An attendance meeting at school for 5 days off since September

[Am898]

DD is 5. Since September she's had 5 authorised sick days off with today being one of them. This has been spread out for weeks and been sickness bug etc she's only had 2 days off in a row for a nasty sickness bug and the other 3 days she's not well enough to be in school.

Schools just rang me and said I need to book an attendance meeting as her attendance is too low now.. aibu to think this is a bit daft.. she's 5 years old and been off sick a few times, what does an attendance meeting entail 🤔

She's always at school on time and every time she has been sick it's been authorised as I've rang the office straight away so I'm feeling a bit confused now

Is that 1 in 6 of people who are unwell have flu like symptoms or 1 in 6 of the population have flu like symptoms?

Is that 1 in 16 people are too ill? Or just 1 in 16 of those who are ill?

Population

Sorry pressed send too soon. To both PPs, population-wide.

I had this at the secondary school, so I started sending them in when they were sick (generally just feeling a bit sick and cold like symptoms usually) then I'd get a phone call at work "can you come and collect your child please?" This week they've been off a week.. all three of them, because I can't afford to leave my workplace to go and collect them. The school know this and yet still call me. They all have the same viral tonsillitis and are suffering quite badly 😢. They had the cheek to remind me about their attendance. So I said that's fine, I'll send them in but you're not calling me to collect them because they're too poorly to be in school, and if you do I'll remind you of this conversation. She soon changed her tune. I get education is important, but the school doesn't want them there when they're poorly, so what am I supposed to do? Can't bloody win 😕

5 days off since September is a lot but there’s not much you can do if she’s sick. My DD has had more than that as she’s had a flu bug followed by shingles… not much choice but to keep her home. Honestly don’t worry about it, it’s a box ticking exercise, take this from one who works in a school…

Only if the parents are home educating instead

https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance#:~:text=You%27ll%20get%20a%20School,prosecuted%20or%20given%20a%20fine.

My child's teacher told them when they returned to school having a headache wasn't a good enough reason to be off school. My DS suffers from migraines. It has got a bit militant. I told her to just ignore it as I'm her parent and it was the right choice. She wasn't able to move her head and was feeling sick. No use having her at school that day.

I think the pressure is coming from high up and being passed down. I wasn't impressed at them saying that to her but she was fine as she and I knew we did the right thing. It does seem ridiculous that some children will be sent into school when they really shouldn't be (contagious for example.)

Imagine that was a brief meeting.... hope she's ok now.

When DS1 was in Yr, I was called into a meeting with the LA attendance officer. This was because during the second half term which was 4 weeks long, he had 2 weeks off so they said his attendance had dropped to 50%. I attended the meeting, (to which the officer was 20 minutes late). I explained that the first week was due to DS being ill and the second, I was too ill to bring them. They asked if I had anyone to bring him for me which I said, I am a single parent with no friends or family in the area.
Then she asked what about this day last half term, checking my diary I confirmed that was a pediatrician appointment. What about this day when he was here in the morning but not the afternoon? That day school got me to pick him up as he had fallen off the bike in the yard, grazed all up the side of his face and was inconsolable.
I then proceeded to inform her, infront of the reception teacher, that, I had to fight to get the school to even allow him to stay full days and they was still refusing him to stay for lunch as he has autism, and as he doesn't turn 5 until after Christmas, he doesn't legally have to attend.
Since then, he has hardly ever been ill. DS2 on the other hand gets very poorly every winter and has only ever once in y7 had a term with 100% attendance and that was only because he didn't have any hospital appointments because of covid. Never had to have a meeting over his attendance though but the secondary schools policy over doing home visits is a whole other story.

Schools don't do this for the fun of it. They have policies and procedures that they have to adhere to.
Attendance can be an indicator of what's happening at home. I'm not saying they think this of you, but they can't pick and choose as that would be discrimination.
Go to the meeting, explain that it is just sickness and they'll say "okay, no worries".
It's there to flag up children and families who might be having problems and need support.

The meeting is to see if they can help with something and to see if there is anything like health, transport issues, others in the home with needs they may be able to help with. Is bus fare an issue, child care, children in different schools making it difficult. Sometime parent health can be a problem and this can impact on attendance.

I had an attendance meeting at my boys school today.
Of the 3 education people due to attend, only one actually turned up...
And they want to lecture me about attendance..?!?!

Sounds familiar. I have a distinct memory of her helping me get my school uniform on over the canula in my arm and then sitting on the bed in hospital whilst we waited for the nurse to come and remove it and bring my discharge papers. The nurse came in, saw me in my uniform, walked out, came back 10 minutes later with my consultant who had to explain to my Mum that he was not discharging me after 3 days in hospital to be driven straight from hospital to school. 😂