It’s an ongoing problem that you often see on here.
Parents with really poorly children are being told that the letters that are specifically sent to them, are letters that don’t apply so they should ignore them.
Surely the answer is that the letters shouldn’t be routinely sent to parents who have extremely good reasons for the non-attendance? And evidence to back this up.
It’s not good enough that councils and schools can somehow work out how to target families with attendance below the accepted levels (the accepted levels assuming the child isn’t seriously ill!), and yet somehow can’t work out how to not send them to families who have real health worries to be focusing on.
I don’t think it’s good enough to just have to suck it up, at times when people are already extremely worried and going through hell with their ill child.
It’s lazy, it’s arrogant and it stinks. Expectations and tolerance really needs to change around this issue, I think.
Parentsshould expect to be treated with respect and compassion, and we should be giving head teachers and attendance officers the ability to make expectations. It’s respecting these professionals too, not just imposing a blanket rule and ‘automatically triggered letter’ as if professionals cannot assess a situation they see all the time. The idea that because letters are ‘automatically triggered’ that somehow makes it ok, well, I feel like it’s a way to excuse a system that deliberately ignores the reality for a significant proportion of families. The thresholds for triggering letters was set by humans. The criteria and codes were set and entered by humans. The system can absolutely be changed, if those that endorse the system decide that change is unnecessary.
Well, that’s my rant :) not aimed at Mumsnetters at all, aimed at policy makers, who believe it’s acceptable to make families lives worse at a time when they are already stretched to the limit.
Some children will be ill, seriously ill and / or chronically ill. This isn’t something that is surprising, or unforeseen. It’s a basic fact of life. There will be population stats on this (or there certainly should be!). To pretend that serious and long term health condition simply don’t happen, well, it’s bizarre. Perhaps policy makers believe that ill kids don’t exist? Or that children shouldn’t be able to access healthcare at all? And just suck it up... that parents can simply tell their child to stop whining and shrug it off. Shrug off serious and life threatening illnesses that need to be managed carefully or damage that child’s health more. Humm. I bet these people aren’t shrugging off their own health care and medical needs.
And to deliberately put these families into the same punitative system as children truanting, and families who don’t see the value in their kids being educated, without any way of differentiating, is disgusting. And unnecessary.