To be annoyed over school attendance letter

[constantlylactating]

Just had an email from DS5's school regarding his attendance. It has dipped to 94.5% and so they are warning me that if it doesn't improve in the next 4 weeks then it will be taken further.

I do understand why they have to issue these, but they have marked him absent on occasions when he has had a 9am dentist appointment, but gone in straight after. Also his last absence was two days because they sent him home after he caught a vomiting bug from another student, and had to stay home for 48 hours.

What am I supposed to do if he gets ill again in the next 4 weeks? (Perfectly possible). Am I expected to just send him in? Or keep him off and have it 'taken further'.

I'm so annoyed I think because it feels so heavy handed when there obviously reasons that they are aware of.

They’re basically automated - you can chose whether to get cross about it or not. The school is just following protocol.

If it makes you feel any better I had an email from a college I was attending for a night course, I'm in my 30s and paid for the course myself. They warned me I was putting my place at risk
I basically emailed them back to remind them I was currently getting distinctions and had paid for the course myself. As a grown adult I can decide not to attend a lesson where more important things/illness has cropped up and to not email me regarding my absence again. They said the email was automated. I reminded them that some students would be upset to receive these emails threatening losing their college course if they were in hospital for a few weeks seriously ill and that there should be a process of filtering out communication to students who shouldn't get tied up in the automated email. I passed the course with distinctions in the end dispite not attending 100% of the time I'm sure they accepted my result in their pass rates. I get the need to monitor attendance levels, but complaining for a few days missed for genuine illnesses that the school is aware of just gets silly

I sent one back detailing each period of illness, which NHS and school guidelines I followed and reassured them I would continue to follow that guidance whenever needed. If there’s a letter on file about it, it’ll be next to one from me that states absolute facts.

When I used to be a head of year these letters were the bane of my life. The hours wasted on the phone trying to reassure parents that yes, I know their son/daughter was sick, it’s automated, don’t worry, etc.
They’re there purely so that if there are real issues further down the line, they can say you’ve had fair warning. That’s literally it, it’s so the school has a paper trail of communication.

I've had this email every half term this year for 2 of my 4 children. I ignored it. Their attendance has not improved and nothing has happened because they don't actually want me to send sick children in to pass their germs on they just have to tick a box to say I've had the email.
One of the children had 100% attendance last year and was given an award for that so they know I'm not keeping them off unless it's necessary.

Unfortunately our dentist gives you a time, and that's it

Well, nearly - ten minutes would be an L code, so Late but present, over 30 minutes would be a U or an M and absent (either unauthorised or authorised respectively).

If your school isn't doing that, they're making their attendance data look worse than it actually is - might be worth bringing it up with SLT in case they hadn't noticed this.

Thanks all, you've talked me down off my angry ledge - in my defence I have had an ABYSMAL day with a teething baby, so that letter was quite literally the straw that broke the camels back!! I actually have his parents evening tomorrow so I will bring up some of PP's points with his teacher and see what they suggest we do.

Ignore. In year 9 we got a letter as DD’s attendance dipped under 80% due to ongoing illness. She left year 11 with 12 x grade 9’s. I was told I had to provide evidence for any further absences so I told them to go to their office as they sent her home constantly.

You need to provide evidence of dental and medical appointments.

L is lateness before registers close. Our registers close after 10 minutes (as designated by the MAT and the LA before we joined the MAT) so after 10 minutes we give the M code as that is an authorised absence. Some parents / carers are under the impression that authorised means it doesn’t count in the absence figure but it does.
We encourage our parents to use the “revolving door” method mentioned up thread and explain why.

Yes, I always email in advance with a copy of his appointment letter/text.

Just ignore it, OP. Why get so emotional about it?

The MAT may change their minds if they realise that it's perfectly legal to record a late if registers stay open for 30 minutes and this would avoid the arguably more disruptive issue of people leaving for more of the day.

Or they might not, maybe they like having attendance figures look worse than they need to be so they can change their minds at a certain point to show 'improvement'? <shrugs from experience of them going ballistic over a 'decline' in attendance/increase in both types of absence when they refused to listen until somebody more important a man told them>.

They are a requirement from the local authority to be generated and won't take into account individual circumstances.
That said, the only next steps that they will take providing further absence is authorised is an attendance meeting usually with the head and an attendance officer from your local authority. I had this with my DD who caught bug after bug one year and her attendance went to 90%. I just explained what illnesses she'd had and when- they didn't do anything and it was a pointless meeting but it's to try and catch those children that would otherwise slip through the net. Ridiculous approach though and a waste of money!
I really wouldn't worry.

Well, first of all, stop making dentist appointments during school time, FFS. What's wrong with 4pm, which is when we always had our appointments.
Take note that his education is important, and don't keep him off school for trivial illnesses.

Fab, I'm sure OP can easily make an appointment with your dentist in whatever decade you're talking about, rather than the one she's got in the teetering world of NHS dentistry in 2025.

Arrange dentist appointments so they don't miss registration. I know it's crazy because that way they miss potentially more lessons. All that matters is your DC is at registration. It doesn't matter if they leave immediately afterwards.

It’s an automatic letter. Bin it. My daughters attendance is around the 50% mark and they keep saying they’ll have no choice but to fine us (because that’ll help her get over her anxiety and depression) but as yet nothing.

Really? Last time I booked a routine appointment for DS the first appointment they had available was three months later in term time.

But don't be outraged it's only admin.
It really isn't personal.

They are obliged to send those letters.

Further action is sometimes just offering you a school nurse check over or if you need additional help.

Try not to overthink it or let if feel bigger than it is. It's a statistic.

School sent my son home constantly in the post lock down time and sent me one of those letters.

Sadly my dentist will only make nhs appointments during school hours.

Also I wouldn't call a dr worried that my child had meningitis 'trivial' but perhaps your priorities are different, where your children are concerned.

It'll just be an automatic letter but its really not the way to deal with absences. My DD has missed 13 days of school this year due to illness (plus several lessons for appointments), the school's response (well, her teacher's response) is to ask if she needs any help and now she's getting an appointment with the school curator (pastoral support person) and the school nurse to see if stress is causing her to be ill so much and if so, how the stress can be reduced. So no negativity which would only cause more stress but actions to try and reduce absences.

I think they have to send them if attendance falls below a certain level, so they can show they are trying to improve attendance.

We had one because attendance had dropped below 95 %. There had been one day off for a hospital appointment, but it was middle of September, so not that many days into the term, which made more of a difference in the percentage. Seemed a bit daft to have sent it after 1 day being missed but I suppose difficult to determine a cut off.

We couldn't refuse the hospital appointment or request a different time. It was offered the day before because there was a cancellation, abd if not taken would have been 7 months for another one.