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!

That was to heswell and jane

YANBU. It's completely irresponsible to send sick children into school.

I don't agree with rewards/certificates for attendance either. Children can't help being sick and you shouldn't get something just for turning up.

If rewards have to be given at all, they should be given for achievement. Not comparing children within the class, but individual successes.

worral- children with serious illness who do not attend school are not given certificates for attending school on the days when they are able to attend. Also parents of children with serious illness are still hounded by the EWO.

define 'hounded' cornsilk

Attendance certificates have been really effective in our school. And league tables for the classes- i.e. which class has best attendance

Nowt wrong with a bit of healthy competition

Some schools seem to send the letters out automatically when really they need to look more closely at why the children have been off. One lot of chicken pox for example could really damage a child's attendence record but is very different to the child who has one day off at least every fortnight

I see what you and are others are saying about judging who to send the letters to-- but I dont want schools to spend resources on doing this-blanket letters are the quickest catch-all net. I dont see the problem in having a meeting with teachers to clear your name and explain absences in they are genuine

There is no life affecting consequence of a 'bad attendance record'

define hounded...
well for example this happened to somebody I know very well

her child was unable to attend school because he developed crohn's disease. This caused him to be extremely ill over a period of several months when the disease first occurred.
Not only did his mum have the worry of dealing with and coming to terms with her child's condition, she also had to deal with unpleasant phone calls from the EWO about the possibility of being taken to court due to her child not attending school.

"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."

Your post struck a chord with me. DD has had repeated bouts of diarrhoea since she started at high school and then she had a week off with a sickness bug that wiped her out so her attendance record is not great. It is obviously not an option to send a child to school with sickness and diarrhoea. I will send her to school with a cold though and have dosed her up with Calpol for a headache before sending to school.

I really don't agree with giving prizes for 100% attendance because some children simply don't have bullet proof immune systems, so it looks like they are being punished for missing school through illness.

But even with chicken pox some parents take the piss and keep their kids off far longer than necessary, when there's nothing wrong with them.

You can see scabbed over kids playing in the streets here...yet they're 'not well' enough to return to school until every visible scab has gone according to some of their parents.

Basically, if you receive a letter about attendance and you know hand on heart that there's nothing you can do about it...just bin it and carry on doing what you're doing.

But remember, just because you as a parent don't take the piss, it doesn't mean other people don't.

The schools can't look into every single individual child to find out if they're being kept off for silly reasons...so the letter is the best way imo.

DD went and got chicken pox twice . The second bout was pretty grim.

I work with vulnerable women and often they keep their children at home, for many reasons - they could be too depressed/drunk/abused to get them ready for school or simply use the elder children for childcare.

I think it's absolutely vital for these children that their attendance is is strictly monitored - school is often the only place where they get some attention, normality and food

Of course op I'm not saying this applies to you but to an abused or neglected child the difference between 92% and 95% attendance is important. I would hate to see any relaxation of the rules which are there to protect children.

Starwisher i got one of these yesterday as dd2 in yr1 has an attendance of 93.5! She has had 7 days off since September because she's been ill.

I am all for schools trying to raise attendance levels, but sending out blanket letters like this without any investigation is wrong.

I was so cross and felt so awful that i called and sppke to the attendance officer who more of less told me that i shouldn't worry, Ofsted are cracking down and they have to send them to everyone even if they know kids have been legitimatley ill, which they know in my case.

I think next time the sniffles goes to her chest and she is coughing and coughing until she is sick i will send her into to disrupt the whole class so they can waste their time calling me to come and collect her!

The thing that annoys me is that people who don't care if their kids go to school won't care about getting a bloody letter - i on the other hand felt awful.

The school already refuses term time holidays and constantly remind us about attendance...the whole thing drives me bloody mad.

Well said Zoo, what is sad is that what you have written is true

Hmm

On the fence here. Totally agree with the poster that said 8% is 3 weeks in a year. If they are too ill to go then it can't be helped, but you can't hide the fact it will impact on them educationally, maybe not in reception but after that you can easily miss this terms bite at fractions etc and then struggle to catch up.

Letters sent out now are also, to me as an outsider to the situation more worrying than those sent out earlier in the school year. From a straight forward maths point of view 1 week off at the start of term would be 20% if measured at the end of the first half term for instance (Ok i know half terms aaren't 5 weeks, but my on the fly maths isn't that good!)

So yet again because some people can't get their acts together, abuse their families, etc everyone has to be on the receiving end of shitty letters.
These things do need to be looked at on an individual case because apart from anything else these letters cost money to send and are a waste of resources.

It would cost a hell of a lot more to look into each case individually. Letters are the right starting point

Letters are wasted on those who don't care and wasted on upsetting those who do, they are just a waste.

or heswell ;
FFS, because some kids are abused and neglected, everyone has to be on the receiving end of a shitty letter

Not EVERYONE, no - those with poor attendance
and- a shitty letter is bearable if it helps any of those kids, dont you think?
obviously not as much a wasted of resources as assessing who to send letters to
If people stopped taking 'duvet days' probably less need to 'assess' each case individually?

He's wall, spending too much time looking at individual circumstances would be much more of a waste of time, money and resources than just sending out a generic letter to everyone.

If a parent knows they were justified in keeping their child off school, then they are free to ignore the letter or explain the circumstances if needs be. If they are not, then it might make them think twice about keeping their child off. The school staff generally know which parents are justified, and which are too precious, lazy, or disorganised. To send their dc into school. But they can't apply different sets of rules to each type of parent, that would be discriminatory.

Auto correct fail, I meant Heswall, not he's wall!

At our (independent) primary school, they have a policy that if a child is unwell enough to need a dose of Calpol, they are not well enough for school. I think this is very sensible.

DS1 has had nearly 4 weeks off pre-school there, with just the odd day in. He's caught a series of bugs: horrible cough/cold, D&V and now tonsillitis. It is frustrating that he's missed so much, but it can't be helped. The school are totally understanding, and will be the same next year if it happens when he's in reception.

I know that independents aren't harassed by Ofstead in the same way, but I would be upset at any suggestion that an ill primary-age child should be in school. And an experience like Cory's is shocking - the staff at that school are not fit to be in charge of children.

OK to clarify - if you couldn't attend because of illness and then you see 100% attendees getting a prize or reward, that is a kick in the teeth. OK it's not actually a "punishment" but you are being made to suffer by comparison - to look on while someone else gets special treatment for something that neither you or they had any responsibility for, and you miss out. That is not nice or constructive.

Yes, something needs to be done about truanting and people who keep their kids off when they shouldn't. Blanket rewarding 100% attendance isn't it.

And totally agree with the point that if policies like this result in people sending unwell kids into school, then they are probably causing more days off by spreading germs. Daft.