School absence letter due to Covid, this can't be right?

[Opti2021]

My DS has come home today with a letter from his school stating that his attendance has 'slipped into the amber or yellow band....as persistently absent' and the school 'have a duty to report to the Local Authority any pupil whose attendance falls into this category'.

I have checked the attendance records they have provided us with and the only absence he has had was when he had Covid.

I initially tested positive on the Monday morning. I called the school and they asked me to collect him right away and have him tested.
He was off school on the Tuesay and had his test. He got positive results on the Wednesday and had to isolate until the Friday of the following week.
The school recorded the Monday as Illness, the Tuesday as X and all of the following days as illness.

I've checked the guidelines and this is the correct way to record it but surely this can't be right that children who are off because of self isolation periods are classed as persistently absent and referred to the LA?

I don't have any advice but it's bulls**t. My two have covid right now so I'll be expecting one soon. Plus they've had a couple days off here and there back in October/November as they had coughs and needed tests - all negative back then. No cough now they are actually positive!

That's crackers

Yes well same with my DD. She got hauled out by her form tutor to be told she needs to be careful as her attendance was disappointing for this term. She also had covid, plus was sent home once by the school nurse and one day off with enlarged tonsils.

The funny thing was a third of the girls (who all had covid around the same time) had the same talk. Fucking ridiculous if you ask me.

It's because schools have to follow up attendance below a certain figure. We don't have a choice.

I'm not sure about whether or not it's appropriate to speak to students about their attendance (I personally think not), but schools are duty-bound to send those kind of letters out.
Whether the staff think they are appropriate or not in the individual circumstances is another matter.... but they still have to do it.

If they do that with my DS who had asymptomatic Covid then I’m done with testing either of my children ever again they can’t have it both ways.

The guidance shows that they don't have to differentiate absences due to self isolation and x should only be used whilst waiting for PCR results...absolutely crackers!

This will look terrible for the poor kids who have been off with other illnesses and then had to self isolate for covid.

I think the Monday should have been an X as well because he wasn't technically ill then?

It probably is just a standard letter because his absence would have dropped below whatever their trigger is. But it would have been nice if they had acknowledged the reason was that he had covid. Personally, I would be writing an email to comment on this.

Yeah it’s stupid. Chuck the letter in the bin and don’t give it a second thought.

I would normally ignore this but it's really got to me today, especially the bit about saying they have to inform the Local Authority. It's like all common sense has just disappeared.

@Opti2021

I would normally ignore this but it's really got to me today, especially the bit about saying they have to inform the Local Authority. It's like all common sense has just disappeared.

They don't have a choice. Common sense doesn't come into it. X whilst waiting for tests and I when positive is simply to make it hard for schools to show high case rates.

It's not the schools, it's central government. We have had a letter as my youngest has been off repeatedly with colds and coughs and we don't send her back until we get a negative test. The LA must be inundated and aren't going to do anything. I just ignored it.

We had this and I challenged it as for the first 5 days after ds tested positive he felt well and was repeatedly trying to access online learning. They recorded the whole time as absence but he was actually doing home learning for half of it as well but due to being positive not allowed in school. It’s all so frustrating.

Thank you all, I will ignore it. I've just had a dreadful day and was mega pissed off when I read it.

Sorry if this is a stupid question MrsHamlet but why do they want to make it hard for schools to show high case rates?

Same with my son

He's only been in one term. Unless it keeps happening (unlikely), by the time the academic year finishes the percentages will be less 'bad'.

Personally I'm baffled that attendance is the hill schools are choosing to die on at the minute, nobody knows if they're coming or going as it is and there are bugs and viruses flying around that seem to be much more aggressive than they are normally, and that's before you even start with covid.

It's nonsense, and presumably unless they're actually quite ill they've been doing homework while they've been off anyway.