To think including Exclusion in absence reporting is stupid?

[MaddyHatter]

Just had a letter from the school Attendance officer complaining my DS's attendance is too low at 90.4%

I had a look through the record, and in that he is including the 5.5 days of fixed period exclusion that the school punished him with since september.

Without those, his attendance figures are 94.6% (7.5 days sick and 1 medical appt)

Can they include fixed-term exclusion in the absence percentage? Its not exactly us keeping him home for no reason

I would imagine the letter is computer-generated, or at least the attendance figures are. Excluded is technically absent and so would contribute to this overall figure. I agree that ideally they might have looked at it once the computer generated it and gone, "Oh, some of this is exclusion. I remember that. Perhaps we should deal with this a bit more tactfully than a generic attendance letter"

^ the letters have to be done so that here is a paper trail (they'd be used as evidence if it ever went towards a PN or legal action), but a courtesy phone call just to say 'we realise .....' Would go a way. I always phone ahead of a letter if it is a tricky circumstance or if it only just crossed the threshold.