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!

Oh ffs. Chill out.

Has your son explained how he missed the register @AlbertaAnnie

He didn’t know - he was on time and though he was just checked off? Teacher must have just missed him

This happened to me too, except the school secretary said she would call me back within an hour. In that time I drove to the school like a maniac and found her myself (in the playground.) It is horrible and I aged about 5 years in 5 minutes but these things happen. I'm glad he is safe and well and good for him walking to school!

Well yes, in your particular case that’s how the conversation would have gone, but the vast majority of the time children marked absent are in fact absent. I don’t think I have ever marked a child absent who was in fact present. So the conversation would go ‘hello? Yes, I marked him as absent and he is absent. Yes and also the other one I marked as absent is absent.’ ie, a pointless conversation most of the time. I understand that it must have been really scary for you, but your son has sat through over 1000 registers in his life and this is presumably the first time he’s been recorded incorrectly so checking every absence is not necessary. The bigger risk, actually, is children being marked present when they aren’t, and office staff don’t double check all of those.

God where to start...we do not have phones in classrooms in my school, most parents do not necessarily let me know their child is absent, we do have teachers that fuck up the register (for the record if a child who is at school is deemed absent it is FAR more likely the teacher's fault than office staff), we do not have an automated system and have to call parents in this situation and by the time the incoming phone has gone 20 times, and the buzzer 10 times, you can't always get attendance done mega early. School Office staff get a bad rap sometimes and our pay is hardly great

Don't forget about the complaint via SLT saying the admin person disturbing their lesson and publicly questioning their register was extremely unprofessional and embarrassing for the teacher.

I'd rather get a message in error, when my child is safe on school! Checking every absentee against sickness/appointment/running late/on holiday messages is time consuming Often, support staff sending the messages have to rely entirely on the register being correct - which doesn't always happen due to many reasons - child was late, in the toilet, daydreaming, just didn't answer their name...etc.

Massive over reaction on your part.

What system do you have that sends the texts automatically?? It is usually done manually by the attendance officer or the school office. It is 99.9% usually teacher error.

YABU. It’s your responsibility to make sure he is at school on time. It likely took 30 minutes for the class to get settle, do registration and then pass all info onto the office who then worked through a list of none attendances who has not called in sick. Was he late and snuck in? Did he miss register? He should be making it known he is present during registration. What actually happened?

Where are you getting this from? Did you read the thread? He was on time the teacher missed him off in error…..nothing to do with lateness or me being irresponsible…

Why? Unfortunately parents forget to call in sick all the time. Everyday. It’s far more likely than a child being forgotten on a register. It’s demeaning to the teachers to ask for them to double check for every absent child after they have done a register. Your issue was resolved quickly.

Doesn’t anyone on here think six is way to young to travel on their own.

It happens at our school all the time since they went electronic with the register

I panicked the first time too.

Now I just get pissed off having to come out of work meetings to call and wait for them to confirm my child is in class.

@threatmatrix year 6 (so age 10/11) not age 6

He's in YEAR 6, not 6 years old!

I have been the person who makes the calls and trust me, some teachers are useless at taking registers. It is a legal document but some let the children in the class take the register, they don't do a head count, and they don't double check. My daughter is also school admin and gets sick of parents shouting at her because they personally handed their child over to the teacher.
Really pisses me off because at FE was can lose pay based on low attendance in our classes so we have to check and double check registers.

Yes I do! Way too young and far too much potential for things to go wrong.

Honestly if you want to ensure this doesn't happen again and your child gets to school then you will have to bring him. Not rely on the school to tell you. Hes 6 and so much he can't comprehend yet, this could very easily happen again but he not be there.....

@threatmatrix @Clarityiskey @DeeDoyle

Year 6 not age 6. (Have read posts wrong before myself)

Thanks! I withdraw my previous comment! Year 6 is fair enough.

I’m a teacher and if we have a child that isn’t present for the register either myself or my assistant has to phone the parents to see if they are coming to school that day (unless we have been notified otherwise). There have been a couple of occasions where I have been on the phone to the parents and their child has just arrived. Perhaps the register was sent to the office before your son went to class? Or it’s just down to human error and they were marked as absent. It does happen. While I sympathise that you were panicked and I’d be just the same if I were in your shoes. Our office is so busy in the morning that they honestly wouldn’t have time to call every classroom to double check. Not great I know, but it’s just one of those things. Personally, I double check myself before I mark them as absent and make any calls. I usually give my notorious late comers a little bit longer before I call.

Sorry OP but you are overreacting a little. It has happened once. He could have gone to the loo before going into class, he might have been chatting and no answered his name, he might have answered quietly. Especially at this time of the year teachers don't know their class yet and can't just glance up and see them. They rely on the child answering. After all, teachers are human too.

Bless you. I can understand why you were panicked, but I think you need to calm down now. You definitely sound a bit OTT. It must be the adenaline of the scare lingering, so not pleasant. That said, it seems very much like a first day error where everyone is at fingers and thumbs, but easily put right. Sleep on it and you'll feel better. I'm sure it won't feel as big an issue in the morning x