To think there is far to much emphasis on school attendance

[Starwisher]

My dd1 is in year 1. I got a letter telling me off the other day as her attendance has only been 92% when it should be 95% to date. Apparently the educational welfare officer will be keeping a close eye on us...

For goodness sake, dd has been ill! They know this, yet I still get the letter.

Im sick of parents smugly telling me how they just "bung a bit of calpol in the kid and chuck them in school" so they dont need to miss out on the gym or shopping.

They are the one's getting everyone else ill and causing more problems so they can avoid a sick child, yet get rewarded with attendance certificates.

I try and do the right thing and stop dd spreading bugs and getting better at home- and get in trouble.

What is with OFSTED threatening to drop a schools rating if attendance is below some target figure? What if a particular nasty bug is doing the rounds- why should a school be penalised? (Another reason why OFSTED means nothing)

Im not saying attendance is not important but its becoming ridiculous!

This is quite likely to be more about the school's performance and its position in the dreaded league tables. If you've notified the school all the times that she has been ill then it was not an unauthorised absence. You are being extremely responsible in NOT sending a sick child to school both for her own health and wellbeing as well as to prevent the spread of illness. I'd send a short sharp letter back telling them if your child not well enough to go to school then she will stay off until she is better and that's the end of it. Keep calm and carry on!

Yanbu

I think you are right on all accounts exhackette

It seems ridiculous that attendance has this much influence on ofsted and league tables. Its very stressful on parents, small children and staff long-term.

I might very well do your letter idea

Go for it. Unfortunately some kids seem to pick up every bug that's going around, my DS used to have repeated bouts of tonsillitis until he was eight or nine - sending him to school with a raging temperature and feeling awful was just not possible. The teachers certainly won't thank you for sending sick kids to school either!

Definitely send a letter. It sounds like the school are sending out automated letters to everyone who falls below a certain% without looking at the circumstances for each individual case this is just lazy and thoughtless of them and they need to rethink their policy.

But Ofsted don't care why a child is off. Why do you think schools close on snow days? It's because half the pupils dont turn up therefore it clears the attendance deficit if it's a compulsory day off.

Given most parents latch onto league tables like they are some form of holy grail, factor in schools actively compete for pupils in some areas, then they will make sure they remain withinOfsted guidelines.

Parents would be the first up in arms if the school got an unsatisfctory rating and the governors would be demanding to know why things were allowed to slide.

YADNBU.

It is dart that it affects prayed and league tables

It is dart that you are being harrassed for having a sick child

But there is not too much emphasis on attendance. I live in an area with a large immigration population. So lots of the kids are taken out of school for extended holidays home. It can really have a detremental affect on the class if the teacher is constantly having to help kids catch up with what they missed. So for us emphasis on attendance is really important to limit these absences

As a teacher I have seen first hand the detriment to children who don't regularly attend but as a parent on the receiving end of one of those letters I would say YANBU! I hate the fact they are just churned out with no regards as to what they say. I got one last year saying that my son's attendance had put us into an area for concern category. The teacher/school secretary at least had the sense to scrawl across the bottom, 'I know daffsboy has had an operation this term' - blardy annoying though to be slapped on the wrist like that for no good reason.

I also don't think there is too much emphasis on attendance. Missing days from school can have an effect on the childrens' social functioning and academic achievement. Even a couple of days in a week can mean a child missing a particular maths topic. Some children can catch up easily, others find it much harder

Of course, keeping your child off when they are ill is important. I do, however, know people who will allow their DCs regular time off if they feel a little under the weather or tired

I don't get upset about churned out letters. If it doesn't apply to me, I ignore it.

I am a teacher in a school rated 'satisfactory' by ofsted, however, the one area where we did get rated outstanding was our attendance. I know for a fact that our attendance officers are only brought in to work with parents if their child's attendance is below 80%. Other than that, we offer prizes for high attendance and give out a breakdown of a child's attendance as part of their reports twice a year. We do absolutely nothing else apart from that which suggests to me that your school is maybe going a little bit OTT.

In this country we are very lucky that we get a "free" state funded education, available to all.

Would people keep children home willy-nilly if they had to pay for it, as 3rd world countries often have to, and make a choice which child they can afford to educate, and for how long because they will be needed to go to work and earn?

When something is "free" you don't tend to value it.

dart=daft
Prayed=ofsted

I'm with oj on the churned out letters. They are just a fact of our society.

To be fair, if a child is well enough that one dose of calpol will get them through the day then there is no reason to keep them off school really.

Attendance is important and schools are right to monitor it. If you don't feel the letter applies to you chuck it in the bin and forget about it

I also send in with Calpol, if there isn't a raging fever and the child isn't too lethargic. Colds are a fact of life, and we all have to work through them

I think it's similar in the workplace if you've been off for a genuine reason that your boss knows about you still have to have a back to work interview and have your attendance monitored. It's just a procedure that must be adhered to, and it is there to protect the vulnerable and ensure that any major issues don't slip by unnoticed. It is annoying when it can make you feel like you're getting an undeserved slap on the wrist, but I'd just ignore.

I think monitoring children's attendance at school is a good thing, on the whole. Agree about annoying impersonal letter but I can see why it might be a policy that protects the school and the children. Presumably if there is a real concern, school can report to relevant agency and say they have already taken steps. It wouldn't be fair to only give these letters out to those who 'deserve it', how could you tell and who would judge? So having a blanket cut off percentage for when a letter automatically gets sent seems understandable.

YANBU. The colds thing is different as there would never be anyone there otherwise but my DCs school have a very nasty D & V bug going round at the moment and I am bloody pissed off at people sending their kids back after 24 hours instead of 48 after the last bout. My DD had it and now DS has it. The 'oh I have to get back to work' thing doesn't wash with me because guess what people? So do I. I've had to take 5 days off over the last week because of this and I don't get paid for it. That annoys me in itself but the fact that these parents don't actually care that they are potentially making another child really sick enrages me. Sorry, bit of a rant there.

The churned out letters may well be coming from the local authority through the school- hence the 'blanket ' nature of them. We have to send these for the LA if we want any support with attendance.

Maybe don't blame the school.

92% is realy very low. That is a day off every 2weeks. I would argue that does have an impact on education. How old is dc btw, I think nearly all kids have more time off in yr. However by end of primary I would think 1 or 2 days a term or a week a year was more typical

8% absence in a school year is approx 15 and a half days or 3 school weeks (based on a 195 day year)
If your DC is ill she is ill but you can see how it adds up.

I wouldn't worry about it. If there is a genuine reason for being off,that is school's tough luck. What is a problem is when children are off at the drop of a hat, because they have a tummy ache/headache/sneezed/sore throat. Some times the calpol trick does wonders. Occasionally, it turns out that it is the beginning of something, and then they can get sent home. We do tend to recognise truly poorly children.
My own kids have to be at deaths door really unwell before I let them stay at home.

I got het up this week because all children with 100% attendance in our school are allowed to go in in their own clothes on the last day of term. This is probably about 60% of children in the school. Luckily mine fall into that category but it seems crazy to me me that children should feel punished for staying off ill. I've only had to keep mine off for vomiting in the past but it's hardly the kids' fault!

Sorry saw up thread dc is yr 1. Is this a typical attendance pattern or has it been a bad term ?

My disabled and chronically ill daughter was so harrassed by her junior school over attendance that she is now school refusing altogether and on anti-depressants, aving gone through periods of self-harming, hyperventilating, vomiting etc.

It wasn't just impersonal letters sent out, it was the school ignoring medical letters and a diagnosis of several years' standing, sending in social service repeatedly to question our parenting, hinting that we would be better off in another school, asking her paed in front of us how they could know that she was really in pain ("she'll tell you" said the paed innocently- of course their implication was that she had to be lying), constantly explaining to us (often in her hearing) why they didn't think she was really in pain or ill, denying incidents that happened at school, refusing to send her home when she had an episode. It was quite clear that they wanted her out as she was damaging their statistics.

Dd is now in a very caring and supporting secondary, but her confidence is shot to pieces to the extent that she has panic attacks about going to school because she knows she dries up when she needs to explain to an adult that she is starting an episode: she would end up carrying on until she passes out because she just can't bring herself to believe that this time people will believe her. After years of not being believed it is very difficult to trust people.

Her original illness never did as much damage to her education as the anxiety instilled in her by her school over attendance.