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

redskyatnight
I wonder if OP would have found the letter less annoying if the 6 days off were 2 days of illness and the 4 day holiday in Norway?

Yes, I would have found it much less annoying. I was expecting to receive a letter saying our request to have absence authorised was denied and would even have accepted a lecture on that as they don't understand all the circumstances.

But these days off were due to illness. What are we supposed to do, how can we improve her attendance if she keeps getting nasty bugs and ends up really weak and teary with a fever of 40C every other week?

Itscurtainsforyou Thanks for that!

missymayhemsmum I love it!

nkf Thanks, lol

Goldmandra Thanks, I think I might have to steal a chunk of your reply and fit it into my re-write.

Dont use I myself. It is just I. And it's Her class teacher and I. If you're trying to make a point about how highly you value your child's education then you invalidate it with poor grammar. I hate myself a little bit for saying it, and don't usually point out this kind of thing, but you did ask.

And telling them that you are taking her on holiday is going to get you a fine. And it's going to undermine your own argument again.

I think most of their letter is fine - it's just the bit about them wanting to see improvement is irritating. I really think you should make an appointment and go in and talk to them about it. Putting it in writing just sounds really snotty, even though you are raising a valid point.

familiar - what you want to achieve?

Yeah, thanks redexpat, grammar feck ups if I were to send that would be shameful.

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%?

As a significant number of children who have lower attendance have additional needs of some sort this is hardly surprising. There are children whose needs are better met, and their grades therefore better supported, by not putting undue pressure on them to attend school at time when it would be inappropriate for them to do so.

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.

In that case they shouldn't be sent to families of children who they know have genuine health issues.

Goldmandra researchers looking at the effect of attendance and performance will be accounting for some children being absent to SN and taking account of this!

their work will then be peer reviewed.

may be you need to learn how research works!

familiar - what you want to achieve?

I think I'd like them reword the letter and maybe put more thought into who they send it out to.

how does this help your DCs education?

It doesn't, I guess. The whole thing has just created a really bad feeling in me and changed how I view the school, or the headmaster at least.

As a significant number of children who have lower attendance have additional needs of some sort this is hardly surprising. There are children whose needs are better met, and their grades therefore better supported, by not putting undue pressure on them to attend school at time when it would be inappropriate for them to do so.

why would you assume research doesn't take this into account? This research is not about special needs or indeed, children who have been out of school for long periods of time with serious illness. It's about average kids in average circumstances which shows, all things being equal, if attendance dips below 95%, they will fair less well at GCSE than their peers. We of course can all quote exceptions to the rule but what you would prefer...schools who do their best to ensure that their students get the best possible set of results or just let it go and shrug their shoulders?

there are there to educate your children. I think you need to get over the letter.

DP is a HT who deals with children with protection issues. why should he redraft a letter to keep a grumpy parent happy?

he can always better spend the time on the children in his school. you are way to sensitive. and its not about you.

why don't you become a parent governor and contribute something positive?

Check whether the head has written the letter or whether it's generic LA policy letter. A conversation with the head will tell you far more. Schools are really being beaten with a stick over attendance.

the school have limited resources. why should a parent get the resources rather than a child?

why keep a parent happy when you can educate a child?

Schools certainly have discretion if they so choose.

When one illegally excluded my disabled son causing his attendance to be around 55% I didn't receive a letter at all. Mind you, that could be because of their 'error' in 'accidentally' using the wrong code on the register so it didn't show him being absent

Ds2 has had time off twice this year with D&V which, imo is a direct result of other parents being harangued into sending their germ ridden children back into school when they are still a bit iffy.

You might not like it, but the letter does its job. Your child has had too much time off school, and you have the chance to improve this next term.

However, with the holiday combined with possible colds etc. next term, the likelihood is that your child's attendance may be even worse. So the next letter will point this out, and no, you probably won't like that one either.

So cancel the trip, and send your child in unless he has a high temperature or D and V.

I take schools as I take myself - probably trying to do the best they can and messing up occasionally. My DS has been off more than they would like, funnily enough it's more than I would like and probably more than he would like too. Not many people like being ill, or having to rearrange their work around someone who is ill

Last time my DS' school raised a serious concern to me I let them know I would be happy to discuss the issue with the local office overseeing attendance what would have formally been the truant officer section

I know the school may be frustrated with kids playing catch up after missed sessions, it probably creates more work for teachers ensuring the child is up to date, not just messing with 'stats'.

My advice is similar to PP, don't start a tit for tat thing, it won't help you or them. Acknowledge their concerns, voice yours, and add what you can about how your DC is doing in school, maybe what you are doing to help make sure there is as little falling behind as possible.

why would you assume research doesn't take this into account?

Why would I assume that it did? All sorts of rubbish gets bandied about on site like this that is not peer reviewed or statistically significant.

why should he redraft a letter to keep a grumpy parent happy?

He should be writing a sensible letter in the first place.

Effective educators work in partnership with parents.

Your letter is too long, OP, much as I sympathise with your sentiments.

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.

In that case they shouldn't be sent to families of children who they know have genuine health issues.

^^ This what kind of odd bods send out a nasty letter like that wasting school resources to a family they know is under pressure from dealing with ill health?

Ok so it's a standard letter but that's the OPs point isn't it? They have not looked at the child as an individual case just a statistic. Her reasons for being off are genuine and the OP was following guidelines by not sending her child to school ill.

why should he redraft a letter to keep a grumpy parent happy?

He should remember that the grumpy parents fund your family's life style. He should remember he should leave his ego with the children and that he is level to parents and not above them.

Your Dh sounds like a knobhead.

I've had one of these letters virtually every year, we live in a very rural area and further away then everyone else at school, catching a public service bus every morning which is invariably late (I don't drive anymore for health reasons)
Bus being late, means DS is late, and they mark him as absent for that entire morning..

My advice is ignore the letter, they're just following protocol, and offering reasons won't make any difference, plus you run the risk of being noted as a pain in the bum - always a bad angle should you ever need to raise other issues important to you, at a later date.