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?

The return of the trad wife will ensure there are some children and that class sizes are small.

it's not being picky though is it. The OP has asked a q. and you've demonstrated that actually blanket policy doesn't work. It should be dependent on the individual situation, yet schools consistently try to put policy ahead of children's wellbeing and gov guidance. And guess what, I've got kids that have had chicken pox so personal experience and understanding too 😉

A family that regularly sends their clearly sick child into school risks infecting everyone else.

What is a low grade fever/sniffle to one could be full blown flu or a chest infection, or tonsillitis to someone else.. or an exacerbation of severe asthma that ends in an ambulance being called.. ask me how i know that one... oh, that'd be because some child in my workplace (used to be a TA) came in with a 'sniffle' that gave me a serious asthma attack in work as my 'herald' sign for the pneumonia i got from it.

Because clearly there is something the OP is missing from her story. There is more too this for sure

Agree. Sadly presenteeism over health & wellbeing every time. Sick kids can't learn properly and spread germs all so schools can tick a box.

Meetings are face to face. Training is face to face or via “recorded” content not requiring a camera. My “employer” would rather spend our tiny budget on providing an education to our students.

Why not ask the government to provide adequate funding…. oh, we’ve been asking for that for years!

The OP explained that, you can see all her updates by pressing 'see all' under one of her posts

This! OP seems to think her child being off once a week is normal: it isn’t!!!!!

absolutely. I have a distinct memory from when i was in secondary of two instances of flu and Norovirus taking out nearly half of the students and staff.

The post-covid push for attendance has turned schools into unhealthy environments where being in while being sick is seen as the gold standard.

No, she doesn't. the GP told her the level of sickness was normal, but the OP has pushed for further investigation to find out why her kid is getting sick so much.

I'm not sure how you extrapolated her thinking it's normal from those facts.

The child clearly hasn't been off 1 day a week though. The illness will have been clusters of days, chicken pox is generally 5-7 days + off for a start!. Be sensible.

Quite the opposite actually, as I’ve clearly stated multiple times. The GP has tried to reassure us and I was not happy with that so we’ve got blood tests arranged. Not once have I said I find this normal or acceptable. My point is that a meeting wont address a health issue and we’ve had too much time off work already.

this
OP you have had it explained many times why the school feel an in person meeting is needed and you haven't responded to that
it has been suggested many times thatyou should request the meeting to be before drop off or pick up so as to minimise time off work but you haven't responded to that either
so I am forced to conclude there is something else going on here which is maybe leading to the school having more concern
of course maybe you just feel that you are 'not that sort of family' and your daughter isn't entitled to the same level of care and oversight as other children, well, sorry, but she is so just co operate with the school like any decent parent

88 per cent attendance is equivalent to just over half a day a week, which is a lot.

You don’t think it’s normal to keep your children off school when they have chicken pox, D&V, or sinus or ear infections?

No tablets. All computers are desktop PCs not laptops. Small primary school. Underfunded. Good school according to Ofsted but one of the things I was questioned on was why I hadn’t had more meetings with parents to pick up the low attendance pupils.

Anyway, I’ve explained why schools aren’t always in the position to offer video meetings and I’m not going to derail OPs thread any further.

That could have happened to you in any workplace, though.

correct.

However, most schools have a '48hr exclusion since the last instance of D&V, which is usually a minimum of 2-5 days depending on how sick they were. The OP's child had 3 periods of that.
They also had Chicken Pox.. i don't know about the OP, but i had one child off for 6 school days, and one off for three whole weeks due to how bad it was (it was in her mouth, nose and eyelids) and a secondary infection.
Her kid has also had Tonsillitis, Sinus infections and Ear infections.. again, all of which can take 2-5days to get over.

When i emailed my kids school when they moaned about her absence i pointed out that out of the 9 recorded sessions of absence, 5 were down to their own D&V policy.. and asked what they'd like me to do about that.

my school had a similar issue.. the teachers used their personal devices for video calls. Next excuse?

I've not worked anywhere else where i've had my service users dribble or snot wiped on me... have you?

Well actually we only have her word for that.

One week long illness accounts for 10 weeks of 'half a day a week'. Add in a couple of appointments and you're at 88% for term 1. Nobody wants to have their child home sick, least of all working parents, but nor is it cause to send them to a consultant if they have bad luck enough to get chicken pox and tonsillitis in the same term.

You believe they will keep staffing high with smaller class sizes rather than reduced the staffing bill?

Sigh. The child isn't off once per a week every week. Her attendance averages out as one day in 5.
Having every Monday off is a pattern that needs explanation but having 4 days d&v 3 times in a year, chicken pox and other illnesses is just unfortunate coincidence

Next year she may not be ill at all. But that's just how it is sometimes.