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)

Yes exactly.

The OP knows her kid is off a lot. She doesn’t need to be tutted at and accused of being neurotic.

Yr 10 dd at 70%. I wrote a letter to the attendance and discipline deputy head (cc school nurse and head of year) in the same tone and style (patronising) responding to theirs saying if it's these chronic conditions: a,b,c (including if she's on pain relief that would affect her performance) I will decide if she's ill and won't waste nhs time on appointments. I got Dr to do a general letter naming conditions to same effect and that I am the expert in this case. If it is a new illness I promised I will get an appointment card and another letter from GP if it will be chronic or we're awaiting referrals.
Bless the school nurse she's a treasure and we have a good relationship now I've got deputy head off her back.

It’s not ridiculous to suggest that if we don’t encourage people power then this sort of nonsense will get worse and worse. The “powers that be” will not make any changes until ordinary folk start to make a fuss.

Obviously not including SEN/ chronic health conditions, I'm talking the usual bugs, etc. I think I'd be inclined to take them at their word. In every.day.without.exception
I'd drop them off, say they are ill, but as per policy, they are in school. I'd say I'm not contactable. Turn off mobile or remove mobile from contactable lists. They want them in, and they look after them.
Don't forget it's only recently parents have been contactable during school hours.
The authorities have a choice, Parents have responsibility to decide what's best or the school needs a sick room like we had in the 70s/80s.

Agree with this. Though it might be a bit harsh on the child if they are really ill.

Go ahead and make a fuss then, but not about tracking and following up on absences. Really, there are 1000s of thing more important in schools that need "people power" first -

why don't you worry about the number of times teachers copy a list of data from one place to another - Takes far more time away from education than absence chasing. Probably takes 10x more time from school staff than absence policies.

Or how about campaigning for strict behaviour policies to be enforced in all schools. That would improve education for everyone.

I know! what about campaigning about class sizes - every child to have a minimum desk space in every lesson, and no more cramming extra children in where there is no desk - 31 children in a space for 30 means 3 of them crammed into a space for 2, so 10% of the class given inadequate working space every single lesson, every single day, in other words, every child being disadvantages several times a week.

Or how about campaigning to bring back the text books that ofsted insisted were all thrown out, at one point?

There are so many more issues in the way education is resourced and organised, before you get down the list to attendance policies. The whole system from the ground upward needs more money and more staff, and less nonsense time wasting

Really not worried abut people not liking the letters they get - it is a minor, inconsequential irritation like a mosquito on a battle field

It is not a minor inconsequential irritation it is a symptom of the whole education system that you appear to despise. And I would agree with most of the things you are complaining about. But this thread was about absences so that was what I was talking about. Had it been about any of the other myriad of things that are wrong with our education system I would have said the same thing. Nothing will change until people start to demand change.

I think you will find teachers have been demanding change! at great personal financial cost, and largely without the support of parents

twitter.com/morefluids/status/1679896317013766151?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa1_pR7aKkbHQ - how are these letters helpful?

Which council is this?
I'm pretty sure schools are advised, through government documents, against asking for proof of illness from medical professionals unless they doubt the authenticity of the illness.
So basically your school doesn't believe your child is as Ill as often as you say he is.

Really not worried abut people not liking the letters they get - it is a minor, inconsequential irritation like a mosquito on a battle field

You think it’s minor compared to things you find problematic in your job as a teacher.

But a letter threatening legal action and demanding evidence over attendance is not a minor, inconsequential irritation for the parents receiving it. Is it?

@orangeleavesinautumn these letters might be a minor inconvenience to you, but families who are already at the end of their rope, dealing with really difficult situations with their children experience it differently.

There isn’t any point in it- parents who don’t care bin them, parents who want good attendance and just have a child who has inconveniently had chicken pox, scarlet fever, food poisoning and flu all in one year is going to do their upmost to keep attendance up anyway, and parents who can’t change the situation just have one more worry heaped on them.

The letters are a miniscule irritation compared to all the other crap that is wasting everyone's time and destroying education for everyone. Just bin them. Who cares? Really, They are sent because they have to be sent. Why don't you worry about something that really matters. Such as not having enough teachers, or copying data around in circles? The last time I added it up carefully, at least 10% of my working hours as a teacher was spent copying data from one place to another, for no reason. That seriously impacts on the education of all my students. Why don't you worry about that instead of a letter which changes nothing?

@orangeleavesinautumn because worry doesn’t work like that. You worry about the intricacies of your life and job, other people worry about the intricacy of theirs.

Also not everyone is very knowledgeable about these things, plenty of parents don’t know what will happen if they just bin these letters so they worry about getting in trouble. You can’t expect everyone to know that teachers spend 10% of ther time dicking about with data and that they should worry about that- people worry about the problems they have in front of them, especially when they are already overwhelmed.

These letters can and do threaten fines and similar.

Are you really so lacking in empathy that you can’t see that parents will worry if they receive letters like this?

It might not seem important to you, but it is going to be important to them.

If the letters are meaningless why do schools send them?

How am I as a parent supposed to know I can just bin them?

At least one parent on this thread was fined and had to go to court to fight it.

I really resent all the teachers telling me they don't mean anything and just bin them. Then don't fucking send them and freak me out.

How the average person is supposed to know you waste so much time moving data around, I have no idea. We all have particularly stupid aspects of our jobs don't we.

I agree. Not a minuscule irritation at all @orangeleavesinautumn And schools should know this and change the approach.

Stop conflating illness with other reasons for absence and asking for ridiculous levels of evidence and threatening letters. Use other methods for providing support and investigations into persistent absence that is not illness related.

As a parent you feel trapped and worried about fines. It’s also horrible feeling that the school is doubting your word. Your child is upset or annoyed that it feels like everyone else is getting the end of term attendance treats and they aren’t. And you don’t need the stress of school attendance officers ringing to question you when you’ve already reported the illness correctly and they have no other concerns about how your child is doing in school.

Such a frustrating waste of time and does not foster good, supportive relationships between school and parents (that our school is always banging on about). Feels that kids who are unwell are penalised rather than supported - which smacks of discrimination.

So not minor. I agree there must be numerous other areas that are frustrating and nonsensical in your job too and I’m sorry you have to put up with such crap.

The ridiculous thing is that a lot of absence is dumb luck. If child picks up a vomiting bug and shows signs Friday night, chances are they will have no time off school. Same bug, same duration on Monday and they're off for 2 days... Same goes for random fevers - we usually go with 12h fever free off Calpol, so a Friday night/ Saturday bug and they miss nothing, at least a day off mid week! So same number of illnesses, totally different absence stats. My DD probably had her best year this year (95%) as she's now Y3. Had chicken pox in reception, multiple stomach bugs most of which required her to go to A&E for anti emetics as she just didn't stop vomiting without. Then the 2 Covid years with isolations for PCR tests for any random fever where attendance depended on the tests coming back from the lab on time followed by the return of stomach bugs as hand washing got laxer. Hopefully now she's older she'll pick up fewer bugs and DS will have had enough through her and nursery that things might get better.

This thread on illness and attendance highlights the ridiculousness of the situation.

https://twitter.com/catinthehat/status/1679984495728943104?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa11_pR7aKkbHQ

Well maybe if teachers stood up to their SMTs and Ofsted some of these ridiculous measures would be watered down; also councils should push back against central government.

On the other hand, I know that the people sitting in the HQs of the retailers don't take any notice of their staff doing the actual work in shops, so maybe I am being ridiculous

GPs should also be making clear on their websites and elsewhere that they will not provide sick notes for school children to meet schools' policies either. It's not a big job, just put it on your website and have a standard letter to send/email out to schools once a year.

@orangeleavesinautumn you are mistaken. These letters represent thousands of SEND children out of school and without education.

Don’t just him them, parents do actually get fined and prosecuted/ the Not Fine in School has many parents who have been taken to court, fined and prosecuted. The sentence is usually suspended, but that didn’t make it less impactful.

I think these letters are absolutely symbolic of the broken system, spending money on prosecuting parents and threatening them,instead of making schools inclusive places