To not understand the fuss over attendance?

[CestLeWhy]

disclaimer: I didn't go through the state schooling system in the UK, DS is in reception, so I have no experience of school quotas/ funding/ social services. I'm not trying to be goady, I'm genuinely asking.

What is the fuss about attendance? I see so many posters proudly stating their kids have 100% attendance, and that is to be celebrated as it shows they are very conscientious, but why is it such a big deal?

DS just received his reception report and got 'Exceeding' in every category and glowing praise (not even a stealth boast, I am so proud) but his attendance was below 90%. So what? He's only 5. If he's poorly, which he is often, I keep him home rather than send him in for a miserable day for him and disruption to the class. A large chunk is also accounted for as we are from a different country so I take 2-3 days off a year for him to celebrate our cultural holidays. I think it's more important for him to grow up assimilating both cultures than attend every single day. I don't want to drip feed, we had a family emergency which caused some of the days off, but even without, his attendance would have been below 95%.

I can understand lots of reasons to monitor attendance: it can be a safeguarding indicator, it's important in higher years where they learn at a very fast pace etc but I just can't understand why it's considered so important in isolation for all year groups.

Educate me, please, MN!

Lavendar

Yes. That’s totally it. My lessons are dull. That’s totes why they are off.

Oh did I miss the smug middle class mums that think us people on average salaries should only be allowed to have a holiday to camber sands in the six weeks and we are parents from hell if we take our kids out a week in term time?

Sounds like the problem lies with you - and your school.
That many children would not be off - constantly - if the teaching standards were excellent, and the lessons were interesting.
What bollocks.

Super it is usual practice to tell the employer of any disabilities and health issues at the recruitment stage. The employer can then assess whether you are right for the position you are going for. So for instance if significant absence meant constant deadline failures for the company or the work would be too stretched between the employees who were there meaning it couldn't be done to it's full potential then they will take all this in to consideration as to whether you are right for the role.

Employers don't just let you come in and out, it's detrimental to their business.

Attendance is the most important part. Can't learn if they don't show up.

If you are off sick too much it can l lead to disciplinary and your employer can try to force you to resign by saying you’re not in enough to perform
Your role. I have seen this happen to colleagues. And believe me, HR would have not made an error.
And as for the 90% attendance in school thing, that is the lowest attendance before a trigger. I did not make the rule Lavender. However, working in a school I see how low attendance impacts learning.

hattie wow, well done on standing up to the bullies and effecting that change. Schools never like to admit there is bullying, but now every school has an anti-bullying policy which should be followed and I have to say was in my experience (primary, but still).
I still don’t agree w holidays in term time - think I’ve done 3 days in total for the majority of my kids’ school career. Once when dd in Reception - massive difference in flight price, once when we were going away w grandparents at end of a term (Xmas party day), and once after a big family function (called them in sick on that one as wouldn’t have been granted absence). Holidays just have to be within our financial means otherwise even if kids always complained we never went out of Europe. I tell them some don’t go out of the uk.

It's not the odd few days off and dropping to below 90% attendance that makes a child fail ... If they are failing, it will be for other reasons, like poor teaching

Hahahahaha! Yes, a child who has a day off a fortnight isn't progressing because the teacher's crap.

Jesus fucking wept. No wonder we are all quitting!

ohreallyohreallyoh
I know what you mean. Nothing is taught on those days. Timmy is off so the teachers see that and think 'fuck it! We'll all colour in today instead of teaching the GCSE course'.

Amusingly, people with the type of attitude in the post you're quoting will probably also be of the view that DC doesn't need to catch up missed work when absent, then blame the teacher when their DC doesn't do well because their child 'didn't understand' the work (becuse they were off). They probably also have the approach that any disruption in a lesson is to do with poor teaching, if the teacher is a circus performer and entertains then the students will behave, that students will only behave if they like fhe teacher, that any underperformance is a sign of a personality clash, students choosing not to work is poor teaching and then in y11 want lots of intervention for their child. When their child doesn't perform as well, they'll be slagging the school off for being a crap school too.

Maisy yup absolutely! Sadly though their are pupils who are ill and genuinely make the effort to catch up and the parents work with the school to achieve this. Then there's the ones who will blame everyone else; the teacher must be bad, the lesson is boring, they don't understand it (because they missed the lesson,) the head teacher is not doing enough, the school is bad. 😐 Then they will try and have everyone running around after them because they make such a stink about it all when it's their bad attitude in the first place!

People with long term health issues can get on in the work place well but again, in roles which are suited. We have someone in one of our posts who has Chronic Fatigue syndrome and she copes really well with it doing 3 hours a day. If however she went for a promotion to manage someone in the position she does now, there would be a big chance she wouldn't be considered because it would be longer hours and she always refuses to come in early to cover someone who is off. So the employer would question the fact that if she never currently comes in an hour early to cover sickness because of he CFS, how would she cope doing 2 hours extra in the role above her position now everyday?

So yes employers will consider long term disabilities and illness but they are within their rights to determine whether you are right for the position. So to tell a child that the work place can be flexible and you can choose the positions you want around your illness, unlike school, is misleading them because that's not usually the case at all.

Why would you be mortified if your child's attendance was under 90%?

I don't understand why someone would be embarrassed by that. A child can't help an illness. It's not an embarrassing thing. Unless you're saying disability is embarrassing?

As I've said, my DS' was in the 80s this year. Not mortified in the slightest - actually couldn't care less as long as he's achieving well, which he is.

Why does it always have to come down to disabilities? Some children have under 90% and don't have any disabilities which is what is being talked about in the main here.

If a child who doesn’t have any known reasons for it has an attendance below 90% then of course questions should be asked!

Pipedown I honestly think you are missing my point entirely, because you're so busy trying to prove yours.
Children are forced, every day to attend school. As adults, that is not the case. You can choose to work full time if you can manage, or part time. You can choose to work evenings, weekends only. You can apply for jobs which you know you will be able to manage. It is your choice whether or not you apply for promotion, nobody will force you to work extra hours if you don't want to or can't manage. And if all else fails, and your health conditions mean you are unable to work at all, we have a welfare system in place to deal with that too.

Children are allowed none of these concessions. They just have to go school, every day and if they don't, they are told they will fail.

Actually where there are health issues those consessions can be arranged if needed.

Part time School, hospital School, tutors, home schooling are all options if needed

In my experience, I've never come across part time schooling for children who have health issues, nothing was ever offered to us either.

Incidentally, my children have just above 90% attendance and neither have any health issues, SEN, we're not low income and there's no safeguarding issues. They've had a couple of nasty bugs, tonsillitis and slapped cheek. And then there was the one week they were off because I'd had a fucking mental breakdown and decided to take the kids and go to stay with my mum for a week because my job had made me so ill, I couldn't function as a mother. DH works 3 counties away and had just been promoted so he was away for 14 hours a day. I couldn't function any more.

That week we did work every day indoors (thanks twinkl) we visited museums and art galleries, went to a Buddhist temple and a cathedral, visited a community garden and just generally had a relaxing, but educational time. I was afforded the space and clarity to make the decision to quit my job, and the children learned a lot of things that can't be taught in the classroom. Including the lesson that mental health and wellbeing is important.
And yes, I did get narky letters from the EWO, but when I met with her and explained the situation, and what we'd done with our time she was satisfied and we never got another letter again.

ProfessorMoody
That's awful for you.
We provide study packs and reduced timetables, material for tutors, core subject only timetables, late starts/early finishes to the day, extended lesson transitions, links to hospital education and EOTAS services etc for children who cannot manage full timetables regularly due to ongoing health issues and disabilities. Obviously what we do depends on the child.

As people are saying though many childreb with poor attendance don't have additional needs, medical issues or disabilities. Sadly some parents have zero issue with keeping their children off school.

ProfesserMoody

I'd be mortified because that is 19 days off school, nearly 4 weeks, no child without additional needs should be off that much. That is ridiculous, if a child has an immune system THAT poor they should have their health examined. My children didn't even have that level of attendance in nursery when they got every bug under the sun.

90% is terrible, and it's absolutely right the local authority should investigate at that level.

So yes, I would be mortified.

Disabilities aside affecting attendance, there seems to be a lot of people who don't prioritise education.

Agreed polo.
And people who let their children stay off actually end up taking limited resources from other children.

E.g. I've planned a series of lessons for a half term.
Child A misses a lesson and catches up. I can check in on them and get the up to speed quite quickly.
Child B misses 1 in 3 lessons and doesn't get caught up. I give 1-1 support to get them ready to do the task, then they don't bother trying because 'i wasn't here last lesson'. I get them a copy of the set text and give them pages to read. Then they say they don't get it. So I end up explaining it to them. (At this point I have 29 other children including able children who need me to set extension work and my SEND students as well as supporting the class). I tell B to do their best and I'll come back round. Support the class, move the class on etc.
Fast forward a week, B is absent again and so is child C but we are planning for a large piece of writing based on the topic (which B only has patchy understanding of anyway). 29 children are all ready to go, differentiated material is ready and the children are all planning their work.
Following lesson B and C are back in school. C doesn't miss school repeatedly so I can spent time recapping last lesson with C, point C to the work in their books they need for the assessment and C can plan and write. They'll need a bit of time extra but we can find that for them. B, however, has such a patchy understanding of the topic and limited notes that they are going to struggle to get half marks on this piece. I now have to spend a significant chunk of time trying to quietly walk B through all the content enough they can have a vague attempt at it. The time spent there could be spent checking my SEND students are using their support material, helping to refocus a child with ADHD, giving a highly able child an extension prompt, giving a child who lacks confidence a boost. But I can't do that because I have to attempt to catch B up material that they didn't attend for, didn't catch up for, didn't try when they were back.

Repeat for 5 years and you don't need to be an expert to see that whilst A and C had been off, B's persistence absence will cost them.

Super you are the one missing the point and trying to compare the choices of adults to that of children.

Children simply cannot just decide to go to school part time, flexi time or anything else. The schools are trying to teach 30 children in the class with limited resources. If everyone decided to attend school in the way which suited them then, as some posters have demonstrated on this thread, it becomes impossible to teach the class effectively and others then miss out.

If you want to teach children that school is optional and the teachings isn't that important (and I don't just mean academics, I mean socially, teaching rules, teaching how to solve friendship dilemmas, creative outlets) and it's fine to make school flexible for you because you might be able to work flexi time as an adult then crack on.

But may I suggest taking them out all together and home schooling them because school life and attendance clearly isn't something you are bothered about?

My son has an extremely disabled child in his class who goes off to Great Ormand street hospital for operations. Her mum also has 4 other children and she doesn't have your attitude about school and attendance. Her disabled dd attends school and does work at home.

Polo education is essential and I make it a priority, for my children as well as for myself. But school is not the only place that you can learn.

We're fortunate enough to have the knowledge, resources and time to offer learning opportunities for our DC at all times. Even on days when we're not doing very much at all. I agree, there are some parents who just keep their child off school to make their lives easier, and allow them to do whatever they please during that time. But we are not one of those families. And if the EWO is satisfied with it, then its nobody else's concern.

I prioritise a decent education. Sadly as a teacher, I know how hard that can be in mainstream schools at the moment.

Kit, I'm mortified for you, if I'm honest.