School refused to authorise absence

[Windybananas]

Hello everyone, looking for some insight into whether IABU.

We live rurally and about 45 minutes from DD's primary school. There are closer schools, but she was settled in when we moved here, so decided to keep her there at her request. The driving is a pain, but we work over that way too, so it fits in usually and she is adamant she wants to stay there.

Her attendance is excellent and she received a certificate last term for outstanding attendance. She loves school and always has fab parents evenings etc. Anyway, due to where we live, we are really suffering from the storm. We have lost power. Where we live is surrounded by (extremely bendy!) trees and a ford, too. I am also heavily pregnant (40 weeks) and also have a 19 month old. We currently have 78mph winds according to Met Office. I imagine in reality, it's much higher too, given we are on an exposed hill. As I say, it's pretty rural... think barren hill land.
Anyway, I rang the school office this morning to explain the situation and that I didn't feel it was safe to do a 90 minute round trip with DD in these circumstances. The office then refused to authorise the absence. I'm really angry as her attendance record is excellent as stated earlier. I appreciate it's not their problem that we live far away, but surely a bit of understanding and common sense is needed here.
Also just before anyone says it's unfair to keep DD in this school, I would love her to go to a closer school (I'd even say the closer schools are actually better...) but she really wants to stay where she is and we have respected that.
I am also a teacher myself (secondary) so I understand the attendance push and keeping on top of parents who are lax etc. But we never have been.
AIBU to contest the office's refusal to authorise the absence?
Thanks.

Whether it matters is not subjective- some things are fact.

The op might be miffed that it seems unreasonable but she should know better than most that teachers have bigger things to worry about than complaints about things like this.
She knows as a teacher that one unauthorised absence is not the end of the world and should be able to understand nuance when viewing her pupils’ attendance records as she’s experienced the unfairness first hand.

They are very limited in what they can authorise. It is completely pointless to be angry and also irrelevant how lovely your dd is. Nothing will happen as a result of this unauthorised absence.

See my latest post.

"Unauthorised" absence is rapidly becoming meaningless. Unfortunately it can now be dredged up from previous school years if future circumstances initiate a fining situation.

This could reasonably be authorised with the Y2 code. I'd take a photo of the fallen tree as evidence that this absence is justified.

While it isn't the schools that set the rules, they are the face of them. DS had a run of bad luck involving a chronic health condition (which involved a 999 call from school) followed soon after by emergency surgery which had some complications. This then resulted in an "unauthorised" attendance for having the audacity to vomit and follow the school's 48 hour rule. And no I'm not wasting anyone's time attempting to get hold of a GP over a minor illness that requires nothing more than rest at home. His chronic condition escalated because there were no GP appointments across the whole practice to the point of the practice sending a text saying there is no provision. It's not like there's an abundance of appointments avaliable for massaging school/ government policies.

"Unauthorised" in circumstances like these insinuates that parents have been keeping children off without a valid reason and undermines the validity of parental judgement. It's also unhelpful at distinguishing between families hit by a run of rough luck and those where attendance is a more serious issue.

extenuating circumstances have to be applied for in advance and are not authorised by the office staff

Let it go!

If you are issued a fine, take it furthur.
Keep records of the weather and storms for the day in question.
It is too dangerous; as if you will be fined for not making your child travel in stormy conditions.

The school is not at fault here.

There are insanely strict rules from the government abiut what they can and cannot authorise.

The fact you moved so far from the school and cannot drive to get here there is unfortunately not an acceptable reason to authorise the absence.

But nothing will be done abiut it so it's really a non issue.

I'm pretty sure OP will not be fined for a single days unauthorised absence.

I always say health and safety comes first.
You weighed up the risks and made the right decision.
You also did the right thing in being honest with them about the reason for absence as a lot of people wouldn't have been.

But it is unreasonable not to make an exception, given the described circumstance. That’s why it seems unreasonable.

And if teachers have bigger problems to consider than this, then that’s exactly why the head should empower their team to make common sense decisions.

You cant run a school with policies which have no space for discretion, then complain that parents who are disgruntled bring every small problem to you. It’s self inflicted.

There’s also space between being disgruntled and ‘the end of the world’. I don’t think OP thinks it’s the latter..

If the school was down the road ahe may have a point, but it is nit the schools fault she lives 45 minutes away. The severity of the wind in the 2 place may well be totally different.

I live rurally, when I left for work the trees were bowing to the ground in the wind. I work 15 miles away in a town and here there is barely more than a strong breeze.

The OP is not wrong to choose not to drive in those winds, but she is wrong to expect the school to be ok with it.

They cannot authorise it.

I work with schools, am a governor and an isolated incident with an otherwise good attendance doesn't raise an eyebrow.

The op saying it makes teachers judge is saying far more about her than the profession as a whole. The only time it would be considered an issue is if it was part of a wider pattern of issues.

Yes, of course citizens should have to put up with public bodies treating them unfairly and maintaining inaccurate records about their children. They should suck it up and know their place for the convenience of schools.

Actually no. Families do not have to put up with this and should require that the law is followed. Register coding regulations include options C: pupil is absent with leave for any other purpose and Y2: pupil is unable to attend because of widespread disruption to travel caused by a local, national or international emergency.

The register is a legal document.

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/208/made

@Iamoldandwearpurple
Curious to hear your take on this, as a governor and someone that works with schools.

You and your colleagues judge a family for one off unauthorised absences?

So basically you judge other parents for unauthorised attendance, probably many of which are just as unavoidable as yours (terribly lengthy explanation for it being a bit tricky to get there)? But it’s very unfair to do that to you and your family? Because you are good people unlike the ones you judge?

Are you really going to be on your deathbed one day, thinking "I really wish my daughter hadn't missed out on another perfect attendance certificate that one year because of that storm"?

That's good OP that you are rethinking keeping your dd at her current school.
I initially kept my oldest at her first school when we moved. It became very stressful, getting her and my younger children ready to leave on time. I was then pregnant also and once I was also driving back and forth with a new born, I had to move my dd 1.
It just wasn't fair or health for me to have younger children doing 4 30 minute drives daily. Once dd1 moved to
The local school, it was so much better for us all. I has more time for the younger children each day, we walked to school and then often straight onto the park.
My dd1 made friends near were we lived and was able to play with her friends outside of school. Even birthday parties were suddenly so much easier to attend.

Enjoy the day at home with your children & best wishes for your baby

Plenty of children have low attendance records for all sorts of different reasons that a school won't authorise.. İt doesn't make the parents lax or uncaring, as you have stated. İf you realised this, it might make you feel less stressed about one unauthorised absence and realise that you aren't a lax parent and neither are most of the parents who are come after by the school for attendance.

Code c is used for an authorised absence that falls out side of medical etc that they are permitted to authorise.

If the school wa impacted by the weather and closing the C would be applicable.

The fact the OP has chosen not to drive because she lives 45 minutes away from school is not a category C absence

Schools are not allowed to authorise this. This is because the DfE decrees that every child should ideally have perfect attendance. If they don't it affects the school's ranking, etc. It's all to do with statistics and making our schooling system look amazing.
Schools would in most cases gladly accept this reasoning for absence. But they can't.

YANBU but if you were so worried at keeping it at 0 unauthorised absences, you should have told a little fib and said she had a head ache.

It's crazy, as all it does is discourage honesty about an absence to ensure it is authorised.
It will go against the school rather than your child. Please don't worry.
Hope all calms down before little one arrives.

Now you're being unreasonable. If you don't like it you have two options send her in or change schools. You are the mother remember that.

I guarantee you that when your daughter was getting her certificate for outstanding attendance, there were other parents distressed because they couldn’t access medical care or the right paperwork to satisfy the school their child’s absences were due to illness. Perfect attendance is luck. You’ve clearly made a very sensible choice to protect your family today, but you’re out of luck on the attendance lottery.