the vomit/bodily fluids/pox juice on stuff. And if they need even more proof of the quantities/freshness of the vomit/bodily fluids/pox juice then I will happily provide the marigolds for the stuff to be closely inspected.

Attendance awards. Such a strange concept. Is this a UK thing? Australian here and we dont have such things in my area

No time off for tonsillitis?

When I have had it I'm hot then cold, then asleep, then awake and cold again, then hot and shivery.

Tbf I would take "no exclusion required" as meaning it isn't a specific rule that they have to be off. Vs respiratory infections "no exclusion" which I think is them saying "don't keep your child off for a cold".
I think they've got three "levels"
Illnesses with a requirement to stay at home eg chickenpox.
Illnesses without a requirement to stay at home, but you can if necessary eg tonsillitis (although I think the wording is an attempt to push people to not stay at home).
Illnesses with a requirement to come in eg respiratory infections.

Although that distinction could just be the sloppiness that a PP has already pointed out.

I can't say I'm surprised. I was off for 3 weeks after surgery. (I had a hole in my back which needed packing / dressing)

Parents sent a letter in on day one explaining the above. The school phoned weekly until I was back. And then moaned at me for being off and for the doctors appointments that were needed after. (We tried getting them as late as possible to minimise disruption but school still weren't happy)

24 hrs for d and v isn’t long enough either it should be 48 hrs

I think it’s a reflection of how much schools have struggled with school attendance tbh. There was a figure of 1 in 50 kids missing half their lessons. Thats extremely worrying, poor attendance means accumulating significant periods of lost lesson time. The reality is you can’t scoop up the parents who are either abusive or neglectful without affecting families where there is genuine illness or other difficulties. Tbh it wouldn’t other me that much, mine wouldn’t be off school unless she was genuinely ill so if you want to come to my house to stare at her then have at it.

This policy is ridiculous, especially when going against all other advice with the D&V return after 24hrs things. And the 'proof required' bit is stupid too. You're not going to waste a GP surgery's time and your own trying to get an appointment for evidence that your child had a temperature for 24hrs and has barely slept and therefore shouldn't be in school.

As a child I was regularly shipped off to grandparents house when I was ill as my mum was a teacher and couldn't take the day off to care for me. With this policy I assume I would have been referred to social services for not being in when they checked.

Edit: Although just seen Cloudside academy was rated Inadequate by Ofsted so I guess this is one of their policies to try and improve that.

Seems sensible to give parents guidance on how long they need to stay off.

Home visits are a good idea too as too many children are kept off for social reasons, or simply because parents don't value education trust me, been on the other side. I knew of cases who kept kids off because they were lonely, the school helped access mental health services for the parent

A home visit on day 2 😂

Hope people tell them to get to fuck, no way they'd be 'viewing' my sick child.

Oh and "sickness" can be used to cover up abuse, schools have a duty of care to their pupils to ensure their welfare

Attendance awards are ridiculous. It's not a reward for going to school, it's a punishment for daring to have so much as one day off sick.

It can be used for that. This policy is not really about welfare though - it seems the opposite.
How will they ascertain abuse in this way?
Do they judge a child's illness when they're in bed? Insist child gets up?
For appointments, they would prefer a child to miss more time as long as they can be marked in the register.
Going against guidelines for time off isn't in that child's or the rest of the children's interests (or the teachers or their families).
Number of children with long covid doubled in the last year, whooping cough is rocketing etc. Investing in cleaner air helps reduce illness and absence - I could get behind that, even if it's just plug in HEPA filters. DfE invested in it for their buildings (as did Parliament, ministry of defence etc). Instead of doing something to change the incessant amount of illness in schools, they crack down on those affected by it. As for quality of learning, do kids learn better when they're well than when they're ill?

Kids in vulnerable situations - are they going to be genuinely helped or hindered by this policy and pressurising for even higher levels of sickness in schools?

The comment 'Blame Ofsted' - you're attempting to say that it is someone else's fault, that someone else made you do this cruel thing and unhelpful thing.

You cannot blame another for the actions you choose as a teacher, headteacher, school governor. You are the people who understand child development and learning and you need to advocate for what is best for the children and their families.

If you are a professional then you are accountable for the actions you take. If you are not then you are not a professional and should not be paid as one.

If our attendance figures are deemed bad by Ofsted the school is downgraded.
I can point out that in the spring term we had x cases of chickenpox, x cases of covid, x cases of d&v and 1 child undergoing ongoing treatment for cancer and the DfE and Ofsted will tell us we should have done more to make those children come to school,. Home visits are something they will accept as us “trying to improve attendance” - SLT of a school who can’t prove this “trying to improve attendance” can lose their jobs! Remember the case of the poor headteacher who took her isn life because if an Ofsted report? We can advocate for our children and families until we’re blue in the face but if Ofsted say it’s not good enough then we’re screwed.

In contrast, at the welcome meeting for the (state) secondary DD is about to start, they actually apologised that they are obliged to send out letters if your child's attendance drops below a certain level (but did ask parents to keep in touch about absences). Spot the school which doesn't have an attendance problem.

@CouldBeOuting

'If our attendance figures are deemed bad by Ofsted the school is downgraded.
I can point out that in the spring term we had x cases of chickenpox, x cases of covid, x cases of d&v and 1 child undergoing ongoing treatment for cancer and the DfE and Ofsted will tell us we should have done more to make those children come to school,. Home visits are something they will accept as us “trying to improve attendance”

Are Ofsted suggesting that children go against medical and public health advice?

For 'Cloudside Academy ', I am reading 'Away with the Fairies'.

I'm glad I work in Wales where this madness is yet to touch...

So if your late your marked unauthorised absence even if your actually there? How does that work if there is a fire?

They certainly come across that way! They are NEVER interested in the REASONS for absence only the figures. We literally had a child who was rarely in school as the poor child had cancer but as far as the Ofsted inspector was concerned they were a “persistent absentee” and we should have been doing more to get them into school. Ofsted inspectors and the rules they work by are HORRIBLE.

It’s a different code in the register. U is late after registers closed. O is unauthorised absence. So a child with a U code is known to be in school in the event of an evacuation.

When I was a wee girl I got mumps, my friend over the road also got mumps. We were often in one house or the other (we both had older sisters for a start) that probably would have blown those visitors minds.

These policies never tackle the root causes though, but maybe a way of trying to stop the teeny minority that claim to be sick when they are flying to Disneyland or wherever.