To be pissed offer that dd is on attendance watch.

[Fantasticday69]

So Dd2 is in year 7. She had a really bad tummy bug near the start of the year. So she had the required 2 days off.
Now because her attendance is only 89% she is on attendance watch.
Aibu to be annoyed as it is just bad timing. 2 days off later in the year would not trigger such an event but it is still the same level of absence.

daydreamnation - whatwould wrote "Children who have low attendance are often without adequate support at home."

Did you not see the word often?

It's obvious to everyone surely that her/his statement is correct, just because it doesn't apply to you doesn't make it invalid.

"I find this kind of monitoring depressing. Surely it's possible to go after the real non-attendees without penalising the sick ? "

Why is monitoring "penalizing"?

Surely it's possible to go after the real non-attendees without penalising the sick ?

As I posted upthread, when you work out how to differentiate the two, you will make attendance officers up and down the country very happy.

Meh I hate attendance awards but couldn’t get annoyed by this one. School are just keeping a closer eye to make sure it’s nit the start of an issue. When attendance is back to the normal range it will stop. Doesn’t sound like it will effect you or her at all.

Ds has poor attendance due to medical needs. Other than the red letters at the end of term nothing is ever said as the reasons are all well documented and where before he started. If they had to query it though I would understand!

Our school has a very high %age of children from troubled and disadvantaged backgrounds. A dip in attendance is often an indicator of developing problems.

I have no idea. Just found not in planner by attendance officer. Not sure where fire came from.
It just seems crazy to do this as off course if you are Ill as a one off at the start of term your attendance achievement is going to be rubbish. Incidentally Dd one had 100% attendance every year but one so no red flags here.

In the same way that absence makes a big impact on the percentage attendance at this early stage in the school year, so does presence.

So low attendance will shoot up within a couple of weeks of being in school every day.

Have you had a short term? I deal with school attendance and two days off here would leave a child at 93.1% attendance as of today.

We have a child who has had 8 sessions absence (so 4 days) and they are on 87.9% attendance as of today.

They will be monitored even though all absence was legitimate sickness. The rules for our LA specify what percentage of absence becomes a concern.

Your DDs absence will simply be monitored and if she isn't ill again then her percentage will very quickly rise. I had the same thing with my DS last year. He had severe D&V at the beginning of term and was off for 3 days and we had the standard "poor attendance" letter. By the end of the school year he was in the "Marvellous Attendance" category.

But then a sudden change in attendance patterns could indicate a new problem so it’s not that simple!

You know there isn’t an issue, her attendance will soon be back in normal pararmeters so why worry?

Yes it's ridiculous and I wouldn't worry about it at all. It won't affect her in the long run. It's a genuine case of illness and the attendance officer has to follow school policy. Both my children had 100% attendance last year, came home on the last day, and within an hour both had come down with a sickness bug. It's pure luck.

Incidentally Dd one had 100% attendance every year but one so no red flags here.

But remember that if she is year 7 then she is new to the school and they won't necessarily know her previous attendance history.

I don't think you need worry about the monitoring at this stage just be glad that the school is on top of everything.

I'm not surprised - but I would want to know what it meant ie is it something easily ignored with minimal impact or not.

I do wonder if common sense is being lost in this attendance drive.

I witnessed a mother being told that their child who had just come down in hand foot and mouth with a nasty temperature didn’t have a good enough reason not to be in school. I though that wrong so checked according to NHS website it's very contagious in first few days. NHS advice

However school was correct it not apparently in our area a reason not to attend school.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-30143394
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/sickness-guide-parents-provokes-fury-7917908

I do rather cherish the report that DS once brought home saying that he had had 100% unauthorised absence that term.

(He hadn't. It was an admin error. But if he had, I hope they might have worried earlier than Christmas.)

theEagle that list is amazing. No time off for scabies yet anyone in close contact needs treatment! No time off for hand foot and mouth or slapped cheek. Crikey it sounds like a Victorian workhouse somehow doesn't it?

I think it's annoying in primary to some extent for those who have genuine illness. You know yourself if your dc is well enough to go.

In secondary, it's tempting I think to take the day off for a teenager with a sore throat or something when actually they probably could last the day with a paracetamol or two. The statistics at our school clearly show that those with higher attendance get better grades at GCSE. This is when I think it is important to offer them rewards - mine are quite motivated by the prospect of an IPAD if they receive 8 million points or something (I can't imagine anybody ever gets one myself). But rewards are for not only attendance but helping out at events, achievements etc.

The problem is that in primary there are one or two parents who don't get their dc to school regularly for spurious reasons. By making it a policy for all, it doesn't make those dc stand out quite so much.

It always seems to me that these draconian measures and threatening letters are a waste of time. They don't affect the ordinary families who are only keeping kids off for genuine illness because they just keep sending their kid in unless they're ill. And they don't affect the families who don't give a shit about their kids' attendance because they are the sort of people who ignore this stuff anyway because they don't give a shit.

Seems like an exercise in futility to me

How it is solved though, I don't know.

I remember speaking to my DC's primray HT about all the draconian lunchox police letters that were being send out. She said "mrs Boop, those letters aren't aimed at parents like you who are already sending in a sensible packed lunch, it's aimed at the parents who send a mars bar and a packet of crisps. Who of course ignore it. While parents like you worry about the sugar content of their child's yoghurt"

But if action needs to be taken as some stage there needs to be a paper trail. I honestly don't understand why people get so upset about getting one of these letters.

surburban I missed out the word 'often' so hardly 'nothing' to do with my dds attendance.
I'm not saying it's invalid sandy but it's certainly incorrect!
Working in a school I would say it's often absolutely nothing to do with 'inadequate support at home' We have many children at school with significant mental and physical health problems, who have the most amazing, supportive families but generally not the greatest record of attendance. Why should those children be penalised for their misfortune and even worse, watch others receive awards, certificates etc for their good fortune!!

I don't understand why people get so het up about attendance.

This monitoring is important for many reasons explained above.

I was given a red letter for each of my children last parents teacher meeting - as the DC had a week off school as we traveled to meet my family for the first time in many years.

I KNOW the school policy is to give red or orange letters for a drop in attendance.
I KNOW that my DC were off school and why and I was happy with that.

I just put the red letter into the bin, rather than take it as a personal insult/attack. I know enough about the world to know we have not been targeted by anyone. It's a non-issue.

Poor schools/teachers can't win.

I wasn't upset when I got one. I just thought "I'm not quite sure what you'd like me to do...send my DD in when she's ill?" Because that's the only time she's had off. I can't alter that behaviour can I? So what would they like me to do in response to the information they've sent.

If I were some feckless parent who didn't send their kid in because i had a hangover or whatever, I doubt I'd change my mindset after a letter either.

It just seems like a waste of time to me

I do think that hospital/specialist appointments should not count if you can provide an appt letter to the school.
All of my children have various medical appts
DS1 has had over the years - occupational therapy, physical therapy, hydrotherapy, speech therapy, ASD consultant etc plus had to have a month off School a couple of years ago with a ruptured appendix
DD has just started having orthodontal Work (and dentist only works 2 mornings a week here as the rest of them time she is over the bridge in birstol)
DS2 has ENT appts (and the ENT clinic is only Thursday mornings), hearing appts, plus doctors appt for bowel issues.

All of these appts are made by the hospital/clinic and you get little to no say when they are (as opposed to a normal dentis or doctors appt that you can schedule for after school etc)

I can understand normal everyday illness having to count as therwise everyone would say they were ill whenever they wanted a day off.

"However school was correct it not apparently in our area a reason not to attend school."

That's ridiculous!

Have they decided that it isn't contagious then, or would they isolate the child?

All that aside, what if the poor kid feels unwell with it?

Seems like utter madness.

In Op's case, I understand that the school hadn't authorised the time off, but in effect they are saying that they don't belive the Op?

I think the link between attendance and results is not quite that simple. It comes back to parental support imo.

I speak as the parent of children who have mised a handful of days in their entire school time thus far (now age 17 and 16). This is of course mainly down to luck with good health but also a little bit down to making the effort when they have a sore throat or a headache just to take paracetamol and go in. They don't do any awards etc for attendance, the school doesn't have a big absence problem according to the stats (although that doesn't mean that absence isn't a bit problem for some). I think this is down to parental support rather than it being an area of peculularily spectacular health.

Rhonda - can you explain why something that sounds so very simple is in fact so very difficult?