To be annoyed at this teacher.

[TheChasers]

my dd is never off school. Couple of months ago chicken pox going round the e class and school phoned and asked I collect her and she had come out in spots and it was going around. She had chicken pox and was off a week, as per the guidance.

anyway, parents evening today and teacher says at the end she needs to improve attendance. I said she has only had a week off when school called for me to collect and she had chicken pox. Teacher agrees and then says again she needs to improve attendance. I repeated that was the only time she had off which couldn’t be avoided.

aibu to come away annoyed

Surely her attendance is over 96%? Did she say what her attendance is?

it must be over 96% as she has only had that week off and it wasn’t even the full week, she went in on the Monday and school phoned me at dinner time

I would have said what you said and then asked what she meant by needing to improve attendance.

It's an unrealistic political policy foisted on schools and the buck gets passed down the chain, no matter how daft it is.

We've had Education Secretaries that expected all schools to be above average 🤦‍♀️

Teacher is an idiot in this case

Schools are pushed SO much on attendance that it is standard to pressure parents. However, the ones I know don't bother unless attendance is below 95%. Some kids are late three days a week which does have a big impact on learning. Is she on time every day?

God, that must have been frustrating. What an absolute dope.

If this is exactly what happened then you are not being unreasonable, unless the teacher expects kids with chicken pox to turn up for school.

But if everyone is above average....there is no average 🤷🏼‍♀️

Utterly ridiculous situation. I expect it wasn't the teachers fault and they just have to say it. That or are you sure she's not bunking off class?

Ask her to.suggest an action plan going forwards. Perhaps a disguise for the next time they send her home so that you can sneak her back in

More likely the attendance officer and/or head is an idiot and the teacher has her hands tied.

I expect the teacher is just following school policy and has been told to say this to parents of any students with attendance under a certain percentage. In some schools they don’t like anything under 98 or even 99% attendance! I wouldn’t hold it against the teacher personally as you don’t know that she’s raising it because she genuinely thinks your DDs attendance is low or whether she’s been given a list by the headteacher of parents to say this to.

The teacher would have been given a list of children and told to tell their parents their attendance needs improving. Please don't be annoyed at the teacher. And don't think they're an idiot!

Attendance and punctuality has nothing to do with class teachers apart from taking the register.

Blame the government, not the teacher. Schools have this foisted upon them.

Watch out for the School's Bill. The government are pushing for 100% attendance now... They'll he wanting doctors notes for any sickness, hospital appointment etc

I think the national average is approximately 93%. I wouldn’t raise (as the teacher, having just written my form’s reports) it if it was 93 or above.

I received DS2's report yesterday, with the attendance box coloured bright red (it's a traffic light system). There was also a little post it note stuck on, with an arrow pointing to the red box, saying "We know he was in hospital - don't worry".

As PPs have said; schools really have very little choice but to constantly push attendance as it's pushed on them. Believe me, as a primary school TA, the staff don't like it any more than you do!

The teacher was probably told to say this, this really isn’t a big deal

It seems odd for one week but I agree it isn't the teacher's fault. Our school has policy with a list of actions that must be taken when attendance drops below certain percentages. The first one is that we are emailed a list of parents with whom we must have a conversation to let them know their child's attendance has been flagged up. It's always awkward and there is no way I do it through choice.

I have to ring the parents of the five students with lowest attendance in my form next week to discuss an how we can improve their attendance next year. 3 of them are medical, 1 x close family bereavement and 1 x young carer.

My own DD had covid twice both supported with +ve PCR tests which I forwarded to school and 15 days off for that and then got D&V and had to take 3 days off, we got a visit from the attendance officer, to find out why she was off again.

It's daft but schools have to do it.

When DS's class had chicken pox (as in over half the class) we were all summoned to the head and asked to explain how we were going to improve attendance

I just said I would try and make sure he didn't get CP again..but yes we went round in circles with this ridiculous conversation

@JustFrustrated exactly!

The teacher will have been given the computer generated data from the school office. She hasn't worked it out herself. She has to pass this on to you.

I would have passed it on then said not to worry about it, maybe she was younger and less experienced than me (more likely to do exactly as she is told).

Don't give it another thought.

Iv got a child who was hospitalised and off for 2 months due to this - missing exams. Their report has several teachers saying their attendance was poor and needed to improve in recent exams (which they mainly missed). My teen was cross when they read it

my kid has been off 2 weeks with covid, a week with norovirus and for several doctors appointments in the last 6 months... the schools been fine.

I mean what can they do insist infectious kids go into school?
ban doctors appointments?

those class as authorised absences.