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?

And you would therefore be raising malicious report. Suggest you review your safeguarding training.

In the school's shoes, I would not think I was dealing with a cooperative parent who when asked to come into school for a meeting because their child was absent for 10% of the time said no and who when told there would be an attendance agreement said she would not be signing that, without even knowing what the agreement contained. Lots of being stroppy is about tone, which on the evidence of some of OP's posts appears to be stroppy. I stand by stroppy, an adjective I would also apply to myself on occasions.

Schools are in the difficult position of being regulated in a sector where parents and carers question how things should be done, understandably, because school impinges on family life. Financial services organisstions are in a much easier position as customers tend not to question the rules.

That's not what that word means.

OP hasn't said no to the meeting though, she has said no to an in person meeting due to not been able to have more time off work and has offered a compromise which the school have refused.

As a parent of a child with an attendance worse than OP's child also due to medical/health reasons, I wouldn't be signing an attendance agreement either.

Spiteful and intending to do harm. Its EXACTLY what it means.

Let's look at the exchange

Teacher: "it would have real concerns for me, and would consider raising a report about those genuine concerns I hold"

You: "That's malicious!"

No, I was right.

As has already been discussed on this thread, if the school's procedure says a face-to-face meeting and OP says she will attend an online meeting only, you've got two parties with a fixed position. The meeting hasn't happened yet so we don't know what the attendance agreement says. What happens next will depend on how reasonable the HT is now the attendance lead has escalated it to them. Hopefully, they will agree the video meeting so things can move on.

What the attendance agreement said would be irrelevant for me, I wouldn't be signing it due to the fact that my son's poor attendance can't be helped.

But then at this point, I likely would've already emailed the school to be sure everything was in writing including going out of my way to provide the medical evidence requested and also the attendance policy already quoted by a pp which this school doesn't seem to be following.

In your imaginary conversation?
However, based on fact:

• child has been off sick with a number of illnesses
• parent has called in each time as per policy
• school has requested (unreasonably) medical evidence
• parent has provided this at great lengths
• parent has arranged additional blood test as concerned with child's health
• parent sees teachers daily at drop off/pick up
• parent has attended f2f parents eve
• school have told parent child is doing well in lessons etc
• school has asked for f2f mtg
• parent has said YES, but needs to be video call as it's difficult to get more time off work
• school say no
• they want her to sign an attendance contract
• parent can't sign contract to promise child won't get sick (obviously!)

So YOU believe this deserves a referral
SS will class it as a malicious referral because its a power play and its wasting their time.

A school specifying a level of attendance when a child has recurring illness is obviously stupid. I really hope OP's school doesn't ask her to sign one like that and restricts it to logging that the better weather could well improve attendance and that they will review in x weeks time.

In what world is safeguarding the health and safety of a child being 'spiteful and intending to do harm'? Would you rather schools kept their mouths shut when parents respond to genuine concern for a child's welfare with a refusal to meet and discuss issues? Should we also not report pupils we see covered in bruises/ unwashed and in dirty clothes/ malnourished/ constantly frightened and tearful/ sporting blingy new belongings that could be the result of county lines involvement/ clearly intoxicated or high (happens)?
Teachers want to teach. We don't want to be frontline social services, nor do we want to be the punchbag for parents who seemingly support what is at best questionable parenting, at worse neglect or abuse.
The only person being malicious here is you @mumatlast14

But she isn't.

They had a recent parents evening which OP attended
OP picks up and drops off daily
OP has provided medical evidence

Is the GP in on it too? It's quite difficult to fake your child having chicken pox or the school who sent her home after vomiting?

Oh just stop. No-one has said don't report a child covered on bruises or clearly distressed or malnourished or any of the other issues.
However to report a parent who has CONSISTENTLY provided medical evidence, who's child is otherwise happy at school and achieving, who regularly sees teachers at drop off & pickup, attends parent eve and who has asked for a reasonable adjustment to have a mtg on video is not a massive red flag.

You seem confused, about the posts already made that I paraphrased and is what the teacher you responded to you said, and still about what the word means.

It doesnt matter what I think. Or you. Or Sarah down the road. If the concern is genuine from the person making the report, no matter how much God itself thought that genuine concern was misplaced it still wouldn't make it malicious.

(I'm not religious, it was just for the point I was making).

Wrong

More likely the school are on some kind of weird power trip.

Definitely. Because they've got time to waste playing silly games.

The school is held to account by the governors to ensure every child reaches their full potential. Ofsted will want to see what the school is doing to support those families where attendance is below the expected level.
A face to face meeting has probably been arranged so that an attendance officer from the LA can work with you and the school to devise a support plan to help minimise further absence.
It is not a punitive measure, simply a meeting to discuss what might help.
Work with them, they are doing their job. Progress starts to slide quite quickly when persistent absence continues.

The OP is happy to have the meeting. She just needs the reasonable adjustment of it to be online and not in person as she can't get more time off work due to all the time she's had to take off for her child's illness and appointments.

And exactly how are the school meant to minimise illness? Be sensible.

Some people on here think that schools are some kind of ultimate authority. They are not.

How would they be observing how the child and parent interacts at a meeting in school that the child won’t be present for? Unless you have more concerns than a parent asking for an online meeting instead of face to face, social worker aren’t going to take on a referral for a child who’s parents have provided evidence of illness as requested by the school and who want a remote meeting to avoid more absence from work, for a child who is achieving academically and whose parents are visible to the school at parents evening etc.

And what exactly would SS do? Because in my experience they are very slow to act even when there’s documented neglect or abuse, never mind a child being off because they’re poorly, with proof that they are poorly.

The concern may be genuine, that doesn’t mean the referral is competent. I’d expect you to evidence your concerns and a parent wanting a remote meeting doesn’t remotely meet the threshold of significant harm. Not even if you squint while looking.

The more you resist this, the more they will insist. Accept the rules and arrange the meeting . I hope your dc gets better soon, that is a lot of illness!