Hi everyone. My child's nearly five so I know isnt legally at school age. Her school have just sent a letter out to say they are totalling up absence and all children currently below 95% will get a email sent out to warn parents and find out if there's anyway to help!
What annoys me is my child's had 6.5 days off since September. So hers looks about 91% on the attendance calculator I've got. I was hoping we could get it back up in a few weeks time. I don't think she's had a huge amount of time off.
One day in September for a fever
One in late september because she got travel sick on the way. I had to take her home incase it wasn't.
I sent her to school in November with a cold and got called to take her home. So I collected her. So she was registered in in the morning but not after lunch. I kept her off the next day too as she was still the same!
Then December she had one day off with a bad cold again and fever.
The two days before they finished for Christmas her toddler brother had flu. She had a mild thing going on runny nose and sore throat so just kept her off. Her brother was really weak and they had norovirus on class (yuck)
I've sent her to school the last two days with a horrible cold. I spoke to her teacher this morning and said I hate the feeling of forcing them into school when they havn't slept and are run down. Especially aged 4. But the schools make you feel it's going to be punished.
My daughter is never late. I think school is important. She has had a few days off for winter viruses! I think it's abit ridiculous bullying parents about attendance at this stage of the year. That means any child who has had four days off or more will get a letter. Surely over the spring and summer attendance improves massively.
The best bit of the letter says we can discuss ways to help you improve their attendance. Ermmmm yeah you could stop our children catching viruses in your setting. Maybe you can invent something to make them so robust they don't pick bugs up?
I think it's ridiculous. Stomach bugs can take 2-4 days to get over. Colds can give little ones fevers for a couple of days. Coughs can make children throw up. Tonsiltis takes a few days to recover from. Do they really expect kids to not have a few days sick over the winter? I bet my child will get a sick bug next. She usually gets them each winter. I think schools should back off and approach parents who kids are always late. Or at least when they have had ten days or more off. 6 days doesn't deserve a warning!