To be pissed off about a snotty letter re ds's attendance?

[Whowillsaveyoursoul]

He's in year one and had four days off last term. He had a sickness bug two of the days and a chest infection the other two. The chest infection was quite nasty actually but happily tagged onto a weekend and half term otherwise he'd have missed more days than he did. Maybe they think we went on holiday?!
Anyway Aibu to think 'get lost' - what do they want me to do? Send a vomiting 5 year old into school? Send a child with asthma who can't breath properly and with a temperature of 40 into school?
Hopefully he won't have any more time off - the letter says 'whilst we appreciate there may have been valid reasons for the absences we hope we have your full cooperation to ensure there are no further absences next term.'
How would the like me to ensure that my child doesn't catch norovirus? I'm really cross!

YANBU. Complain, complain strongly! Wankers

Im sorry if ive upset anyone on this thread. But this must be incredibly stressful and distressing for the parent of a child with health problems on top of dealing with everything else.

I agree that they can be ill-thought out and a pressure that parents of sick children don't need and could find distressing.

I still say that trying to say they are covered by the Malicious Communications Act is incorrect. They are usually an irritant, poorly thought out etc., but done in response to Government / Ofsted guidelines (also often poorly thought out), in order to be seen to be complying. That is not malicious. Overzealous sometimes maybe, but not malicious.

Some schools are perhaps more diligent than others at making sure they don't go out unnecessarily and a lot of those do seem to be secondary schools. Primary schools should be able to differentiate too (I am sure a number do btw).

It's all about heads getting higher attendance levels and therefore being more likely to get an outstanding ofsted. Thankfully my kids health is priority. I don't care for the schools attendance figures.

Ofsted set the rules about how a school manages attendance, sock, and they are the body that grades a school on behalf of the DfE.

As PP have stated clearly,if we don't send the letters to show we are challenging absence from school, for whatever reason, Ofsted take it very seriously. A poor judgement can see a school going into special measures overnight, which can be catastrophic for the local community.

violetta, improved attendance alone is unlikely to result in an outstanding Ofsted, unless the school was good with outstanding features before the inspection.

However, good to see people acknowledging that their ire should be directed at Ofsted and not at schools, whose hand are tied.

Sounds like the person who is in charge of attendance monitoring at your school knows the person in charge of attendance monitoring at my work op!

We got this letter for my three year old. They knew he'd been off because he'd had surgery.

The letter was followed up by all parents who'd received it being pulled into a room and lectured on the importance of attendance.

OhWotis, that is where this whole system falls down, when parents with perfectly valid reasons for the absence are treated like children.

Three year olds are still at the pre-school stage anyway so that meeting was ridiculous. I'd have been tempted to say something, as I would feel patronised.

My DS (9) is the same as yours OP. Asthma and high temps when he has a chest infection and there is no way on earth he would be sent to school. A) they don't have the time or patience (not all) to look after him.
B) I don't want him told off for not finishing work/being too slow, due to him feeling sick.

DS school also reward absence by trip to the cinema in the summer. He never goes, but that's a whole new thread!

Our school have an attendance assembly at the end of the year where certificates are handed out for 100% attendees (gold), 90 something % (silver). My son has a child who has CF in his class. They will never achieve a certificate. I think it's a shit idea.
They should give out certificates for giving their best and joining in in class.

I think you will find schools do give out certificates for effort etc. as well as attendance.

Topseyt oh, we said something...

ohwotis, so the nursery called all parents into a meeting at the same time? Did you complain about this? We always have meetings with individual parents, never as a group.

I think that constitutes a breach of confidentiality and I'd be really surprised if the nursery wasn't roundly criticised for it.

I am not normally given to complaining. The occasional carefully couched query perhaps, but if I had been called into any such group meeting (especially regarding preschoolers) then I doubt I would have succeeded in biting my tongue.

It may well breach confidentiality, and it certainly treats parents like children. Parents do not tend to appreciate that.

I'd be tempted to write a cross response letter on my PC, print out 20 copies, bung them in addressed envelopes and then send one in response every single time I got one of these letters. And if the school complains, I'd explain sweetly "Well, it's an automatically generated response, you see. Don't take it personally!"

I think the parents of children with disabilities and chronic medical conditions would be quite justified in returning any standardised letters stating that sending them out is in breach of the Equalities Act in the circumstances, and they don't expect to be sent inappropriate letters in future.

We don't want to see any more letters like this terrible one.

Megan Gillan letter

If I had been called to a group meeting of shame about attendance I would have immediately put in a Freedom of Information request for the redacted staff attendance data (and not attended the meeting, of course).

The school does give out 'Tried hard at' certificates and such but not in assembly. Also the 100% ers are mentioned in the newsletter.