alfiesbabe on Fri 15-Feb-08 14:29:14
"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."
Different headteachers may worry about different things, Alfie. Attendance is a very major concern of many headteachers, particularly if they are aiming to raise their grades at the next Offsted.
Ours certainly knew dd's medical history, and had a whole file full of medical evidence, but still chose to bully us over it. His comments over the years included such gems as: 'I understand your dd is ill, but you can't expect us to be happy about it'. Spoken in a very sharp voice.
His talk at the introductory parents meeting when ds was due to start last year was all about the results the school wanted from these children, in order that it might achieve an 'Outstanding'. Nothing about what the school would do to help the children. (and in case you wonder why ds still went to the school- I already knew that ht was retiring)
I never used the term little Hitler- but I firmly believe that there are headteachers out there who put the prestige of a good Offsted report above the welfare of individual children. Which is not how I would behave in my own professional role.
Anyway, the point made by most posters here is that it would be very easy to avoid antagonising parents by adding a little rider to the letter as suggested in my previous post.
Sugarmagnolia, I think your headteacher sounds rather nice, so no doubt you can just ignore the letter.