to be annoyed with head teacher

[Sugarmagnolia]

for sending us a letter that said - The local council has a school attendance target of 97.6%. Your DD only has an attendance record of 94.54%. I am sure you will agree it is of great importance for the children's education that they attend when possible and that you support your child in this. If you would like the school to support you, please let us know.

!!

We sent back a letter saying that while we realise she is only carrying out council policy we resent the tone of the letter as we feel it suggests we are deliberately keeping our DD out of school. We also said that we completely agree that it is important to send her to school but we feel it is equally important not to send her when she is sick.

Was this an overreaction?

Actually, I wonder if this is something all HTs have had flagged up to them. Now you mention it, I have a vague recollection of seeing a recent newsletter saying blah, blah, attendance important, blah, blah. Filed it in the bin. We don't take term-time holidays but, if we needed to, those sorts of reminders would make sod-all difference.

Attendance is such a hot potato in all school's now. Like someone said it's another target they are under pressure to meet. I agree that her letter was badly worded but i suspect if you spoke to her in person she would tell you she isn't particularly worried about your dd's attendance.

I agree with CT. It's a standard letter sent to all parents whose children fall below the target %. You'll probably find that children with a worse record get a harder hitting letter, threatening EWO, fines etc. The school have to be seen to be tackling attendance - poor attendance/lack of documented attendance policy is noted during inspection.

At the school I work at we'd be bloody ecstatic to have children with a record like yours though SM.

I disagree though that good attendance is just about statistics - it has everything to do with education.

But surely the school's attendance record refers to authorised absences, and if you have notified the school of your DD's sick days, then that would count as an authorised absence?

Agree, I would be fuming at the letter, though, and would send it back with something along the lines of "could do better yourself".

They did this to us too

All the dc in the school came out waving letetrs with coloured sheets attached

red =bad
orange= Ok
Green = excellent

All the parents went mad ,my ds came out with a red one because he had had time off for breaking his arm on their premises

Has it had a bad ofsted report by any chance ?

The thing that p*** me off about this is that it just annoys and upsets the generally law-abiding parents, whereas the ones they really need to target for poor attendance will just ...oops, file it in the bin .

Well I think it's dramatic and silly than Eco. They don't need to word it like that and I'm glad I told them so to be honest

It's pressure from above. Heads have better things to do than chase up this sort of issue when they know the parents that take their children out of school for the hell of it. There are so many bloody targets for this that and the other in schools it's ridiculous but the school have to 'show' they've done something about the 0.002% or whatever their percentage is. You are right to respond, but it's the government who are being unreasonable in forcing schools to spend valuable time on non-issues. Rant over! (I teach btw, can you tell?)

Heads are under a huge amount of pressure to keep attendance up. At my school the amount of children out on holiday at any one time is simply incredible. Many parents think that a few weeks out here and there is no big deal. The local authority state the acceptable absence rate and letters are sent to those who fall beneath it. No discrimination. Parents must be informed so that they do not query end of year reports and so they can think about future decisions to keep their children off school. It is a % as attendance is measured as sesssions ie 2 sessions a day ot of 192 days.

out not ot

Disagree strongly with what somebody said, having 2 weeks off school is not going to seriously effect a childs education. We have a family event coming up soon in Australia where DH's parents live. I asked for 2 weeks either side of the easter holiday to go to this event, its hard on children to take them to Australia for 2 weeks with the jet lag etc. My school age daughter has not had one day sick in the last 2 years and I was giving a stiff talking to and 1 letter from the school and 1 letter from the local education authority about this. This is a family occasion which i explained to them and to see her grandparents. After all that I was only allowed to take her out of school for 1 week, I guess now she is going to fail her A levels oh and by the way, she is 5.

jenkel - I have to say that despite my annoyance with this letter I happen to agree with you.

My family are in NY and it is very difficult to go without taking the kids out of school because airfares in the summer and at Christmas are so much higher than any other time of year. We like to go over the October break but it means taking a couple of days before as well. Although we did not do it this year I simply do not believe that a couple of days here and there is going to effect her overall education.

My GP tears his hair out over this sort of thing- he says the Offsted targets take no account of medical statistics (how many infections a child is likely to have in any one year, the fact that some children's immune systems develop late etc etc). Children who are unlucky just get bullied by the schools.

We went through a nightmareish 3 years under the last headteacher, as our dd has well documented health problems which leads to a very high absence rate (over 30%). Despite letters from the school doctor, the GP, the paediatrician and an array of specialists, all asking the school to accept the situation and support dd, he still sent the EWO round and even tried to get Social Services involved. We had any number of nasty letters and he tried to "encourage" us to change schools. All for his blessed statistics; apparently the attendance rate was all that stood between him and an Offsted Outstanding.

SS came to a school meeting and sat there looking quizzically at him, then turned and said 'sorry, we don't do medical cases'. This went down in the meeting minutes 'Unfortunately, the Social Services are unable to get involved at the moment'.

As for any concern for her education- she was left without maths tuition for a whole term because they couldn't be bothered to put her set in the downstairs classroom (she was in a wheelchair)!!! The point being that they didn't need her to do well, as their maths were already good enough to get the Outstanding. It was all about statistics.

At the end of last year ht retired due to healthy reasons (wonder if he stills thinks it's a crime to be ill?) and the school under the new regime has done a complete about-turn. Dd is getting support, she is catching up on all the work she missed last year, she will do well. Ad I can ring in in the morning and explain that she's had another fall and not get sarky comments. But any letter about the attendance record goes straight in the bin. I don't need them to tell me that, and seeing the statistics won't make any difference.

She still has to sit through weekly assemblies on attendance, watching her friends get awards for not being ill. Noone has ever thought of giving her an award for struggling in when she's in pain. Or for catching up the work after she's been in hospital.

Sorry about long rant, but this trying to fit everyone in the same mould is so counter-productive. Common sense makes it clear that any standard childhood illness, apart from a mild tummy bug or a common cold, will make you exceed government targets. We got the same letter when ds had chickenpox.

Just like to add: I know heads are under pressure to have beautiful statistics, but you can still show moral fibre. I am a university teacher on temporary contracts and will lose my job if I can't meet targets but I would never use that as an excuse for bullying individual students.

in answer to the op. yabu
schools send these letters out to all parents of pupils who are below a certain attendance rate. It sounds like they are also giveing you an opening if you need to talk to them.
ds had loads of time of during yr7 and 8 due to bullying so a letter like this give you a chance to talk to them.

Would it really kill them to add the lines: "This is a standard message that is sent out to all children below a certain attendance rate. If your child has been absent for genuine medical reasons, please ignore this message"?

That would make a big difference to all the parents who have struggling with chickenpox and broken bones- not to mention the ones who are distraught because of
serious medical issues.

A friend of mine took her children out on compassionate leave, agreed beforehand with the school, because she is dying and wanted time with the kids while she can: they got the same letter, threatening them with the EWO and a fine!

In fact, you would still be getting this letter if your child was suffering from a terminal illness, so it is quite important how it is phrased.

The letters I have received over the years have contained some threatening language about legal proceedings if the situation does not improve, so it's not just vague general talk about the importance of attendance.

I am not saying that schools should keep track of children who shouldn't get this letter- though maybe that wouldn't be too difficult as medical absences have their own code. At the very least they could add something on the lines of 'if you have a genuine medical problem...'

It's a standard letter that's sent to all parents. Surely everyone knows that by now - we've had similar threads many times before. If your child has been off school for a good reason, ignore it.Easy.
It is certainly not about headteachers being 'little hitlers' as someone suggested. believe me, they have other things to worry about. This is a standard letter sent out by office staff.

Our school was just OFSTEDed and attendance was the major issue. So I expect to see these letters in the near future. They will probably be required as part of an post-OFSTED Action Plan.

My DS's school makes me laugh, (they are at senior school) they are always on about attendance etc and that you have to have to get written permission to take children out of school during term time, and although I feel that there should be some system so they can keep a check on those who are abusing them system, at the same time, they feel that it is acceptable to send them home a couple of weeks after they have started a new term so that they can get the school ready to show parents and children round who hopefully will be attending the following year. they also leave school at 12.15 in the afternoon at the end of every term and start at 9.45 at the beginning of a new term. there are five teacher training days to be taken also, so it sometimes seems that you have to go on bended knee to either take your children out of school for a special event (wedding, special hol etc) but at the drop of a hat they send your children home without a bink of an eye.

I checked the diary that they send home at the beginning of the school year and there is not one month (apart from June this year) where they have not had either, school holiday, teacher training day, early finish/late start or a day off for some other half baked excuse for them not to go in.

It really gets my goat.

Message withdrawn

It's a standard letter, seems mild enough in tone to me. It's nothing to do with the head's personality so character assassinations not necessary. It's government policy.

(yes, attendance certificates rubbish idea. One council in Scotland that I know of has also introduced them for staff - har!)

DS's SN school has taken to sending parents snooty letters regarding 'unauthorised absences' whenever there's a gap in the register - many of these letters totally inaccurate.
We send ours back saying 'we put him on your bus at 8.00 and you delivered him back at 4.30. We have no idea where he was in between these times but he was in your care. Do you think he may have sloped off the Croydon to do some shopping?' and things like that.
Parents who do intentionally keep their kids off school (perhaps because they themselves oversleep regularly) are unlikely to check the bookbags for 'naughty naughty' letters. Which explains the number of kids crying at dd's school this morning because they were in uniform on mufti day. Parents couldn't be arsed to check the bookbags for notes.

At our school they get attendence certificates, which are handed out in assembly at the the end of each term. I argued against it at the Governing Body meeting at which it was introduced, because I felt it was unfairly penalising children for being ill, but not a single other governor agreed with me - interesting to see that there is quite a strong feeling about it on MN.

Wee had a letter about this for dd1 who is at nursery. We have to see the school welfare officer if we have a unexplained absense (sp) or illness.

I refuse to see him as dd1 is only 4 and there is know legal requirement for her to be at school until she is 5yrs.

Has every school decided to send out this type of letter as a reminder do you think .