To write a stroppy response to the "Amber attendance warning" received from Dd's high school?

[PingpongDingDong]

Last term Dd had 4 teeth out for a brace. She had one and a half days off for this. A few weeks later she had the brace put on. She had one day off for this. She then had a migraine so another day off for that.

All authorised absences, all pretty much unavoidable. Today we received the above mentioned letter with all sorts of doom laden predictions for those without 100% attendance ending with "we trust your daughter will aim for excellent attendance this term."

Is it me?! She was having 4 teeth out and a brace fitted and she had a migraine (the school know this). I really object to this heavy handed, ridiculous approach for kids who do not have a "problem" with attendance. Should I write and complain?

schools should be concentrating on persistent truanters not genuinely sick kids, letters are completely pointless.

They don't have choice about this.

OFSTED judges them on these stats.

Make your protest in the right place: your MP or OFTSED

As others have said schools have no choice but to send these letters and the wording of them is dictated by the LA. As someone in the front line in a school office they are one of the reasons I can't wait to take early retirement as they are ruining the excellent relationship we have previously had with many parents who are understandably upset by them.
By all means complain, but to the DfE or the LA not school as do not like this any more than you.

If enough people responded in writing, with copies to the chair of governors, OFSTED and their MP, perhaps something would change?

I seriously think there is some over thinking going on here. But then I don't approve of term time holidays so what do I know?

On the face of it, 90% attendance sounds awful. That is a fair amount of work missed.

I do get the indignation that the absences were genuine. As many pp have said the letters are automatically generated. Takes any judgment out as no one is sat there saying that absence is acceptable, that absence is not. It's isn't black and white.

Reducing absences overall is a good thing both for the absent child but also for the kids whose lessons may be disrupted as a result. It might seem overkill but at least it is applied equally.

Haven't read the who thread but our orthodontist schedules nhs appointment times in school hours only. His private patients get the after school and holiday appointments. We even got a letter from them stating this.

I'm mean though. I sent dc back to school straight after braces not realising how sore they would be

Oh well that's ok then, tilder. So long as the sick children are treated equally (I mean, take the child with leukaemia, for example) then that's all right then, isn't it. I'm sure a letter to their parents is going to really help reduce their absences due to treatment for a life-threatening illness, isn't it.

My daughter has multiple disabilities, sees 4 different consultants regularly and attends a special school. We get letters about poor attendance too! It's ridiculous - she has a statement listing all her issues.

I've never taken Dd on a term time holiday. I have, twice in her school career, (she's 13) allowed her to have a day out for something other than being ill. I feel absolutely no guilt about that whatsoever. She's a hardworking, fully engaged pupil who couldn't be more involved in school life.

Of course it's good to limit unnecessary absences but kids, like adults are occasionally unwell and have medical appts. Targeting children and parents for that is completely pointless!

It is utterly ridiculous! My child goes to a private school and the children there have days off willy-nilly despite extra long holidays. Does it affect their learning? No. Because when you are paying £1000s for your child's education you make damn sure they catch up on anything they have missed and the teachers just send the work home.

When I was a teacher in a leafy primary lots of children in Reception had weeks off with childhood illness and holidays. It didn't bother me one jot. I simply sent the work home. I knew that every single one of those parents would do the work with their child bar one. In my opinion these letters shouldn't be sent out to everyone. The school knows which parents are taking the piss- let them only send them out to them.

thumbs that is not how the post was meant.

Who is meant to judge whether little jonny should miss the whole day or just a morning for orthodontic treatment? Who is meant to judge if the absence for a cold is OK or not?

Some absences are obvious some are not and it's subjective (am not talking leukaemia here).

Presumably there is evidence to show that on average an increase in pupil absences is a bad thing. So they try to reduce. A key part of reducing is monitoring who is absent and how often.

If people are satisfied that the absences their child had were genuine then fine ignore the letter.

My children are in their 20s now so thankfully we missed all this. It makes me fume, though. Children shouldn't just be data points. It also makes schools look like places run by fools, which is not good. Schools should be places run/staffed by people who are wonderful role models for children - intelligent, sensible and kind and decent. Policies like this and the lunchbox police nonsense applied without any common sense or compassion make schools look like places run by numpties. It damages parents' goodwill towards the school and erodes respect for the teaching profession.

I'd complain to my MP if I got a letter like that after my child had been ill.

Schools have to jump through whatever hoops Ofsted demand, no matter how ridiculous.

My kids school (and Ofsted) would rather me take my child for an appointment after morning registration than for them to arrive slightly late. Being out of school from 9:05 till 11:30 (for example) would be perfectly fine and would count towards your 100% attendance. Getting an early appointment and arriving at school at 9:20, after registration, would be marked down as an absence. The whole thing about it being about how long kids spend in school is bollocks. It's box ticking - literally.

These letters are a waste of time and money, especially when the advice on here is just to 'ignore it'. Because the ones who really need the letters will be ignoring them too. It's just a way of looking like they're doing something, without actually doing anything.

Dd got one on Tuesday. I know it's just a standard system but it gets me very riled. She had a morning off as felt sick, late afternoon as when she felt better we just missed registration getting her to school. Week before they finished for Christmas she had s really bad cold but they had tests all week, 2 a day, so she struggled on. Kept her off on the Friday as she ended up with tonsillitis, I've never seen her so ill. She went back the following Wednesday although was still ill and asleep as soon as we got home from school(she's 11). I fully believe there is far too much pressure, sats don't count in the grand scheme of things. If dd didn't enjoy school like she does i'd be home schooling her.

We had one last term when my son had a week of sick. The bog standard "children will fall behind, work will suffer blah blah" it came in the same post as another letter from school saying "we want to let you know how pleased we are with x's excellent progress this term and would like to congratulate him on his commitment to learning" 😄

If they don't apply just ignore and bin!

PiratePete, for some reason I can't copy and paste but, as a teacher, your last sentence sums this up for me.

The odd few days off for illness (or anything actually) do NOT make a difference. It's the families whose kids are nearly always 40 mins late, those who take frequent days off for no particular reason and take 2 weeks out for "a cold" as well as other days when they feel like it. I am happy to write to my MP but as the letter came from an "attendance officer" I feel I ought to respond to her too.

I find it so odd that you don't even legally have to send your child to school, friends who homeschool tell me they have very little interference from anyone at all. Yet it's as if you're a bad parent and practically a criminal if your child has a few more days off than considered acceptable due to illness.

On the one hand it's so ridiculous I ought to just bin it, on the other hand it's a shameful waste of time, paper and energy and should be stopped!

I hate the whole 'group' thing. When I was at school we used to have class detentions - the injustice still rankles 30 years on.

I would complain (and I am a school governor),

Where else in life does 'everyone have to be treated the same'? Why can't the child with leukemia be treated differently to the persistent truant?

It's just a way of looking like they're doing something, without actually doing anything.

Indeed, as Humphrey says in Yes Minister: "It's the law of inverse relevance: the less you intend to do about something, the more you have to keep talking about it."

It makes you wonder if attendance letters are part of some deal with Royal Mail or whatever they're called now.

How about a co-ordinated MN exercise (I was tempted to say "revolt"), to show that we can see through their rubbish: on a chosen date, lots of MNers write simultaneously about this to their LA, their MP, Nicky Morgan, Ofsted, and a few national newspapers for good measure, showing this thread, giving examples of children or parents with serious illnesses getting these meaningless letters. Show the suited bureaucrats that parents are fed up with their children being merely numbers. Let's see if a Whitehall press officer then says "these letters are meaningless and computer generated, ignore them." No need to write to the schools, as we know they have little or no discretion in this at all.

(Aargh - all this top-down management turning people into robots is why I loathe government in every shape and form, having worked in it as well! Rant over.)

Piratepete, I absolutely agree with you.

Interestingly, the law is the same for independent and state schools saying that students enrolled must attend 'regularly'. It is the 'regularly' part that seems to be open to interpretation for independent schools but set in stone at 95% for state schools.

I understand the school have to send the letters. I agree with you though OP I received one of the letters yesterday re my DDs attendance. She has 94.12% so 4 days off since September. 1 was a side effect of her flu inoculation, very high temp, shakes, sensitivity to light. 2 of them were due to earache that had her crying in pain from 3am & 1 both DD & DS were off with a sickness bug.

What annoyed me with the letter is this statement '175 days not at school! All this time for shopping, holidays and appointments'

My DS is has A Lot of hospital appointments, while I always ask if they can be in the holidays/outside of school hours it isn't always possible. Particularly his appts at the children's hospital where every parent wants to avoid having to take their child out of school. There's a possibility he'll be having major cranial surgery next year after which he'll need between 2 & 4 weeks off minium. Hopefully he won't need the op but I'm dreading the attendance report if he does have it.

It's relatively straightforward to get on top of the real "problem truancy" - but it takes more people, money and effort than sending letters that everyone ignores.

My son's school seconds an experienced, senior teacher who is liked by the students to a part time role which basically involves being a combination of social worker and probation officer to the kids in the most difficult situations (persistent truants, victims of family breakdown or abuse, students with behavioural issues etc). Judging by the school's performance (it is a very deprived school with above average results) this approach works.

The UK approach just gets parents' backs up, results in sick children being in school spreading germs while too unwell to study, does very little to solve the underlying issue of truancy, and destroys relationships of trust between schools and parents.

I don't see why people get so angry about letters like this. If you're so sure that your child's attendance is fine then what's the problem? Just ignore it if that's how you feel.

I don't think we have this in Scotland otherwise we would have received tons of them. Ds is a poor attender for various reasons. We meet with the guidance team about it and work with him on confidence, reassurance and sometimes tough love,but he has missed a fair old amount. Given the fairly low expectations and standards in our secondary schools these days( massive generalisation but based on real experience), he is still in the top or second top group in all subjects and on track. If 100% attendance is a target that has a negative impact on the child then stuff it.

92% is more than the 4 days mentioned in your op.

Its so annoying when dd was at school she had 6 weekly appointments to get the bands on her braces checked and i was called in about her attendance i know its a generated letter but really got on my wick orthadontist only gave appointments up to 4pm