AIBU? DS was ill and the school have marked it as an unauthorised holiday and are threatening to fine me!

[WeAreEternal]

A couple of weeks ago DS (7) had an upset stomach, he D&V over night and most of the next day.
First thing in the morning (a Thursday) I called the school and let them know he was ill.
He was feeling better by the evening but as he had D&V school policy is 24 hours off, so I kept him off Friday too.

I received a letter from to school yesterday saying that those days have been marked as an unauthoried holiday as "although we received a phone call from you stating that (DS) was ill, we are led to believe that DS was in fact on a holiday to XXXX on these two dates"

The letter goes on to say that if he was genuinely ill they expect me to provide evidence such as a doctors appointment card, a prescription, a medication receipt or something simmilar that can "verify my version of events".

I am a medical professional, I know when when my DS needs medication or to see a GP or when he just has a bit of a stomach bug and needs rest and fluids.
Who would take a child to the GP or buy medication for D&V anyway?

How on earth can I prove that DS was ill?
And why are they even querying this?
AIBU to think this is bloody ridiculous?

Anyone have any ideas?

I agree that the school are dealing with this outrageously but, sadly, this is not that unusual.
MrsDevere I have had similar problems such as a complete inability to answer a direct question and anger at any parent daring to challenge them. I even received threats of legal action if I dared to repeat my complaint to anybody along with a total refusal to provide a copy of the complaints policy.
The LEA believe the school is marvellous however and the school expects to get an 'outstanding' at it's next inspection. No doubt it will say that it has had no parental complaints because they are just ignored .

Blimey. I am just as disgusted at the schoolS unapproachable attitude as I am with their initial letter.

Its seems they go out of their way to be awful.

If you do post it recorded delivery tomorrow you will be given a track code for the RM websites and can track your letter to see when it is delivered and who signed for it - it even shows you a picture of the signature which you can print off as proof of delivery/receipt.

I strongly suspect the unavailability of anyone to discuss this with you is because they are running around like headless chickens behind the scenes wondering how the fuck they are going to worm their way out of this shit - hence the delaying tactics.
Infact I wouldnt be surprised if tomorrow you get a letter explaining the 1st letter was sent to you in error and to ignore it. The last thing I would do would be to ignore it though.

I even received threats of legal action if I dared to repeat my complaint to anybody

Arkell v. Pressdram (1971) [unreported]
Solicitor (Goodman Derrick & Co.):

We act for Mr Arkell who is Retail Credit Manager of Granada TV Rental Ltd. His attention has been drawn to an article appearing in the issue of Private Eye dated 9th April 1971 on page 4. The statements made about Mr Arkell are entirely untrue and clearly highly defamatory. We are therefore instructed to require from you immediately your proposals for dealing with the matter. Mr Arkell's first concern is that there should be a full retraction at the earliest possible date in Private Eye and he will also want his costs paid. His attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of your reply.

Private Eye:

We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

[No further reply]

Please send copies of your letter to CoG and LA.

Is there any other school your DC could attend? I would be most unhappy at the school being so unwelcoming, besides the horrific way you have been treated.

How are they with the children?

someschools areajoke You know you can ask to speak to an inspector or leave a letter for them,don't you, when they're there?

I think this has little to do with Gove and much to do with some power crazed attitudes from someone at the school - whether that is the school leadership or the admin people.

Their (lack of) response is unprofessional and downright rude.

Did you post the letter recorded OP? If you haven't heard from them within 24hrs of their receiving the letter, I would stand in reception and refuse to budge. Or perhaps remove some clothing and chain yourself to somewhere obvious on school premises! At least then you would get their attention might also get arrested.

We are waiting with bated breath for the outcome.

I think it has everything to do with Gove. If there wasn't this incredible pressure on teachers/ HT's etc. to do everything 'right', things like this wouldn't be happening. I expect it happened because they were too busy thinking about other things, and didn't think it through properly. I expect it hasn't been dealt with properly because the HT is busy dealing with a million other admin type things.

NB. I don't agree with school and OP has done absolutely the right thing, but I do feel the pressure schools/ HT's etc are under is ridiculous and leads to things like this happening.

MerryMarigold, it happened to us nearly 10 years ago. There was already pressure on schools to sort out attendance if they wanted a good Ofsted. Very, very similar except that we did have medical evidence and the school did still not want to accept it.

But it hasn't happened in ds' current excellent school despite Gove.

What it takes is a combination of pressure and bad attitude/stupidity. Which was present in dd's school 10 years ago but is not present in ds' school now. If you haven't got the attitude then it won't happen.

I am under a lot of pressure to get students through their modules and do my research at the same time. Any student with health or mental health problems takes time from that and makes it harder. I still couldn't treat a sick student badly. I just couldn't. I'd rather take whatever flak was coming to me from management than know I was a shithead.

I hope the OP has been standing in reception this morning making her point.

True, cory. But I think it is both. And I think the attendance/ OFSTED/ pressure is even more now, so these situations will become more frequent.

And I think the attendance/ OFSTED/ pressure is even more now

Actually, it isn't. Ofsted now only have four major heads of assessment (Achievement, Teaching, Behaviour and Safety, Leadership and Management), and attendance isn't in any of them.

Well it's coming from somewhere, the fines etc. Our school have only got all hot on it in the past 2 years - competitions on attendance/ certificates etc.

Also, we were told by school that the attendance record would affect their OFSTED rating. Is this a lie?

Also, we were told by school that the attendance record would affect their OFSTED rating. Is this a lie?

It might have been true under the old framework. At a gross level (ie, truly terrible attendance) it might be now, although a school with very bad attendance would usually have other, more pressing, problems. But if your school thinks that improving from 95% to 96% attendance will paper over other weaknesses, it has another think coming. A local school has been very pleased with its initiatives on attendance. It was the nineteen percentage point drop in English at C or better than whacked it into special measures, less than twelve months after a Good. The much improved, above national standards, attendance didn't do it any good.

And anyway, why as parents do you give a stuff about anything other than the quality of teaching, the safety of pupils, outcomes (to an extent) and leadership? How does attendance affect you? That was Gove's point on coming into office, and he's right: there was the ludicrous sight of school where teaching wasn't outstanding nonetheless being graded outstanding, because they were doing a lot of other box-ticking really well, but somehow had neglected to remember what they were there for. It's now impossible for a school to be outstanding without outstanding teaching and contextualised achievement, and school can be put into special measures on the basis of poor teaching and outcomes while everything else is perfect. As it should be.

I haven't been into the office, I went to the post office and sent the letter instead (I only had time to do one thing before going to work).

I'm not going to bother trying to contact them again, the letter is enough, it's very well worded and I am just going to await a response from that.

That was Gove's point on coming into office, and he's right: there was the ludicrous sight of school where teaching wasn't outstanding nonetheless being graded outstanding, because they were doing a lot of other box-ticking really well, but somehow had neglected to remember what they were there for. It's now impossible for a school to be outstanding without outstanding teaching and contextualised achievement, and school can be put into special measures on the basis of poor teaching and outcomes while everything else is perfect. As it should be.

Then it seems counterproductive to tighten up the policy on attendance. Which this GOVErnment just has, which leads to madness such as the OP is experiencing.

Well done!

The letter is great.

I'd also be tempted to make a complaint anyway about the unprofessionalism of the person who sent you a letter saying they had been "led to believe" which pretty clearly translates as "has been listening to malicious gossip and has let that take precedence over a parent's declaration." IMO the person who sent that letter should not be in the job, particularly given their failure to speak to you about it. It certainly sounds like they were hiding.

I wonder if, after the first time you came in, he or she mentioned what they had heard and from whom to someone else, who then said "Oh my God, you didn't get that from Mrs Gobshite McTroublemaker did you? She's always slagging people off! I can't believe you took her word over Eternals! Blimey, if I were you I'd lie low and hope it all blows over. I'll help you out a bit - I'll tell Eternal you're not here when she calls or comes in next, hopefully she'll give up."

And back to my original question: why have the fines come in in now then? And why are schools getting more worried about it?

And back to my original question: why have the fines come in in now then?

You mean the penalty notices introduced by Section 23 of the 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act? They've been in law for ten years.

The changes to the regulations are here. As you can see, head teachers can still grant leave in "exceptional circumstances". What has been removed is the ten days' holiday in "special circumstances".

The fines aren't new. The heads still have discretion. The claims by head that they don't have discretion are just grandstanding on their part.

did you copy in the CoG and LEA? I have a nasty feeling you didn't, please say I'm wrong, you do really need to start involving them.

From the link saintly posted:

"The new Ofsted framework allows for flexibility around the inspection of attendance and the individual circumstances of pupils with good reason to be off school will not effect the final judgement"

Aargh. SPaG at Ofsted, anyone?

she said she has no means of authorising holiday without it affecting the school's stats.

But the issue the OP has isn't holiday.

They may well have been in law for ten years. But they are being almost universally enforced NOW. So, why is this? Why are Heads now doing this all over the country? What has changed? Has there suddenly been an influx of power crazy, unreasonable HT's? I'm sure our letter (summer, this year) stated it was being enforced by the LEA and not the school wishes she hadn't thrown letter away now.

(Question still not answered)