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......

This is just the sort of thing that could turn a lot of children away from enjoying school.

I am in too

As so many have said, what if the child was absent due to the death of a parent, or an embarrassing illness?

What if the child was HIV positive and felt forced to disclose this during assembly?

I can't imagine a pregnant teacher would have thought your DD "lazy" for protecting her unborn baby from Rubella!

I hope the HT had some answers. TeddyBare's letter is very good.

I too can't wait to hear how the head justifies this one!

any news?

I work in education and I'm absolutely amazed that this was allowed to happen. The head and LEA representative should have discussed how the assembly was to run and if the head agreed to this you need to complain about the head too. If he/she didn't, then he/she should have stepped in at the first chance.

This is appalling. Find out her name (probably someone from the ESWAS service and complain to the Director of Children's Services at your local County Hall.

am so shocked i just read all 21 pages.
looking forward to hearing what the head had to say.

am also shocked that none of the senior teachers/HT stopped the crazy woman. shocking shocking.

re 100% attendance thing, i am not aware of that in DDs school. if it is there she hasn't mentioned it. however they do have a big thing about "walking to school" badges which seems very unfair when at least half the school can't physically walk! It's all the local ones who live nearer than the car park who get them week in week out..

Bump!

bump because I want to know how the meeting with head went.

Watching with interest...

Watching threads not working for me so am getting on this thread for update.

I really want to know how the headteacher wriggled out of this, so bump!

bump

We want to see blood, we want to see blood, we want to see blood!

And the headteacher's head on a stake.

Did you go to see the head? What happened?

bumping because am intrested we often got moaned at about dd and ds attendence , dd has comprmise dimmune sysytems , ds is disabled so lots of appoinments

While I understand their need for good attendance, I am sometimes aggravated at their methods and reasoning. I am looking forward to an update, too.

Itsme tell us what happened!

ThisIsNearlyAsBadAsALabourThreadTiggaxx

How did it go?

Hope you got on ok and hid the body

""I work in education and I'm absolutely amazed that this was allowed to happen. The head and LEA representative should have discussed how the assembly was to run and if the head agreed to this you need to complain about the head too. If he/she didn't, then he/she should have stepped in at the first chance""

I couldn't agree more. I'm a TA in a primary school I don't mean to cause offence to the OP but I have serious doubts about the accuracy of what we have been told. Not sure if the OP or her DC has got things confused.

I'm sorry but this just wouldn't happen in a million years!

A adult with an ounce of compassion wouldn't stand by and let this happen! Are we surpose to believe that memebers of staff stood back and let this happen, while the children were all crying!

And as a final point, for any member of staff to stand in front of the school and disclose reasons for a child's absences would go against all the confidentialty rules that are in place in all schools

Totally inappropriate - if true, I assume that woman will loose her job, or should do.

Memoo, the fact that something is illegal or wrong doesn't mean it cannot ever happen in any one school! Just because it couldn't happen in yours.

What would you say of a school that let a wheelchair bound child sit in a classroom of her own during maths lessons for a whole term, with no teaching, because her set had been timetabled for upstairs and they did not want her to go in a lower set (and couldn't be bothered to just change the classrooms for the two sets)?

What would you say of a school that let the same disabled child crawl on her hands and knees to get into the toilet, because her wheelchair wouldn't fit into the ordinary loo and the head had decided he wanted to keep the disabled toilet clean for visitors?

I do not have to rely on my dd's account of these events: they were confirmed by teachers and by the head himself. None of them seemed to understand that they were doing anything wrong, until I started referring them to the Disability Discrimation Act. 'Well, sue us then' was the head's response.

In the OPs case, I imagine the head was just totally taken by surprise. In his defence, it would take a certain amount of moral courage (and presence of mind!) for him to stand up and interrupt a person from the local authority, whom he himself had just introduced to the children as somebody they had to listen to. For one thing, it would mean some difficult explaining to the children. And heads are usually very keen on upholding the authority of other adults in an official position. He should still have done it, though.

But the argument that something can't happen in a school is ridiculous. You would then argue that that headmistress who was in the news last year couldn't possibly have been stealing school funds, because it would go against all known rules. Well yes, that's precisely why we have rules. And rules against discrimination in schools are there precisely because it is a well known fact that a small minority of people break them.

I'm totally stunned that anyone could have thought that this was even close to an acceptable - let alone a resonsible - way to behave. It's certainly unprofessional. To my mind it comes close to abuse by those ho should know so much better.

Can we have an update on the actions taken and responses of those to whom representations have been made? There are serious lessons to be learned from this awful event.