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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be pissed offer that dd is on attendance watch.

182 replies

Fantasticday69 · 17/10/2017 09:37

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.

OP posts:
BrieAndChilli · 17/10/2017 11:19

Our school do class parties for classes with over a certain attendance.
Really not fair on the classes with kids with severe health problems. My kids school also have kids with cerebral palsy, severe potentially terminal heart condition, extreme anxiety, a little boy with some immunity disorder, as well as the more normal things like small operations for eye problems, etc. All these kids have no hope of ever letting attendance targets and so neither will their class.
No amount of bribes and prizes will ever change that fact so seems pretty pointless and penalising as the kids who have very poor attendance due to just not going to school (there is a boy in DDs class who just doesn’t go if he is too tired and there is another family who don’t go in if the mum wants to spend the day with them) they still have time off despite the attendance policy.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 17/10/2017 11:25

DS missed out on the 100% attendance certificate for last school year by 90 minutes for an x-ray for an injury sustained in class! He signed in mid morning so didn't even miss the full morning session.

Ironically, if I'd signed him in at 9am then took him to the hospital missing more of the school day due to travel and increased waiting times from morning clinic, we would have met the criteria for 100% Confused

It would make more sense for the first half term of the, school year if the targets were adjusted to take statistical distortion into account.

Frustrating as the whole issue is, it's the government pulling the school's strings on it all.

(DS is just lucky that in his two years at school thus far, he's had nothing worse than a regular cold. He's not been sent in against all odds to infect other children with various illnesses)

theEagleIsLost · 17/10/2017 11:36

BitOutOfPractice I couldn't belive it either.

I expect if they had taken a sick child in there would be a pretty quick phone call to the mother( they always call the mothers and expect instant responses) to pick up child by the actual teachers or head.

The schools themselves are in a hard place - they are under huge pressure to raise attendance with limited influence and there are a large number of children at the school with chronic health conditions that bring attendance figures down for completely understandable reasons.

I expect staff member felt obliged to state official position to that mother but all it did was piss her off and result in her bad mouthing the school to other parents.

Ellie56 · 17/10/2017 11:44

Llamacorn I think the school needs pulling up on that. That is disability discrimination. A reasonable adjustment would be not to count the absences due to her disability, only sick or other absences.

Liadain · 17/10/2017 11:49

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

Because some parents and kids lie, that's why.

"She had a tummy bug" - no she didn't, child herself tells staff they had a "Family Day Off".
"I had a migraine" - no she didn't, she skived off and forged a note from her parents.
"Little Lucy was out for a week with a virus" - child comes back and tells staff she went on holiday.

These things happen - not with all or most parents of course, but they do. You can't develop a profile of people you know to lie either, so blanket monitoring is the best way forward, I've found. Open to other suggestions.

lalalalyra · 17/10/2017 11:50

I'm so glad the high school HT changed the attendance award to an effort one. DD2 has health issues that mean she has no chance of having 100% attendance. she's also not as academic as her twin sister. However, she makes far, far more effort than her more academic and healthier sister and brother at the same school. Last year was the first time ever that DD2 was given a certificate for anything at the awards ceremony.

lionsleepstonight · 17/10/2017 11:54

How can 2 days drop attendance to 89%? Has there been other occasions too?

bigmouthstrikesagain · 17/10/2017 11:56

It is just one of those issues that are meant to be dealt with by the school indiscriminately - I am surprised that I have not received a snotty standard letter from dd's school this half term as she has been off for a total of 6 days for recurring ear infections and a half day for a Dr's appointment. I know that number of absences must surely trigger an action from the school for low attendance.

I am not worried - if I get a letter - I can easily explain why she was absent - we had Dr's appointments and treatment was given. Attendance stats are a big issue for schools when they are being inspected and they are expected to take appropriate measures against low attendance - I don't see it as a personal attack.

SuburbanRhonda · 17/10/2017 11:58

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

I wish I could. As Liadaun said, not all absence due to sickness is genuine. But we have to authorise it, otherwise we are basically saying we don't believe the parent.

MrsHathaway · 17/10/2017 12:08

How can 2 days drop attendance to 89%? Has there been other occasions too?

Presumably it depends when they run the report. 2 days is four sessions so if the school had had 36 sessions or fewer (18 days, so towards the end of September) then the child had missed 11% of them.

It makes sense for attendance to be calculated monthly - 50% of two days is just nonsense for reporting - but as pp says, as time passes the two days will be a smaller and smaller proportion of the total. She'll go back over 93% (am I remembering that right?) at 58 sessions which is probably next week if your terms are like ours.

I guess I'd rather a few people jumped through some silly hoops occasionally than that children with genuine difficulties be allowed to go under the radar.

Original poster
Fantasticday69 · 17/10/2017 12:10

The sickness was early in the term. So it seems like they monitor sickness daily or weekly I guess. So if child has 2 days off sick week one attendance would be 60%. Week 2 80%. Which is why it is ridiculous.
What I meant was Dd1 attends same school and the only time she has been off was for my mother in laws funeral. So it isn't a case of not caring..
Dd2 is less lucky health wise and gas had the odd medical appointment so missed maybe 3 days on average in primary. She is still top set though.

OP posts:
Danceswithwarthogs · 17/10/2017 12:15

And they want contagious illnesses in school when there's a good chance that some members of staff might be pregnant?

JonSnowsWife · 17/10/2017 12:17

YNBU. I dont agree with them & think they should be scrapped too.

DD has an ongoing medical condition which means she has to have regular procedures done at the hospital. (clinic isn't open out of school hours). She'll never get the 100% award even though she is in for the rest of the time.

MrsHathaway · 17/10/2017 12:17

97% - that's 67 days, then, which is most of the term. 97% feels like a pretty high bar tbf, given that that's one stomach bug in a whole term.

Birdsgottafly · 17/10/2017 12:17

"You can't develop a profile of people you know to lie either, so blanket monitoring is the best way forward, I've found. Open to other suggestions."

When it comes to rewards, then medical appointments need to be discounted.

There was a Mother in my local paper who is taking her DD being the only one to miss out on going to a Panto, because she's got diabetes and must have regular hospital appointments, to the Governors.

Some schools and LA's are punishing children for having health conditions/being disabled.

wifeyhun · 17/10/2017 12:19

YANBU

DD has has two days off so far for a bug. She got a nice bright orange letter.

Her attendance is currently at 93% though. So I'm not sure how yours has been calculated.

hannah1992 · 17/10/2017 12:22

A little girl in my dds class last year had gastroenteritis and was throwing up for a good while. She was off altogether 2 weeks and school really slammed her mum. I remember hearing her mum saying to the teacher at drop off "next time then I'll send her in throwing up, then she can pass it to everyone else, then your admin can spend the day sending letters to the whole years parents because you've got no one to teach!" She was really pissed off and rightly so. I can understand if parents never ring up to say why they're off but if it's authorised then fine

Mercedes519 · 17/10/2017 12:25

I once watched a group get big chocolate bunnies for 100% attendance. My DD who had missed one session due to a tummy bug got a certificate.

FFS they were 3 and 4 at the school nursery. Attendance wasn't compulsary. And 3 year olds have no comprehension apart from the fact that some people got a bunny and some didn't. What are those kids going to do differently??

Sirzy · 17/10/2017 12:25

Other parents don’t help though either. You only have to look at the holiday threads on here where you always get some saying “just phone them in sick” - sadly, especially at certain times of year, this means schools will always have suspicions and can’t just believe parents!

Liadain · 17/10/2017 12:28

Some schools and LA's are punishing children for having health conditions/being disabled.

I don't work in the UK, so LAs and their attendance policies aren't something I can speak about.

Where I am we don't do attendance awards and afaik if a child had long term medical issues a note (from consultant perhaps?) would go on file.

Appuskidu · 17/10/2017 12:30

Would two days out of half a term make her attendance 89%?

If she's been at school 6 weeks, that's 5 days x 6 weeks x 2 (for morning and afternoon registration). That makes 60. If she's been off 4 sessions, that's 56/60 which is 93%?

Scaredparent · 17/10/2017 12:32

How sad is that!!

I dread when my Child starts school I will be clashing with the jobs worths.

BertrandRussell · 17/10/2017 12:35

"How sad is that!!

I dread when my Child starts school I will be clashing with the jobs worths."

Why? It's just a letter. And it's not jobsworthing, honestly. There are excellent reasons for monitoring attendance.

fleshmarketclose · 17/10/2017 12:36

Dd has been told her attendance is "on amber" which apparently means of concern. She had the tummy bug (two days off) which is rampaging round the school (affecting pupils and staff) and has resulted in a couple of primaries in the area being closed so I wouldn't have thought it unexpected that there will be absences at the school just now.
Today she is off again due to anxiety after the girls who have bullied her relentlessly for six months actually got into her "safe space" observed by staff to bully her there Angry
I will welcome the letter regarding her attendance because I will use it to illustrate how their inability to keep dd safe is directly impacting on her attendance now.

Liadain · 17/10/2017 12:38

I dread when my Child starts school I will be clashing with the jobs worths

Ah yeah, those jobsworths tracking attendance and trying to ensure every child gets to school. Those jobsworths trying to make sure that at risk children come to school and are monitored. Those jobsworths who as a result have to send out letters to everyone, even though I'm sure they'd rather not?

How unreasonable are they, eh? Hmm

You keep your kid in school when they're well and you'll do fine. I'd say don't call staff jobsworths, but that seems to be beyond the capabilities of some people...