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......

marking place for update

ReallyQuiteIinterestedTiggaxx

I would be just as disgusted at the heads comments too. Am looking forward to the update.

.

I'd be fuming too! get all the facts from the head, but also point out to this dismissive cow, that she has failed in her duty of care to protect your DC, and others from bullying, and bullying from a grown up in public view of the whole school is totally unnaceptable!
on your behalf.
The duty of care phrase is normally one that get's them worried! Go get em later!!!

Madness and disgusting. Those concerned should publicly apologise to the parents and to the kids. I also think that whoever had the idea would be better suited to work in some other area where they had no further contact with children.

Outrageous. Outrageous. Outrageous.

I thought the Dunce's hat went years ago.

My d4.5 yo daughter had to take a day off this term after reacting to the (mummy must do what HCP recommend) Swine Flu Jab.

Lazy, poorly or a misguided mother?

I have just been reading the school newsletter and there is something in there about absenteeism. There were 145 children who had 100% attendance for the Autumn term and in 2008/2009 only 42 children had 100% for the whole school year. 37 penalty notices were issued to parents who took their children on unauthorised leave last year.

That is outrageous.

But how many adults have 100% attendance at work? Most people in most companies take two or three days off sick a year because they do actually get ill now and again.

i canno belive the op

Yes it is "for real" memoo.

Rolandbutter you are free to read another thread if you feel this one reds too much like Jackanory for you.

I've managed to speak to a couple of parents. It seems the story is pretty much the same with varying degrees of upset from the children. (ie one child said her whole class was crying and another said it was only my dd and one other)
Yes, we are signed up to the same initiative as the one in Doncaster. The school already has very low unauthorised absence though. Last year two families were issued a penalty for holidays during termtime and one of those was rescinded.

I'm seeing the head on Thursday. I want to ask/highlight the following;

1. What is the reasoning behind labelling absence as either "lazy" or "poorly". It is not black and white and I feel it's inappropriate to dress it up as such.

1. Why were individuals singled out in fron of their peers?

1. Why have parents not been consulted, surely it is the parents who have the greatest influence over attendance.

1. Does she not feel it is discriminatory to have a system that only rewards 100% attendance, surely there should be a lower acceptable benchmark to allow for genuine sickness etc.

I also want the contact details for the lady who was in the assembly, I'd like to write to her raising the points above and copy her boss in.

I'm trying not to be cross because I do realise that children do exaggerate but even so, singling children out is just plain wrong in my opinion.

I'll come back to this when I've had my meeting.

Thank you ladies (and gents).

Sounds like a good plan to go to the meeting having written out exactly what you want to know. Have you contacted the council for the contact details yet? I'm not sure they'll want to tell you them tbh. Good luck.

Sounds like a jolly good plan itsmeolord but if I were in your shoes, I'd also be asking why on earth they thought this approach was in any way, shape or form appropriate in the first place. Whose idea was it, did the school have any clue what the bloody woman was going to do and what are they planning to do now to reassure children?

This is just gobsmacking. Especially as the unauthorised absence rate is low.
The Head should have stopped the whole shebang when children started getting upset - you must complain to whoever you can think of.

And 9 year olds (Yr5?) aren't really in control of their attendance anyway - laziness doesn't come into it. It's not like they're bunking off and hanging round the local mall.

You might also want to ask how they plan to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Itsme, I'm glad you are managing to find some level of calm in this situation, not sure if I would be able to.

I just want to wish you luck, and also say that I can imagine the school talking their way around some of your questions, as I have tried to address similar myself in the past.

Can't write now as ds2 crying, but will try and think of some further suggestions later on x

..and I would be making a formal complaint rather than just discussing it, if you know what I mean...all kudos to you though for taking it a step at a time.

You might want to ask about staff attendance and how many of them managed 100% attendance. Are they ritually humiliated?

I would still make a formal complaint no matter how much grovelling the HT comes out with. The whole fiasco is simply unforgivable.

Hi ladies,

I'm not going to go to the LEA until I have spoken to the head as I don't want to go off half cocked, I am quietly simmering away here.
The head didn't deny it, just said it was exaggerated so I need to find out more before I commit to a hitman

In some small defence of the head and LEA woman, it's not them, it's the government and their targets (again!). if a school has enough unauthorised absences, it can trigger an ofsted and have all sorts of horrible consequences. As a teacher, it is quite frustrating when you know lots of the persisten ofenders are at home dossing around (I'm secondary) or allowed to take time off for the merest sniffle.

All schools will have an LEA attendance bod who monitors attendance and will try to work closely with families about unauthorised absences.

Our students have all had assemblies aout good attendance and had implications spelled out to them.

However, they are secondary, not primary and I think the way this has been done is outrageous. I'm not sure I would ask about the 100% attendance figure - I think the cut off point for schols is 95% in terms of being acceptable or not.

You should be able to find the name of the Atendance officer on your local council website somewhere, even if the head teacher won't give it to you.

very sensible, itsmeolord, although obv. it would be a much more entertaining thread if you had appointed a hitman who was on his way right now... it'd be like one of those birth threads only in reverse.

Well done for staying calm about this, you will be much more successful than if you had gone in guns blazing.

It is utterly unacceptable, even if it has been slightly exaggerated by some of the DC.

I don't understand the 100% attendance goal. Why set a goal that is unattainable?

It could become a Mumsnet Campaingn - we could fundraise to organise a hitman. We could bake cakes and everything.

Just to clarify from the OP.

Your daughter was ill with German measles?

But because children have decided she was lazy you will get a fine?

Haggis, with all due respect I don't think the government targets can be blamed for the atrocious way this message was conveyed.

All schools have those targets, as do all LEAs, and this is the first time many of us have heard of such an outrageous situation coming of it.

This is shameful and severe mishandling of a remit and someones figurative head needs to roll imo...or at least be sent for about 7 years of extra training.

Ok Itsme, here's what I've come up with, if it's any use to you.

First of all, the crux of the issue here is the humiliation of several small children, who were not aware of the reasons for this. In their eyes, they had done nothing wrong, and actually they hadn't done anything wrong and even if they had stayed away from school for inappropriate reasons, this would not be their fault, it would be down to their parents. So the whole premise of the 'attack' was completely false.

Children should never be blamed for circumstances beyond their control.
Children should never be made to be 'judged' by peers in however a contrived scenario. It is almost always a very very bad idea on many levels, socially and psychologically speaking it's insane.
The whole fines thing is a crock of shite. You would only get a fine under the new system if you kept your child away despite an EWO intervention, ie ignored the first several layers of bureaucratic protocol, or if you deliberately and knowingly absented your children for the purposes of holidays etc. NEVER because they were genuinely ill, or their attendance didn't appear to meet the norm.
So she was lying to them about this, which was designed to frighten them...again, wrong on so many levels it's laughable.
Children should never be asked to explain their private reasons for absence to a public audience; this contravenes basic confidentiality rules in every single institution or circumstance I can think of. It's also cruel, and yes bullying behaviour.
The woman never once attempted to put into context the actual answers, allowing the entire school to assume she concurred with the fact your child was 'lazy'. This is negligent, stupid and just unbelievably obtuse.
Finally threatening the children with the idea that they would need to pay back their parents for some non existent fine is likely to have made many of them very, very worried indeed about the potential consequences. They will have been scared, ashamed, and some of them possibly afraid of severe punishment depending on their parents' attitudes to such things/ current income levels etc etc.

In short this person got EVERY aspect of her little presentation so badly wrong that she needs to be prevented from any kind of professional contact with children for the foreseeable future.

Also the fact that presumably members of staff sat by and allowed this to continue EVEN after children began to be visibly upset calls for some serious, serious grovelling and apologising not just to the parents involved but to the children as well.
I don't see how else this can move forward, unless children are allowed to think this happening was justified somehow. The school needs to take this extremely seriously, and I think that written complaints to Ofsted, the LEA and whoever else oversees educational establishments would be quite proper in the circumstances.

I hope you and the other parents get somewhere.