Reasons to record unauthorised absence

[Parkmybentley]

There's been a bit of discussion recently about the changes to fines for unauthorised absence.

I'm reading through the updated school policy and it says : "Arrival more than 30 minutes after registers close will be recorded as unauthorised
absence."

Does anyone else think this is completely ridiculous and misses the point? For example car breakdown, family medical emergency, public transport not arriving on time due to roadworks, etc. Something that happens on the morning and is unavoidable.

It also says "Waiting at home for a repair or maintenance work" will be recorded as unauthorised. What if it's the central heating that's packed up in December, or something else urgent that puts the child at risk?

It seems incredibly heavy handed.

AIBU to think these two rules are particularly harsh and ultimately counterproductive? Or am I BU, these rules are needed?

Being late to school is disruptive to the child and others in class (teachers and students) and if it's persistent lateness there is a cumulative impact on education.
Honestly I'm not going to get annoyed if my kid gets an unauthorised absence because of lateness for an isolated incident outside of their/our control and if it's a one off then it's not going to lead to a fine.
These kinds of rules are to tackle those that are persistently late for one reason or another and are giving pretty lame excuses for it. If the bus is often late, the solution should be to get an earlier bus (assuming it's a public bus) and if there's traffic because of roadworks that are ongoing then the solution is to leave earlier. Similarly if there is a reason I cannot leave the house e.g. waiting for a plumber then I would be trying to find a solution to get DC to school on time regardless e.g by asking if a friend could help by dropping DC to school. The solution isn't to blame the schools rules on punctuality.

But all of those examples ARE resulting in the child being absent?! I don’t really see your point. If the child is absent, they’re absent. How else could the school record that?? Mark them as being present for learning that they did not attend?

Seems fine to me, they’ve got to draw the line somewhere. I think school days are split into two sessions of around 3 hours so if you’re 30 minutes late, you’ve missed almost 20% of a session.

Look at the actual laws on the books. Having a reasonable reason is considered a defence. But you might need to argue that in court.

I'm confused by your examples, which are clearly not good reasons to keep your child off school.

If the central heating has packed up, your child will be warmer at school. I'd be getting them in as early as I could, not late

If your car breaks down and your child gets an unauthorised absence then so be it. It doesn't matter.

When my dd was at primary school, one child was late every day. Her mother said it was easier to park if you come later.

The example suggests to me that the parent can't leave home, because that's when the engineer/plumber/whoever is due to attend, sometimes having given a pretty broad time period. It's better for the child to skip even half a day or full day of school and have the heating working straight away than to have that one day at school but go home to a house that has no heating for the next two weeks.

I work with a child who missed 1300 minutes of school last year because of lateness. That's a week's worth of school just from lateness. Marking it as unauthorised absence means further steps can be taken to support the family.

People who are late a lot get stressed about this stuff but most of us, our dc will have the odd late mark so now it’s unauthorised absence. So what? One or two in their school life will be fine. If it’s happening more regularly then there’s a bigger issue that needs addressing.

I think it should just be a late nit an unauthorised absence because it's counterintuitive, persistent absenteeism is what they are trying to tackle, and so those type of parents will think what is the point in sending them in if they are going to be late if it will be recorded as absent.

But for those who aren't persistently absent, being late for an emergency reason wouldn't trigger a fine, don't you have to miss 5 full days in a row to receive a fine?

I also don't understand your problem with the maintenance work. Who would keep their kid off to do that? That is insane. I had a faulty boiler for a week last year because I couldn't afford to take a day off work to sort it. I wouldn't keep my kids off to do it either. I waited until a family member could sit in for me.

I understand that attendance has been a key target/measure under the last Government.

Do I believe it's originated in the best interests and well being of the children? Not for one single minute and you can throw all the stats in the world at me.

It's smoke and mirrors. Rather than actually invest in supporting schools with their significantly high SEN population ( most likely to refuse to attend), the blame is put upon schools and parents for failing to adhere to attendance rules.

I have no stats but I'd hazard a guess that non school attendance is disproportionately made up of diagnosed and undiagnosed SEN children who are often entirely unsupported in mainstream and can't cope anymore.

All the other guff they're spouting about attendance just feels like a distraction from the real problem.

I'm glad that my DC's school never tried this, since lots of the school came via the infamous for cancellationsTranspenine Express.

As PPs have said, it is designed to tackle persistent lateness.

I used to be a governor in a school where one of the buses was regularly late. The head made sure these pupils were not penalised, so maybe there is a bit of flexibility on the system for the circumstances you describe.

Register codes are defined in law. The school register is a legal document that the Headteacher is responsible for maintaining accurately. Register codings are defined in regulations (eg. secondary legislation). This has not been changed and is used in chapter 8 of the new statutory guidance on attendance.

If schools or MATs or LEAs are making up their own rules which are different to the secondary legislation they are exceeding their powers and should be challenged.

If you're hardly ever late it doesn't matter.

If you're persistently late then you're the reason for the rule change.

In law, marking depends on the reason for the absence, not your perception of the impact of the absence. I hope your school follows the law.

There's a separate code for severe public transport disruption. It's an authorised absence.

Lateness flags up safeguarding - if there’s persistent lateness something is going on.
It needs checking out.

That may be true but has no bearing on how an absence should be coded.

This isn't new.

Late with 30 minutes of register closing its a code L on the register and doesn't show as an absence

Late after 30 minutes of the register closing gets a U and shows as an absence.

THIS HASN'T CHANGED WITH THE NEW LEGISLATION,

It was ever thus

This aspect hasn't changed. This was always the case

A register is a legal record ofvwho was there when the register was taken.

In a lot of infant schools being 30 mins late means you miss phonics. If this happens a lot, it's an issue

There isn't any new legislation. There is new statutory guidance.

Do people really not send their kids to school because they have a repair man coming round? To me that's insane. Just of the top of my head, you could:

Arrange for the repair man to come after drop off

Arrange for the repair man to come before, then leave him to get on

Arrange for a neighbour, friend or family member to let repair man in

Leave a spare key for repair man to let himself in

Ask a friend or family member to drop off

Ask another school mum if your DC can walk with them

Drop kid off early at breakfast club, and get back in time for repair man.

It's a priority thing. A cost/benefit analysis.

All those things you list are (slightly) inconvenient. Some parents feel that is of greater weight than an hour of their child's education.

Parental attitude has one of the biggest effects on a child's educational outcome. You know like they say about kids who have books in the house do much better at school, that's why they give out free books, but the free books make no difference. It's not the books themselves. It's parents who make the right choices and priorities

Before fines, families have to be offered support to improve attendance (or punctuality). One late session for a broken down car will go nowhere. Frequently missing education for domestic emergencies is unlikely, surely?