Why would school refuse a call and insist on a meeting

[Insistingonit]

My dd is in year 5. Attendance hasn’t been good due to frequent illness. Once she got to 90% the school insisted on a GP appt to verify Illness each time which we did. We already supply the appt letters for appts in school time.

She is now at 88% . We have continued to provide proof of illness. They are insisting on speaking to us we agreed and said we will arrange a phone or video call. They said it has to be in person. Why? We are happy to discuss but don’t see the difference?

If you do drop off and pick up, say you can only do in person meetings before drop off time or after pick up. You have to be at work between and are not available to come in during the school day. You can do a video call during the school day. Most senior leadership of a primary school are in before 8am anyway.

Did you ask them why it has to be an in person meeting?

unless there are other concerns

The assumption from some posts is the school is being unreasonable but what if they are not?

I think you need to work on hygiene if your daughter has had 3 bouts of D&V, you really need to impress on her that she needs to wash her hands thoroughly after going to the toilet and before eating. I'd make sure anyone in the house who prepares food is also scrupulous about hygiene and check that the fridge is working properly and at the right temperature.

I don't think there's any level of absence that requires a face to face meeting over a virtual call if the reason for the absence is medical under the care of a doctor.

A face to face meeting might be slightly better at working out the best way to support the child's education, but not the best way to support the child overall, given that further stressing parents when things are already difficult is pretty much guaranteed to be harmful to the child. Face to face needn't be an absolute requirement in trying to provide educational assistance.

This is what I wonder that there may be other concerns or reasons that they want to meet in person to discuss some reasonable adjustments or something else.

yes it’s annoying but I’d just work with the school tbh and do what others have said and offer before or after school.

some things are just better in person and it may be protocol. They may want to raise something sensitive that needs to be done in person.

they want to find out about underlying conditions or if there’s anything else they can do to help.

schools aren’t all bad you know! It’s schools that often are frontline in protecting kids for abuse. They’d be shot down in an instant if they didn’t do due diligence an something awful happened.

I have to agree. I can’t see why you’d need to go in

maybe there will be someone else there who wants to see you? Not sure

but I would look into the drs notes. I don’t think you have to provide them each time. It’s got to be statistics

dometimes you go through certain times getting it all the time. It’s winter etc

I'm saying it costs OP more to go in for a face to face meeting than it costs to have a call. Travel, time and maybe petrol/bus, maybe babysitting if outside work time, lost hours and jeopordising job if in work time. I don't think the school really want someone with chickenpox coming in, but their policies are blind to those sorts of costs. I think the school are applying a blanket policy, They are looking at the generic case of persistent absence where lots of days are unverified and hope that making it more uncomfortable for a parent to have a child off might make them more reluctant to keep them off for a cold, not liking PE, crying because they have to go in, etc. They aren't looking at it as - oh everything's been verified in this case, our "you really need to send DD in even if she is a bit reluctant, we'll send her home if we think she's sick" talk is inappropriate.

And going to court is very costly, even when you win (and with the medical evidence OP has I don't doubt she would win). It's incredibly stressful, takes up quite a lot of time (jeopardising work again) and drags on. In many ways the process is the punishment. Though I think the PP who said this would not get to court is right. Wants someone who has to actually see if an offense has been committed looks at it, they'll drop it like a hot potato. Probably long before then. At the moment this is just the school being jobsworthy.

I'm glad you're not a parent at the school I work in. You seem to be willfully misundersanding sageguarding and the role schools have in caring for the wellbeing of young people. Schools are damned if they do, and damned if they they don't....

I agree with this completely. OP, why are you ignoring all the posters who have suggested that you ask for the meeting to take place at the start or end of the day? Schools will try to be flexible to accommodate parents’ working hours as much as possible. As others have said, parents’ evening is not the appropriate forum to discuss attendance - you see the class teacher and other subject teachers at parents’ evening, not the attendance officer. If you continue to ignore the request for a meeting, then the school will refer this to the local authority and possibly also to Social Services. If you’re refusing to attend a perfectly normal request to go into school to discuss your child’s low attendance, do you really want the extra aggravation of having to meet the local authority’s attendance team and Social Services?

I’d push back. They have GP letters verifying the illnesses and your daughter has been attending school recently.

Ask them what they hope to achieve from making you jump these particular hoops.

If you do drop off and pick up each day, is there a reason you can’t go in 15mins earlier in the morning or stay 15mins after pickup for the meeting? I’m sure they would accommodate this and not expect you to come in at the middle of the day.
Your original post asks why the school are insisting on this, and people on here have given many reasons as to why, but you don’t seem to want to hear any of them.

I’m curious to know the roles some of you have that are so sure it is safeguarding issue and that social services are going to get involved based on the evidence the OP has provided, despite others showing how the statistics early in the year add up, and the OP has medical evidence explaining the absence and the OP is also engaging with medical professionals to try and find out why her child has been ill. She also is willing to engage with the school, just can’t take time of work to do so so has offered an alternative. The school have a duty of care so need to engage with the parent but the parent is engaging with the school, providing evidence, sending the child to school the majority of the time and is happy to have a phone or video call.

You're being combative and deliberately obtuse. We get it you don't think you need to have an in person appointment and you're ignoring any explanations anyone on here gives.

The school do.

@Insistingonit you've mentioned more upcoming appointments. Are these for conditions beyond the illnesses that have caused her absences?

Because a lot of the reasons they give are sensationalised, the school see the child regularly and so can talk to the child anytime, they can also call and talk to the parent anytime, and if they are really concerned should have done a home visit when she was ill .

Sometimes kids just do get a bad run of illness. She was pretty late to get chicken pox plus all the D&V. One of my children has caught a vomiting bug twice from being in school this academic year. The OP has no doubt used up quite a lot of good will with her employer already. I’d also question why a face to face is needed. Do they not believe she has been ill or do they think she should have been off for some of the episodes?

I’m also surprised the GP is entertaining the school’s request. They shouldn’t be and schools shouldn’t be asking as it is a total waste of time for a GP to be confirming something like d&v,

@@Italiandreams I've been a school governance professional for over 30 years, and have worked with at least 30 different schools in an inner London borough. I base my comments on my knowledge of what would/does happen in the schools I work with

With that approach there’s no wonder we have the issues we do.
Don't be awkward - work with the school.

The attendance and complaints policy should be published on the school website.

I agree it should. What will the complaint be - the school is following the attendance policy but I know better? 88% is low and is concerning.

@Growlybear83 so you know for an 88% attendance in February with medical evidence and the OP offering a phone call to discuss they would be referred to social services? Because as a DSL and school leader I would need a lot more than that to refer to social services.

School are correct to be engaging with the parent and the policy will be kicking is as below 90% but if we want to develop partnerships with parents we have to work with parents and not do things to parents . We need to try and support parents to improve attendance ( where possible) , unless there is more to this, and we have no evidence there is, I really can’t see why a phone call to speak to parents and potentially a chat with the child isn’t enough. If I was genuinely concerned I might do a home visit next time they were ill or would have already done one by now.

I’m sorry, that must’ve been so stressful and worrying. It’s really bad when you’re concerned about your child’s well-being that you are then tempted to go against your instincts to appease the school who’s just concerned about their attendance figures

Worked in many schools and within safeguarding roles for most of my working life across many settings and ages.

Social services won’t be interested unless there is more to it than the OP has shared. I have been a DSL for over 10 years.