Threatening letter from school regarding DD's attendance

[Sofi88]

We received a letter from DD's school yesterday saying DD's attendance is below average, and hence not good enough and had to be improved. The letter was threatening, and the words "Be Careful!" was highlighted in huge letters. The letter goes on to say that we have to make sure DD is in school every day from now on, so that her attendance improves. It also states they may contact the Education Welfare Officer if it does not improve.

Thing is though, DD has been off sick ONE day in the period this letter refers to, and I have picked her up early to go to medical appointments three times. One of these times I picked her up at 12 (only available appointment), but the other two I picked her up at 3:20 - ten minutes before I was due to pick her up anyway.

DD has a medical condition, which she has so far been treated for by her GP and a specialist nurse. She has actually had less appointments than normal this term, due to her now being transferred to a specialist paediatrician at the hospital. Our first appointment there is in December, so her GP and the nurse have told us to simply wait for that appointment unless there are any concerns in between. The school knows about her condition.

And also, she had one day off due to illness, where we phoned in and explained she was too ill to go in, which they said they were fine with. DH then went in at 3:30 to pick up her homework. Apart from this one day and the three times I've had to pick her up early due to medical appointments, she has had no absence!

Doesn't my child have a right to get treated for her condition, as well as a basic right to stay home when she is too ill to go in? Apart from this letter, we haven't received anything else - like them asking for medical evidence, doctor's notes etc. We have simply got the impression everything has been done right. The teacher has not mentioned anything when I've picked her up early for a GP appointment. You'd think they ask for medical evidence before sending out a threatening letter like this? A note from her GP would be no problem at all to provide. Would be a lot nicer to have them ask for that, rather than this threatening letter!

Does anyone know anything about this?

[Toomuchtrouble4me]

It’s a computer generated letter based an attendance and punctuality recorded in register. Just ignore it.

[StateofConfusion]

Some schools are ridiculous about this. Dd1 has regular hospital appointments upto 4 a month all during school time, so long as I show a letter the school don't harass us about it.

[Mrspenfold123]

I think this was reply to the Head when I got one.

“I received a letter from the school yesterday, informing me that my daughter, Name Removed, has missed a number of days of school and that her attendance is 96% or below.

It goes on to inform me that if her attendance doesn’t improve you will take some kind of formal action action against me.

It ends with the passive aggressive statement “I will continue to monitor your child’s attendance and I look forward to seeing an improvement.”

Even though it says “I”, the letter is not individually signed which means I’m not sure who to reply to.

Attached to the back of the letter is my daughter’s attendance record for the term. She had three days off in a block at the start of term when she was sick with a bug which she caught at school which caused vomiting for 2 days.

My husband and I take decisions to keep children off school extremely seriously and would not do so unless warranted. The school was informed in timely fashion and in similar circumstances, I, or any other responsible parent would do the same thing.

The implication of the letter is that she should have been sent to school while ill, which I don’t believe is an appropriate message to be sending.

The tone is overly officious and is the kind of thing that leads to a break down of faith between school and parents.

I strongly encourage you to review the wording of these “informative” letters and actually consider whether it is appropriate for them to be sent on the basis of such an unsophisticated data filter.”

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

OP we had the same.

One day off sick and all the rest were hospital appointments.

Sorry school, I can't make a host of paediatric cardiologist and team wait for 3.15, we get what we're given!
Same goes for all his other hospital appointments in different departments, some on London (we live in Brighton).

Annoyingly, the school are well aware of his medical issues so I'm guessing they are obliged to send the letter out to everyone.

I chucked it. I give no fucks.

[Awkward1]

You could pull her out and reapply for next year but
You need to apply by the deadline
The school need to agree to a CSA start (as will any other school on the application form)
You may not end up with this school next time
You wont get funding for preschool as school will have got it after census day.


Re the pre-existing illness the schools' opinion may depend on what it is. If say it's asthma and other dc are managing to get appts at GP outside of school hours etc.

Imo school should also calculate the rolling illness (obv not for yr r though)

[weymouthswanderingmermaid]

I've just seen the post about medical evidence. When my DC's have had routine apt's in school time, the school has asked for a copy of the apt letter which I've then provided.

[weymouthswanderingmermaid]

That % doesn't sound right to me, OP. I'd ask to see her attendance record.
I understand that schools now send out generic letters as they are under pressure from OFSTED regarding attendance. However, when a child has a medical condition that requires frequent appointments, the school need to accommodate this. In your situation, I would arrange a meeting with a suitable member of staff to discuss the letter, your daughter's medical needs, and how you and the school can work together to support her. Then you won't need to go through this stress again!

[corythatwas]

Toughening up is good- but coupled with keeping an eye on the school, making sure you leave a paper trail, and keeping all correspondence with them in case you do need to prove anything further down the line.

[cannotmakemymindup]

If your Dd is not yet even 5, she has no legal obligation to even be at school yet. So the school should definitely be looking at the 'absence' a different way. Maybe they also need a reminder of her young age to.

[Sofi88]

So glad to hear many of you agree it’s an unfair letter. The priest approached me in church yesterday and asked how we were doing before saying “I’m so sorry about the school” or something like that. He knows us and should know that we would never keep her off for no reason.

And I agree with those saying I need to toughen up, but the letter is more of a ‘tip of the iceberg’ than anything, as we’re already regretting not waiting until next year with starting reception. She’s an August baby with a medical condition and who also is very sensitive.

Just heard the school’s Ofsted report from 2016 days ‘Requires Improvement’, and this is why they’ve got the new head in. The school has always had outstanding or good reports, so suppose that’s why the strict regime has been put in place

[helpIhateclothesshopping]

We had a letter after my daughter was off twice for 2 days with vomiting. It wasn't something I had any control over, we work so are hardly likely to be keeping our kids at home for fun. It just makes people send their kids to school when they are ill or lie about when they stopped vomiting to send them back a day early as they feel guilty about them missing a day. Sometimes you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. My daughter's friend had 10 days off in the first term as she had diarrhoea, the poor girl hadn't been to nursery or preschool so was suddenly hit by everything that most kids got when they started nursery. They had a lot of heated conversations with the head and I'm not sure it really helped.

[Ghoulestofmums]

It would be interesting to add up the cost of posting all these letters to children with legitimate illness related absences

[Allegorical]

Just because it is generic doesn’t make it right. It is their responsibility to treat children as individuals. I would complain to the governors. I really don’t agree with these letters that just leave a bad taste in your mouth. It makes you feel that you are nothing more than number or a target.
When are heads going to realise that most sensible parents don’t even care much about offend. Our school has good and I would much rather that than the pressure of maintaining outstanding. Schools that get outstanding sacrifice a lots of important things for the sake of results and attendance levels.

[TriciaH87]

Go in and talk to them. My ds in year one missed a week for sickness in first term and had about 7 half days due to medical appointments with paediatrician dietician cardiologist etc. I thought we would be in trouble. We never received anything. Maybe it's because school new how badly anemic he is and that any bug knocks him for six. If I phone in saying his over tired they put him down as sick because even now at 9 they know ifi bring him in he will get ill because this is a sign his immunity is lo. They told me that one day of to rest is better than the week once he picks up a bug.

[Beveren]

What irritates me is the way schools suddenly lose interest in attendance when it suits them, notably when children have SEN and the school isn't bothering to meet their needs. It's so hypocritical to get stroppy about some pupils' attendance whilst simultaneously operating illegal part time timetables and unlawful exclusions for others.

[helpIhateclothesshopping]

Ofsted expect over 96% for a school to have a hope of getting a result of outstanding when inspected, that's why they are so strict.

[OhLookHeKickedTheBall]

We spoke to the EWO who was very understanding, the school had not told them about his ASD.
That happened to a DF of mine too, she pointed out the other siblings had rarely missed school as well and found the EWO to be sympathetic when they had the full picture.

[Flashbackflossie]

Just ignore it.
It’s completely ridiculous when you consider that no-one seriously monitors kids that are home schooled for the quality of education they either do or don’t receive.

The English schooling system is falling so far behind systems in other parts of the world because they focus on the wrong things.

[RhubarbFizz]

So sad there is so little empathy. I would book a meeting with her class teacher and ask for a copy of the work missed for the half day and the two 10mins she missed as obviously it is so vital after that letter! So if she missed ten mins of colouring, there you are - she is up to date! If she missed 10 mins of reading, you can catch up! Then when they phon enough to get her home as she is being ill, you can remind them that she cannot miss school, not even 10mins due to how vital her absence is!!

[EggysMom]

I have no idea of our son's attendance level at the moment, I believe that every absence he has had for sickness or an un-reschedulable appointment is justified. So I don't worry.

Those of you saying that an exception should be made for medical appointments, and isn't this disability discrimination ... I doubt it. My son attends a specialist school, most if not all of the children there have above the average number of medical appointments - when there is only one special care dentist, we cannot all have appts out of school hours! And even his school issues the generic letters. I've come to the conclusion that they have to do issue them to tick a box with the LEA.

[pinkmagic1]

I too have had a similar letter about my son's attendance. He has had to have a huge amount of orthodontic work and procedures and I would often try and plan the appointments either first thing in the morning or at lunch time if possible to avoid disruption to his education as much as possible, but because he was either missing the morning or afternoon register he was marked off for the whole session. Now I arrange them mid morning or mid afternoon, more disruptive to everyone really but it ticks the attendance boxes. Absolutely crazy.

[123bananas]

Just speak to the EWO and explain. DS had quite a lot of absence last year compared to his siblings because he has autism and reacts differently when unwell. We spoke to the EWO who was very understanding, the school had not told them about his ASD.

[Ruscoex2]

Funnily I’m about to get a letter similar to you for my ds, and the ludicrously of the situation boggles me. Ds has started immunotherapy for his allergies which involves him missing the last lesson on a Tuesday of school each week. Prior to starting this I spoke to the school advised them of the situation and asked what polices the school have in place as I didn’t want him to a) fall behind and b) get in to trouble for absence. I explained that we had gone to great lengths to get appointments for as late as possible so that he would be in for as much of the school day as was feasible. The school then turned around and said that if he wasn’t in for the whole day they would count it as authorised absence but as he would have to sign out during the day no matter what the reason it would count as unauthorised absence. There was nothing that could be done and I should expect letters from the school and the LEA. Obviously I have the letters etc from the hospital to back up why he is off and will happily fight whatever comes but being a responsible parent in this instance results in a worse situation than if I was irresponsible one.

[helpIhateclothesshopping]

If the attendance for a child drops below a certain percentage, which is very easy in the first couple of months of the school year, but tends to balance out later on, it tends to trigger an alert and the letters are pretty much automatically generated. Don't worry about it, even if educational welfare got involved, which seems unlikely, you have valid reasons and the doctor will have it on record that you were there those days. I'm surprised it triggered for absence at the end of the day, unless the school do their afternoon registration right at the end. In our school if a child is more than 10 minutes late for registration it is recorded as an absence. Someone else said that although an appointment first thing in the morning may seem less disruptive to their education, leaving just after registration and coming back is actually better for their attendance (on paper).

[itsgettingweird]

I agree you need a thicker skin.

She's had 1.5 days off and that will be 4-5% this early in term.

My ds has had 1 day off and his is 97% 🤷‍♀️

You know why she's been off and the school can't actually do anything. They can threatened EWO etc but the most that will come is them asking why she was off "Ill one day and medical appointment".
They just log that and usually the ewo will have a word with school about checking facts and being realistic as they don't have the time to chase non issue cases!

Seriously - stop allowing this letter to have such an effect. It's a stupid generic letter based on a computer spitting out a statistic.

I would however be taking the fact your dd isn't settled and unhappy seriously. Any way you can state you'll be putting her PT for a period? She's not compulsory school age and may benefit from just mornings at the moment and building up. If her medical condition is likely adding to her tiredness you have a little bit more of an argument and would use that as evidence.