To not be happy about this school attendance letter

[ByeGermsByeWorries]

Received this letter from my child's school.
DC(7) had 4 consecutive days off for a stomach bug, and a couple of afternoon medical appointments since August 2017.

There's no question about it, if my son is too ill to go to school he will not go to school. I don't keep him off for fun, I keep him off because he is ill.

Would your doctors surgery be happy to have their waiting room clogged up with children suffering from d&v or a temperature? How would you get a sick note for a child for something like this? There isn't really a prescription I can think of for the usual bugs we have going about, and I can't remember the last time I saw an appointment Card.

Some surgeries don't even offer same day appointments without urgent reasons. I'm worried about my son being ill at all this year now because they will set this "welfare officer" of theirs on me but I am neither happy nor willing to take up an appointment for something that has no cure other than fluids am rest, which somebody who is in actual need of a GP could use.

Should I respond or just pray for good health all year

[MaisyPops]

I think it's fair enough. They are stating facts:
This is what the government say
These are the threshold points
We are informing you where you are at
We are happy to take you at your word on previous illnesses but if there are future absences then we would need some evidence

In the autumn term / start of spring it is possible to have a low attendance if you've been unfortunate with the bugs but that generally cancels out over the year once wr get out of bug season.

For a child's attendance to end up hitting 90% it's one day off a fortnight so quite a substantial amount of time. Schools are right (in my opinion) to flag up to parents that attendance is a factor in pupil achievement.
If a child is unwell then they are unwell. But I see pupils being kept off left right and centre thst other pupils notice it. Today a chikd was absence and another child joked 'but he's always off because his mum lets him if he says he's feeling a little sick' I shut thr conversation down but that child is on our attendance monitoring list for good reasons.

[Tarraleaha]

the School removed the 48hr rule last year. People are free to send their sick children in

Are they nuts? At least half the schools in my area had to close completely for 2 or 3 to do a deep clean following a bad outbreak of D&V this year. We get a letter nearly once a month reminding us of the rule.

[onlyconnect]

I don't get the problem, it's mainly stating facts. It's not accusing you of anything.
At my workplace when you've been absent they used to email you to say how much time you'd had of that year. No accusations or comments. Good idea in my view. You can guess who didn't like it though

[Shimmershimmerandshine]

Doctors notes are a complete joke anyway. Last time I had one it was given to me over the phone but even if not if you tell a doctor a child vomited in the night they can hardly either prove or disprove the claim can they?

[Spikeyball]

I would be sending a letter to the school pointing out the ridiculousness of expecting evidence for minor illnesses that would be wasting the GP's time.

[Mishappening]

Bear in mind that schools get royally shat upon if they cannot show a good attendance record, and that they have followed up on pupils who have had time off. Just ignore it. It is nonsense. The school know it is nonsense too, but their hands are tied. For some obscure reason the government seem to think that they would prefer school staff to be spending time on this nonsense rather than teaching.

Our local school has just been flagged up as having high absenteeism. If you actually look at the figures the attendance was brilliant ongoing; but nose-dived in an epidemic. What a surprise!

[MaisyPops]

onlyconnect
That's how I took it.
It's no different to work telling me 'you have been absent on x occasions. Y is the trigger for a meeting'. If i'm unwell again then i'm unwell but they've explained thr situation.


I don't agree with drs notes for everything but i can see why they might start asking when a child's attendance dips.

[Sidge]

Schools that do this really piss me off.

I work in a GP surgery - we have enough to do without seeing mildly unwell children that wouldn't normally need to attend just to satisfy the pedantic vagaries of a school's "policy". GPs and nurses are not there to assist in ticking boxes for attendance.

And the last thing we want is a waiting room full of vomiting children - what do the school expect the GP to do? Say "yes they have D&V, have a few days off school, drink fluids, wash your hands and get well soon"?

Bollocks to that.

[kyrenialady]

I had a similar stupid letter from dd2s school after she had two days off with a bug at the start of the year. I informed them that I will not be getting a doctors letter for a bug.

That's terrible that your school have taken the 48hr rule away.

[Spikeyball]

There is no way I'd be dragging my child to the doctors with d and v. I'd take the unauthorised absence.

[pointythings]

I imagine I may be getting one of these - DD2 has had a bad year after 3 years without a single day of absence.

I will recycle it because I am her parent and I know when she is ill. This is one of the worst years for flu for a very long time and really, the government needs to develop some common sense and allow schools some flexibility when the bad times hit. All schools know which families are the ones who keep their kids off for no good reason and they should be allowed to react accordingly.

[AlwaysTimeForWine]

Schools have to send them. It's a legal requirement. And parents have a legal requirement to send their kids to school (or home school). How do expect it to be tracked and monitored?? It's a standard letter to give you a 'heads up' about your child's attendance. And they aren't going to have time to personalise it and make it fluffy!

I work in an office in a small school and I have to send at least 10 of these every 6 weeks for anyone under 95% - for whatever reason. I then have to monitor their attendance for the next 6 weeks and if there's no improvement we have to follow up. It's a ball ache and I would rather not do it!

So by the time we get to Autumn half term there will be at least 10 children who have already missed 2-3 days of school in 7 weeks. By the time they get to the end of term they've missed a week. If that rate continues (95%) then by the end of the school year they've missed 2-3 weeks of school. And that's before any extra days taken off for family weddings, or finishing a day early at half term because the flights are cheaper.

That's a massive amount. You may think it doesn't make a difference but it really does.
The school know there is a reason for most absences and they don't want children coming in when they are poorly. But if a child is off poorly regularly then it can be a sign of poor health, problems at home, reduced immune system or just skiving. It can be a massive red flag for safeguarding if a child's attendance is poor.

The school HAVE to keep track of it, whether they want to or not and there's NO WAY of sending a letter that isn't going to piss someone off.

We don't ask for doctors notes but we do expect parents to follow up and communicate with us if their child is missing a lot of school due to illness to see if we can support them in any way. You'd be amazed at how many kids have days and days and days off school for sickness. And not necessarily a 'serious' illness or hospitalisation. There are some I know of that are at 85% already - that's already 3 weeks off in half a school year. The school have to attempt to minimise it.

[GnotherGnu]

I've seen somewhere an official letter issued by someone like the GMC saying it is not the job of GPs to issue school attendance letters and they won't be doing it. Obviously the school is trying to get round this be asking for things like appointment cards or prescriptions; but what are you to do if your child needs treatment other than a prescription, and self-evidently GPs don't issue appointment cards normally.

Tell the school that if they really want evidence, they will have to pay the GP for each letter.

[mumpoints]

This is a bad year for flu. they should take that into account and adjust the figures accordingly! I can imagine twice as many parents as usual will be getting these letters this term.

[WowOoo]

As Gobbin said, just forget.
I don't even file...Rip well up to relieve the stress and straight into the recycling.

One of those things that every child's parents needs to be informed of officially. Don't take it personally..

[NoqontroI]

That is an identical letter to one I had in the past. Wonder if all the schools have a standard letter printed off the government website or something. Anyway I put mine in the bin and ignored it. If my child is ill then they won't be going to school, and I won't be getting a gp letter unless they actually need to see the go.

[XmasInTintagel]

Try to be amused by the reporting of the percentage to 2 decimal places...and it looks like, if your DC survives a couple of days,in school, you'll be back over 95%.

My DDs teacher once mentioned that her attendance was a very concerning 80%. I pointed out that this was because she'd been back one week (September) , been off ill for the Friday - was better now, and in a week, just by attending for 5 days, it would rise to a fab 95%. She just burst out laughing and said 'I know, its ridiculous isn't it, but we have to do this'.

[ByeGermsByeWorries]

The issue isn't with the attendance monitoring itself, more the requirement to provide evidence that would only be available by needlessly taking up a GP appointment.

For all our medical appointments for DCs issues, we always have a letter to give, but the times when he inevitably catches bugs more frequently now that there isn't a 48hr rule in place I can't justify taking him to the gp.

I understand there are people who are taking their children out for holidays, weddings etc and they are looking to deter that. It's not the fault of the teachers or receptionists. I just feel worried that Should DC become ill in the near future and need to be off I'm going to be punished for doing what I think is best by my child by being referred to this welfare officer and being made to explain myself in one of their meetings

[feellikeanalien]

As other pps say, don't take it personally. Last year my DD seemed to catch every bug going and it usually involved vomiting which meant a minimum of 48 hours off (even though she was normally OK after a day).

Her class teacher called me in to talk about her attendance and was really apologetic. She totally understood that there was no problem but she had to record the fact that she had spoken to me or she would have been in trouble.

I'm afraid it's just one more example of how target driven and petty this country has become!

[hibbledibble]

chelle that is absolute rubbish.

A child can easily miss 10 days of school due to 2 or 3 of bouts of d&v and the 48 hour exclusion period afterwards. There is no reason to waste a GP's time with this, in fact these children should be kept away from GP's surgeries for infection control reasons.

[falsepriest]

"being made to explain myself in one of their meetings"

Them: So why did....
You: He had the shits/voms
Them: Oh, OK.

[MountainDweller]

I would definitely write back. The tone of the letter is very patronising. They are wasting your time with this nonsense so you should take the opportunity to waste theirs. If everyone who was unjustly sent a letter like that responded in writing, preferably with lots of questions, maybe they would change the system and stop persecuting innocent sick children and parents.

[CaptainCallisto]

I'm fully expecting one of these letters in the very near future. DS2 has had both the D&V bugs that hit the school just before Christmas (at one point they were combining classes because so many pupils/teachers were off sick), which resulted in I think 7 days across the two bugs, and has just been off for three weeks due to appendicitis and complications after surgery. His attendance will be through the floor!

DS1 on the other hand has had two afternoons off for physio/OT appts, which we provided letters for, and one day when he caught the tail end of the D&V bug (over a weekend luckily).

I'm hoping that the one will cancel out the other if we get called in for an attendance meeting...

[Hugepeppapigfan]

It’s a standard letter that schools have to send. In my LA, it is referred to EWO after 5 days unauthorised absence so this letter is usually a warning that your child’s attendance is being monitored and the level of absence is concerning and can only be authorised up to a point without medical evidence. Standard letter though so don’t get too worked up by it. Feel free to complain to the DfE about the ridiculous position this puts schools and parents in though!

[Tarraleaha]

You are over-reacting, it's a generic letter, they have to send the same identical one to everybody. It's the same letter for parents who take their kids on holiday during term time. It's not a personal insult. I would reply, then ignore.

I don't think many schools actually enjoy wasting time with that nonsense.