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?

'Dear Head,
You have one week to remove your false allegation before I put it all on Mumsnet.
Signed,
WeAreEternal'

That should do it...

I second going in and not leaving until you have a copy of the complaints procedure, and I would also draft a formal letter to the governors making it clear that this is an official complaint and that what you want is to have the register entry amended. Set reasonable timescales (taking Christmas holidays into account) for both.

Don't let it go.

Of course, the OP could dob herself in. Write back to the LEA and ask why, given you have racked up a collection of unauthorised holidays, you have not been issued with a fixed penalty notice as threatened by the school. Whatever their response, it will be interesting.

If you have a landline and made calls on it on your bill, this would prove you were at home.

Why should I bother you may ask ? Because you could write a letter saying you were going to sue them for defamation. They can see how they like being threatened by someone who ought to be a partner, not an adversary.

Because you could write a letter saying you were going to sue them for defamation.

Which they laugh at. There's no legal aid for defamation, it's almost impossible to get a conditional fee arrangement, you wouldn't be able to do it self-representing against a public body and unless the school has been sending copies of the letter to your neighbours it isn't defamation anyway, because that necessarily involves third parties. You would not be able to show any significant loss, either material or reputational. It would also gum the works up, because their solicitor would tell them to reply as follows:

"As you intend to take legal action, we cannot discuss this matter further other than through our solicitors. Please do not contact us again on this matter."

If there's one way to make a complaint look silly, it's threatening the organisation with a legal action that there is no way you could possibly bring, and if by some miracle you managed it, would be struck out almost immediately. Who would the OP claim was the third party in whose eyes their standing had been reduced by the school's actions? Oh, that's right: no-one. I suppose that you could argue that the school register is itself defamatory, and its publication to the LEA lowered your standing in their eyes. If you wanted to lose your house to a fees judgement, anyway.

Weare, I've given you all the advice on how to make your complaint formal. I too some time over drafting you a letter a couple of pages back. That's the answer to your question.

They haven't slandered her. To do that they woud have had to communicate their allegations to a third party and she would have to prove that her reputation had been damaged. Besides, slander is verbal not written (which is libel)

That's a really lame threat

Get a copy of the complainst procedure. Go in and get it from the office

And write to the governors again using peeking's words:

Thank you for your letter dated...

I am pleased to hear that you will officially investigate my formal complaint and look forward to your response. I understand that the usual response time in these circumstances would be within 3 weeks, however as we are fast approaching the Christmas break I would appreciate it if you could at least update me in writing on progress before the end of term.

Meanwhile, as you know the governing body is legally obliged to have a complaint's policy in place and this is a statutory policy. Please could you post me a copy of this within the next 5 days.

You should be aware that I feel that so far I have been largely ignored by the school in this matter. I will follow the complaints process through until I have a satisfactory outcome. The allegation that I lied about my child's absence is untrue, and as resolution I want to have this acknowledged in writing with an apology from the Headteacher, and the register amended accordingly

(I've tweaked it in light of developments - in bold)

Hope that was OK Peeking. I'm getting a tad frustrated with this thread!

Marking my place too...

I would write to the governers complaining not just about the bullshit holiday absence but also the fact the school just wont deal with you.
How many times is it now you have asked to speak to someone? asked for the complaints policy and theynever bloody respond or block you with excuses.

Just write to the governers again saying due to the amount of time passed you want this actioned as a formal complaint and want it formally investigated but not just the bullshiut holiday you had when your son was ill but you want a formal investigation into the silly biddy in reception blocking all your calls and requestes for help, complaints policy and to speak to someone.
I would slip in there - do you know when the next Ofsted inspection is likely to (they wont have a clue cos they wont know themselves)because I am very keen to speak to them when they arrive - you are allowed to speak to the inspectors and put comments in writing to them.

They are absolute arses at this school more so now for the way they have repeatedly ignored your requests than the initial fuck up.

I do think its off that the register has your son down as unauthorised holiday - again imo that points to some busy body ingnoring your calls ( a common theme it seems).

WHy not send the head a christmas card whilst you're at it and say I hope you won't continue to ignore me in 2014.

I'm getting frustrated too Bit. On a number of occasions Peeking has given sound advice and clear instructions as to how the OP should progress matters, including drafting a follow up letter, and I'm not sure that the OP has ever even acknowledged this assistance. She certainly isn't following the advice, but god knows why.

OP, please do yourself a favour and follow Peeking's advice on this issue.

Exactly Hungry. Peeking has been consistent throughout and clearly knows what she's talking about.

I think the OP has been far too patient before going official on their arses with no clear strategy

I peronally would not have let this lie

And threetomatoes I agree - I dee the DC's HT all the time. When I have had even monor gripes or problems my calls have been either taken or returned the same day

Surely the quickest way of dealing with this now would be to pop in to school and see the Head and ASK her what is going on? Why has your dc been recorded as unauthorised holiday, when he was ill? Tell her that it is wrong, and you insist that the record is amended immediately.

Clam the head will not commincate with her - won't return calls, answer letters or see her face to face!

I know that she will not return calls or letters, but if I recall correctly, the OP has only actually tried to see her once (or maybe twice), when she was told she was busy. Might be worth trying again.

Ok, I asked if I could write to the governors again because I have already written to them and replied to their letter (with something like Peeking suggested) I wasn’t sure if it was inappropriate to write to them again.

If they are planning on giving me a fine I wouldn’t know about it until the new year, here it takes an average of four to five months for them to send you the fine notice.

But in all honestly I have lost my fight for this, I am going to write to the school/governors again and basically lay out the facts and ask to lodge a formal complaint about it all and then I am just going to let it go.

But thank you all for your support and advice.

Hope it works out for you OP.

You're not going to pay the fine are you?

I'm so appalled that this still hasn't been resolved!

Just speak to the head. That's all.
Arrange a meeting and talk to him.

It is good that you are going to write to the governors again and make it clear that you are lodging a formal complaint.

All schools are required by law to have an official complaints procedure and to publicise it to parents. See here: www.education.gov.uk/a0060895/complaints-procedure-toolkit

If you click on 'School complaints procedure toolkit' (on the right-hand side of the page) and download that document, you will find a lot more information on school complaint procedure. See p. 8 and following in particular. Informal complaints involve talking to the class teacher (not relevant in your case) and then to the headteacher. The next stage (which you are doing) is the formal complaint to the governing body. Once you have lodged the complaint, a member of the GB should walk you through the official school complaint procedure and help you fill out a complaint form. The GB must then put together an official panel to hear your complaint (at least that is how it works in my school, and how it works in the example given on the government website). If you are not satisfied with the results of that hearing, you can then go on to the Secretary of State (and possibly the local authority before that).

I am a school governor and like so many others on this thread, I think the school has behaved very badly in marking absences due to illness as unauthorised holidays. They have also behaved very badly in not responding to your informal complaints or referring you to their complaints procedure. Please do follow through on this! Good luck.