To be annoyed at attendance letters from school

[PumpkinPiloter]

We have just received another letter from school about DS1 attendance.

The letter states that as his attendance has dropped since the last letter we need to make an appointment with the head teacher or be referred to the Education Welfare Service.

DS1 suffers from bouts of tonsillitis so does have a fair few absences we would also rather keep him home when he is poorly and try to make the best judgement call we can.

The last period they have judged him on was the 2 weeks before the school broke up for Christmas so even though he had 2 days off this has led to an 87% attendance rate.

We both feel that if other parents were more diligent about keeping their children at home when they were poorly our son would not catch as many bugs.

For background DS1 is in primary and is in the top few of the class across all subjects for attainment and effort. DD2 has had 1 day off sick since the start of the school year in September as she just does not catch as many bugs/suffer from tonsillitis like her brother.

It grates me the way that it seems that laws seem to be drawn up for the few percent of the population that do not parent effectively as opposed to the vast majority of parents who do.

I understand to a certain extent that this is a tick boxing exercise from the school but can they are fully aware of his health issues and that he works hard and is way above the national average for attainment.

Surely in a sane world some discretion should be used when sending out threatening letters and wasting everyone's time.

It is just protocol. They can't single out individual children as being properly sick and then accuse others of basically truanting.
Attendance is a huge issue. Parents do really keep kids off to help with the little ones or because they fancy company or because they got shit faced last night and CBA to take the kids to school.
All real absence reasons. All crap.

I really think you have to stop blaming other parents for your son getting ill and positioning yourself as the only responsible parent. Really, it simply undermines your argument.

If he is a sickly child and is too sick to attend then you need to speak to the head and tell them that.

What I find interesting is they say it can be authorised if you have a letter from the GP. Yet GP surgeries (ours at least) tell you not to attend surgery for certain things, D&V being the main one. Can't bloody win!!

I would ask them to recalculate your son's absence based on the academic year so far and then reissue their letter based on that, if necessary. To calculate an absence based on two weeks is ridiculous.

I work in a school and it is policy if attendance drops under a certain percentage no matter what the circumstances the letter must be sent, meeting with heads / welfare is an opportunity to explain why your child has low attendance. It isn't ment in any way threatening, the school have to treat all families equally. Unfortunately for too many children, lack of attendance is due to issues at home so this is why they have to be vigilant with all families. I really wouldn't worry about it.

They aren't picking on you, it's just procedure and the same rules apply to everyone. Go to the meeting, make the points you've raised in your OP. Job done.

Oh these get my goat too, I had a "improve attendance or you could face criminal prosecution".

Criminal prosecution!!

I mean come on, mine was a couple of days when exDH decided to take them out rather than stick to arrangements. 1 day each on a sick day, 1 day for the middle one for an eye hospital appointment (you want her to see the books right??), and a couple of days late as we've been put in a school a 20 minute drive with 3 traffic lights, 2 busy rail crossings and 2 lollipop ladies away and they chucked in some roadworks for fun.

There should be some common sense allowed to the HTs as they think it's bullshit too instead of this policy/process/targets bullshit.

I just used it as kindling.

My dd had attendance of 50% in the last two weeks of school. She got this flu and was bed-ridden. I didn't get a letter as it was (rightly) calculated across the whole term.

I have got immune to these letters as they get triggered at inappropriate times as you have found out, and there's nothing that can be done if a child is sick except use your best judgement as a parent and NOT send them in to infect everyone else and make them cry. This is good parenting; the system is bonkers, and ends up targeting minor illness that has been a reason for absence for decades, and doesn't tackle the persistent offenders who miss school due to poor parenting, issues, school refusal and so on (as they can be less receptive to the letters as well). Schools know it's crazy but feel compelled to behave this way.

My dd's school doesn't have any counsellors any more but has four attendance officers. That tells you all you need to know.

What an absolute waste of time for the school to base it on a two week period.

I'm not sure why you're getting so cross about it. Your attitude is a bit off.
It's protocol and an opportunity for the school to find out what's happening and if they can help in any way.

A school welfare officer if there to assist families and that could be chaotic parents or perhaps parents who aren't receiving a good service from their Drs.

Bluntness100 Thanks for the advice. I really think you should either learn to read the OP properly or refrain from commenting.

Surely that would be appropriate if attendance was low across the term. But not based on a two week snapshot.

It might be protocol but the protocol stinks

I really think that some people are missing the point that the letter was based on one day off sick during an arbitrary 8 day period.

My thoughts exactly RB68!

I totally get your frustration.

I received many generic letters about my dd's attendance, which contained threats of fines and Education Welfare Officer meetings.

I eventually got issued with an appointment with EWO and I was dreading it. She was absolutely lovely and in the light of significant medical issues was really appreciative of the efforts my dd went through to make it to school at all.

I'd be tempted to ask for an EWO appointment and take the wind out of the Head's sails! School are being ridiculous. You know when your child is ill.

If it helps at all, see it from the school's perspective.

There might be, say, 20 children in the school who have levels of attendance that are a concern.

Of those, the school may already have concerns about some - in other words, they know something is going on, and this is a lever to get parents into school to talk about it (these cases will almost certainly escalate rapidly, to SS, to Early Help, to teams around the family etc etc). The school may have no concerns about others - they know that the child has been ill, for example, and has temporarily low attendance. However, they do need to rule out any hidden issues. The school will then have a few 'not sure's - the odd nebulous concern, a feeling that something isn't quite right - and this is a good excuse to have a meeting to explore what is going on - it may be nothing, it may be something.

The school MUST treat all of these the same in the first instance. For one thing, if they 'pre-judge' all the cases and only send attendance letters to the 'known issue;' ones, the 'hidden' issues may never come to light. Equally, those parents who do receive an attendance letter in these cases could (rightly) claim that they are being treated unfairly or discriminated against (if you think of the stop and search data - the police may claim that they don't discriminate, but the figures say otherwise - therefore being absolutely scrupulously careful to treat everyone equally is REALLY important).

So schools send the letters to everyone, and the subsequent meetings may be a formality or the start of a long process.

My dd had recurrent tonsillitis so you have my sympathy. I'd just ignore it personally. Your child is ill, you kept them off. There's nothing more to be said by the school or an EWO.

Incidentally I finally snapped with the doctors when she was 14, and said I will be bringing her every week until I get a referral to ENT. Doc reluctantly agreed to do so. ENT surgeon took one look in her mouth and said "oh yes, these need to come out". She's not once been ill since the op

I don’t understand attendance letters on a short period. I thought it was based on the year to date. What’s that all about? It sounds like compounding the already unnecessary admin.

I have (yet) to experience our EWO but a friend is awaiting a court attendance for her DS school attendance. He is autistic with other issues & struggles massively, backed up by a lot of professionals who work with mum to supplement things at home. Her EWO is an utter bitch & has been found to have lied about things...court will be fun!

Obviously can't stereotype all EWO's the same but does give me the goolies 😂

We don't have these same attendance nuts in our schools. I can imagine its very frustrating. Anytime the children are off school there has to be a signed note of reason for the absence, so round here if a child is sick the school will know because its in the note! Its a simple system and it works, common sense really should be on the national curriculum.

Am I right in thinking this is a 'follow up' letter - so you have already had 1 letter, and this is about a further drop in attendance? What was the attendance last time?

it is tricky when such a letter is based on a very shoprt period, but from the school's perspective, you were already on a 'watch' list and now attendance has droppped further. A single blip from 100% to 87% [for a single 2 week period] is obviously silly as a reason to trigger ar letter, but if the longer term average is, say, 90% (low enough for your child to be classed as persistently absent in government data), which triggered an earlier letter, then a further drop to 87% is slightly different.

That is an interesting perspective cantkeepawayforever and not one I am unfamiliar with. The perspective does have merits but I would imagine their are many other/bigger flags to a child's well being than attendance.

Thank you troodedoo we have heard the same form many people. The only people I hear saying it does not always help is doctors.

if a child is sick the school will know because its in the note

The issue is - as you will know from the many posters who reply 'just call in sick' when there is a poster worrying about unauthorised absence - is that 'sick;' does not always mean 'sick'.

It can mean 'on holiday'.

It can mean 'at home because parent was too drunk / high last night to bring them to school this morning'

It can mean 'at home until the bruises fade'.

It can be 'on the plane to a forced marriage / FGM'.

Schools have to be aware of those possibilities.

Sympathies here too
Two of mine have ongoing issues.
A lot depends on the school
The primary was awful.threatening fines.turning up unannounced to check antibiotic bottles etc to prove infections were real.bloody nightmare
Secondary are much more sensible.
They listen to us and we work together.as long as we keep them in the loop updating medical apps and what's going on we are told to ignore computer generated letters
That said as it's secondary,mind do chase up work they've missed but as your son's doing well I wouldn't let it phase you
Hope he gets them sorted soon.x