to think that this was a really crappy way to reduce school absenteeism?

[itsmeolord]

DD aged 9 came home from the childminders yesterday very upset.
There had been an assembly held in school headed by a lady from the LEA. She called the assembly "Lazy or poorly?"

She gave a talk on absenteeism and told the children that they were going to hand out fines to parents from now on for children being off school. (£50).
She then read out some names and called the children to the front, these children had 100% attendence this year and she told them they were going to get a treat.
Then she called out some more names including dd's. They were called to the front and asked to explain why they had missed school. After each explanation the woman asked the rest of the children to put hands up for "lazy" or "poorly".
DD said that she had missed a week because she had had german measles, she then burst into tears. Apparently quite a few of the other children were in tears as well.
Alot of children were putting hands up for "lazy", I think this is because they haven't got a concept of what is a good reason for absence or not and it wasn't properly explained.
The lady was counting hands up but not then saying, ok so we have x who think this is lazy , it is/isn't because x y z.
So dd was labelled as "lazy"
At the ned the lady then said something to the effect of "all children who were lazy this term are going to have to find a way to pay back mum and dad that £50...."

I'm really cross with this lady and the head as well for thinking this was a good way to deal with absence.

1. The school has very low unauthorised attendance.
2. There are a fair few children who have medical conditions which require regular time off school and will never get 100% attendance.
3. If there is am issue why not speak to the parents rather than make an example of children in front of their peers?

1. "Lazy or poorly" is a really shitty way to talkm about absence. People are absent for different reasons, bereavement, pre bereavement, family illness, whatever.

Surely there is a better way to differentiate between authorised and unauthorised.

Any ideas on what to do next would be gratefully received. I am thinking speaking to the head firts to clarify exactly what happened is best......

I expect the OP has a life Also, looking forward to an update though.

I also think it is a horrible thing to do to the children

yeah, I'm sure Doncaster are on board. Perhaps to try to deflect attention from their own severe and widespread incompetence - their childrens' department has been severely criticised and rated as failing by more than one official report.

If I was a parent in Doncaster, I'd tell them to sort their own performance out before they started on my kids. Not leaving children known to social services to die would be a start.

how awful for your dd! 100% attendance often means sending children into school whilst ill (which is wrong IMO).

If children do not get time to rest and recover from illness they dont get to develop strong immune systems.

Humiliating children is always wrong, we would not do this to adults, where are our childrens rights?

Wow. I used to work in education for the LA and I've NEVER said this before but I think you need to get the woman's name and write to the Director of Children and Families at your local LA registering a formal complaint and copying in the head and the chair of governors to that letter.

Then write a separate letter to the head and chair of governors. If you want to, copy in ofsted.

I think you also need to separately contact your local paper and your local MP (who will jump ALL OVER THIS, believe me, I was on the receiving end of them on many occasions for far far less than this!)

And lastly, I would personally let my daughter know every step I was taking to wrong this right that has been done to her and to make her know that I was on her side.

I am so cross on your behalf, and hers. This was SO inappropriate. Bullying that would be completely illegal in the workplace.

If that assembly happened in the way that your daughter described then I'm not surprised that there are a lot of irate parents wishing to meet with the Head today

Chances are the 'Attendance lady' (round here they're called Attendance Advisory Officers or AAOs) has access to the children's names and attendance information herself so wouldn't have needed to ask the Head for names etc. When I was responsible for monitoring attendance at my preious school the AAO had access to all that kind of thing via SIMS (one of the systems we use in school).

Clearly the AAO was trying to encourage children to take a more active part in managing their own attendance but the way in which she went about it was completely misguided. Perhaps you could suggest to the Head that the lady come and visit every single class and give a pre-agreed/vetted etc. talk to the children about good reasons for missing school vs. not so good reasons; illness is always a good reason whereas having a day off because it's your birthday/you're going shoe shopping/Mum needs to wait in for the gas man/it's raining/you need to support a member of your family who's appearing at court on a murder charge are not good reasons.

If the AAO I'd worked with had suggested doing an assembly I'd have said she could use some carefully picked Y6 children to read out scenarios and then get children to vote on 'good reason' vs. 'not good reason'. I wouldn't use the term 'lazy' because school absence is rarely due to laziness but to depression/not understanding the system/not knowing who to ask for help/not realising that the school will administer prescribed medicines/housing problems etc. etc.

I do hope the Headteacher manages to reassure all the children but would recommend that you write a strongly worded letter to the head of attendance services and encourage as many other parents as possible to do the same (phone the LA switchboard and they'll give you the name).

By all means contact your MP but I wouldn't contact the local paper as it will reflect badly on the school rather than the AAO which doesn't seem very fair!

I am horrified by this - how dreadful for your dd and all the other children . Which LEA was this?

It is the scools responsabillity to protect the children whils they are there. So just becauses it was the AAO lady who was being a dick does not absolve the school for allowing this to go on.

Blood boils!!

Wise words SE13

How awful.
I remember being in assembly at 1st school (must of been about 5 or 6) and was quite innocently () undoing and doing up the velcro straps of my shoes, I wasnt trying to be annoying or naughty and for the first time (but unfortunately not my last) at school I got told off and made to sit in the corner of the hall on my own, I was in tears and havent ever forgotten how mortified I felt at the time.
It put me off velcro shoes for life.

Definitely find out what happened and then kick off.

Sorry sorry sorry! Crappy awful day at work, lots to do and no time.....

Will reply properly this afternoon, have got an appointment, head was very dismissive on the phone. Said it was exaggerated but couldn't explain why so many children were upset.

Will post properly in a little while. Sorry! x

(86 posts OMG )

What I meant to add was.. being singled out like that especially for something like attendance is an awful way of trying to get the message across.

Also surely the assembly should be given to the parents since they are the ones who control their childrens attendance levels!

I would be furious!

How would this women like it if with no prior warning she had to stand up at a counciil meeting explaining her medical history and need to have a day off work in the past year?

It wouldnt be too difficult to turn it into a good assembly or one without the public humiliation either.

Lazy/poorly could be expalined.
100% attendees called to front and given cert
Imaginary scenarios explained to children, ((Burt had stayed up late playing playstation and was to tired to go to school or Lucy had chicken pox) then the children asked to vote lazy/poorly.

Stupid woman, and i dont think that a head/teacher who didnt intervene is worth much either.

I WANT the head to explain herself and I don't even have children at your school!! How outrageous.

Hope you manage to get an apology and a reassurance nothing like this will happen again. Your poor DD. Though thought of mine having to go through something like under any circumstances nevermind when genuinely ill is awful.

Let us know.

In support of the Head s/he may not have been in the assembly and other senior teachers will probably have been told that the AAO was in to do assembly and no-one would have dared, assuming that they'd be disciplined for speaking up! I know that sounds pathetic but LAs have a tendency to be rather bullying towards teachers and make life very difficult for them if they don't tow the line.

Had I been in that assembly then I'd have interrupted but then again the chances of my AAO daring to hold such a thoughtless assembly are tiny. In my new school where I'm not in charge of attendance I probably wouldn't have interrupted but kept the children in once the AAO had gone and tried to undo some of the damage without losing my job!

Thanks for update, sorry to hear about crappy day at work. Always happens when you really need to speak to school, though...

I appreciate that the head may not have been there, but when it got to the point that kids were being made to cry i would have expected someone to have stood up and said something. Even if just at the end they said, "Let all remember that when we are ill it important to stay at home so we dont all catch german measles/chicken pox/a tummy bug"

That is shocking. Even if a child has unauthorised absences it may not be their fault: it surely is a parent/carer that is keeping them off school. What a horrible, traumatising and embarrassing thing to go through.

I think any adult who would not stand up for a child (one they are being paid to teach and keep safe FFS) because they may get in trouble from the LEA is in the wrong job.

Another here!

I'm sorry but is this for real? I can't believe that any school would allow this to happen! which LEA was it?

For a start it would breaking confidentialty rules. Sorry OP but Somebody somewhere has got this a bit wrong

Indeed if a child was at any point crying someone should have stepped in, regardless of anything else.

Very angry on your behalf IMOL and I hope the head apologises unreservedly, especially to the children.

I somehow doubt it though. They're hardly going to stand up in assembly tomorrow and say 'Now children the lady from the LEA was a twit' are they.