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

They give out certificates at my child's school for 100% attendance, even though my child has had a few I think it's a shitty thing to do as not all absences can be helped.

I get what people are saying about it being a government initiative, but once the OP had said it was chicken pox why say it again?

Quite frankly I'd be tempted the next time your DC is ill, take them in and deliver to head explaining child is ill but as you understand attendance is paramount as discussed at parents evening and the comments made so here you go. It's easy to say it's pressure from above but schools need to kick back too to above on the ridiculous expectations.

I don't think teachers have any right to pass comment on attendance at parents evening!

I had similar when my daughter was in year 3.

She was really poorly, off with cystitis. The antibiotics given didn't work so she continued to decline. By the time the GP had sent her urine to be cultured and the correct antibiotic given she was off for two and a half weeks.

It was a really rough time and she was properly ill.

Our jobsworth of a new head teacher had the audacity to call me into a meeting where he had a social worker in tow. I think to intimidate parents into compliance!

He then decided to lecture me about her attendance.

He picked on the wrong mother. I was properly furious. It wasn't as though we'd been making it up, we hadn't gone on a sneeky holiday. He had all her doctors letters I'd sent in.

His parting shot as I left, after looking suitably uncomfortable during the meeting was 'let's try to improve attendance shall we?'

So I told him again no, absolutely not. That if a child is very ill they need to be recovering at home not trying to cope when poorly in a busy school environment.

He lasted three terms. He was a true chocolate fireguard.

How exactly was your dd supposed to improve her attendance when she hadn't actually had any time off bar the minimum required by the school itself for chicken pox?!? That's what I would have been asking when the teacher said it the second time.

Maybe she didn't have anything else to say at that point, so just picked on that one thing?

Is it the person delivering it, or the fact that it's at parents' eve that you object to? How would you propose a discussion about attendance would be better carried out between a family and a school? I'm curious.

A bit daft of the teacher to repeat it after raising it and getting a sensible explanation the first time but I'm sure they were only doing as told.

My daughter's attendance is 92 percent. She has Crohn's and been hospitalized twice this year. No one has said a word, thankfully.

The teacher is telling you what they've been told they have to tell you.

It's not really their fault even though it is daft.

Teacher here, we are sent the attendance data to put on their reports from the attendance officer and a little chart, anything 96% or below is red, needs to improve, 96-98% amber, satisfactory and 98-100% is green, excellent. There is going to be a huge push on attendance from September driven by the DfE, so expect this to be even harsher.

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.

Yes, the teacher will have been told she has to bring this up. But there was no reason at all to mention it again when you'd told her about the chicken pox. I'd be annoyed that she simply hadn't listened to you. And I'm a retired teacher.

If I'd been the class teacher and forced to mention the absence (and yes, I'm likely to have forgotten why she was off) I'd have apologised for having to mention it after you'd reminded me that it was chicken pox. I certainly wouldn't have said AGAIN, that her attendance needs to improve.

The teacher is a complete imbecile.
Unfortunately it appears many primary school teachers are when it comes to using common sense.
Firstly if she knew it was one absence through chicken pox there was no need to raise attendance at all and secondly if she didn’t then when you said why she was off the correct response from her was ‘of course - and your child’s attendance is normally excellent so no problems there at all’
just because most SMT are idiots doesn’t mean she has to parrot them.
At the Secondary I work in letters home and absence comments are confined to students where it is clear there are multiple absences for spurious reasons, not one time absences for contagious diseases….

They have to pass the information on whether they want to or not.

The amount of people here saying ‘they were doing what they were told’ - don’t you want your child’s teachers to have a bit of common sense and personal autonomy?

As I said I would have gone through the motions and said not to worry but I was an older, experienced, cynical teacher. (We didn't have to do it when I was younger).

This is ridiculous. As a teacher, I've been instructed to send emails to parents telling them that their child's attendance isn't good enough when it's been exactly due to reasons like this - they were missing for 2 weeks 6 months ago due to a genuine illness and their attendance has been perfect since. I always 'alter' the wording of the email in these cases to make it clear that I know it was due to a specific incident but that the school still needs to inform you. Otherwise, it can damage relationships between teachers and parents.

For what it's worth, the teacher is probably just following orders from their line manager, but it is really stupid.

The amount of people here saying ‘they were doing what they were told’ - don’t you want your child’s teachers to have a bit of common sense and personal autonomy?

I must admit, this crossed my mind.

It may well be what she'd been told to say, but why on earth not engage properly instead of the ridiculousness described by the OP?

I thought this was the point of the OP,, not that the teacher said it in the first place but more that she repeated it once it was established and recognised that the child had chicken pox.

Why repeat it like as if it was something that could have been avoided and there was a need to up the attendance?

I’d have said “oh, that’s super! MUCH better than last year … what would that have been, 50%? And the year before that when her year group couldn’t go back at all … 60%?”

Of course it’s not coming from teachers but it’s just ridiculous fretting about a few days off for sensible reasons given all that’s happened.

Have to? Or else what?

Can you not just have the balls and the common sense either not to make the call, or not to deliver the message?

It is a politically-generated farce - yet another one.

I am a school governor and know that OfSted is badgering schools about attendance when they inspect, when we know that the whole school was inundated with some grim bug and there were a lot of very poorly children who were off for a long time.

It sounds as though this teacher has the imagination of a gnat and her strings are being pulled from above. Silly woman.

Probability best to ignore.

Although ......

I'd have also probably laughed and asked how you can make up days missed due to compulsory public health isolation and asked if they were putting on extra session for those who missed school to make up attendance!

Should of played dumb and turned it round to her ask her what you should of done and what you need to do .
Let her explain that one

It's not always possible to make that a hill to die on.