Is the headmistress / school out of order here?

[Itsalivinthing]

Backstory as it is relevant.

Just before Christmas DH and I had reason to complain to DDs school. The school is a feeder school for two different secondary schools and we can choose where to send our children. The head and teachers seem to have a strong preference to one school and actively discourage children who want to go to the other school. Both schools appear to be performing the same but head has forged stronger links with the one school and regularly use it for events etc.

DD and a number of their classmates were told they had to attend a transition day at the school they are not going to and we refused to sign the form as there was no need for them to attend. The day of the ‘trip’ came and DD and about 6 other children were bawled out in front of the class for not attending and ‘ruining’ the trip for the TA as she then had to stay behind and supervise the kids that weren’t going.

DD came home from school in a terrible state and on calling the school the head invited us in. The class teacher and the head denied that there was any pressure from the school to push kids towards the one school but we came up with a number of examples to the finally had to agree that from now on there was to be no more pushing the kids towards the one school. We asked to see the complaints procedure and said that if there were any more issues we’d be complaining to the local authority.

Roll on today, DD was unwell so I called the school to explain, DH was home with DD when at 10.30am a knock at the door and it was a truant officer checking to see if DD was actually unwell! DD was tucked up on the sofa and DH invited her in to see. She left satisfied that DD was actually unwell.

In hindsight I know this is backlash from the head - this is the first time DD has been off in ages so it’s not a regular occurrence. I think she’s sent her to make a point and I’m actually really annoyed. Roll on July when she finishes. AIBU?

YANBU. There shouldn’t have been any check on absence for a child with a good attendance record. Are you certain the record is above 90%? If it is, I would complain again!

The complaints policy for a school must be on the web site. You complain to the Governors not the LA.

Regarding the school visit - I’m amazed a transition visit is held in January. Have all the applications been processed and decisions made via the admissions process? I don’t think so. I expect the visit was just to look round. Rather harmless in my view and not affecting your choice. Have you attended the open evening at your preferred school? When is their transition day? Around here there are in July!

It’s hard to know for certain. The timing makes it feel vindictive but it could just be a coincidence that the LA are having a crackdown and have told schools to report all incidents of illness immediately so they can make a show of “checking up”. I am inclined to think it is the latter as most truancy officers would be too overworked to call on someone with an otherwise good attendance record on the first day of illness just because the head says they should.

WRT the transition day, are you sure that is what it was? Many secondary schools run things for y6 dc just to get them used to the set up of a big school. It is early for an actual transition day, sounds more like a taster. I went on one myself many years ago and it was at a local boys’ school so deficit no suggestion that I should actually go there.

*definitely

Send in a FOI request to the data officer asking them

1. how many children have been absent since sept 2019 to date.
2. how many of those children absent for sickness have had the truancy officer call into the home on day one of absence.

That should make them sit up and notice because if it's just your DD then they know they can be accused of victimisation. If it's actually a high percentage you know they are just on s9me weird power trip re attendance.

Op may be in Scotland in which case she would complain to local authority.

It may well have been a taster day but it was the third one arranged since DD joined year six. DD had gone to the other two but when the latest permission letter came out with the words ‘transition day’ (it was to sing and do drama lessons and science lessons in the new school) myself and the parents of the other children who weren’t going to the school refused to sign the permission slip.

When a similar event was arranged at the school our children are going to we found out about it on the morning of the event and we had to take our own kids there (no transport laid on).

YANBU that's terrible. What a waste of resources. Well done for calling the head out! Roll on July indeed.

A knock on the door from the truant officer reminds me of some years ago. My daughter said to her teacher she felt unwell. Teacher sent her to the school nurse, daughter did not manage to get into the nurse's room before she vomited all over the floor. Nurse sent for me and I brought daughter, aged about 13, home.

That afternoon the truant officer came to ask why my daughter was not at school. I demanded to see his ID, that took him a while to find it. I then told him what had happened and that if he ever dared to enter my property again I would call the police. It seemed that he had gone to the school and randomly picked out a list of pupils absent that afternoon. I still wish that I'd hit him very hard as he was threatening my daughter

What Bubble said in the first reply.

Round here lots of schools invite dc in for a day's activity. Everyone goes to all of them, otherwise school have to somehow find staff to mind them for the day when they could be having fun and enjoying having a go at the sorts of things they will get up to in secondary school, whichever secondary school they end up going to.

I'd love to know which LA has the money to employ attendance officers to make house calls for a single day off.

What % attendance does your dd have ?

The day of the ‘trip’ came and DD and about 6 other children were bawled out in front of the class for not attending and ‘ruining’ the trip for the TA as she then had to stay behind and supervise the kids that weren’t going.

Ahh, I was guilt tripped like this once- stuff what the TA wants to do, if she has to stay in school and supervise 6 children, so be it. She's being paid to do a job, not just to hang out on trips to high schools. I'm sure she can think of creative ways to amuse herself and the children for one day.

Things are very different around here. There are no such things as truant officers these days in this area. I would be having a chat with the HT regarding this, asking what had triggered the visit etc. I'd want the HT to be answering some tricky questions, and showing themselves to be the petty idiot they are.

Just wondering if TAs are allowed to stay behind to supervise pupils by themselves - doesn’t a teacher have to be present too?

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just let your DD go to the day at the secondary school? My Year 6 son has been on about 3 days at our local secondary, where 95% of the kids go, since the start of Year 5, plus a week’s summer camp there in the summer holidays. I’ve known for at least a year that it was unlikely he would go to that school (next furthest away has much stronger discipline which I think he needs!) but I’ve still let him go on the visits because I think any extracurricular visit has merit. It never occurred to me not to send him.

I think you needed to see the visit as an opportunity to enrich the year 6 curriculum with some speciaist drama and music teaching, and a chance to use laboratory equipment. No reason for your children to miss out on that.

The school was wrong to bawl the kids out. They'd have done better to contact the parents who hadn't signed, and explained the educational value of the day.

It's true that secondaries sometimes run these days partly as a form of advertising, but it sounds as if this one was after you'd have applied for secondary places, so that doesn't really apply here.

I wonder if there's some other reason for the truant officer visit - eg someone saw you out and about, and (forgetting that children have two parents) raised a concern that your daughter might have been left home alone.

Why would you not let your children go? It’s irrelevant which school it is, any gives children experience of a secondary environment and helps them prepare. Just mean to withhold the opportunity.

Just wondering if TAs are allowed to stay behind to supervise pupils by themselves - doesn’t a teacher have to be present too?

Any school employee can do this, the TA could teach them but a member of the office staff could supervise if asked, though that would be very,very unlikely unless it was an emergency.

I think you were wrong to withdraw her as well.
If the majority of kids are going there which is the parents choice then they are going to arrange more taster days. It’s a chance for kids to experience high school.

The TA may have been needed to supervise the children at high school, they don’t just ‘hang about amusing themselves’ they have a job to do, which they can’t if they have to supervise 6 kids because their parents are making a stand (for what exactly?)

DS went to some of the special days the local secondary school held, even though he was going to a different school. He didn't go to the actual transition days they held later in the year.

I still wish that I'd hit him very hard as he was threatening my daughter

Eh? *threatening" your daughter you say?
That's a mighty dripfeed in 2 paragraphs ... what threat did the officer make to your DD, @John470322?

Wow, @John470322
Have you ever thought of getting help with managing your anger ?

Our school has regular event days with our non-feeder secondary but not so many with the feeder school, just because of how the different academies run things.

I saw it as a chance to experience secondary school rather than as a transition day because transition days are completely different. They are about familiarising oneself with the school ready for starting in September and don't usually take place until after SATS as the focus is generally on them.

Are the schools all in the same MAT as that can also have a bearing - another primary school in the area does lots of events with the secondary school in the same trust as opposed to the secondary school it feeds into.

Also, given offer day has not yet happened, you cannot guarantee that your child will be attending the school you prefer. I think it is very short sighted not to give your child an experience of secondary school, even if it is not the school you would prefer them to attend. Out of my DD1's classmates, most of them went to a different secondary to the catchment one, but where most of the secondary school events where held. It meant my DD at least had an expectation that 'X' is what to expect at a secondary.

@messolini9 I'm sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I would not have hit him as he was doing his job to the best of his ability. It was scored out so was meant to be lighthearted and not a serious idea
He said that if she kept being off school she would be taken into care. I was fostering two children at that time so I knew the care system fairly well. What he said was rubbish and i felt was meant as a threat. My daughter had not been off school for the past 8 or 9 months. The attendance officer did admit that he did not bother to look at past history but simply picked out a few pupils who were off that session. He was totally unaware that my daughter had been at school that morning and every day for the past 8 or 9 months.
Better training for attendance officers is needed (as my daughter is now 40+ that might have happened)