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.

I'd also like to see a limited number of days away provided for holidays with work being sent along to do, at least in the 'early years'.

Eh, no. Why should the teachers have extra work to accommodate people looking to take cheaper holidays? Teachers often given in class work directly linked to their teaching or group tasks, so often alternative material would be needed.

When parents ask me for similar I give a topic list of work we'll have covered, but sourcing worksheets etc is on them.

Jeez don't stress. This attendance drive is aimed at parents whose kids have poor attendance because they don't like the early start or have younger kids they want a hand with. It's a blunt tool. It's really not worth any bad feeling.

Sounds like your school district is already doing a lot of my suggestions suburban. As I mentioned, I'm in the US and my sons are grown. Hopefully things have advanced here, too, since the late 80s-mid 00s when my sons were students.

As far as packets, I don't know how they 'worked' it. Maybe they devised packets for absent students when they did their lesson plans for the term? When they were primary age, we'd let the teacher know ahead of time that we were taking them out of school on a certain date (usually for no more than three days) and they'd come home with a packet. In high school we really didn't do it any more but I remember when my dad died and we had to travel 'home' for the funeral my younger son got a 'packet' as he was still in (US) grammar school, my older son (in HS) was given the subjects and pages in his text books to be covered by his teachers and he was expected to study on his own. I was fine helping him study US History, English, and Spanish. Luckily I had a niece who was a maths major who was available for him because I would have been lost!

Eolian whilst you try and defend the school wasting time doing "useless shit". Why don't you ponder on the fact that in another school if your dd had 2 weeks off, even with a doctors note your dd would have been suspended.
Then instead of teachers asking if your dd was fit to return to school you had to go into school every Friday to be berated about your dds %tage attendance.

The teaching profession in this school didn't come out as very bright when they patted themselves on the back because apparently as the school year continues they see less and less parents.

They seriously thought that their weekly meetings were the reason attendance rates rise when simple mathematics would have explained a lot.

Sounds like it was a very different scenario when your children were young, across.

In the UK these days schools have a very wide range of abilities in a classroom. The teacher already has to differentiate every lesson to cover this range - I think if you told them they now had to put together a work pack for every ability and every lesson, just in case one of their children went on a term-time holiday, there would be a mass exodus from the profession!

Probably suburban. I've discovered that the world of education is different from then. I think perhaps my sons were in school during the 'flux' between the old and new views of attendance. Plus my boys attended a small elementary school in a rural area, which probably made it a bit easier to be flexible.

I know teaching is a difficult but rewarding profession and the duties are very different from what was expected 20 + years ago. 5 of my aunts & uncles and 3 of my cousins were/are in various positions in education but all started out as teachers. To hear them talk about the 'challenges' of now vs then can be a revelation. It's not a job I could ever do.

addendum: I couldn't do it because of the parents, not the children!

I'm employed by my school to work with parents! I love it most of the time [smile[

The emphasis put on attendance is so wrong it is down to luck and how easily you pick bugs up. My son primary year 4 has just had a week and a half off due to sickness all completely necessary and legitimately due to the 48 h clear rule, he's just had his parents evening it was a real shock to see his work books had in colours pen absent and a list of each day he had off in between the work he had done yet I was told he got star of the day his first day back as he picked up the work where he had left off with no fuss and nailed it so it hadn't made much impact that he hadn't been there really !

This policy is misguided at best.

That said - smile and ignore - all you can do.

For holidays would it not help to but all of teacher training days together in say a random week in June / July term time and ask all parents to book holidays in that week.
It would only work if schools do different weeks and might take holiday price down a bit and attendance up.

Don't worry, it's just a flag to check every thing is ok. Schools accept that kids are off sick! My daughter had to miss weeks of school due to serious illness and the school had to flag it, even though they knew why (to the point they were sending her work home!)

YA definitely NBU.
My DD is in year 9 had one day off this year – and I had an attendance letter.
It's because last year her attendance was 94% overall – and I received a few letters – quite threatening really... so now apparently I am supposed to give evidence of illness... prescription, doctors letter, proof of appointment...
I am literally ignoring the letter. How am I supposed to prove my DD has a migraine??? It's really annoying and is insinuating that I enjoy keeping my daughter off of school! I run my own business and it is certainly not convenient for me to take time out like this for no reason! Plus the fact my DD's health and welfare is far more important to me than the school's attendance rating!

For holidays would it not help to but all of teacher training days together in say a random week in June / July term time and ask all parents to book holidays in that week.
It would only work if schools do different weeks and might take holiday price down a bit and attendance up.

The problem would be the availability of the trainers used for inset days because yes, we actually do have trainers come in to keep staff up to date.

I had childhood illnesses that thankfully nowadays can be vaccinated against. Other than that, the only time the school seemed to praise me in school reports was for attendance. However, it was done privately.

Schools need to monitor attendance given the disruption that absence can cause to others as well as those who miss school. What I think is wrong here is a judgment over such a short space of time.

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou

I know it might not be as easy as it sounds. But got the idea from a headteacher talking on this morning saying her school was trialling it and it was working.

This type of thing reminds me of the 'class detentions' that we used to get.

It didn't feel fair then (assuming you weren't the troublemaker) and standard 'computer says no' letters feel like that now.

I don't need to be tarred because of other's poor parenting, (assuming my child is sick).

However, it is an imperfect world op.

dd only had 75% attendance at one point of the term. ie she fell in school and was taken to a and e for the afternoon.

the problem is they are calculating on the days they have spent in school, rather than the potential days they could spend in school that term/half term.

Is school prison? Who are the parents? You, or the school? It seems to be getting more oppressive. I aim to home school because I would get in too many rows over stuff like this. They are MY children and I decide where they go and what they do.

user

Home schooling sounds like the perfect answer for you.

When I was 12 I had a long time off as I nearly lost my life to meningitis. I don’t think the school dare say anything to my mum as she was just glad I was alive. And they were also very supportive with a slow return to school half days

I fucking hate attendance awards... it’s only for OFSTED purposes. I don’t actually think the staff give a fuck if they’re one child short of 30+ tbh, it’s just to appease OFSTED red tape...

Really annoys me when they celebrate attendance in school. The only reason most children miss school is because they’re genuinely ill, how can you punish illness?

YANBU. That should be considered an excused absence and not go on the attendance record.

We give attendance awards minus any illness.