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?

Having also worked in HR, I would say that if a manager issued a "disciplinary" they would be around to answer it but they'd be very unwise to do so in haste and in an informal phone call. They would set up proper meetings and follow a timescale set out in a procedure.

But the OP is not an employee of the school. As someone said up- thread, she could go to the press at any point, because she is not bound by the complaints procedure. I also think threatening someone with legal action is an important matter. It is not as though the OP has been in to complain about a child nicking another child's pencil, FFS!

parents go scatter gun.

That would have been me.

Thanks for your advice Pee.

Useful to hear what goes on behind enemy lines.

If I have a problem I will also follow stage one of complaints procedure.

I do know that if I was sent that letter - which seems to be based on hearsay and no evidence- I would be mortified and furious and want it dealt with ASAP.

I would be even more furious when the school couldn't be bothered to deal with it properly.

And even more furious that I was expected to spend time and effort on a complaints procedure which came about because of a letter they sent!

It's kafkaesque.

See I wouldn't have faffed about leaving messages or asking for phone calls. I'd have started the formal complaints procedure on the day I got that letter, it's not difficult. That would get things moving more quickly.

Depends on the complaints procedure though. Our school states that in the first instance you should contact the school and ask to speak to someone. Only after that do they advise putting it in writing. So an actual conversation is seen as the first step in the complaints procedure. If that is the case for the OP also than she has not 'faffed about' in her attempts to speak to someone, she has followed the school's own policy.

snow

because it feels to me that while they can tell me not to bring them to school they should not be allowed to dictate what we do during the 48hrs they will not have them back.

^

Same here, the 48 hour policy is good, but its blanket so there is no room for the odd bout of sickness or D. More a sort of virus thing, that may take 48 hours to clear out.

I can see when DC need to rest, what kind of bug they have. I too have done things on the second day, low key, woodland walk or something.

That can be dealt with, schools must be held to account by the governing body and there are processes in place to do that

Or not. To quote from the report, published this week, of a large comp being whacked straight into special measures from "Good" last year:

"(Governors) have simply accepted information given to them by senior leaders and, as a result, they do not hold an accurate picture of the school’s effectiveness. They do not have a deep enough understanding about the quality of teaching across the school. Governors have not held school leaders to account for their actions and, as a result, have not sufficiently challenged them about needed improvements."

I was responding to another poster who compared the situation to a disciplinary. Personally I think there's not much of a comparison.

Honestly? I think that any parent would be plain silly to go running to the press about something like this when it happened so recently. As I said above, the school has handled it badly, but I'd deal with them and the governors rather than doing something in haste that could bring the school that MY CHILD attended into disrepute. That might satisfy the parental thirst for revenge, but I don't see how it would benefit the children in the school and that's what I think the whole school community should keep in mind. It's not as if the Head pinned a copy of the letter to the school notice board, so agreed it's a bad situation, but it hasn't really done the Op any reputational harm. Understandably raised her blood pressure though!

Sad face in the Daily Fail anyone? Like that daft woman with the red tags cut off her daughters Kickers??

"(Governors) have simply accepted information given to them by senior leaders and, as a result, they do not hold an accurate picture of the school’s effectiveness. They do not have a deep enough understanding about the quality of teaching across the school. Governors have not held school leaders to account for their actions and, as a result, have not sufficiently challenged them about needed improvements."

So what? One school went into Special Measures. One particular GB failed to hold a school to account. I fail to see how that applies to this school, we know nothing about how effective this GB is. And... if they don't do their job properly...

Sigh... and that's what the DfE involvement in complaints is for.

I'm gone now, I'm bored with being devil's advocate.

Ubik

Yes everything you touch in councils etc is Kafkaesque now.

I have rail roaded my way through procedures before without really realising what I was doing, and it was hard work.

Op it seems does not have much choice.

If I was the head I would also want to close this down quickly, apologise and so forth.

This has not happened and she is left in limbo.

But if the school choose to follow through with their threats it could do her bank balance harm and I don't see why she should be fined for her son being sick.

She is following procedure. There is no need to involve the governors at this point because, as I understand it, if something is put in writing to the head then it has to be dealt with, in writing, to show what the school have done to remedy the situation.

See I wouldn't have faffed about leaving messages or asking for phone calls. I'd have started the formal complaints procedure on the day I got that letter

Schools can't have it both ways: they can't simultaneously talk about wanting to build trusting relationships, and then brush off everything that isn't a formal complaint.

What you're advising people to is to go formal at the first opportunity: don't given the school any opportunity to deal with it informally, but immediately invoke the formal process. I'd feel uneasy about doing that, and on the odd occasions over the last fifteen years I've had cause to complain (or, at least, do slightly more than ask casually) I've been very keen to do it quickly, informally and with as little friction as possible. I would go formal if I didn't get a good initial response, but assuming the initial response was reasonable I'd leave it at that.

But your advice, as an insider, appears to be "don't given the school any opportunity to clarify, apologise or explain, immediately hit them with a formal complaint". Is that really the best thing to do? Is this OP's school thinking "you know, apologising is a bit like hard work, let's do nothing and wait for a formal complaint to get to the chair of governors?" If so, that seems a rather rum way to proceed.

Sad face in the Daily Fail anyone? Like that daft woman with the red tags cut off her daughters Kickers??

I actually think its very topical at the moment, parents are pushing back against these draconian rules re attendance and this is a prime example of it going wrong. I think lots of parents would sympathise with the op and maybe even have their own sorry tales to tell.

What's your axe to grind Peeking?

See I wouldn't have faffed about leaving messages or asking for phone calls. I'd have started the formal complaints procedure on the day I got that letter, it's not difficult. That would get things moving more quickly.

Peek, I like your style

As a parent, I'd have expected someone in the school to contact me after I had told them I wanted to discuss it.

It's not that difficult to do and should never have got to such a stage.

Friday - I don't think Peeking means that you should go formal immediately every time, just in this scenario. The school started this with an official letter and not just an informal chat, remember?

Peekings procedures are themselves a bit kafkaesque with complaints processes up to the Governors then DfE.

Would no one else just be looking for an alternative school?
Whilst doing whatever, but in a disengaged way, to cancel any fine that was still threatened? And no I wouldn't go to the press but send a note to my MP so it added to any other similar stuff in their mailbag/ inbox.

Anyway OP I hope sense prevails and the school apologises soon.

Fer goodness sake!

I've said several times, I think the school has handled this badly. In other words, I think they are in the wrong - not about sending the letter, we don't know about that really - but in how they have handled the situation.

I have advised on the appropriate way to proceed from this point on. Normally I'd just follow the complaints procedure.

However, if I had been sent this letter, and it was untrue, I would have needed to be scraped off the ceiling, so in that case I wouldn't have dealt with it conversationally, I'd have gone straight for my word processor. I would have wanted the outcome and eventually climb-down in writing and probably framed it and hung it in the loo.

But no, I wouldn't have gone to the press because ultimately I care about the school my pupils attend.

I hope that's clear enough.

And they aren't "my" fucking procedures, I posted a link to DfE guidance on complaints in schools, they will be the procedures adopted by most of the schools in the country.

I'm saying be realistic. If you go to the MP, or the DfE their first question will be around how you contacted the school and their response.

By the way, schools make no income from fines relating to poor attendance. And a letter threatening a fine is just the first step in a process.

Peeking there was no offence intended.

I admired your ability to use the official channels , just commenting I couldn't manage it. I wouldn't be escalating anything just avoiding an institution who I couldn't deal with.

Peeking, maybe you can answer a question I asked earlier on the thread...

What happens if you don't pay the fine?

What happens if you don't pay the fine?

It can go to court. It's not automatic. If you pay the fixed penalty, that stays any subsequent prosecution. If you don't, the next step would be referral for prosecution. The offence is criminal, so it requires the sign-off from the CPS or their delegates, and requires "beyond reasonable doubt" evidence. If it hinges on witnesses, then those witnesses will have to be prepared to give evidence. It seems, shall we say, unlikely that in this case it would get that far.

OMFG

"The offence is criminal,"

HOW did I miss that? When did this become a CRIMINAL matter?
Fucking SERIOUSLY? (I have been living in a bubble, haven't I)