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!

It's so disruptive when someone is off at work. If it's for a genuine reason or they are very ill then fair enough but last month my colleague called in sick for a fucking cold. For one day. Because apparently having one day for a cold will cure it. I had to change the whole work day, change what was planned for the customers and do the whole day on my own running around like a blue ass fly because there was no one available to cover. Said colleague also let's her kids regularly not go into school "because they need a day out" or "they have a slight headache " or "they just aren't feeling right."

It's all about attitudes.

Teach the kids to respect being punctual because other people shouldn't have to wait around for them being late. And teach them that attendance is important because it disrupts everyone around them a lot of the time.

Teach this from the word go and by the time they leave school and go to college or get a job, those attitudes will hopefully stay with them.

Didn’t even record attendance at my uni. Although putting videos of lectures on the intraweb was a bit of an own goal if they wanted us to show up in class.

ProfessorMoody

My attendance for my first degree was 62 due to illness and I got a first, so...
And if you really belive that in the main that attendance has a direct link to achievement you are not a clever as you appear

Barr sn the children who do worse in schools also have low attendance

ProfessorMoodywonder how long you would last at work if your attendance was 62% shall we test it out don’t go in for two months and see what happens shall we

It seems a new thing. I missed a total of 3 years of school. I wasn't taken out of school, I was just absent due to very serious surgery and illness. But during that time there was times when I would be well enough to do school, however the school couldn't have me due to the medication I was on and other things. No one bothered one bit, there was hardly any work sent home for me and despite wanting to go I wasn't allowed.
I still left school somehow with 5 GCSEs and the most important at grade c and above.

I don't know what schools do now in the same situation.

DieAntword

Didn’t even record attendance at my uni. Although putting videos of lectures on the intraweb was a bit of an own goal if they wanted us to show up in class.

In 2018 they record it at collages and 6th forms it’s linked to funding

gingerpickles
Most hospitals have a teacher based on the children’s ward a liases with the school who set work ect

College/school whatever is nothing like a job. In a job you are performing a service for pay. At school you are receiving a service maybe or maybe not for free but either way it’s not at all comparable.

Thing is we now live in a day and age where few jobs allow you to start at the bottom unqualified and work your way up to higher payed better positions. They need a certain level of qualification or experience just to get your foot in the door.

The days of walking in somewhere and getting a job are long gone. It's very much dog eat dog in some areas with lots of applicants applying for jobs where only a few may have applied before.

Unless you want to work in a minimum wage, unfulfilling job then having that work ethic and showing up to learn is vital in today's world because it's nothing like it was in regards to employment 20+ years ago.

In reality under 90% means he misses at least a day a fortnight, that is quite high. Imagine every pupil had a day a fortnight off a week, that would be 3 kids per standard class size off a day, now imagine how hard it is to teach a curriculum to a class whereby they aren't all there. That is what the fuss is about.

Additionally in the workplace that would be frowned upon and school is a good way to prepare children for the workplace.

I know a few with kids in secondary who gloat that they have NEVER had a day off school.
Obviously they have sent their kids in with sick bugs and the works. No child has never been ill and forcing a poorly kid to school is unfair on everyone
We could only stay off if very poorly, but we got to rest when we were ill.

I know of an instance in which parents were Concerned about low attainment. Attendance was @ 85% each year. Over a period of 5 years, child had missed equivalent of a years teaching. Parents were 'shocked' to then find that the child was functioning almost exactly one year behind chronological age.
And yes, the the younger the child the more critical that he/she has good attendance. Children learn most quickly when younger in all areas; personal and social, academic, physical etc. Most people find it harder to assimilate new knowledge the older they get (look at learning new languages, musical instruments, sport, dance etc) why deprive your child of his/her greatest opportunity?

*corythatwas

Their is NO job you can just turn up when you feel and when she gets to collage and 6th form you will have a shock Igbo you fall below 80% attendance you get kicked of the course regardless of how well you are doing*

Metoodear I think you missed the posts where I explained that my dd is now an adult, has finished Sixth Form, held down a job for 2 years, and is now in Higher Education. At work they were urging her to train for a manager's post but she decided to leave when she found she had got into the highly competitive course she had applied for.

The shock lay in finding out how much flexibility there is in adult life and how much easier it is to find ways of working around a disability because the workplace, unlike primary school, isn't a one-size-fits-all model.

As for "turning up when she feels like it"- did you also miss the bits where I made it clear she is in permanent pain, has a condition that causes falls, and has had several operations?

@Metoodear very few children's wards have teachers. Regional centres with chronic and long term admissions may have a part time teacher but your average DGH will be highly unlikely to have one. About 10-15+ years ago perhaps but not now.

My dd has 100% attendance for junior school but I acknowledge that we were very lucky that she just never gets ill.

She has days where she's tired or unmotivated but I would never say to her "oh go on then have a day off" because she will learn and carry that attitude with her. I'm in no way a military parent who makes her sit and do 2 hours of homework a night and she has too much plenty of gaming/tv time and fun but I am teaching her that's it's important to show up, on time and just try her best. In other words preparing her for employment/real life.

My step son (who is 7 and an only child) has so much time of school it's ridiculous. His mother is an academic in a very academic role in her job and has followed her family in what they all more or less do/did in their careers. She has high expectations on this boy that he will follow in their footsteps academically yet she allows him so much time off "poorly" and will happily let him have the day off school for his birthday and is then "surprised " that he isn't performing well academically in his school reports.

This little boy only has to say "mummy my tummy hurts" and she's pandering to him and giving him a day off school. He's learnt very fast how to get his way!

If a child is unwell then fair enough but for minor reasons it's not doing the child or anyone else any good at all.

Schools want to get the best ofsted results and need high attendance to get better results. Also some parents send their kids in sick, they just calpol them up so they can still go to work. They aren’t led by the best interests of the child. As parents we often have a more rounded overall picture of what our children need, be it rest, family visits. My child like yours had had below 90% in the first couple of years for the same reasons.

Attendance is important. Over a child's time at school, averaging 90% and they have in total missed 1.5 years of education. Yes, there will always be people who due to illness or other emergencies can't make it in, that is appreciated and understood. But some people let their children stay off with the slightest sniffle, being tired or just because. 90% is one day off school a fortnight; no, that is not normal for a child with no health conditions / disabilities and yes most employers would raise an eyebrow if someone called on sick once fortnight. Yes schools do get slated by Ofsted for attendance but Ofsted care about it because of the impact it has on progress for the individual child.

Having said that though, i don't agree with attendance certificates as poor attendance is rarely the fault of the child.

My DD had near 100% before she hit puberty, now she has days off regularly with bad period symptoms, which I find really stressful. I do nag her to go to schoo when shes not up to it, No idea what that acheives really though !

Missing out on education, teaches bad work ethic and principles.

First of all, the early years in school are probably the most important for laying down the basics in learning, and socialisation. By all means keep them off if really poorly.
Having 10% off each year has a cumulative effect of losing a whole school year over a 10 year period. That WILL have an impact, even on the most able children.

Below 90% attendance means he is off 1 dat every 2 weeks. He is missing out on a lot of school.
He will fall behind eventually. This is pretty obvious as he just isn’t around as much.
The being from overseas isn’t an excuse.

I will say it again, for the hundredth time, because it appears that very few people understand. There is no proven DIRECT link between poor attendance and poor attainment. Correlation does not imply causation. Not all children who have poor attendance will fail, just as not all children who have 100% attendance do well.
Attainment depends on a number of factors, it's a complex and multi faceted issue and cannot be simply reduced to how much time children have off school. Schools are well aware of this, but are forced to set attendance targets and trot out all their scare mongering statistics because Ofsted use attendance and punctuality as indicators of how well a school is doing.

Metoo - I've said throughout the thread that there is a link between attainment and attendance - I've actually done research into it as part of my three degrees in education. However, as I've also said, there are exceptions and I, and my DS are one of them.

To insult my intelligence when you clearly haven't read my other posts is a little ironic.

Also, I've recently had six months off work due to illness and my job is just fine, thank you, so you're wrong there too.

My DS has had below 90% attendance every year in Primary School. As I've again said already, he's considerably above average in all aspects of the recent tests, bilingual and in the MAT groups for everything. He's not falling behind in the slightest.