Fuming with my son's school

[justmeandmy3minions]

Hello everyone

I need some much needed advice on what to do here.. so post came this morning and I have been issued with a third stage attendance letter from my sons school bare in mind I have never received a first or second letter before. I have been referred to the police regarding his time off school due to short term sickness bear in mind his attendance is no where near below 90%. As the gov stated it has to be below 90% his is 95.1%.

My son had serve tonsillitis with high temperature so had 3 days off school he couldn't speak or eat I provided the school with medical evidence to support this for example medicine bottle and prescription. He has also had sickness bug which my other child brought home ( not at the same time a few weeks prior) from his school unfortunately I cannot provide medical evidence for this unless a picture of his sick would suffice but I doubt they would appreciate it.

His school are treating his medical absence as a truancy matter when it's not as I have provided all the evidence to back his time off so by the looks of it it's not been authorised hence them now by passing stage 1&2 even though they stated in the letter they tried to speak to me about this I have had no letters, phone calls or emails and I live 5 mins away from the school. Only communication I have had is with his form tutor asking mmr how my son was and his head of year and they agreed with me he cannot attend if he is that unwell.

I am so angry I send all evidence in via email I call the school when he is off I speak to his form tutor and head of year aswell as the school office I cannot do right from doing wrong at all. when i send him in unwell they complain he should be at home what the hell do i do. My son will only have time off when unwell and that's it when he is well enough to return he does and on occasions he has gone in still somewhat poorly.

I also tell them to contact me if there are any issues and they never do well until I received this letter iam worried now as I have done everything by the book and in accordance to their school policy,

It's like kids cannot be sick anymore.

Anyone else been in the same position?

Thank you.

You mention 8 days' absence. How many weeks since the start of the school year?

It seems pretty likely that this is a case of mistaken identity. Don't let it worry you. It can all be sorted with a phone call on Monday morning.

OP your posts appear very garbled and missing info that other people have asked about. You also drip fed random facts that another student has the same name so it might be a mix up. You said his attendance over summer was 98%...aren't there holidays during summer? What period of time are you measuring the 98% from?

There is no logical way that any school will get the police involved with a student over two bouts of genuine illness. It was either a mistake in which case you have nothing to worry about. Or a serious breakdown in communication which seems possible.

If the OP has been communicating with the school in the same way as this thread then it might make sense. Maybe they requested a doctor's note for the tummy bug which was not sent in because for some reason OP felt the only form of proof is a photo of sick (which is obviously not the case).

There's a chaotic energy coming from these postings to it's reasonable to assume that the school has grounds for concern. Probably nothing serious in the end but still needs clearing up.

@User5442525 another poster asked me what his attendance was like during the summer term as it could be a case of rolling attendance so not drip feeding I was replying to the person that asked for that particular information.

My daughter has had 5 days off due to covid and a tummy bug, she in on 88%
I’ve had the school on my case asking for meetings but this means me taking unpaid time off work.
during her 4 days off for covid they were ringing me every day, she literally could not get out of bed, and when I did send her to school they sent her straight home!
the 1 day off with tummy bug she was struggling to make it to the toilet in time. I’m not sending my kid in when they refuse kids to leave class to use the loo, and also didn’t want to spread anything.
I was so angry, I emailed all this and said it wasn’t like I was sunning myself in Spain!
school tried to ring me yesterday but I was working so didn’t answer. I’m not going in for a meeting that I don’t feel is necessary.
they will just have to report me!

I know parents who have had ridiculously low attendance due to not being up themselves or responsible enough and have never heard.of police intervention. Yours is clearly a genuine case, of course you can't sent him in I'll and also education rules of 48 hours after any kind of vomiting, which could just be a one off in some cases. I think face to face meeting is best way to deal with this, they do get it wrong sometimes and could well be a mistake. Letters tend to be formal and generic, discussions allow the opportunity for reality and progress. Xx

@User5442525 unfortunately my gp will not see a child for sickness they will not even have them in their practice so I am unable to actually provide evidence of that unless I provide photos of his sick which obviously nobody wants to see.

Hi OP, I work in a secondary school and I know it's hard to communicate with us. There are only a few of us and a lot of students and parents.
May I recommend getting the email address of the attendance or welfare officer? They may even be on any letters or on the school website. Then you can email them directly.
I see you have communicated with HOY and form tutor but they may not have passed information to attendance team , it's not malice nor incompetence it's just busy.
Also bear in mind schools don't carry over attendance. We reset the clock in September. This means that if your son has had 8 days off in 10 or 11 weeks that's quite a high level of absence.
If you do get someone on the phone ask for attendance officer or EWO or welfare officers email address.

There's a chaotic energy coming from these postings to it's reasonable to assume that the school has grounds for concern.

lol
if ‘being chaotic’ was enough fir school to be concerned there would be a hell of a lot of parents involved in such proceeding - poor teachers 😂😂
Apart from the fa t if course that being chaotic in her writing (if it was even the case) has no relation with the child attendance 😂😂

@User5442525 the police man works with the school as a pastoral type person it mentions it in the school policy and they support families if attendance is below 90% along with other things.

I have only read the OP's posts. It sounds like a mistake.
I wouldn't panic nor spend loads of time preparing a case; from what you've said everything is above board.

To have police involvement when you have not been informed of any concerns seems very odd.

It’s around 10 weeks since the start of term so 100 possible ‘sessions’ (morning and afternoon)

If he’s taken 8 days off, that’s 16 sessions so puts his attendance at around 84%, significantly below the 90% trigger you referred to.

I’m not suggesting that there’s anything wrong with the reasons he’s been off, but the low attendance this term will be why you’ve got the letter.

Either the school has a case of mistaken identity and a warning needs adding to his file (we've had the same done to DDs GP file)

Or it's an automated message.

Or part of the school policy on improving attendance is to have a chat with the police officer who is linked to the school. They are often lovely and well known to students. Some children who have poor attendance are at risk from criminal exploitation and county lines, having informal contact with a nice police officer is a good thing.

When you have a face to face meeting, go in with a list of the dates and what he was off for and any guidance given to you from form teacher or head of year - printed if possible.

OP said, I think it's a total of 8 days (3 for the tonsillitis and 1 for sickness bug)

Looks like she mixed up sessions and days so 4 days making 8 sessions.

@Russoooooo the put the % on the letter they always do and it was not below 90% so I am confused to why this would have triggered this as it was nowhere near. Who knows what's right and what's wrong.

@Iwasafool yes that's correct 4 days total but to the school it's 8 sessions it always confuses me. Sorry if u confused anyone 😅

Op - if I read such a letter on a Saturday morning. I'd think 'oh, a mistake, I'll speak to them Monday to sort' and then I'd get on with my day, without another thought. Jumping to rants and fuming and not sending another child there is absolutely ridiculously over the top at this stage.

@SerfnTerf it's not the first issue I have had with that school unfortunately and my son is sen of they're going to be like this for my son who has no disability taking 4 days off for sickness how will they be with my sen son with his school refusals etc.

Sorry @SerfnTerf wrong tag should of been to @arethereanyleftatall

Why are you tagging me? I haven't commented on this thread until I saw I'd been tagged

Just contact the school on Monday - is it really worth all this angst?? Either they've made a mistake, or a good conversation will sort it out. No-one on MN can help you, and it's really not worth ruining your weekend over it. Fuming is a complete overreaction.

@arethereanyleftatall how would you feel you get a letter out of the blue stating you will be getting a home visit with no idea the reason behind it of course it will send a bit of anxious thoughts through your mind.

@SerfnTerf I tagged the wrong person I did a separate post to apologise 😅

But you have said it's wrong? So, if it's wrong, I would assume a mistake has been made and no, it wouldn't make me remotely anxious.

By law, they cannot tell you to provide private, confidential medical information for your child.

A few years back, I got a threatening letter from school mentioning prosecution bla bla bla as DD’s attendance went right down to 64% as she was long term poorly. Guess what…..she got 9 GCSES, all level 7 and above with 2 9’s. So poor attendance (not that your son’s is poor) is not always equal to low achievement.

Write to the school explaining that your son was only poorly twice and the attendance stats are out of proportion and impossible to achieve with normal bouts of child illness. Then I would mention you want to see their child welfare/illness policy to confirm that they are suggesting you take sick children with diarrhoea and vomiting and tonsillitis into school.

Hey, we get texts and calls from my daughter's school to say she's not done her homework/ has a detention.... thing is she left 10 years ago and is 26!

It sounds like a mistake OP.