Would you challenge a school if they marked a child down as 'sick' even if they were at school that day?

[Meglet]

DS didn't have any days off last term. I know this as I took him there and picked him up, he wasn't late and no sick days. He's in reception so he's hardly old enough to get there under his own steam or bunk off.

We've just had last terms attendance report and he was marked down sick for 2 days so according to them he only has 96% attendance.

I'm out-of-proportionally annoyed about this . I hope he hasn't missed out on any certificates and don't know how I can prove he was there everyday.

There's no point in keeping detailed attendance records unless they're accurate.

I don't see I as soothing get het up about, but would raise the inaccuracy and ask for it to be corrected. Even conscientious teachers sometimes tick or click against the wrong pupil sometimes.

We are regularly told at school that the most serious and probably instantly sackable offences for teachers are assaulting a child and failing to complete the register accurately. It is a legal document.

I would go and mention it.

lifeissweet Is that true about it being really serious??!!! (I'm not very good at spotting if people are taking the mick out of me ).

I will let his teacher know.

DS managed to confine all his throwing up to weekends last term . Quite well timed I thought.

It would annoy me too, I would say something to his teacher.
At my dcs school they do get certificates. Every child gets one so no one is left out but word it differently ie good excellent etc

Did he have gp or dentist appts during sch time?
If not then challenge

It is easily done, but not really acceptable. i know I've marked children as absent while they have been chatting in cloakroom, getting a drink, dropping off pack lunch, running a message for me (!), it is usually caught when they come back into the class but not always.

I'd mention it to the school, i always panic about it when it happens from a health and safety point of view

bald No appointments at all. I even checked the calendar in case I'd forgotten.

lolly yes, If there are certificates being handed out I don't want DS to be overlooked.

golden I did wonder if he was mucking about those days and wasn't sitting on the mat during register. Come to think of it, on some days he did help the TA with displays, maybe he was in the shared area at that point and marked as absent.

I'll e-mail them (nicely).

Like i say, I've done it, it's usually caught but i have had a parent mention it when report time came. I knew it was a reliable child and took there word for it and had it changed so I can't see it being an issue

email them pointing out the error, ask them to let you know when they have corrected it. I wouldn't let it go. The teacher may have to look at how he/she is registering the children in the morning.

This is a safeguarding issue.

They need to do the register correctly. What if there had been a fire?

Yes, I would challenge the school.

I would also be fuming. If your ds wasn't at school as you thought then where the heck was he?!

I wouldn't 'challenge' as such - that sounds a bit confrontational - but I'd certainly point out the error. It isn't clear if it's an error by the teacher or by the admin staff. I'm about to 'challenge' the dcs' school for sending out a quite aggressive overdue payment letter about a trip I can prove I've paid for.

I'd ask the teacher about it if I were you :)

Mistakes happen, they will be mortified.

This happened with my DS years ago; I knew he'd only had one day off, but it was showing some silly number as a percentage. They checked, and the registers were all fine, but the admin staff had entered it wrongly into some computer system which they then used to generate the reports.
So not really a safeguarding issue, but worth checking. If he has been marked absent in the register, the school should have contacted you to find out where he was.

Had he had an hour off at the start of the day for an appt?

My DD was marked down as she arrived at school 1 hr late for an appt - and missed out on 100% attendance (which her school are v hot on - certs every term)

It might be worth asking them to double check. As choccyp1g said, information from the teacher's register (that is the legal document and used for emergency evacuation, etc.) is transfer each week on to the office computer system. It is the office that generate the attendance data so maybe there was a error made in transfering this info? It's easily done when you are scanning rows of lines and circles on the register to circles and crosses on a computer screen, especially if you are interrupted by a phone call, parent arriving at front desk, pupil asking to look in lost property, etc.

I'll ask tomorrow. It must be a typo, easily done if you're bashing out a couple of hundred reports I expect. He didn't miss a thing last term, no doctors apts, dentists or sick days.

Thanks all .

I would speak to the office staff as they will have immediate access to the registers to see what the teacher has marked the child. the registers are marked with a line through p or a, if the teacher has made a mistake and you are still adamant that your child was not off on those dates, then the register and the computer can be changed with the head's permission. teachers unfortuantely are not too careful about registers I have found and can make mistakes.

Definitely ask them to check. I deal with attendance and dinner registers every day and very often come across a child who is marked absent but has been marked in for lunch and vice versa! It's an easy mistake to make - usually it's the child above or below who's been marked incorrectly. I must say that these sort of mistakes are usually rectified the same day, it's unusual for it to go unnoticed but that's not to say it couldn't happen.
We always back up absences by keeping any notes sent by the parents or a written slip showing a record of the parent's telephone call so hopefully your school will have the same system. They should be able to check easily and you should be in line for an apology when they discover it was actually little Jimmy Bloggs who was poorly those days and not your DS.

Very serious if he really was present - one of the main functions of the register is for fire alarm head count purposes. Terrifying when you consider the implications, more so if he was marked absent when he was present. Raise it. An easy mistake to make in an end-of-term report, but the office thinking on Monday morning that little Jimmy is out of school when he's actually there? Scary. And he's in reception - they are wandering about all the time, the teacher needs to have a very vigourous 'check-in' system in place. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

And if they cannot find out whether he was there or not, there ought to be some dated work for that day if he was in.

Hi Meglet. I had this happen to my dd twice in primary school. On both occasions I spoke to the secretary and she looked into it and found that school was wrong both times. High school is a little different! During year 7 (and so far it hasn't happened in year 8) I was getting texts from school saying "your child has not attended registration" blah blah blah. This worried me the first time as I take dd along with anoter girl and drop them off on the car park. I knew she would be there but it was worrying. Phoned back and office asked me whether I was sure dd was at school?? YES SHE IS. But she is not down in morning registration at 8.35 although she is at school for just after 8. School later rang back and said sorry there was a mistake. This happened again. I went straight to the school and asked about this as it was again the form tutor. Found out that tutor was sending Dd on errands and forgetting that she had sent her! When dd got back teacher said "why are you late sweetie? I have sent the register now" and dd said "you sent me on errands" "oh yes i forgot" said tutor. Mad. How do they get jobs? This happened about six times but now in year 8 tutor has chosen a new year 7 thank goodness.

Have they got muddled up when calculating and counted the strike day as absence?

Personally I'd keep quiet because we get credited forr any school dinners paid for on sick days