To think attendance messaging has become insane?!

[JustDiscoveredBueno]

Schools are germ pits. DfE's answer? Make them even more so...cos having more sick kids and staff (if possible) helps attendance and education!!!! Everyone knows that you learn at your best when you're ill or spreading illness.

It's just so typical of this government. Let's not worry about why attendance is suffering or try and deal with root causes. Let's just pay for lots of radio ads and also further penalise and threaten parents of children who have poor attendance.

My son is on day 9 of not being school. He's had a nasty virus (the doctors says it was Covid) followed by double ear infection and a massive allergic reaction to the virus.

I've basically had to prove that he's ill! Send in pictures of his rash and antibiotics and piriton from the gp. The last straw was the HoY emailing to say that he should see the gp again as he may be be allergic to the antibiotics. I'm stupid..... But I need speak to the GP and she was incredibly helpful and told the school to call her if they wanted to.

I've been angry all week after getting a threatening attendance letter from my DDs school.

She has had a grand total of three sick days since September. She has a chronic and incurable health condition that requires her to receive drug infusions in hospital every 8 weeks. These three days off sick plus the days of her infusions and the appointments with her rheumatologist and Gastro consultant have apparently led to her attendance being below expected target.

She is also immuno suppressed so this week has a horrible cough and cold but she's gone in every day and struggles through.

The same school send regular letters home asking us not to send our DC in of they have a bug or a heavy cold in order to protect the staff from sickness! It makes no sense to me.

I just feel so... despondent. It is fucked up on so many levels.

I hope your son feels better soon. Sick of the bollocks that covid doesn't affect kids.

Absolutely nothing is being done to reduce illness in schools. DfE have spent out to have cleaner air in their building - studies have shown it helps attendance, concentration, asthma etc - why not address air in schools if we are going to insist on high levels of illness within them.

I'm sorry. That's awful.

Have they updated the guidance very recently? What is this referring to?

Is it now they expect students to have an attendance rate of 98% instead of the previous 96%? I may be wrong.

x.com/educationgovuk/status/1770484252225716323?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa1_pR7aKkbHQ

That’s seems reasonable. I guess they are trying to reverse the messaging that you can go to school with coughs/cold’s because of the hangover of covid messaging, where it was ensured they had to stay off. You’d think most parents instinctively know if their child is well enough to really go or not. I don’t pay any mind to attendance letters. I think we’ve had one each year. They go straight in the bin.

We could do all we can to maximise the number of covid re-infections caught in school, but that too won't help attendance.

I think one of the issues with attendance may actually be with how records are being kept. We got through a letter about attendance this week. Dd (Y6) has dropped below 95% attendance for the year and we have been referred for 'early help'.

But I looked at the stats they sent home with the letter. She's missed 12 days or partial days since the start of the year. Only 5 of those days was she actually called off school sick though. 1 day was because the school closed due to weather. 6 days were because she was - along with half the bloody school - at swimming for the afternoon, so it's marked as an 'authorised absence for approved school activity'. (This is literally what it says on the letter they sent, yet they have counted these days as absences).

So then it's just 5 actual days of illness, two of those instances were due to vomiting, so I had to keep her home for 48 hours because she vomited once. Once was because she woke up feeling unwell, so I kept her home even though I could have sent her in. But 5 days off school between September and April is surely....pretty normal?

But if they were only counting actual days absent from school on days school was open, her attendance would be at 98%. I know it's just an auto generated message, but this must be costing the schools a small fortune to print all these materials when no actual human is looking at any of it and realising that, 'oh, we seem to have marked a child as absent for the day simply because they were on a school trip at the time the afternoon register was done!' 🙄

Letters about low attendance are automatically generated when it hits below expected levels. Schools have no say on this even when they are aware of legitimate reasons behind it.

We foster and had one who rvrry now and again had to have the day off, no physical illness but very much mental 'exhaustion '/trauma.
HoY was totally OK with the absence and when the letters were generated and sent out, hed say ignire it, ts OK, we know what it's about and why.

It is sad but the anger and frustration should be driven towards the parents who essentially force the schools to be this way. The ones who don't bother sending their kids in when they could and should be in. My friend's school is not as strict and whenever her kid simply doesn't fancy school she gets to stay at home and have a 'mental health day'. It's ridiculous. So yes it's shit that you have to prove your child is ill or whatever but sadly some parents can't be trusted.

Obviously I disagree with kids who are actually ill being at school.

The whole system is daft. If you have a chronically ill child you have to basically try and schedule medical appointments AFTER the afternoon register is taken at 1.15-1.30pm. Or be there for morning register, go to the medical appointment, be back for the afternoon register! Most schools do them at set times for both morning and afternoon.

So nothing about education or what's in best interest of child - just boxticking.

Its maddening isn't it. In reception my dd had no days off for sickness or anything...the only days off were for pre arranged appointments related to her special needs of which I gave proof. I still got a snotty letter threatening me with all sorts. Also recently got one for my ds whose attendance slipped to 96.8% due to a horrible virus. Meanwhile, he once regurgitated his breakfast after running round the playground one morning... not actual vomiting and was sent home for two days. You literally can't win.

Nope. My anger and frustration is directed at policy. How many parents/kids are really taking the piss? Speak to those parents. How is insisting on high levels of illness of benefit to those children/parents either? That we put further pressure on those children and parents dealing with illness is shitty - that it's also dressed up as an educational and wellbeing benefit is messed up.

It's unbelievable. I have 2dc in secondary school, they've changed the d&v rule to 24 hours off. They're expected to be in, regardless. I have 3 dc in all and they've all been off with varying/same illnesses at different times for 3 weeks. Its shocking.

It is crazy - especially when at my DS's school they have had a whole load of teachers off sick recently and been heavily relying on supply teachers or sending the kids to the hall watch a documentary.. presumably these staff members caught bugs off the kids who are all encouraged to come in with coughs and colds and pass it all around. I think what really irks me with school leadership and government policy is that there is almost no belief anymore that parents know what's best for their child and can make sensible judgements about whether their child needs to be off school or not. (I don't doubt that some parents are lazy about attendance BUT this is surely a very small minority).

Yes, I actually sent an email pointing out that we were being reminded what time school starts twice a week. It feels authoritarian. I’m a grown adult and just don’t appreciate it. Send them to the parents that aren’t sending there kids in, fine. But leave the rest of us alone.

They're only interested in numbers. Whether it's attendance or exam scores.

Sick kids should be at home, not in school.

YANBU. It feels like a classic case of "blame the individual" when the system itself badly needs repair.

I note we already have a poster upthread blaming parents who "don't bother" rather than calling out the absolutely ABYSMAL SEN provision or the frankly absurd expectation that children attend school* while infected with contagious diseases, in order to hit arbitrary targets.

But it's easier to send out threatening letters than to put in air purifiers or, y'know, actually fix school buildings affected by RAAC or otherwise falling apart. That would require action, however, and the Tories prefer to whip up blame elsewhere. It pulls in a lot of gullible people who are eager to point fingers at parents rather than ferret out the root cause.

*state school only. Pay-to-play folks operate on a whole different system.

Attendance and results comes first over wellbeing of students.
My son lost 12 months at school due to a panic and anxiety disorder, he taught himself at home and got the highest grades in his exams, and he was only studying one of two hours a day.

I agree! Mine is 7 and off this week with a perforated ear drum and I've had to send evidence of appointment and prescription. She was off for 2 days last week with a virus, and GP says fluid from that caused the build up of pressure in her ear.

I get it, but it's outside of our control when kids are poorly. My daughter's school have started sending attendance letters that are colour coded from green to red. So the poor kids are handed these bright red letters in class in front of their friends. Drives me mad.

The same thing happens in offices. Strict sickness policies means people come in ill more and there's more viruses going around for people to catch and become ill; and further spread as a vicious circle.

Although wfh has helped this a bit depending on the department or company.