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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To keep my child home from school on polling day

144 replies

SchoolOutForSummer · 27/04/2017 16:42

Name change as this post will out me to all parents at our school ;)

Minor gripe here. School notified parents of holiday dates in September and these included the dates the school is closed for poling, including this Thursday.

Just received a letter today, telling us our Year 6 children must come to school on Thursday, to do extra work for their upcoming SATs exams.

I am slightly concerned that they will not be able to monitor ALL the members of public who will be in the school voting and wandering on and around the premises and keep them away from the children, which is why the school is closed.

I feel that as the rest of the school is closed from nursery up to year 5, then it should be closed for year 6 too. The year 6 children are all upset on the playground and feel they are being punished to lose their day off school.

School are concerned about their sats score. Which is laughable to think that one six hour day will make any difference to their scores. Teaching resentful children will not be effective...just let them have their 'planned for months' day off. The school has never pulled in year 6 children into school on polling day before and has reasonable sats scores and is a 'Good' school in ofsed terms.

Many parents including me have either paid for child care or planned a fun day out with siblings. Which will have to be cancelled last minute.

I know it is no big deal but I am tempted to just keep her off ill. Our letter promises that all absent year 6 children will be receiving a phone call from the school. My response would be the truth. She is very upset and stressed from all the pressure of these sats exams, therefore she will be staying home today. Would that be so unreasonable?

If the school had told us about this extra day in September or even a month ago, I would of sent her but leaving it so late and upsetting all the children seems so self defeating.

Plus I think sats is a massive waste of teachers time, I told DD to work hard and do her best but I don't want anymore headaches, tears and stomach aches over this issue

OP posts:
requestingsunshine · 27/04/2017 19:13

If kept your dc off on the basis of lack of notice and you've already made plans which have cost money.

One extra day if says revision is not going to suddenly make their grades higher. Plus sats are for the school anyway and have no or little bearing of targets given in secondary school. That's why primary schools go completely over the top with it all. Not concerned actually about the child's future (or current mental health) but about their league tables.

Keep her off, go have fun for the day!

ForalltheSaints · 27/04/2017 19:16

YABU. SATS are not that far away. Being only one class in school could be viewed as an adventure.

Also make sure you vote so that post election you can raise the matter with the council. Personally I think there are plenty of other buildings that can be used as voting stations. Why not the library for example (whilst they still exist).

Butterymuffin · 27/04/2017 19:25

In terms of safeguarding, anyone looking to prey on kids would be able to find far easier ways to do it than by trying to sneak into a school on polling day under the guise of being able to vote. I really wouldn't be concerned about that.

On the subject of the day off, I'd be saying I have booked a day out that can't be cancelled without losing the money, so you'll be getting your DD to do her SATS work another time.

Sleepdeprivedredhead · 27/04/2017 19:29

Safety is the wrong tree to bark up.
It was advertised as a day off (take copies).
You don't need a permission slip if it's a normal day!
Just don't send her in.

Sleepdeprivedredhead · 27/04/2017 19:31

As an additional note it drives me crazy that the school is used as a polling station when there is a rarely used council building opposite the school with all the required facilities. Does anyone know how to gripe effectively about that sort of thing?

PotteringAlong · 27/04/2017 19:32

Results do matter to the child though..... Their GCSE targets are based on. Do well , have challenging targets, be stretched to achieve the highest grades........ Just saying

No no no, you've got it wrong. Underachieve in your sats, get lower gcse targets. Secondary school realise pretty quickly you've underachieved and can therefore make lots of progress. School throw everything at you for 5 years as your progress 8 score will be massive and much much better for school than someone who gets too marks in sats and a 9 at gcse. It is much better to underachieve in your sats.

saltandvinegarcrisps1 · 27/04/2017 19:36

This.

Jakeyboy1 · 27/04/2017 19:37

Our school club which opens in the holidays is not open on polling day due to concerns about the amount of strangers onsite. YANBU.

EweAreHere · 27/04/2017 19:39

I wouldn't send her in, but it wouldn't have anything to do with polling. It would be the principle. It was named as a day off. She's having a day off. End of.

saltandvinegarcrisps1 · 27/04/2017 19:41

Quoting previous poster fail. YABU for worrying that "the public" will be wandering round looking to harm children. YANBU for taking issue with the school that 6 hours will make or break. YABU for not hating it that you have to look after your DC because the school has closed for polling. And I'm true MSnet style, YABU for saying "could of" instead of "could have" Grin

ElisavetaFartsonira · 27/04/2017 19:44

Obviously YANBU even in the slightest.

HopeClearwater · 27/04/2017 19:45

But in our case the school have good results so why the panic

Maybe your dc's cohort is a bit thick.

BoomBoomsCousin · 27/04/2017 20:06

Any chance you can get your yr 6 child to collect the others and bring them out of the school gate so you can avoid the playground entirely?

If they are saying attendance is compulsory I might be inclined to do my best to avoid that teacher, bluster a lot at the school gate and deny having had that communication. If the teacher tells you it's an attendance day say something along the lines of "no, no. I got the letter outlining the days off it's definitely on there. We've made plans and everything." as you are turning to leave and talking to other people. But in the end, the council aren't going to fine you for one day off, even if they can enforce it (which they may not be able to do). Afterwards I would raise a complaint with the school about changing such significant things as attendance requirements with no consultation and such short notice. But I'm more likely to just outright let the teacher know that we've already made plans on the basis of their previous communications and will not be changing them at the last minute. I'd also be inclined to say that while I realise the SATs are important to her and the school and I appreciate she works hard, the current pressure on the children and the focus on test passing is not acceptable.

Original poster
SchoolOutForSummer · 27/04/2017 20:13

"Maybe your dc's cohort is a bit thick."

Lol. Maybe. But again 6 hours is not going to make a difference.

OP posts:
Friendofsadgirl · 27/04/2017 20:22

Dear Ms SATSteacher,
As we were previously informed that school would be closed and have therefore already made plans for all the DC being off next Thursday, DD will not be attending school on 04/05/17.
Regards, SchoolOutForSummer.

TheRealPooTroll · 27/04/2017 20:28

Surely if you just don't send the slip back they won't be expecting your child to attend.

CherryElf · 27/04/2017 20:31

Rules number 2 & 3 OP,

Incase "the rules" are not universal:

1: Failure to prepare on your part does not consitute an emergency on mine.

2: forgiveness is easier to obtain than permission.

3: you will get over it.

One day is not going to make a dent in whatever Sats results the school hopes to accomplish... I guess you could throw in rule number one too in that case... Smile

Original poster
SchoolOutForSummer · 27/04/2017 20:53

Cherry Love your rules.

Going to ignore the school letter for now and see how things go.

OP posts:
Original poster
SchoolOutForSummer · 27/04/2017 21:51

If asked I am going with.

I already had a nice day out planned for all my children and I am not cancelling everything because the school had a last minute change of heart.

Nothing will be learnt by reluctant students in 6 hours and DD is already far too stressed out about sats and needs a break.

OP posts:
BlondeBecky1983 · 27/04/2017 22:39

I heard on the radio today that one school is opening on Bank Holiday Monday for their year 6s!

rumblingDMexploitingbstds · 27/04/2017 23:01

The pressure on yr 6s is now ridiculous. They've asked for permission: you don't have to give it. I wouldn't send my child in under these circumstances.

I used to hate polling day when I taught as my classroom was the only one with outside access that could be locked off from the rest of the school and I had to spend several hours after school the night before polling stripping it (single handed, no help ever offered) and shifting furniture into other rooms, taking anything with children's names off the walls, emptying the children's trays to stop people helpfully nosing through, locking away everything in cupboards... something always got pinched. The day of polling was murder with my children getting taught in the library or any spare place we could find, and strangers rubbernecking in at the windows on their way to and from the car park (Miss, she's looking at me!). And then the day after, going in at 6am to put it all back again.

Then there was an incident where someone managed, despite all the precautions and locked doors, to get inside the school and wander about - they must have tried damn hard - and the HT decided that was it, the school had to close completely. Some buildings lend themselves more to it than others.

Poppiesway1 · 27/04/2017 23:21

Love51 you are complelty right! SATS are out of hand now. Ds2 has been going to school half an hour early every day since January to do extra work. He had to go in again for extra lessons during Easter holidays and is now also - for the next two weeks - doing an extra hour after school too until the SATS are finished.
He's absolutely shattered.. and moody!!

Original poster
SchoolOutForSummer · 28/04/2017 07:17

Our school do an breakfast club and Easter holiday lessons for sats too.

Honestly if you can't teach our kids in the time assigned the answer is to feed that back to the idiots setting these tests, not bothering the children into doing more and more work outside school hours.

These kids only have a few weeks left before they leave the school forever and the current approach seems to be looking at, how sad and tired they can make the kids before they go.

Logically tired and fed up children will perform less well and it is much more likely to result in lower results on the sats results.

OP posts:
ApplePizza · 28/04/2017 09:22

I totally agree SchoolsOut Sad

Jellymuffin · 28/04/2017 09:36

I'd be wary if I were you - all this talk of SATs are for the school not the child isn't really true anymore. Most secondary schools use SATs (they are eternally marked and very comprehensive) to set and sets in secondary are not particularly fluid and your child's expected GCSE results will be calculated from their SATs score. Also if you have a grammar stream in the school they will use SATs results as a way of calculating suitability for this. Also 11+ appeals are based on SATs result evidence.