to be slightly pissed off with this letter ??

[CrackerNut]

Ds has come home today with a letter address to me about his apparently poor attendance.

It says that his attendance percentage is currently 84% and that the schools target is 96%.

It then goes on to say that unless a child is ill or you have an agreed and authorised abscence from school then your child must attend every day.

It then says that they will be monitoring the situation closely and if my child's attendance does not improve significantly over the next few weeks then they will contact educational welfare.

I am hugely pissed off with this letter and the threatening tone.

Ds is 6 and in yr 1. He had 5 days off in Sept for a holiday authorised by the head (old head, she has since left). I agree fully that this will have contributed to his apprently poor attendance record, but this was in Sept.

Unfortunatly for him, Ds has also had about 10 days off ill. He was very poorly before xmas with a virus and scalp infection and then just after xmas he had impetigo and had to stay off for 4 days as advised by the gp.

I have no problem with them pulling me up about the absence for holiday even though it was authorised, but I do have a problem with them insinuating that Ds has been off school alot when not ill as this isn't the case.

as a slight aside, i heard one end of a phone call when in the office at dd's school this am.
'yes, so he's still ill. has he been ill all this time?'
pause
'yes, he's ill this week, what about last week?'
pause
'and the week before, it's been over two weeks.'
pause
'yes, he was away the whole of the week before, it's been two and a half weeks now'
pause
'so you haven't been to a doctor? but he's been ill for over two weeks'

I was quite shocked. now that is a child who needs a little extra help from the authorities.

At the school I work at, the EWO comes in about once or twice a term, & looks at the registers to see if there is a pattern - for example whether a child is always away on Mondays or Fridays - and discusses any special circumstances with the secretary. If they feel it needs further investigation, they send a letter - there were 4 this week in a school of 226 children.

Last half term was a bit complicated because of the snow - we were closed on two days and had two more where it was difficult for some children to get in - the only absences that went down as unauthorised in the end were those where the parents had neither notified us in advance nor sent a note explaining afterwards, and who also ignored the letter we sent afterwards asking for the reason.

By Saggarmakersbottomknocker on Wed 04-Mar-09 20:44:10
It would be in their interest to provide you with a few hours home tutoring because they can then say he's dual educated or educated 'elsewhere' and he'd be off the stats.

They should have a written policy - many of the ones I've seen have specific reference to ME . It's a disability at the end of the day and therefore they can't avoid the duty they have to provide a 'suitable' education.

I would be quite willing for him to have work available to do at home - i know they use SAM learning BUT on the occasions he is off school he is genuinely ill to an extent where he cannot even stand or move so the work could be there he would still be unable to do it and as he himself will not concede to his illness the minute he feels upto school despite my opinion hes off to school he wont consider part time he says its for invalids and he really does struggle on to a point whereby he staggers to the car white as a sheet and sleeps fpr 18 hours on getting home ....saggars i really appreciate you taking the time to help me tonight .

DS1 starts school next year, so I really don't know anything about this...

but was just wondering how the snow days when schools were shut for everyone will be counted - will the days that were missed be counted as an absence for each child on top of any illness days, or will they disregard them from their calculations?

sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, have just found this interesting and it made me wonder!

oops. just cross posted with rustybear who answered my question in part.

guess that's what happens when you interrupt typing a post to check on a crying dc and then don't update the page before finishing and sending.

zipzap - that was just what happened in our school, because in our case the local authority left it up to the schools to decide about the days when the school was open but the snow was bad. When the school was actually closed, it didn't count as absence & I'd guess that would be the case in most authorities.

No zip zap enforced closures dont count in any records of absences in fact ive just had a copy of Sams register and the enforced closure has its own symbol.

In my defence the OP stated she was going to the dentist not the Orthodontist or for an emergency referral to the ortho.

thanks to saggars, hassled and all the other ladies familiar with the system for taking the time to explain things. A bit depressing the thought of having to waste doctor's time getting sick notes to cover our backs as parents.

My friend has just had a letter which states that time off absent due to the snow was unauthorised absence. The school was actually closed.

Forever, then she should query it with the shcool. At ours, school closure is marked on the register as a 'Y' as opposed to dozens of other codes for different absences. I've just had to fill in 120 Ys for my class over the 4 days we were shut!
I would never book an ordinary dental appointment in school hours, but the orthodontist appears to be different. DS has to go every 6 weeks or so, and even that varies, so you can't book a couple in advance), but to wait for an after-school one (even if there were any) would take months.

Clam I think they try and do the after school appointments fairly at the ortho bcos i heard overheard the recepionist say to another mum youve had 2 after school appointments im afraid.......dont know when i might get one tho

OP, you have proof he was ill, and you have the approval of the time off. You have nothing to worry about.

If I were you I would write a stiff letter reminding them of the approval of the time off, and reminding them of the illnesses he had the other time "as I explained on the telephone to your receptionist" and ask them to confirm that they have received your reply.

But I have to ask, did it not occur to you when you took him out of school for a week, that if he should unfortunately have more than a few days off sick he'd show on the computer as a poor attender?

You have no control over whether your DS gets ill or not, but you did have control over whether you took him out of school. Schools make it quite clear that they don't like this, they discourage it, but you decided to do it. That's what has altered your DSs results on the computer and made him come up on the list.

How did it go nickchik? Hope all was okay and they took your DS's illnesses seriously x

By Ineedmorechocolatenow on Thu 05-Mar-09 20:31:01
How did it go nickchik? Hope all was okay and they took your DS's illnesses seriously x

no unfortunately it soon transpired that the ewo only wanted a letter from the dr saying that ds2 was ill and that his absences are connected to his illness it appears that as long as it cn be substantiated then he can rot in his bed the nurse was there whose comment about me was that she knew it makes you v tired and unable to enjoy normal life - well that was good research wasnt it?.

grrrrrrr the registers have beenn marked wrong absent when hes in and in when hes bsent they ased me if i could substantiate any of this so i said well on xxx date youve marked him in both periods ..... yes they said ...well i have a letter from the head excluding him at 10.15 am

My reaction to this is 'thank goodness for independent schools'- we don't have this problem and i am sure that the dcs attendance is beneath some of these weird stats.

Ds had a bad head injury at school and was not only off for the rest of the week (per the hospital leaflet) but also had every Friday afternoon off for the next 3 weeks as he was unable to do 'contact' sports and they do games then. He has also had a fair amount of time off with glue ear / grommets etc plus all the usual childhood illnesses. Thankfully the school are fully aware and they themselves are happy to agree when he should be off.

I would hate any target obsessed person to be chasing me in such an impersonal way

By CapricaSix on Thu 05-Mar-09 22:09:15
nickschick just read back on your previous posts. It sounds like you're having a tough time .

Ahh thanks caprica im a moany old cow tho .

Bet that makes her feel better, Arcticwind!

I don't think that being a 'standard letter ' is a good enough reason.Nor do I buy the excuse that the LEA 'made' the head do it.If he is sending out a letter with his name on the bottom then its his responsibility He could have quite easily looked through the list of children with high absences and sorted out those who he or the class teacher knew had had illnesses and then got back to the EWO or whoever explaining that these children had illnessses.

I would definitely write back to the head
1 Expressing concern over the fact that if they are so intimidating, heavyhanded and unreasonable to parents (who are following their guidelines for excluding children with illnesses such as impetigo ) you wonder how they treat young children who are under their control

2 Tell the school that you are copying his letter to your GP so that he is aware that he may get a flurry of appointment from pupils of the school requiring minor ailments to be certified). point out that you feel this shows a lack of respect for your GP and his workload.

I would also contact the EWO and tell the school you have done so , to 'take control' of their threat.

Little update.

After another letter (general this time) about attendance I was still umming and ahhing today about wether to send my letter in or not and then a friend told me that they day the letters were given out, she went to the office for something else and there was a queue of about 10 parents demanding to see the head.

I was quite about that.

The head was new at xmas and after a nice start seems to have chosen this subject as her pet project. No problem with that at all, but she needs to change her tactics I think.