School harassing us over attendance...

[1993baby]

A bit of backstory..
This school is obsessed with attendance.
Last year in reception my daughter was hospitalised and really poorly. The school were calling me every day asking when she would be back when they knew she was in the hospital! I remember sat by her hospital bed and getting called from the school.
Then when she was discharged, they were coming to our house every day to “check on her progress” basically harassing us in to sending her back to school.
She was only 4 - under compulsory school age.

This continued any time she was off with illness.

Now...

This year DD had chickenpox and was off school for 2 weeks, she was really poorly with it and ended up in A&E dehydrated from being sick constantly. It took 2 weeks for her all of the scabs to scab over. We followed NHS and GOV guidelines about staying off until the scabs had healed.

Then immediately after, she got tonsillitis.
She couldn’t even drink water and we ended up at the out of hours. He prescribed antibiotics and said she had a really bad case of tonsillitis.
He said to keep her off school to rest until she feels better. She has been off a week as she has been really poorly with it.
I’ve taken her back to the GP two times as she seemed to get worse.

I informed school about all of this.
However when she had chicken pox, they were calling me even on the second day of illness asking for an update on when she would be back?
the GOV advice says AT LEAST 5 days..
so how are they asking for an update on when she would be back when it’s only been 2 days, she’s in the infectious period and it was actually impossible for her to be in school according to the rules.
It was just ridiculous.

Then 2 people from the school came round to our house to give us an attendance warning letter!! She had chicken pox.

They then asked us to send her to school with chickenpox.

Today, the GP told us that school has contacted them about her absence. They have asked the GP for confirmation of illnesses and told them to encourage her back to school?!

Apparently the school have now flagged this up as a safeguarding issue because she has been off a couple of weeks.

We went to 2 doctors this week and both of them said the same thing about school attendance, so it must be permanently on her health record now?!

Are they allowed to do this? I thought they had to ask my permission to access her medical records?
She has been off with genuine illness and been to the GP more times than I can count on two hands in that time period ! It’s hardly a safeguarding issue?! I kept the school updated and informed.

The GP asked me “how is everything at home?” So the school has obviously flagged a safeguarding with them which is totally unfair and I feel disgusted by the insinuation they are making here.

I walked out of the GP’s room in tears I was that upset by it all...

What can I do?
Can I get this taken off her record? :(

Yeah she'd be deregged from that school and moved. That's disgusting.

I'd also speak to the LADO for the area about your rights being infringed by them making false claims against you, harassment and for the calls to the GP and social services. Contact Education Welfare too and register a complaint with them and the school governors and authority.

I have only come on to say three things :

1. They wouldn't have contacted your GP. They register a safeguarding concern with social services, and that record can be accessed by your GP.

1. Their 'safeguarding visits' are because schools have a duty to ensure that a child is safe, and if they haven't seen them for 10 days this often triggers the need for a visit.

1. This level of scrutiny for genuine illness is unusual. I wonder if they have other concerns. Either way, they are obligated to report if they are worried. You might not understand why they are, but they are. So reporting is the right thing to do. It is better to be over-zealous about safeguarding than too relaxed and miss something.

My DD was in hospital in February for almost a week. I emailed the school each day/or during the night to say we were still in the hospital and she would be off school that day. On the Thursday evening we were sent home so I emailed to say she had been sent home but advised to remain off on the Friday and therefore would not be in

School policy is to contact EVERY day so we did.

Maybe if your school have similar rules following them would help.

If there is nothing to see then you needn't worry. Honestly SS will not be interested.

I think I would want everything out in the open and some clarity from them.
I would want a meeting with the head and a third person to take notes.
Questions....

Why was I phoned daily while my DD is in hospital for the foreseeable?
(Maybe it's their process of documenting that feel down, maybe it was different staff, maybe it's just what they do, maybe the head doesn't quite have a handle on how other staff are interpreting their policies).

I feel like this level of contact is unusual, is it? do you have deeper concerns that I can address?

The level of contact while DD was in hospital felt like you didn't believe me. Was that the case? At times I was speaking to medical professionals when you phoned and this added to an already stressful situation. What could have been done differently?

When she started here, I felt like we and the school were a team. I would like to get back to that position. What can we all do to help with that.

I was once in a meeting with a health professional. I caught myself feeling on the back foot and felt like I was defending something but wasn't sure what. I realised that this person was coming from a place where he had made a lot of assumptions before we even started talking. Once I'd taken a deep breath I was able to say that what I wasn't looking to do was control any outcome what I was looking for was reassurance and to understand more of what was going on. Plus any information about how we could help would be very welcome.
Just naming the problem changed the tone of the rest of the meeting. I'm still not terribly impressed with that professional but I did at least manage to ask some questions and leave with a clearer picture of his decision making. I'm guessing that he may have left with a slightly changed perception of us too than his preformed one.

What strikes me about this thread is how very different all schools are in dealing with absence! Surely there is some government guidelines that all schools should follow? Excuse my ignorance if schools can decide themselves! Some seem not bothered and some seem over the top. A happy medium is needed.

@Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot spot the teacher perhaps?

Calling the OP hysterical in response to this giant infringement is classic gaslighting 101. Nice try.

yes not only
the horrible kids and their parents who do nothing to raise good human beings leads to that community's existence also

Well you do it your way if you must but you are making a rod for your own back. And yes you should call the school from hospital to let them know you are there. Your attitude seems to be that you shouldn’t have to keep them informed, but that is not the case. Your child is legally obliged to be at school. You wouldn’t just not let work know where you are because you would be obliged to follow their sickness policy, as you are obliged to follow the school’s absence procedures. Your attitude is poor and non cooperative and that is part of the picture when looking at how the school are behaving. If you were an employer and someone just went off grid and felt they didn’t have to communicate with you, it might cause you to get increasingly frustrated and draconian. The solicitor will only be interested in getting their fees paid. The school are only interested in safeguarding and attendance and if you do everything by the book you won’t have all this extra stress.

Workplace is totally different, you get paid to be there.

When did it become so authoritarian with school

@Owly11

😂

do you work at the school?

if you had read my posts properly, you would see that I DID inform the school she was in hospital.
I phoned and sent a message.
However DESPITE the school knowing she was in hospital, they kept calling asking when she would be returning to school.
That is not normal and quite frankly disgusting behaviour.

There is official government guidelines about reporting absences.
It states that parents let the schools know on the first day of absence, which I did.

The school are not interested in safeguarding, as most people here have said. They are only interested in attendance figures in this case.
That is why on their “safeguarding” visit, I was only given a letter warning about attendance.
This proves that is the case.

This 👆🏽

I've seen young adults who can hardly string a coherent sentence together after leaving school, let alone read or write. Some of these people are uni students!

Work wouldn't expect daily updates if you were in hospital sick. They certainly wouldn't be phoning a sick member of staff everyday demanding updates

They do if you work in a school. Every single day before 7am.

How do you answer if on life support?

I'd have told the school to fuck off if I was the parent. They have no right asking for photographic evidence

Then you need to move schools.

A move will not change the focus any school has on attendance as this is DfE led, but as you have lost trust in how the professionals in this school care for your child, you need to find a school that you can maintain a working relationship with.

Yes, there is. Written by the Department for Education, posted up thread.

This has been implemented in September 2024, with increased statutory duties on school and LA’s, including automatic attendance data returns.

The child doesn’t work.

Most work places wouldn’t expect someone who has been admitted to hospital to phone daily.

They do if you work in a school. Every single day before 7am.

No they wouldn't. Been there , done that. Gave them a return date , and eventually a doctor's note when discharged. No one bothered me in that time, or expected me to check in daily.

We have to contact school every day if we are off sick. They also like you to phone in the afternoon to say if you’re going to be off the next day.

I would be annoyed too op. I was off school a lot with tonsil itis. I was even in hospital for a week as i was just so poorly. I also had chicken pox when i was 11. My mum only had to ring the school once.

The op wasn’t on life support and neither was their child. The op clearly doesn’t know or care what the school attendance policy is and that speaks volumes of the attitude she takes towards those who are looking after her child every day. And no I don’t work in a school but I do understand that if I don’t follow the correct procedures it creates a lot of extra work for folk and a lot of unnecessary stress all round.

Is there something amusing about my post?