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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be pissed off with this text message from the school..

100 replies

WorzselMummage · 27/06/2011 13:46

"last weeks school attendance was very poor at 90%. We need to aim for a minimum for 95%. Please send your children to school every day. If we feel your child is too ill to be in school we will send them home"

How's about fuck off.

It's really riled me. My DD was a 100% attendance this term anyway but surely parets are in the best position to decide what it best for their own children.

I get PISSED OFF when DD gets ill because some other parent has sent their child to school when they obviously ought to be laid on the sofa feeling sorry for themselves.

What is the sense im sending children to share their germs around

OP posts:

basingstoke · 27/06/2011 20:10

It doesn't matter to OFSTED what the reason is for the absence.

There are many threads on here started by parents whose children have fallen below the magic number for perfectly genuine reasons.

Schools get hammered for poor attendance (and poor attendance is below 95% remember), and they get hammered even more if they are judged to be doing too little about it. Hence the letters.

basingstoke · 27/06/2011 20:13

If I phoned the parents of the 20 children in my tutor group who have had more than 5% of days off, authorised, owing to illness/medical appointments, I would expect them to react in the way posters on here have. What is there to say?

cory · 27/06/2011 20:51

Ofsted should talk to an immunologist about what can be counted as expected sickness rates in a population of 4-10yos. They wouldn't like the answer though.

edam · 27/06/2011 20:59

VERY good point, Cory!

joric · 27/06/2011 21:10

Not interested in DD school's attendance figures at all. If a child is ill they are ill. The Headteacher should talk directly to the parents of children who miss school regularly and establish the reasons why - legitimate or not. It's a cop out to address the whole school. BTW, i think that Some good/ outstanding schools (for attendance) are just very good at doing the figures.. I think most areas Ofsted report on can be justified by a savvy Headteacher...

basingstoke · 27/06/2011 21:17

So - the Head couldn't talk directly to every parent of a child who falls under the 95%. I would struggle to do that for my tutor group, as I said earlier. Unless the school are completing their registers illegally, I'm not sure how absence owing to illness can be hidden.

TooImmature2BMum · 27/06/2011 21:24

I have a teacher friend and she hates this policy because she catches everything going, and/or has to clean up when a sick child throws up in the classroom. OFSTED have cunningly managed to come up with a policy that causes illness and therefore absenteeism in both children and teachers. Clever, that.

joric · 27/06/2011 21:31

I talk to all the parents of children falling below 95% yes.
Hiding figures is not legal. justifying figures to Ofsed is.

basingstoke · 27/06/2011 21:50

As I said, there are 20 in my tutor group. Multiply that by 50, and no - I don't think you would...

StealthPolarBear · 27/06/2011 22:02

"itisnearlysummer Mon 27-Jun-11 14:31:54
Georgimama serial offenders usually have other issues and come from vulnerable families. They can't be seen to be targeting families that are already having a bit of a shit time of it."

Definitely, but they can work with them to try and address the problems. Bullying parents who already have problems into dragging their children into school or sending them a mesage to ignore is not helping at all.

M0naLisa · 27/06/2011 22:22

I think the school need to realise aswell that at the minute hand foot and mouth is going round so I don't thinkl they want to have an epidemic at the school just show ofsted their 'fab' attendance records against the sick records bexcause of an epidemic. Iykwim?

M0naLisa · 27/06/2011 22:22

StealthPolarBear · 27/06/2011 22:25

There's always an undercurrent of "schools aren't childcare"
If your child is ill and you choose to keep them off it is easier to arrange childcare than when you get a call at work at 10am. But then all mums should be at home, by the phone. Preferably in a pinny, baking.

Pixel · 27/06/2011 22:28

My dd has excellent attendance and we got a certificate through the post congratulating her for it. A week later we got another letter asking us to explain where she'd been on a certain date and saying if we couldn't then a referral would be made to the truant officer (or whatever modern equivalent, Ed welfare?). We couldn't think when she'd been off and when we looked back in the diary realised she'd been on an educational trip organised by the school.
I've also been left frantic after a text saying that my dd had not arrived at school. I was literally shaking as I phoned them, imagining all sorts of horrors as I'd walked most of the way with her that morning so I could buy some milk. When they checked she was in class where she'd been all along but I got no apology.

All this makes me very sceptical about the accuracy of attendance figures.

YANBU to hate these blanket texts. I got one last week telling me to send dd in correct uniform. I was so as dd is practically the only girl in the school wearing correct uniform,( not because she is goody-two-shoes but because she chooses the trousers option) but if you looked at the other girls then you would think the uniform was 'tight as possible black skirt that only just covers your bum' rather than 'plain knee-length black skirt'. Every now and then they send a threatening text but never follow it up.

As for sending sick children in for staff to decide if they are ill. Apart from all the excellent arguments against the idea already mentioned, they don't seem to care that parents often have to take time off work to look after a sick child. If you ring in early enough and your employer is given fair warning then they have a chance to get a temp in if they need one or arrange for colleagues to cover. If you go in to work and then get a call and have to dash off later then they are left in the lurch for the rest of the day which would hardly make you very poplular!

Pixel · 27/06/2011 22:29

Oops, cross post. Well I did waffle a bit, sorry.

xstitch · 27/06/2011 22:42

YANBU, they are asking to increase absences by increasing the opportunity for infection to spread. While I recognise that bugs spread amongst children I would not be happy if I found out my dc had picked something up due to a knowingly ill child being forced into school IYSWIM.

Also for some things a rest is what they need not a walk to school.

StealthPolarBear · 27/06/2011 22:44

Yes, agree. Not sure how much of this is my own experience, but if I know the DCs need to be off (nursery as it happens) I am lucky enugh to be able to call my wonderful mum and or MIL and get into work maybe half an hour or an hour late, with my mind (mostly) on the job. On the times when I'm not sure and send them to nursery I get to work OK but am stressed, checking my phone every ten mins, trying to rearrange stuff in case I ahve to dash off...not professional and not nice for the child

Triggles · 28/06/2011 10:58

Keeping a child home whilst they are ill is actually helping their stats, although they don't think that through. Rather to have one child home sick, than in school spreading the germs around and have 10 off in a few days.

Insomnia11 · 28/06/2011 11:04

Our school sends out reminders (in newsletters, not separately) that you must keep them off if they have sickness/diarrhoea or a bad cold/cough or spots etc...so quite the reverse really!

itisnearlysummer · 28/06/2011 11:06

StealthPolarBear "Definitely, but they can work with them to try and address the problems."

Unfortunately, teacher training doesn't instruct students in how to do this. They learn how to plan, how to evaluate, how to make lessons more interesting and cater for different learning styles, how to assess progress and target children who are struggling/excelling etc. but they chose teaching and not social work.

There just isn't time in a teaching week to work with parents as well as their children in a way that is going to be meaningful, especially when these families tend to be concentrated into schools/areas rather than evenly distributed.

That's where external agencies such as Surestart and the services offered by children's centres come in...

itisnearlysummer · 28/06/2011 11:11

Triggles that is true (and also common sense ), but that would mean the schools working on future hypotheticals rather than current absolutes.

Ofsted don't want to hear it!

DDs primary school requires children to be kept off school for 48hrs after the last bout of D/V, which does seem a bit excessive, but that is their precaution for not spreading illnesses around.

But then DDs school is 'good with outstanding features' in an 'affluent' area so they have less to worry about because they have very high attendance generally. In some areas, it's not always the case and schools don't really take issue with a genuinely ill child being off.

fuckmepinkandCALLmegoran · 28/06/2011 11:13

I am famous for my absence letters.

"please excuse DD1's absence from school yesterday"

And once (when DS's school made a balls of letting him pick his summer sport long story) "Please excuse DS from games for the rest of the term. Due to the incompetence of teacher xxx who could not organise a piss up in a brewery, the choice he originally made has been taken away from him, and as the only sport left is cross country he has been told he must do this. He would not have picked cross country, he would have picked tennis should rowing not have been available. Rowing being cancelled as a games activity 3 weeks into the term due to the inability of teacher xxx to be there on time and his lack of qualifications for driving the motor boat is not my DS's problem and as such I am fully supportive of his decision not to do cross country. Should you have an issue with this, do not under any circumstances take this up with DS, as the decision is mine but feel free to call me on my mobile no xxx at any time if you wish to discuss it further"

That is the actual letter copied from word lol. They didn't call, and he sat in the library every games period for the remainder of term and did his homework- before going to rowing after school (which he did every day)

xstitch · 28/06/2011 11:20

Unfortunately I agree with both triggles and itisnearly. You can't look at the bigger picture its not the done thing these days.

Does anybody know how Ofsted views he duty of care. Surely if they are forcing infectious children to come to school then they are breaching their duty of care to provide a healthy working environment.

I think too much maybe that's why I don't have a job .

StealthPolarBear · 28/06/2011 12:47

"That's where external agencies such as Surestart and the services offered by children's centres come in..."

Yes, so refer! It's not rocket science surely!

ILoveYouToo · 28/06/2011 13:51

YANBU at all; I'd be fuming. How very high handed of them to state that they know your child and its needs better than you do!

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