Just received a letter informing (threatening?) possibility of referral to educational welfare service re: attendance - AIBU?

[iscott17]

Just received a letter informing (threatening) 'possible referral to educational welfare service' - DS attendance was '94.39' - 'below school attendance target of 96+%' (Sept til now).

Part of this was due to SCHOOL sending him home for mandatory 48 hours absence when he puked in lunch room.

Have requested a meeting with headteacher - tempted to go in all guns blazing, esp when checking school attendance policy on the school website which says 'letters will be sent to parents when attendance falls below 90%'. AIBU? Any suggestions/recommendations on how to deal with this (short of ripping headteacher's head off!)

Primary? Ignore.

I'm a year 11 tutor in a pretty difficult area. Some of my tutees are on 45% attendance - that matters.

Yours is an irritation because you care This is a good thing. Really. But ripping strips off people that care as well is just plain daft. That's the heart of it, if you look closely

I work in a school and deal with attendance, the EWO tells us to send these letter out, even when the absence is explained and we have it on record. I agree that it's not ideal and rather interfering, but it's better than ignoring the children who miss lots of school due to problems at home or neglect.

You don't need to complain to anyone or even bring it up, just ignore it and get on with your life.

I teach 2 subjects, one of which is food technology. A pupil approached me after lunch yesterday outside my tech roo. She had just been sick (sudden onset) at lunchtime and had asked to be sent home as she felt unwell. Attendance office sent her straight on to my classroom. I sent her straight back. No way should anyone be in a food preparation area (where I am cooking food for 20 pupils to sample) who has just had sudden onset vomiting.

It happens time and time again. The AO and the Head are under such pressure to fight for every extra 1/2 day of attendance. It comes ultimately from ofsted. As a result, even basic food safety and infection control can be compromised unless teachers push back,

We are constantly being asked as form tutors to go through each pupil’s weekly attendance figure with them, as if we can, by sheer force of will, prevent them from being ill, or inspire them to attend when they or those around them might not see the point.

We are having a daily attendance lottery from now until Christmas (staff have been asked to donate prizes). This is the reality of the pressure schools are under.

So I haven’t got that much sympathy when people get mad about automated letters. Trust me, it’s just as frustrating being at the other end.

My dc had school phobia and anxiety for a long while. Attendance was below 40%. It was incredibly stressful but the school saw me desperately trying to sort it day by day. The letter from the EWA was a horrible shock but ended up being a blessing in disguise as she was lovely and supportive as well as recording that we were doing our utmost. I was glad of her support. At first it felt like a disgrace but it's not, it's support to those that need it like me. They'll soon see it's not a problem in your case and delete it all. These ppl are doing a valuable job for many and will understand that your dc is not a problem! Don't worry!

Why would you rip the headteacher's gead off? It isn't their fault your child's attendance is low.

It is their fault that they send out threatening letters in circumstances such as this. At this point in the school year pupils will have had approximately 54 days in school, so 94.39% attendance means they have been off for around three days, including the two days the school insisted on. It is utterly ridiculous for any school to threaten prosecution on that basis.

I really don't understand why a headteacher, of all people, cannot understand that 94% attendance in the autumn term is considerably less serious than 94% as a proportion of the entire school year, which would be around 11 days out of school. Really they should do these calculations as a percentage of the last 12 months to get a realistic picture.

I work in a school and deal with attendance, the EWO tells us to send these letter out, even when the absence is explained and we have it on record

You really don't have to obey, you know.

HRTpatch, another one of "those" schools. wowbutter, you admit to sending out "threatening" letters to parents whose dc have a serious illness? Bloody Hell........ I could never do a job like that. You should feel ashamed of yourself!

Agree OP should just discuss it calmly.

However, I'm appalled that there is no way (it appears) that the school can't enter in agreed absences (sickness, nits, close funerals) on to their own database and generate their own letters (less threatening) if necessary. Clearly for a 1000 plus secondary that would take some doing but a primary? I'm no IT expert but it could be done with a properly organised spreadsheet with the right algorithms?

94% attendance is low and even in the first term it is more than 48 hours off school
Bad maths.
Anyway, don't bother going in, it's nothing to worry about. Either ignore it or do what @youarenotkiddingme said

My mum used to get letters like that when I was a teenager. I had genuine medical problems, letters explaining my condition and why my attendance was unlikely to improve, etc. from the hospital consultant I was under and it was still an issue. It had my mum so stressed out she was sending me in for the afternoon when I had been vomiting that morning (it wasn't contagious, it was a side effect of my condition). Still managed to get better GCSE grades in my core subjects than most of my year because I was doing work from home.

My DS had also had two days off due to sickness bug this term and attendance is showing as 96%. Why is yours lower??

My child suffered a serious injury at school. The teacher concerned lied about it and the HT colluded.
Child was off school for 3 months.
Strangely I didn't hear a peep from the school about attendance.
I have no idea how they got round it but I was far to busy looking after my child to enquire.

Authorises absences doesn't mean it's not attributed to overall attendance.

DD has that awful chesty virus at the moment I've kept her off for one and a half days because she's asthmatic and is really struggling with it. One day off because she was up all night and if I sent her in she'd fell to sleep in classroom and been sent back home anyway, and the half a day was me getting her checked over at the GPs to check it wasn't a chest infection and sending her in late.
Her attendance has dropped by 3% already.

Ignore the letter OP, just ring up and explain that they know why DC was off because they were the ones who sent DC home. At DDs primary I was told that those sort of letters were sent out as standard the minute the childs rate dropped below 95% and as long as I'd kept the school informed as to why it was nothing to worry about.

People are so accepting of interference in their lives from the state. Even if it is an automatic letter, someone decided on the wording. It is aggressive and rude.

If no one goes in ‘all guns blazing’ that tone and right to interfere in parenting decisions will continue and may even increase.

The school should know their pupils and send letters to those with genuinely low attendance and where the school has concerns.

Attendance is really important to make progress but, in the winter term, with many bugs around, it is so easy to be ill for a few days.

Why would you analyse absence after about 80 school days. 5% absence=4 days or two bouts of D&V or one febrile illness that does not instantly go away.

I like the letter up above. Parents have rights too. They pay for their child’s schooling (via taxes) and should be supported, not berated. The school should only be interfering in cases of genuine concern and, even then, should go in softly at first to try and fix the problem.

I agree that it's not ideal and rather interfering, but it's better than ignoring the children who miss lots of school due to problems at home or neglect.

I hope that isn't the only red flag. Otherwise the school will be missing people with perfect attendance who also have problems at home or are being neglected.

It isn't their fault your child's attendance is low.

It is THEIR fault when THEY sent the child home!

As ceto said. A child's average attendance at the moment is going to be around 95%. So even a couple of days off, by following the school policy and keeping the DC off for 48hours is still going to have a significant dent to the attendance percentage.

Busybeez it depends on the area and the school. Both mine (secondary and primary) started back almost two weeks later than everybody else.

Their attendance will be lower in comparison to those that have already had two weeks attendance to fill.

I see so many of these kind of thread. We had theses letters, but always came with a note saying don't worry about it, it's just automated letter, we know the situation. No stress or worry for us.
I just wish other school would do this, even though it maybe extra work, but that will save school's/parent's time going in and have a meeting about it.

Another one of "those" parents

Good grief, why? Are we all supposed to be so submissive to schools that we accept bullying unjustified letters without questioning them? If that is really the case, we should all be proud to be one of "those" parents.

It isn't an excuse that this is an automated letter. It doesn't put itself into an envelope and walk to the postbox, someone takes a decision actually to send the letter out. It wouldn't be in the least difficult to sift through the automated letters before they go, and/or to make a decision that three days' authorised absence in the autumn term is not worth threatening parents for.

Agree with ceto. I also don’t understand the oh it’s just an automated letter, ignore it, argument.

Send the letter by all means if there is no credible explanation for the attendance score.

It is scary to receive one of those letters first time. I was totally worried even though it came with notes. So I totally understand someone getting upset. Some will worry, some will get angry. It's expected reaction to shocking(in parent's eye) letter like this, unless you experienced it before.

Cue Pengggwyn to come on and defend bullying schools and their bad decisions.

The school should only be interfering in cases of genuine concern and, even then, should go in softly at first to try and fix the problem.
The thing is poor attendance is a genuine concern. Often the poor attenders by y9+ have got into habits much younger with home keeping them off for anything and everything. There has to be some kind of consistent approach because say a child was being harmed and the school weren't tracking their attendanve (because the chilf is no bother in school, no concerns etc) then that would be deemed a safeguarding failing on the school.

I'd be more than happy for a reminder letter to go out at under 95% (something like your child's attendance has fallen under 95%. We appreciate that this may be for underdtandable reasons, however we have a duty ti monitor school attendance. Where your child would be well enough to attend we encourage them to be in school. - then maybe some examples of what is appropriate for being in school/off and what isn't)

Then below 90 more more like the OP's letter.

Before christmas it's entirely possible to dip undrr 95% due to a nasty bug.

But I've had students iff for the following reasons:
Lied about ill grandparent overseas to takr an extra week holiday
'Concussion' because their sibling flicked a pen at them thr night before (GCSE student!)
Being too tired to come in on Monday (it was a family day on Sunday)

If you know your absences pass the £100 test (if therr was £100 on the floor on the other side of the room) and they're really ill then over time, once they've been at school more, their attendance wouldn't drop low again. If someone keeps them off for the snuffles every fortnight then they will fall below the attendance limit again.

(But then my school is quite sensible with its approach)

£100 test is complete nonsense. I don’t think I’ve ever been ill enough not to be able to move and I’ve had terrible gastric things where I certainly haven’t gone to work!

I don’t see why automatically generated letters can’t be checked against facts. The school have created more crap for a parent to deal with. But obviously as we all know, schools can do no wrong on mn