Unauthorised absences wtf are we supposed to do!

[dreamingbohemian]

Surely everyone knows that it's nearly impossible to get GP appointments these days. And surely everyone understands that sometimes your DC are too unwell to go to school but not unwell enough to get an emergency appointment.

But my DC's school are now saying any absence that doesn't have medical evidence will be unauthorised. They will only accept things you can get from a GP, like an appointment card or prescription.

So what are we meant to do??? We are finishing the year being this close to persistent absence, which doesn't seem fair. We can't help it if DC was ill a lot this year, but with routine bugs that a GP would never see him for or prescribe anything (including norovirus -- are we meant to send him in and spread it then?)

AIBU to think this makes no sense?

(not school bashing here, they say they are just following policy)

And also the attendance was bugger all to do with attainment either. Despite ‘persistently absent’, I was still one of the top attaining kids in my year group. In fact, I was the highest attaining person in my highers (in a high performing school).

attendance is very easy to measure and monitor. That doesn’t make it the best metric to use if you’re looking at actual outcomes.

Look, if your child is really poorly, the school will send them home. I've always sent mine in and 9 times out of 10 they've perked up and been fine.

On the odd occasion that they are really ill, school staff will notice immediately. I've worked in schools and it's obviously when a child is really unwell.

Quote: "EBSA is not the same as a physical illness".

EBSA is not purely a description of a behaviour. It is a term which recognises that school avoidance is virtually always based in mental health and emotional issues. Denying that fact does your argument no favours.

It’s not just DfE that do this measuring the wrong thing. Professionally, I spend a great deal of time trying to get government departments to use performance metrics that produce valid data about whether something is doing what they want it to. Turns out many, many areas are very attached to easy to measure things that they want to believe produce robust and meaningful data points - but they actually tell you nothing about the intended outcomes or, in many cases, actually undermine the intended outcomes.

@IncomingTraffic and @Follie thank you, you both make very good points. I’m not going to engage with the niggling any more.

@IncomingTraffic - that’s also very true re attainment often being totally unrelated. And it’s not a stick that parents need to be beaten with when the school can see it’s not an issue with a particular child.

Children have always been ill/ had accidents requiring time off school. And some children have always, sadly for them, had ongoing conditions that disrupt schooling. No-one would choose either scenario.

Parents used to be taken at their word, but now cannot be. So something has shifted - and it’s the huge focus on attendance and the lumping together of all forms of absence with illness, with no nuance to the different circumstances of different families.

@IncomingTraffic very true. My sister (who incidentally has asd), hated school and just didn’t bother to go very much. She went to the park and wandered about the countryside instead. She now has two undergrad degrees from a top Russel group university, and a masters from Oxford 🤷‍♀️.

My wife has a 1st class degree and a masters (and a successful career). She barely turned up to school because she hated it and education just wasn’t important in her family.

Attendance statistics are a very blunt indicator… you have to allow for so many other factors before it becomes truly useful.

If you haven't entered your application, you need to do so. The only criteria for assessment are that your child has or may have SEN, and that they may need support through an EHCP. If your child qualifies, then it is the local authority's duty to obtain an educational psychologist's advice within the total of 16 weeks allowed for them to produce a decision on whether they are going to issue an EHCP.

If your LA insists on. report before an application is entered, it is operating an unlawful policy and you need to report that to the Monitoring Officer.

Great idea. Spread the virus around the classroom and then pick your child up.

Loads of people dose their kids up with calpol and send them to school hoping it’ll be fine so they can go to work.

That’s not a good outcome for the child or the school

But how would that work with many of the examples given on the thread?

Covid? Chicken pox? Scarlet Fever? D&V bug? Seizures? Are we all supposed to send them in (contagious) and wait for the school to say they are sick and send them home? And then do the same thing the next day?

@SquitMcJit it comes from ministers.

and it’s one of the effects of new labour’s performance management approach to public services at the turn of the century and the increasing emphasis on being ‘data-driven’.

Sadly, that too often becomes about just measuring the stuff that’s easy to measure and ignoring any questions about validity.

It was the school who refused to do so until he had seen the Ed psych. They have refused to help until that report was in place (and my other son’s school said it would be very difficult to be accepted without one in motion). Without the support of the school I felt my hands have been tied, I am aware I can apply myself.

Very true.

Yes @Twyford. @Gerrataere they can be buggers for doing this- our old headteacher/senco was absolutely adamant that the Ed psych report must be obtained before an ehcp application.

The school can presumably provide basic information such as assessment data, what strategies they have put in place with what result, whether they think your child needs more support and whether they are able to give it within their normal resources. That is essentially what the local authority needs.

If the LA refuses to assess, you can go on to appeal. Parents have a success rate of over 90% with refusal to assess appeals.

I agree it’s all about data collection and a false metric.

Having heard all of this combined with my own experiences over the last couple of years on this issue, I do wonder what we are all supposed to do? Going back to @dreamingbohemian ‘s original question “Unauthorised absences wtf are we supposed to do?”

Do we smile and nod and provide photos of prescriptions if we have them? Do we preempt the fine letters by writing to the school in advance and reminding them of ongoing health conditions (if relevant) and stating our willingness to always ensure our child is in but will keep them off when unwell? Do we push back against it and say it’s not a correct interpretation of the gov guidelines and open a dialogue with the school about how this doesn’t work for parents ? Do we put the threatening letters in the bin and refuse to respond?

I’ve done all of the above and still don’t know the answer!

so I didn’t actually didn’t discount mental health issues a long term health condition?

my view would be to not play along. I’d tell the school why in writing and be quite happy to challenge any attempt to punish me for not providing evidence, escalating as required.

But I am happy to be that parent. Incidentally, I am also that governor and my HT is happy to be sensible about things. Problems related to safeguarding or parents who are struggling to get their children to school regularly and on time for all sorts of reasons absolutely do matter. None of them are solved by demanding to see appointment cards.

@SquitMcJit I guess there is no definitive answer? The policy is just wrong. I definitely feel more prepared if this happens next year though.

I don't think attendance is unimportant but it's just one piece of a larger picture. The argument you hear all the time from schools is that higher attendance leads to better attainment. But it's not that simple, some people miss a lot of school and end up fine. Some people have great attendance but don't actually learn much. So to just focus on attendance and nothing else is lazy.

Then the teachers should be making a fuss. If headteachers had stood up to Ofsted a long time ago we wouldn’t be in this mess now. But to start with they went along with everything they were told to do. It’s about time parents and teachers United and forced Ifsted to behave with common sense.

Yes, that’s my gut feeling on it too.

At times, I’ve caved and provided evidence and that felt really annoying - I just got too worn down and wanted the issue to go away.

I’ve also written saying no evidence will be provided and you need to trust my word or tell me why you are doubting the veracity of the illness. The difficulty is, every time you have an illness to report now you are having to gear yourself up for the push back. Such a waste of everyone’s time. Including the school, who could be giving that staff time to helping families that need more support.

Sounds like your school and very fortunate to have you on the governing body.

I definitely feel more prepared for any future clashes on this issue too. Thanks

don't be ridiculous, teachers do as the are told, as do all employees, and if we were to make a fuss about something stupid and pointless, this would be about 1000th on the list.

This! Teachers have had enough of having to help kids play catch up because they aren’t in school.

That’s not the point the poster was making at all.

The thread isn’t actually about children being absent from school. The OP’s point is about the administrative nonsense related to how schools record absence.

regardless, the kid is sick and won’t be at school because he’s sick.