To send this reply to letter about attendance from school

[FamilarSting]

Today I received a letter from school about the attendance of my 5 year old. She has had 6 days off school since January (4 of those were last week - she had a throat infection) and had perhaps another 3 from September - December but the letter doesn't mention those.
This is the letter I received and I will paste my reply. I'd appreciate thoughts on if my reply is too OTT, or rude etc. But to be honest, I am furious and want the letter to convey a certain level of how annoyed I am.

Would I be unreasonable to send this reply?

(FROM SCHOOL)

10th April 2014

Dear Parents of X

Here at X Primary School we take attendance very seriously.

In the Home School Agreement you signed to say you will ensure your child attends regularly and on time. I would like to bring to your attention that X's attendance this term is below the school average. I would like to see some improvement next term.

Please find below the summary from the school register with is recorded with X Education Authority.

(table showing she's had 12 'sessions' off out of a possible 124 which is equal to 90.32% attendance, 0 of those being unauthorized)

Yours faithfully

X (Headteacher)

(all typed, nothing signed)

(MY RESPONSE)

Dear Mr X,

I am sorry that you find X’s attendance so troubling. However, I as a parent find her health more important than keeping above your school’s average attendance statistics. I do ensure my child attends school regularly and on time. Unfortunately she has had several periods of illness this year involving very high fevers. I myself was aware of how frequently she has been off school, and so on Monday 1st April, I sent her to school despite her having a fever. She was subsequently sent home from school and spent a week rather ill at home with a throat infection. I can acquire a Doctor’s note about this if required.

As your letter states, X’s 12 sessions absent from school were always authorized and I always made sure to inform school as to what was happening.

I would also like X’s attendance to improve, but not at the expense of sending her to school with a high fever so that she can feel miserable all day.

When X has been unwell at home, in between doses of paracetamol to bring down her fevers, and when she has felt up to it, we have made sure to do extra practice of her reading books and letter sounds etc.

I and her class teacher feel she is doing well in school and I do not feel these absences have had much negative impact on her studies at her reception class level. If this is not the case, or if these days off have caused her teacher to have to spend extra time in helping her to catch up then I apologise, but I suspect this is not the case.

I find the tone and impersonal quality of the letter I received quite frustrating. You may take attendance very seriously, but perhaps you might like to look at the overall picture of the child; her performance at school, and perhaps the possibility that she might have been unlucky enough to be ill several times in the winter months, amounting to 6 days off school.

X will be taking four days absence next term in order to visit family in Norway.

I will no longer concern myself about whether this being marked as unauthorized might upset your records, as if doing the best we can as per the ‘Home School Agreement’ is not good enough, then I doubt anything will be.

Yours Sincerely

FamiliarSting

I like takingchances response - hard not to get emotive especially when it is the school that send the children home and have the rules around keeping your child off for x many days when they are sick etc.

But, there is years more of schooling (I'm assuming from your post) at the same school so go easy. I completely agree with the letter - sort of thing I would write to vent and then crumple up and put in bin! Don't send it - my opinion.

Absolutely, it's a really rude letter you had.
How about this response.

Dear Mr X
Thank you for your letter.
I too am really concerned about the amount of time my daughter has had off sick and would like to avoid a reoccurrence.

Please would you detail what steps you are taking to prevent my daughter from acqiring viral or bacterial infections from other children in the class, if you believe this is impacting on the school's educational effectiveness.

Don't send that letter unless you want it pinned on the staff room wall to give everyone a laugh. Don't take a standard letter personally.

I wouldn't send the letter, the one from the school is standard. You probably won't have this problem ever again, once the 'herd immunity' of school kicks in. Glad your daughter is better now and doing well in school.

If you are unhappy about this I agree with contacting Gove. Don't blame the school or the teachers. They are being fucked from both sides by parents and MPs.
If a school fails OFSTED, by being below average too many times then they get turned into academies. Do you know how academies work? They are run by private companies who will set the rules, times and term dates. They will make all teachers re apply for their jobs. I know one school that is now being run by a stationery company. This means that all books have to be ordered through the company. If you think that the teachers don't care now, which they do, then do you think a stationery company is going to care more?

"I just feel like someone needs to pick them up on how rude this automated letter is. "

Then do just that.

Tell them that you realise it is an automated response due to your daughter's attendance "falling" to a particular level.

It is all due to illness, completely out of your control & perhaps they could think about acknowledging that in future.

Or somesuch.

am I the only person who is worried by the "don't take it personally it is only an automated letter" attitude? seriously? here we have a letter written by people that don't want to write it and cant be bothered to personalise it, received by most parents who put it in the bin and aren't the least bit bothered by its contents. so what is the point then of wasting time, money, resources, a stamp. that's what gets me cross. it is so bloody pointless and improves attendance not one iota. please e mail Gove and tell him what an absolute farce this is. if enough people do it maybe it will get through to him that it is a complete and utter waste.

What do you think will happen in response to your letter?

Fuck all, apart from maybe marking you out as a pissy parent. No one reading it will give a shit that you read with your kid on her many days off. They're admin staff, they have to send this stuff out, a computer picked your name out and stuck it in a letter. It's not personal. It's a box ticking exercise.

Roll your eyes and bin it like everyone else.

Maybe it would be better to arrange a face to face 5 minute catch up with the school - as evidenced above letters/emails and rage tone can be antagonistic/ mis interpreted/ lost in translation etc

It's a standard letter. Your letter is absurd, verging on hysterical. I've had one when my son was ill very shortly into the term and so his attendance was low. I ignored it. They have a responsibility to tell me and I knew it was a blip. I bet they get tons of letters like yours. They probably categorise them under varying grades of loony.

Oops - I didn't mean "rage" tone sorry - I meant just "tone"

It is a standard letter, but makes no sense in the circs and that's what (imo) is so annoying as it makes the school look like bloody idiots.

After the letter you'll have a SAM school attendance meeting. Then if it gets worse the EWO

I had to be seen to jump through hoops to improve attendance. Assemblies, cups, displays around the school, etc. (None of it worked)

Should've sent the parents a 'Good Attendance' sticker.

Well in the last 15 days ds2 has been at school for 3 of them.
I fully expect a letter soon.
He has had (in the last 3 weeks);
Ear infection
Conjunctivitis
Very high temp
Tonsillitis
Cough
He has seen the gp several times at their request as he has been so poorly.
He has also had a hospital appt.
At his parents evening - where is teacher told us he's doing very well and in top groups for numeracy and literacy - she also made a very pointed comment about attendance.
What do they expect parents to do?

You've got a hide like a rhino's arse to contemplate sending that pile of shite, while planning to take four days off next term as holiday

Schools do have discretion. DC1 has regularly had a low level attendance while at junior school and I've yet to receive a letter. Attendance for DC1 sits generally around 70-80%. However it is an outstanding school, in a fairly nice area and they have unusually low quotas of SN/FSM and low attendance.

I know our HT supports our family and has probably protected us from the EWO at the local authority. Partly because she has enabled different bodies to get involved in DC1's care. In turn I keep the school informed every day when DC1 is absent and always attend performance reviews/make separate appointments regarding DC1's overall well being in school. I can't thank our HT for being so co-operative with us. It makes my life much easier.

Reason I'm posting? To show that not every school has to take an over zealous approach or generate these letters. From our experience it's certainly not a standard procedure.
I could contact the school OP just to get your points noted about your DD's absences so you can show co-operation (and disgust) with the school.

I would* contact the school.

I'm not contacting them on your behalf haha!

My daughter received two of these at the beginning of last term.

From the school she left the term
before.

The late ones used to give me the absolute fucking rage too. Only ever late for legitimate reasons too.

OP think of these letters as you would the automated ones which are sent out by day British Gas when THEY make an admin error

OP how would a different letter to you help your child? you are making this about you when the school is there to help educate your child.

My DD's school had to send me a letter when her attendance was 63% due to health problems and several hospital admissions. It was carefully worded by the head teacher acknowledging that the absences were due to ill health and that they wanted to work with me to help increase her attendance over the coming months.

Yes, they do have to send the letter but there is no need for it to be rude or patronising. If my DD's school can send out more sensitively worded letters, they all can. They don't need to be tailored to individuals to be sensitive and constructive.

OP, if you don't like the tone of the letter, write back, acknowledging that they have to be seen to be acting to improve attendance and explain your experience of reading it as a parent who cares about her child's education but is also responsible for her health and well-being.

They don't have to send a letter. My son's attendance has always been around 85% (has sn and can't cope with school when he is ill) and we have never had one.

It's all a bit TL;DR and will get passed around and you will become that parent.

Make it brief and straight to the point.

you are aware that children with persistent attendance at less than 95% on average come out a grade lower at GCSE than those with attendance over the magic 95%?

Schools have a duty of care and all sorts of other stuff towards their students. It's pretty normal to send a letter when attendance dips. Plenty of parents keep their children off for spurious reasons - schools have no idea if illness for a few days is genuine or simply a parent with some other agenda. Standard letters show the parent who is messing about that the school is aware. I know the chap in charge of this kind of thing in my school hates sending out letters to families he knows have had genuine reasons for absence - but they are a requirement of our policies and procedures and seek to show that we are aware of the issue. Further down the line where court action becomes a possibility (not suggesting that's the case here), we will need to show what we have done to try and deal with the issue. The letter is just the start of that.