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

It's a tick box for safeguarding to check you aren't injuring her and keeping her off to hide it

I can't believe that after the pandemic this is still happening. Extremely unfair on other children and staff, who WILL get sick because of this stupid policy.

I don't understand why schools insist on doing things like this face-to-face when they can be done perfectly well over the phone or a video call. Would be a hard no from me unless they can do it at a reasonable time (i.e. not during the working day).

I don't miss the English school system at all.

My dc only did 4 days a week (some weeks it was 3 days) for a whole term (which is around 10 weeks) here because we moved away for 3 months and I couldn't face the 2+ hour return trip every day.

Not a single call/note received after I called both schools 1st week in to explain. Dc1 did remote learning on the days at home (y7) dc2 just read, some writing and maths we came up with (y2).

If attendance falls below 80% they’re obliged to follow up. It’s a box ticking exercise for sure but you should go, be polite, nod and smile in all the right places and then when it’s over forget all about it. It’s better for you if you’re seen to comply

"It’s better for you if you’re seen to comply".

That is precisely why you need to stand up to the utter BULLSHIT (if you have the time and inclination to take a moral stand).

Compulsory school age is the term after she turned 5.

I would write an email to the school outlining for each illness exactly what her symptoms were and how long you kept her off for. Then say that if any of those were against school policy you are happy to come and meet to find out how you can better adhere to their guidance. But if they agree they are legitimate unavoidable reasons you feel it would be a waste of yours and their time to arrange a meeting specially.

That's appalling! If they are treating him differently (not permitting him to go on trips etc) due to a long term illness they are likely breaking the law. You might want to remind them that they CANNOT treat a child with a disability (and a long-term health condition counts as a disability under the Equality Act) differently from anyone else. Write to the governors, and if that fails OFSTED.

And they can weasel out by saying he doesn't get to go on trips because of his attendance, not because of his illness - that would be indirect discrimination which is just as unlawful as direct.

It's a case of "Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite'em; little fleas have littler fleas, and so ad infinitum!"

Basically the school has got OfSted on their backs and the whole attendance thing has got more pressured since covid.

I am a COG at a school and we are having to deal with this all the time - we know when a bug is going round and lots of children are rightly off school but it still flags up badly in the data and we have to justify it to OfSted - such a waste of everyone's time when we don't want these germy children in school anyway!

only children with a high level of attendance get treats and trips - that is fundamentally wrong. As are attendance prizes and rewards.

Better with whom?

If the OP says "the five absences were for genuine sickness and there are no underlying issues to resolve" what else is there to be said?

the school isn't going to call in social services for goodness sake.

No they are more likely to send in a child whose ill than a parent who is not working because as well as deciding whether the child should go in (which isn't always black and white) they have to factor in work and consequences of missing work.

Children of SAHPs get all these bugs because working parents send sick children to school to infect everyone else.

If your child is in reception they don't have to be in school period until January.

It would be better for your relationship with the school if you comply with their box ticking exercise.

Schools prefer children not to be ill as they are penalised for poor attendance, so they in turn penalise children and parents. Really everyone knows children get ill and it can not be helped.

I'd just email back so you can keep the record and say something along the lines of x has only been home when they've been too poorly to be at school or because I'm sticking to guidance following a stomach bug, I trust this is sufficient explanation and do not feel a meeting would be beneficial.

DS was off a lot when he started school, a cold would often hospitalise him even though we were under a consultant and he had preventative meds. I got really annoyed when we consistently got hounded after I'd provided letters from the hospital and proof of admissions etc. Eventually agreed to a meeting and said an action point is to ensure no other child comes to school with a cold which is unfair/unrealistic so something I'm sure you won't enforce- the offshoot is that DS will be off when he's too poorly and requiring regular meds. They soon stopped going on about it.

I know there are safeguarding concerns with some children who are off a lot and so they should follow it up, and I acknowledge that they are under pressure from councils and ofsted, but honestly when they won't accept they are ill it's annoying.

5 days off since 1st September gives about a 92% attendance (just an estimate using 1st September as a start date so it's probably lower than 92%). Once it hits a certain % they'll have a protocol to follow. It's frustrating but they have to show they're doing something about it

It seems silly. Last year my daughter was sick and on antibiotics for 4 days right at the beginning of the school year, so it took a couple of weeks for her attendance to be over 50% 😂 she was in no state to go in though! Didn’t get any meetings but she wasn’t 5 yet so that may be why.

Anyway, they know your reasons for absence, so it will be a tickbox exercise. Don’t stress. Reminds me of the form I have to fill in with my manager after a sickness episode. One of the questions is “what can you do to prevent further absence?” I always answer I’ll do my best not to get sneezed in the face by my children get ill 🙄🤷🏻‍♀️

Send an email asking them to confirm why they want a meeting to discuss authorised sickness absences. Then they'll probably list the % absence rate which you missed in the conversation.
Most schools have a standard procedure that when absence falls below a certain % they ask for a meeting. As a PP said it's a tick box exercise. Our DC were ill a lot - and every now and again we'd get this.

Absolutely ludicrous. Particularly the current crop of 4/5 year olds - I have one and she has been ill a lot more than her elder brother was at the same age because she didn’t get sick at all from age 1-3 because of Covid isolation measures. Their immune systems are just catching up.

I would go to the meeting, be polite and not give it a further thought.

I would go to the meeting to keep the peace with school. Politely point out that 5 days off school in the first term (assuming 8 weeks) equates to 88% attendance, but if it was 5 days off throughout the whole year then her attendance figure would be 97%. Any sick days at the start of the school year drastically skews the percentage and it's no indicator of poor attendance at all.
I'm a governor at a primary and they are obsessed with attendance and data, but in reality the staff have common sense and don't want sick children in school. They're stuck between this and ticking the boxes.

I had this is secondary school.
They wanted a meeting with me, form tutor, head of year, head of House and attendance officer.
I told them they were barking and the easiest way to bring attendance up is to let them come home when they I'll rather than me keeping them at home because the school won't send them home if needs be.
Schools are in dire straights and they waste time on pointless stuff like this.

Not sure I would call it lucky, don't think my DC have had less bugs than anyone else's but I don't think it's a very good life lesson to teach, you just don't go to school or work or whatever else it may by anytime you feel a little under the weather. We also need the circulation of bugs in children to build their immune systems.

5 days since September gives an approximate attendance of 90%. It's only the first term of Reception so it'll have been flagged by the school as a potential problem and something that they want to keep on top of.

The school don't know whether this is the only 5 days off that your DD will have in the whole of junior school or whether it's the start of a pattern that means she'll have had 6 weeks off sick by the end of the school year.

Go to the meeting, show willing to understand the school's approach to attendance, explain why she's been sick etc. They don't know you or your daughter well yet and will also want to ensure that they're doing the appropriate safeguarding checks just in case.

Last month me and DD (11) were struck down with covid, it was genuinely the most Ill I have ever felt. On the 3rd day of dds absence from school, the attendance officer came to complete a home visit, banging on the door until I dragged myself out of bed to see what was going on whilst he stood demanding that I bring dd to the window for me to prove we were not on holiday. In the midst of covid I was incandescent with rage.
But once I started to get better and calmed down about the whole thing I started to remember that some children who don’t attend school can be facing a safeguarding issue and for the most part, whilst this felt a little over zealous, most of these policies have been put in place because of a child that slipped through the net. I was glad that someone is looking out for these children and hopefully doing something to keep them safe. So while they do feel over the top, they are designed to make sure children don’t slip through the net not to penalise those with genuine reasons for absence.