To ask why you think attendance does form part of ofsted assessments?

[bejeezus]

reoccurring thread theme on MNs- how ridiculous the attendance policy is for schools

lots of people in favour of taking kids out during term time for various reasons, off the top of my head;

1. affordable holidays etc as family time and other life enhancing experiences are as important as formal education
2. couple of weeks out of a year wont affect childs education
3. too much focus on attendance, it shouldnt form part of ofsted performance criteria
4. Teachers/ schools should be able to use there judgement to allow the more able/diligent children/families to take time off
5. Parents should make that decision for their own children/ not the schools or LAs place to do so- 'nanny state'

My take on this is that;

I agree, a weeks holiday here and there may very well not affect a childs education. And that family time and other experiences are important and valuable

BUT

attendance forms part of ofsteds performance criteria because it IS important. It affects a schools performance and so it affects your childs eductaion. The effect of a child being out of teh classroom may not affect that childs education, but it very wll may have a knock on effect on other children in the class, probably the less academically able. If every parent took their children on holiday during term time then the teacher would be unable to teach effectively as she would always be facilitating catch up; therefore the children wouldnt reach the standards that they should

the reason these 'nanny state' rules evolve is because people put their own self-interests above all else, and this is to protect the masses

It should be noted on the OFSTED report because it enables parents to make a judgement on whether the other parents value education. If a school has a very low attendance record, I would avoid it.

I think a school with poor attendance figures is likely to be a school with other problems. People always see their own experiences. Their own child who had to visit a relative. Their own child who practises French in their villa. Their own child who keeps a daily diary of their experiences. Etc. And for many people it's fine. But, overall, a school with a high number of students who are off regularly is a school where education is not a major priority for the parents.

I think taking children out of school for months at a time is potentially damaging - to the individual child and to the general atmosphere and ethos of the school. However, I am not convinced that a week or two would be damaging to anyone.

I never thought that I would be among those to take my kids out of school, as I believe that education should be a high priority. However, for various reasons, it is simply not possible for us to visit my husband's home country during any of the longer school holidays, and in order to have any sort of relationship with her grandmother and extended family, it is necessary to travel during the half term holidays. It takes three days of travelling each way to get to my husband's village, so the only practical way of doing this is to take some time off school before or after the half term. This is what we did last year when MIL was very ill, and thankfully, the school was happy to authorise our trip.

What with this trip and two periods of absence due to the norovirus and a nasty bout of flu, dd missed quite a lot of school last year. I was unhappy about this, but I genuinely don't believe that it had any impact on her or on the rest of her classmates. She was ahead of her classmates before the absences and remained ahead afterwards, so there was no catching up as such.

There are many other families at our school with overseas connections, and lots of dd's classmates have had time off to travel abroad. Again, I am not aware of these absences having had any negative impact on dd. She is working towards her own targets, and they are working towards theirs, so again no need to "catch up".

I do understand why attendance is included in the ofsted inspections, but on balance, I think schools should be measured on results. Our school has relatively poor attendance records but achieves outstanding results. I think this reflects the demographic composition of the school - lots of the parents are academics at the nearby university from overseas. Due to their international backgrounds, they travel a lot and take their kids out of school relatively frequently. However, as academics, they value education highly and bend over backwards to ensure that their kids don't fall behind. For this reason, I think it makes sense to allow headteachers to exercise discretion.

My kids hated missing school because they wanted to see their pals and if they were off new friendships were made and they could feel left out when they got back, am amazed that children are taken out for weeks at a time.

It was also v hard to catch up if they missed something. Trying to get DCs to do the work required at home was hard. Imo they never really covered what they missed.

Attendance is important but missing 1-2 weeks in a year at primary level/non exam level will not have much of an effect on the average child's attainment.

Have worked in secondary and primary schools for a faur few years and I honestly believe this to be the case./

Likewise when I was growing up me, my brother and my sister all missed 1-2 weeks a year of school. y dad had factory shut down holidays and these were not in school holidays, so if we wanted to go away for a family holiday it had to be in term time. All three of us did just fine - we all passed exams, we all went to university and we all got good jobs afterwards. And I became a teacher - so obviously I still felt education was important.

Now missing a lot of time every year is different. Ad hoc days here and there, month long breaks, etc. not great. But a week or two a year - generally not going to make a negative effect ime.

And no - it generally isn't that much of a deal to other children ime either. To be honest, ime, most kids don't really notice if xx if missing for a week, beyond asking once and being told they are away, unless it is a close friend - and then it is the friend they miss rather than any change to their education iyswim. It certainly doesn't seem to hamoer their education from what I have seen.

My son misses a lot of school time each year. His attendance levels are normally 60-80% for the whole school year. He has a chronic condition which means lots of hospital stays and appointments with various teams from the hospital.

However, what annoys me is that due to the pressure that the Local Authority and Ofsted place on schools it actually prevents us from getting extra help and usually ends with the schools/teachers/education officers monitoring DS's attendance - all authorised absences. We try our hardest to get most of the medical treatment done during holidays - for the last three school holidays my son has spent the majority of it in hospital. But actually it's leaving him exhausted and the school still pick at hospital appointments during school hours (which isn't even in my hands). If they used all their time that they monitored his attendance/wrote letters/all discussions, into actual practical things that can help DS progress alongside his classmates then he would struggle less when he actually does have to be off school.

OP- you sound like all of the attendance officers we've had contact with - all preachy but with no actual answers to our very real questions.

Sometimes life just happens outside of the school holidays. For example we have 2 family events (my sisters wedding & grandparents 70th) this year. Both are abroad and in term time. Should I ask my sister to rearrange her wedding to school holidays so the school can please OFSTED?

Thankfully the school has authorised the absenses. I think there has to be a balance and schools need to use common sense. If the pupil has good attendance and is doing ok then whats the harm in a few days spent with family. Life is such a rat race for most of us and time spent with family is precious and under rated.

RB I'm not talking about illness, I'm talking about people going on holiday

reindeerbollocks so ridiculous that you are being put under this extra stress about attendance. Schools should be permitted to exempt those with chronic conditions from the attendance figures and concentrate resources on helping those who need them.

"attendance forms part of ofsteds performance criteria because it IS important. It affects a schools performance and so it affects your childs eductaion. The effect of a child being out of teh classroom may not affect that childs education, but it very wll may have a knock on effect on other children in the class, probably the less academically able."

This applies to my son. It's true as I'm told it bloody regularly enough by teachers, but I'll accept that you didn't mean those with SN and I'll bow out of the discussion.

I also retract the preachy comment too. But can you imagine if I asked the school for authorised absence in school time - oh how they would laugh.

I think the figures should only be based on holidays.

I know nobody is on about illnesses and SN children, but the figures as as a whole.

I try not to book holidays in term time as ds has alot of time off due to hospital appoinment, salts ect