To ignore attendance letter from school

[wheresthel1ght]

Dd is 4 and in reception so legally she is not required to be in full time education.

We have had a letter home today about her attendance which is at 90.2% meaning she has missed 6 days since September. She has had 2 bouts of being sick due to asthma attacks but they insist on her being off for 48 hours which al(so 4 days there) and then she has had 2 days of hospital appointments.

To set the scene on the appointments; The hospital 35 miles away and is the closest hospital that offer dermatology services. It has no parking on site so you have to use the park and ride facilities in the city and then use public transport to. The hospital. It takes 45 mins to drive to the park and ride and then an hour on public transport to the hospital so a 10am appointment literally takes all day. So that covers her other 2 days.

She is due for tests next week which is another 3 full days off school which judging by the letter will drop her to about 87%.

Now if I understand correctly because she is not compulsory school age, they cannot fine us and the school, school nurse and council are all aware because the council refuse to accommodate her dietary needs which is why we are having so much time in hospital trying to get things sorted.

Am I correct? And if so can I just bin the letter?

She does not legally have to be in school, but as she is- it's counted. How do you not understand that?

Mememe even though she isn't of csa?

If you make the “choice” to send them to School before CSA you are still agreeing they will attend school. You can’t be fined for an unauthorised absense but they are still very much expected to attend

Unfortunately the schools have to send them, it’s something OFSTED check when they do the inspection. The local authority inspection also checked it too (the school have to be seen to be actively monitoring and policing absences).

Just send a quick email back stating “Although DD is below compulsory school age I can assure you we take the matter of attendance seriously. As per my previous phone calls/letters/emails all of the absences have been for medical reasons and appointments”.

You agree to the school's policies when you start at school regardless of age. Although legally she doesn't have to be in school until the term after her 5th birthday the school will have policies and guidelines to follow re attendance and you're expected to follow them. Anything below 93% is flagged in our school with a letter.

yes, as I already said, whereisthelight. If she is enrolled then her attendance will be monitored.
I mean they couldn't fill a reception class with 4 year olds and then not have them there, with a team of parents going 'oh but they are not of legal school age', could they?
If you don't like it, take her out until she is legal school age.

As above. She is not of compulsory school age, so she didn't HAVE to start school. You chose for her to. Once she did start, however, so did her requirement to attend. If you don't like it withdraw her until she's of compulsory school age.

Once enrolled they are required to attend - otherwise people would just use school as a pick and choose childcare service before five.

Schools used to exercise common sense but in these days of government targets and Ofsted common sense is no longer valued, probably because it is not measurable. What matters is being able to show evidence of what you have done. Once a quiet word from the teacher to the head and the head to the truant officer would have been enough, now they have to produce stats showing they have done something even if it was unnecessary in most cases and ineffectual in situations where there is a genuine problem.

I used to work as a data manager in a school and a huge part of my job was generating statistics to 'prove' things to Ofsted, various providers of grants and government departments. I loved it because I love data and statistics but most of it was a colossal waste of time, money and resources.

I think the not of school age is irrelevant.

If she has asthma and other health problems then you need to sort this now. Ask the school what they need- consultants letters? Appt cards? Have a sit down meeting and explain, make sure you and the school understand each other.

Because this is likely to be an ongoing issue. Once she is of legal school age you’ll only have to go through it all again. Ask the school what you should do with the letter- if they say it’s an automatic thing and you can bin it then it’s all good.

I think you need to make the point now that yes, school and attendance is important, but your childs health still comes first. Maybe also point out that you’d rather get on top of it now, and hopefully have her stabilised so less time off when she’s older...

No need to read past the first line of OP. Not legally enforceable until 5th b'day. If there's one law the netizens of Mumsnet know inside and out, it's the rules around school attendance.

The reason nursery were hot on attendance with our school was, so many people applied for a place, if someone took a place and rarely used it, that was considered poor form.

However, our daughter’s regular time out for hospital appointments and therapies are never counted as absence. Her attendance is adjusted to account for it. If you are going to continue with this school, you need to have it out with the head teacher and come to that agreement. To count regular hospital appointments or stays as absence is discriminatory.

So long as you informed each time just ignore.
It s auto letter.

I don't think that legally her not being of compulsory school age matters as you've registered her for school, so she is expected to follow the same standards as everyone else in the school. But you have legitimate reasons for her absences and sounds like they have been well planned and excused, so I would keep the letter for your records and keep the lines of communication with the school open, but not stress about it. School attendance is really important and there is a lot of pressure on schools to keep their attendance up, but the concern is much more about children whose parents keep them home because they can't be bothered (I know someone who, I'm not kidding, keeps her kid home if she gets a cut on her finger or if she herself - mum - has a cold and can't be bothered to get dressed to drive her there). Those are the kids they want to flag up, so I wouldn't worry.

It is absence but ticked as medical. It s still absence.
It counts as missed school.

But don't worry.

You are right that they can’t fine you until she’s CSA, but they can and do monitor absence once you agree that your child will start school. Partly because children who are persistently absent don’t suddenly start being persistently absent when they reach CSA. Sometimes you can sort the issue if you catch it early.

Planned absences still count as absences. If she wasn’t in school or being educated of site, then it won’t have counted as her being present,

I manage attendance in a small primary school. PP are right - we have to send these letters out. The fact she isn’t legally required to be in school is irrelevant - you have enrolled her and she is expected to attend. The only difference it makes is that you wouldn’t be fined.

We had Ofsted just before Christmas and the head and I had an interview with the inspector, who grilled us for half an hour on what we were doing to improve our (below national average) attendance. We would prefer not to have to send out letters in cases like yours where absences are backed up by letters and the parent lets us know in advance. But we have to.

I wasn't aware they were automatically generated. I suppose that makes a difference.

I love the assumption from some that I don't value attendance as being important. Of course I do but surely a planned absence that the school has known about for months and that they themselves have pushed for because without medical letter they apparently cannot make the necessary adjustments to keep dd safe means that they should employ a bit of sense and not send home letters bitching about absence that they have sanctioned.

Once enrolled they are required to attend - otherwise people would just use school as a pick and choose childcare service before five.

Nope.

In December 2014 the Schools Admissions code (England) School Admissions Code (England) was updated. Children under compulsory school age can now attend part time if the parents so wish. Children are marked absent using code X which means school attendance records are not affected.

I think some people just didn't read the whole post about it being evidenced medical absences and just dived in.

I would ignore it based on what you have said. If you are questioned, you have legitimate, authorized absences, end of.

The letters are automatic though. We had them after DS had scarlet fever on top of a lot of scheduled paed appointments. The school have to do that - as said, tick-box for OFSTED. I'm in sympathy with them on it tbh, not us as parents. Must be a PITA to deal with from just about every angle.

I know someone who's child was in hospital dying of cancer & got sent one of these.
They have to- ignore it.

The letter would be an automatic thing. Your DD is going to be in education for a few years so it's best to try and work with the school rather than calling them Hitler!

I would see if you could get some sort of exemption from the 48 hour exclusion after sickness policy when it's due to an asthma attack rather than a stomach bug. There might be some leeway there.

I know this probably isn't logistically possible but if time allows you can drop her off at school for registration then pick her up straight after at 9am to go to the appointments. She would have technically attended the morning session so would only be absent for the afternoon session.

That’s not the same, perfect. That’s usually agreed in advanced and the children are essentially enrolled part-time.

Taking 2 days off in a Term isn’t attending part-time. It’s attending full time with 2 days of absence.