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!

LellyMcKelly - I see how stretched the staff at DS's school are and I definitely wouldn't expect them to waste time on catching him up, but he's well ahead of the class and I do lots of independent work with him. Obviously, absences which leave kids behind on learning are a problem. That's not what I'm asking about, I'm asking about odd days off for valid reasons.

I guess the more time they miss from school, the further behind their class mates they fall.
I missed school the week we learned long division, I’ve never caught up. I’m now 55. -- and never needed long division in my life —

My sons school is already an academy, maybe that's why they are more relaxed?

PolkerrisBeach yes DS had a large number of absences due to a family emergency, but even without the emergency, would have probably had below 95% attendance

Because children should be at school unless there is a good reason not to be and the rule should be the same for all children.

Cadencia congratulations, that's an amazing result for the year

It's utter nonsense and a completely stupid system.

It makes 0 difference to truancy. Parents who can't be bothered still don't bother sending their children to school.

Normal parents who just want a couple of cheaper days holidays include the possible fine in the holiday cost.

It penalise kids who have genuine reasons to be out of school, it's not their fault if they are unwell. It's trying to shame them and force them to go, infecting all the others in the process.
Expecting sick people to go to school or work is stupid, counter-productive and a terrible example.

It's bad enough some working parents relay on school for childcare and send their sick kids to avoid taking a day off, we don't need attendance nonsense to encourage them.

It completely penalises the younger ones. A 5 or 8 year old has no say about going to school or not, being on time or not. They do as their parents told them to do.

Keeping an eye on attendance by itself is not wrong, but the headteachers should be able to deal with them without interference and the Ofsted ratings should not come into it.

If my schools decided to start attendance awards and rewards, I would take the kids off on the first few days so they stop stressing about it and don't feel bad about being unwell later on.

Attendances levels in other countries without this nonsense are not worst, it makes no difference.

It's a load of rubbish. Kids don't miss anything if their parents are decent parents and teach them outside of school hours too. There are far too many who rely on school to teach their kids every little thing. If your kid can't read properly or do basic maths then that's on you as a (shitty) parent too.

I think part of it is setting them up for adulthood too. You wouldn't get away with 90% attendance at work so parents may as well get out of the habit of keeping them off if they have a sniffle. Probably doesn't matter so much in primary but it should it secondary.

Because it adds up quickly. (No-one wants a sick child to be in school.)

OFSTED can and will grade an otherwise good school as ‘needing improvement’ if the overall attendance is low. There’s a huge pressure as a result on teachers (especially head teachers) to ensure attendance remains high.

I agree with you fwiw and don’t think awards should be given to children who were just lucky and didn’t get sick that year. I also had the same in my DC’s report stating they could have done better with improved attendance. The reason they all had a week off was for chicken pox...

I think as well it's a "start as you mean to go on" type thing. Yes at 5 the odd day here and there isn't going to make much difference.

At 15 or 16 though when they're hurtling towards exams, a couple of missed lessons can mean missing out on the introduction of a whole new concept or topic and it can make catching up a lot harder. My eldest is heading towards his first national exams in May next year and I'm a lot less relaxed now about the odd day off than I was in the past - I really don't want him to miss anything.

Schools have to be consistent though, you can't send the message that attendance is in some way optional, as it's not. We don't have fines in Scotland for taking kids out of school in term time, but the end of term reports still report attendance as a percentage, and school does really come down hard on persistent absence and late comers.

Think about it from a different perspective. Are you happy for your child to miss out on 10% of the class work. Or do you expect the teacher to repeat the lessons missed for the benefit of your child whilst those children who did turn up are bored because they have already been taught it.

Teacher here too - and I hate attendance awards etc and the pressures these can put on parents with sick children and genuine emergencies and difficult situations. However, as pp have said, this is something imposed by the government and Ofsted - school have to be seen to be doing something to address attendance and they are always racking their brains about how to do it.

As the first poster said, it happened because some parents took it too far. I was pretty tired at one point of kids coming back after 2 weeks in the sun with a note from parents for me to do extra work with them in my own time so that they caught up.

I am sure your DS will achieve just fine but I have to say that, from my experience in teaching GCSE, a day off a fortnight (which is about what he has had - I'm not a maths teacher so I might be wrong ) would seriously impede me covering the course with students and would impact on their results - which would then be my fault and might impact on future pay rises etc.

You wouldn't get away with 90% attendance at work

It's not a fair comparison at all. First you are free to leave your job, and more or less free to chose your holidays and a duvet day if you need.
More importantly, you can get away with being off if you have valid reasons.

Decent companies give you paid time off to bury relatives, to attend hospital appointments, to have sick days. If you are pregnant, you can be off half the week with no problem.

Work doesn't discriminate against unwell people!

I agree op.
Wayyyy too much obsession over attendance.

My pet hate as well is when parents bring their children in unwell.
Selfish twats who couldn’t care less about their kid or passing on germs to other, possibly immune compromised, children. Especially sickness bugs.

Carry on as you are op. You are doing great.

Trust me- when all these attendance obsessed parents darling little offsprings reach adulthood, and apply for a job, no potential employer is going to be asking them about their primary school attendance percentage.

As I said on another thread, I understood it was also a Child Protection thing. Kids can't just go absent and no-one ask questions, one reason being forced marriage

I'm a primary school governor. We see a really clear link between children with poor attendance and children who are not performing at age expected levels. That's why we hold the teaching staff to account and ask the school what initiatives they have in place to improve attendance. We absolutely understand things like chickenpox epidemics, but we do not tolerate holidays and truancy as excuses.

Think about the lesson you're teaching your children by taking them out of school a day a fortnight - that showing up doesn't matter, that they can do whatever they like, that they're so special that rules don't apply to them.

Attendance below 90% is appalling and the poster above should be ashamed that her child's education is so unimportant to her.

If my child is unwell. They will stay at home. Every time.

So for all the crap that is attendance awards, it’s all bollocks and very unfair.

Little Johnny was really unwell but he gets sent in to school everyday regardless of how unwell he is because his selfish twat of a mother is obsessed with his attendance ( yet when she’s ill she stays at home and in bed) and so Johnny gets 100% attendance and a big shiny gold medal at the end of term.

Billy, on the other hand, obviously happened to have caught what little Johnny had (given that Johnny was sent into School and shared the germs with the rest of the class). Billy became really unwell, and also has ongoing medical issues. His mother quite rightly ( and sensibly) keeps him off School during this time.

He then gets fuck all at the end of term for his attendance.

Total fucking bollocks

Utter horseshit

baking demon

The ops kid is five.

Get over yourself

Really baking demon?

That's interesting. My DS' attendance was 78.9 this year. He's disabled and has had a lot of time off due to his illness. I'm also keeping him off next week as he's going on holiday.

Strangely, his results came back yesterday. He scored 100% in his procedural maths and was off the chart. His literacy is considerably above average and his Welsh is considerable above average. He had the highest results in his year.

Sometimes it doesn't tally. At primary age, unless there is cause for concern, attendance that isn't significantly low isn't a massive concern.

He was sad that he didn't get to go to the special meal for those with attendance over 95% and IMO was excluded due to disability which wouldn't be allowed in any other walks of life.

We see a really clear link between children with poor attendance and children who are not performing at age expected levels.

it proves my point. Parents who don't care, still don't care and are not supporting their kids education either way.

Kids who are ill for long periods of time are - strangely enough - not doing so well in education either. If you are stuck in hospital or even home feeling weak and unwell, how well do you think you can concentrate? Even adults struggle to read a book, what do you expect kids to do?

How many parents can realistically afford to take 5 holidays a year and take their kids away from school regularly?

Think about the lesson you're teaching your children by taking them out of school a day a fortnight - that showing up doesn't matter, that they can do whatever they like, that they're so special that rules don't apply to them.
complete bollocks. If one of their parents was going away for work for a few months, military an example among other, spending a few days together will be a lot more important than missing school.
If a family member has a bad hospital stay and missing school means preventing a logistical nightmare, then so be it.
If we are invited to a one-in-a-lifetime safari photo in Africa anyone offering? the so be it.

I teach my kids about being efficient and clever, not that showing your face is enough.

As a rule, my own kids go to school and we don't listen to the "can't be bothered" excuses. I can still prioritise if something comes up, the way I would have to leave work early if I have to pick up my kid from school or hospital because they broke their arm on the playground.

I’m going to my children’s school prize giving tonight, every child gets one award each such as the maths award, sportsman, artist etc, then we have the awards for 100% attendance. Every year I feel so sorry for those children who receive that award as I’m sure a more personalised award is much more appreciated, as it shows their hard work in that particular subject. Of course some children and parents will be delighted with that award, but I personally am much more proud of my child getting the best sportsman in his class or my daughter getting the most improved in maths etc. When I was at school my attendance was appalling due to an ongoing illness, and then when I got to college I was so determined to get 100%, I remember going into college so ill, just to receive a certificate at the end of it.

Having good attendance is important for a child’s learning, but i know parents will send their children ill in order to get them that 100%, which I think is wrong. If my child is ill, they stay at home. Although this year my dc have had a lot more time off due to Liverpool F.C. in the champions league, we traveled all across Europe to Rome and Ukraine, drove 5 hours to Liverpool etc, causing at least 5 days of them not at school. But I wasn’t going to let my children miss out on an experience like that, in which they will always remember.

Some people take the piss and just keep their child at home for company because they're lonely themselves, or because their child doesn't want to get out of bed... and those kids fall right behind - which makes them less likely to want to go in. That's the "fairly easily understandable factor" - which of course means the parenting of the shit means the finger of suspicion falls on us all.

Then Ofsted really do give schools hell for attendance - and a bad Ofsted has such severe consequences for schools that of course they're desperate to keep it up... and you have heads who can do it kindly, with understanding for circumstances and work WITH families - and you have heads who'll do it hamfistedly - throwing around rewards (which if you don't get one when you're little feels like a ruddy large punishment really) like candy and doing ridiculous things like demanding doctors notes if you've had more than 1 day off sick all year (our local GP receptionist's opinion of them trying to do this was somewhat scornful)!

My own kids' attendance is good - never ever going to be 100% for my youngest with all the medical appointments she has to have (and I refuse to send an ill child in to spread germy love - not fair on the staff to inevitably get ill from it!) - I get her back to school as soon in the day as I can, make sure school have copies of all the appointment letters for their records and the like. Thankfully school doesn't really over labour the attendance thing too much and do anything that makes those kids who can never get 100% feel crap... they also got an Outstanding in Ofsted this year despite not giving into the attendance-related lunacy.

Attendance below 90% is appalling and the poster above should be ashamed that her child's education is so unimportant to her.

I'll just pop down to school and tell my daughter that it was an appalling show of negligence for her to get pneumonia and spend a week in hospital, nearly ending up in HDU shall I? Or the surgery I know she's going to have to go through next year - I'll tell her that she simply needs to educate her body better in order to meet attendance targets. Or all the different therapy sessions she's got to have next year where we'll get no say in the appointment times or days at all over (bye bye my career huh). Like fuck I will - she's a kid who's meeting age related expectations - despite having a really crap run of health problems and SEN - so she's doing bloody awesomely to be there despite all of that.

Bloody proud of my kids' school - they've managed to come out as well as they have through Ofsted without becoming a bunch of inhuman uncaring twats who just see young children as points of data on a graph like that poster is.