To be very pissed off with school

[AlbertaAnnie]

First day back at school today - school is round the corner from my house. My son is year 6 and walks to school himself ( he’s done this all last year no issues). He went to school as normal this morning and at 9.30 I revived this text from the school.
“ CHILD1 has not turned up at school today, please could you call the school immediately to update us.”
This immediate made me panic and think the worst! He’s very responsible and wouldn’t skip school so all the worst case scenario’s we’re going through my head!
Rang school in a panic shoes on ready to run over! They asked me to hold while the called his class and he was there all along but had been missed off the register! They said he must have “snuck” in past the teacher! He didn’t sneak we just went to school as normal!
anyway I know people are human and errors can happen but surely they should check before causing such alarm! I’m shocked that this isn’t standard procedure and more shocked that if he had actually been missing it would have taken them 30 mins to inform me. Spoke to head teacher and she was awful and so insincere in her apology and just came across very defensive! I want to take it further as I’m unhappy about the whole situation.
AINU to feel so angry with the school or am I being ott? Thanks!

I'm sure it was very worrying to get that text message, but I'm not sure the school have done much wrong. My school (secondary) don't send the text until around 10am so that they have plenty of time to check absence lines, late book and for teachers to amend registers for kids who entered the classroom late. But I think I'd prefer the earlier message for primary aged pupils, even though that would mean a slightly bigger risk of worrying parents unnecessarily.

The most I'd do here is ask DS where he was when the register was being taken. If he was present and marked absent then I'd be a bit irritated, but recognise that humans make mistakes. If he wasn't present for the register (toilet, late due to dawdling etc) I would tell DS that it is vital he is in the classroom when the register is taken.

Good advice - thanks 🙏

I would let it go it was an error. You have no idea what was going on the school this morning. The teacher could have been dealing with a major child protection issue. They apologised and will probably be more careful in future.

Bloody hell! I wouldn’t either! 😟

The other school needs to contact her old one and conirm that she's started there before they can remove her name. It's a safeguarding legal requirement to prevent kids getting lost from the system.

Very true - didn’t think about that at the time !

🤪 best of luck in the new school!

My son’s school came to me with that text 7 times over the years. Each time he was there. It was usually when he was in an assembly or something that they hadn’t logged properly. Each time it gave me a near heart attack. They never apologised and on a couple of occasions tried the ‘oh he must have limbo danced under the radar crap’.

I don’t think YABU - I’m in a secondary setting and we send texts out like that, however, it is imperative that our attendance officer actually physically checks (ie doesn’t just rely on the Period 1 registers) before this kind of message gets sent out. Errors on registers happen frequently (and there are plenty of staff who just forget to “submit” them, the computer crashes, supply teacher doesn’t have IT access etc) and if these texts went out to parents before it was checked we would have a LOT of angry phone calls.

They need to improve their process due to the obvious panic that text is going to cause to a parent who believes their child is safely at school and YANBU to bring that to their attention.

Thank you for the message - they didn’t mention anything about it so I assume not? The school is known for its poor communication to be honest but this was the first time I felt it was anything serious

A phone with life360 is your friend here. As soon as my kids were walking alone they had one. So I could see they were at school. With secondary school I've had it be 10.30 or later when they've contacted me to ask where my child is (eg if I forgot to say they were sick) So I wouldn't rely on school telling me there was an issue.

That'll be why some people don't get a text until later. It takes a while to walk to 50 separate classrooms across site, check the music rooms, the toilets, medical, the PE field, AstroTurf and the late records.

Or you wait until 9.30 when at least 2 registers have been taken and then see the mistakes.

Yeah my heart jumped to my throat when I read it! I think if I had had multiple ones it wouldn’t have schooled me as much but it was the first time

I am a teacher and have made this mistake before. Sometimes children come in slightly late, are in the toilet, not listening etc so they are missed off the register. Teachers are human and mistakes happen. Just be grateful your son is fine.

Thank you that’s exactly how I feel. People are human and errors happen that’s why it’s important to check before creating unnecessary worry

I would have felt the same, especially if the procedure could simply rectify to prevent. But seeing some others comments, I also realised all sorts of scenarios were possible and procedures can't be perfect to cover each.

So just let it be and maybe get a simple phone for your son.

“Very pissed off with school” OTT

So you want the office staff to go round every single class in the whole school checking absentees? That would be ridiculous.

I had this with my 4 year old in reception. On the one hand I was pleased they called but I was so worried at the time as I had physically walked him in and spoken to the teacher. I thought he’d walked back out after I’d left! He was there when they checked. Me and the teacher had spoken about something that had happened the day before so surprised they didn’t remember this once they got to his name! Human error and busy teachers but nonetheless scary for parents!

I used to work as an Attendance Officer. Procedure if pupil was missing from SIMS register was to
a) check phone calls emails for contact from parent
a) Contact person taking register to check
b) look around the school to see of pupil was in loo/music lesson
c) only if child not found call home

Staff taking register are supposed to call out names but some would just do a headcount which can sometimes go wrong. My worst nightmare was to call a parent only to find they were actually in school but better to be safe than sorry.

jees someone made a mistake it is no a big deal

I am obviously very grateful my son is fine and I understand mistakes happen. I’m not laying blame on the feet of the teacher. I do think however in a small primary it’s easy to call and double check before worrying the parents - there are phones in each room to the office and in a small school like ours the time it would take to check unauthorised absence would be small and save me some grey hair 😅

There is phone to easily contact the classrooms from the office - it’s only a small school it shouldn’t be too hard to check any unauthorised absence before worrying the parents

Count your blessings,be thankful he's safe in school.stop working yourself up into a big pile of negativity which will weigh you down.
Smile,be happy all is well.

You know in some schools there is a phone in the classroom.. its a matter of dialing that room.

In my old school (still open) its a two second trot across the hallway to one of just four classrooms. Not an onerous task at all.

Don't assume ALL schools are huge!