How the fuck do you improve attendance

[Merryoldgoat]

I’ve had the delightful LA attendance officer letting me know my son’s attendance is 85%.

I KNOW. I’m the one looking after him.

How am I supposed to stop him getting ill? I’d love to know.

I’m just sick of it. We’re juggling two autistic children, a full time job and I get this officious letter implying I’m keeping him off under false pretences.

It’s such a stupid blunt instrument.

I’m angry and tired and just sick of it.

I have no AIBU. It’s just the rant of an exhausted parent. DH is also exhausted in case anyone is wondering.

I had a meeting with the attendance officer a couple of times, it was a waste of my and their time, I went in, and each time they said how can we improve attendance, I said we can't, can't stop them being ill, repeated tonsillitis and ear ear infections with raging fevers to the point hallucinating, was in and out in about 10 minutes as they had nothing else to say. I always keep evidence of all appointments and provide evidence of prescriptions so they can never say there wasn't a legitimate reason. I wouldn't worry about it too much but always make sure you keep evidence for things like this even if it's texts for appointment confirmations.

I sympathise OP, my Ds attendance rarely rose above 75% throughout his primary years.

My sons is lower than that but he had no unorthorised absences. I provide medical reports to show his illness and explained he will be too unwell to attend some days and provide hospital appointment letters. I've never had a visit and his attendance is about 78%

It's really hard!!! We had similar September term
Odd days off for colds and coughs and percentage lower than yours...so i had the letter and then a phone call meeting.
The deputy head admitted it was box ticking and they had to do it.
It's VERY easy to miss 15 per cent as it isn't a huge amount of days and a bad cold/cough can lead to a week off :(
It's then VERY hard to get percentage up. It's taking my son 3 days to gain a single percent increase this term.
It's all led by the powers that be.
My son's progress at school is very good and has luckily not been affected by missing days..but that is the obsession they have. Obviously some will lag behind by missing stuff :(
My son's absences are now unauthorised as we got the letter/meeting...I was told to send a photo of receipts for calpol etc...which I do and nothing changes.
Was meant to have a catch up this week re it as still got the standard letter despite missing only 2 days out-of the last half term..but teacher was off sick again. I jokingly felt like asking is his absences were authorised but didn't;)
I explained to teacher we had just been unlucky with illnesses and got asked if wanted to see anyone to help stay well 🤣 I said we were usually v well and rarely ill..just had a poor run of it.
Good luck!!!!

@Merryoldgoat

Your dramatics aren’t really for Mumsnet to solve either. Your kids had 10 days off school for illness and has probably just been sent a standard attendance letter and yet here you are posting a very dramatic post.

Take a deep breath and stop getting your knickers in a twist.

Take him in sick. Ask them if they'd like to have him in class today or for you to take him home. Send them a letter asking why his attendance is bad.

This year we have had several sickness bugs wiping out the household, food poisoning following a birthday meal and 5 deaths of close family members. My daughters school has been on my back for it but I am not one for sending sick contagious children into school to put others at risk. I also would not send my child who’s been up all night crying following a death, two being very traumatic into school when she can get the love, support and well needed rest at home.

@Misslings

bye bye!!

if he's got diarrhoea frequently what's his hand hygiene like?
does he have food intolerances that could cause it?

None of ours are unauthorised either.

I assume they have not authorised all of his attendance OP? Otherwise thats full on offensive to tell him to imlrove if its down to health issues. My sons always off with his stomach issues.

There is a clear link between attendance and outcomes at gcse.

They have a duty of care, for every child off with a serious migraine - there is one who doesn’t get to school at mum is suicidal or depressed and can’t get out of bed, there will be one who can’t do the work through a learning barrier who will be too embarrassed or disaffected to go, there will be another for whom bullying is an issue, another who can’t afford school shoes this month - this is really a flag up - between you and the parents - it’s not just 15% of all lessons missed, it’s the social and emotional connections, how does the learning look for that child as are they making up the work missed - you can’t expect the teacher to re teach it or give them 1-2-1 to catch up, then the child is under more pressure etc it’s a complex vortex and the school are trying to support the child and family to get them into school.

I have two autistic children-

I have a daughter with serious period pain, migraines and serious hyper mobility - 100% attendance she plots through.

My son deaf, prone to ear infections, asthmatic etc 99%
but they have medication etc and we control it as best we can plus a very much, calpol go and manage etc

However if her period pain was affecting attendance I can push the GP for more medication as it’s affecting attendance and outcomes etc

of course some illnesses can’t be helped but the number of children well enough to go out shopping with a parent and have a hot chocolate in costa on days they are supposed to be ill - is also a concern.

you know your children, you know the impacts on them physically, on their learning - you make that decision.

but a parent here - child off ill for the day, he went bowling
another one was walking around Tesco with mum and then went to the park

another one took time off school to look after younger ill sibling whilst parents went to work

and so on…..

Oops sorry just see your response! I'd be really annoyed in that case.

Have a look at not fine in school Facebook group.
My son is currently at 58% in year 11. No contact from anyone about this!!

It’s mostly respiratory stuff for him. The DV has been unusual this school year.

The D&V ripped through the school twice and on the last day before Christmas there were only 11 in his class it was so bad.

The school we’re in such a state that they nearly closed because so many staff were so unwell.

He’s fastidious about hand washing.

I only asked if they were authorised as I was told there will never be any issues if it is authorised. I 'accidentally' got sent a letter once about signing an attendance contract to encourage my son to improve, and got an apology as I shouldn't have been sent it as all his attendance is authorised. They can't discriminate against health issues and disabilities.

Agree. It's very easy for absences to build up. I'm at the provide evidence stage..I provide it and still shows as unauthorised even though I have advised.what illness is etc. That should be enough. Touch wood this term is healthier but getting the percentage up.is a nightmare

@TheCatWithGreenEyes

School refusal is a different issue though isn’t it? That is what that group is mainly for. If you’re genuinely physically ill and have medical evidence for it the school can’t touch you. Obviously the same goes for MH but I am aware that often does get murky.

Surely all the parents dosing up their - contagious - children and sending them to school is why the rest of the class gets sick?? If everyone kept their germs at home then schools might become healthier places. And (counterintuitive as it might sound) attendance might rise. As well as protecting the most vulnerable children and families.

Careful - that sounds ridiculously sensible.

I had them bring me in for a meeting, when they stated her attendance was only 81% I started gushing about how fantastic that was before they could get a word in and talked about how in nursery her attendance was only 24% due to all her hospital stays and chest infections
If your child has a medical condition make sure the school is aware and let them know every time your child has an appointment.
My daughter was under alot of teams and I asked them to send copies of clinic notes to the school and had regular meetings to update the care plan (how to give inhalers, when to call me, when to flat out call an ambulance etc)
Because it was all well documented and they knew if she had a general anesthesia she would get a chest infection that would require at least a week in hospital and extra time after to get back on her feet they knew that I wasn't keeping her off for fun and that any threat of prosecution would be very unsuccessful so we were left alone

@Merryoldgoat

It isn’t sensible to keep your child at home for every single sniffle though is it?. For starters they would miss out on vital education and people actually have to work for a living. Unfortunately people quite often have no common sense.

Children with autism are more likely to have stomach problems. Or so my sons consultant says when they can't find any reason for his constant stomach issues.

OP….. I could have written this myself, although I have just the one child, so I don’t have the extra workload you have 🌹but my daughter was in neonatal care for 4 weeks after birth and had problems with her lungs following that and she also has out of control saliva issues, which means she gets sores and all sorts and these are exacerbated when she gets a cold and can’t breathe through her nose!
When she is unwell, we keep her home, because it adds all sorts of problems on top of what she is already dealing with!
We’ve had a few letters like that ourselves and our attitude is very much “oh f@*% off!”
If more people were better at not sending their germy little darlings in to school, then we wouldn’t have this problem! I also find it a bloody cheek that they send these letters now - where was their concern for their attendance throughout all of COVID?! The whole thing pee’s me off no end.
Yes it is necessary for children who are being neglected, but they need to get better at figuring out which families are the ones who are neglecting their children. My child being off is me protecting her!

Posts like this really wind me up how can they school support a child not to be unwell. The majority of chikdren attend school they can't give every school child an appointment out of school hours. And the correlation between attendance is not from children who are genuinely unwell and their parents support education.