school ABU???

[Burlesquebooty]

i have two dc aged 5 & 7 both they both have very good attendance rates. (only off when ill)

my dd has been off for a couple of weeks as she was admitted to hospital with dehydration,vomiting and cystitis she went back to school for around a week and then she fell extremely ill with vomiting, cystitis and chest infection. she has been on all sorts of medication and theres no way she could have made it to school.

but today was her first day back and the school have sent her home with a piece of paper with her attendance record for this year on and says its a warning before they go to the welfare about her attendance although she is at 88.55%

i am shocked that they are acting as if i have taken her on holiday or just taken her shopping for a couple of weeks

are they being unreasonable? bearing in mind whilst my dd was in hospital and ill my ds only had one day off due to there being no one to pick him up from school and this is the first time he's had a day off in over a year.

Yes, TABU and given this was a hospitalisation, pretty insensitive. But it's probably a standard letter, turned out without regard to circumstances know to the school.

I would be very tempted to write back: "As you know, DD was absent because she was in hospital. Please would yo let me know at what point the doctors in charge of her admission made an error of judgement by keeping her in and not discharging her so she could go to school - possible infecting other pupils?"

No they are not being unreasonable. They are fulfilling their obligation to inform you of your child's attendance. Nothing wrong with that. 88% is poor attendance and even though there was a reason behind it the school still has to tell you the record and if it is low then an EWO is usually informed. If your child was hospitalised then the EWO will understand this but they still have to be informed.

Some parents do not tell the truth about illnesses or exaggerate them. This clearly isn't you but just trying to point out why schools can't just say ' Oh yes that's fine Mrs X. Don't worry we know little Daisy had TB/polio/flu etc' Also to put it quite simply when schools have hundreds of pupils a lot of systems including attendance have to be automised and can't take into account personal circumstances.

Can I just add to Ilovesunflowers that some schools do manage- and others very manifestly don't!- to show sensitivity in special cases.

Dd's secondary is a very good example of organisation and forethought; they will make sure that special procedures are in place to avoid hassling the parents of chronically or seriously ill or even dying children. Obviously, they can't keep track of every flu or gastritis, but they will make sure if you have a longterm serious problem that a special list is kept.

Her primary school was not. They thought nothing of sending out increasingly rude letters to the parents of the child with CF who was not expected to even live until adulthood.

I never understood it that can't be done, actually. My university is far larger than any primary school, each individual tutor sees several hundred students (and new ones every semester) and we are still expected to keep track of SN and measures to be put in place for each students. A simple code system does the job. As it is well thought out, it really doesn't take much of my time at all, but it does ensure that I don't go and put my foot in it.

''Dd's secondary is a very good example of organisation and forethought; they will make sure that special procedures are in place to avoid hassling the parents of chronically or seriously ill or even dying children. Obviously, they can't keep track of every flu or gastritis, but they will make sure if you have a longterm serious problem that a special list is kept.''

I think most schools would be sensitive if a child was dying or chronically ill. Completely different to the OP's situation through.

''I never understood it that can't be done, actually. My university is far larger than any primary school, each individual tutor sees several hundred students (and new ones every semester) and we are still expected to keep track of SN and measures to be put in place for each students. A simple code system does the job. As it is well thought out, it really doesn't take much of my time at all, but it does ensure that I don't go and put my foot in it.''

Of course you are expected to keep track of special needs. Every teacher does. However attendance is usually taken care of by admin staff who don't necessarily know the pupils. Plus schools are required to inform parents of their child's attendance 'score' and are required to inform the EWO if it's low.

"Of course you are expected to keep track of special needs. Every teacher does."

Nope, not every teacher. Didn't work at all in dd's primary. However much material I sent in to the school it was never communicated to teachers, and even if I went in and spoke to the class teacher (as I did) information was never passed on to PE teachers, subject teachers or supply teachers. This caused a lot of trouble as dd was constantly being told off for not doing things that the school had been told would damage her body: teachers believed she was making it up, though all the paper work was in place.

In dd's secondary school, however, admin staff do seem to have a simple system which means they can keep track of children with special health problems (doesn't have to be SN) and not send out the standard letters to somebody who has longstanding health problems. They also make sure EWO are informed of special health circumstances, so they can adapt their approach in such cases.

I don't know how they do it, but imagine it is something similar to what university admin staff use. It is obviously doable to have a system that covers school admin staff too; they don't have to know the child individually; just have a system that flags them up on the computer.

I never said this system should be extended to cover bugs and flu. But would it be beyond the wit of man to add a sentence to the standard attendance letter which read: "We appreciate that some children may have been absent due to illness or injury serious enough to make school attendance impossible; if so, we ask these parents to understand that the above remarks do not apply to them".

cory - Glad I wasn't the only one that baulked at
"Of course you are expected to keep track of special needs. Every teacher does."
Schools are like most bureaucratic organisations - each department works in isolation and have no idea what the other departments do - or know.

It's sad to know info about SEN is not being shared between staff members. Certainly not the case in the two schools I worked in.

We had a weekly briefing to share important info about the children e.g. so and so is being assessed by autism outreach. Jenny and William's Mum and Dad have separated so keep an eye on them etc.

Every school I have worked in has had a very open and positive attitude to sharing key information. I have been in a 1000+ senior school where certain pupils with special needs that week would be mentioned in the staff meeting (eg. Judy has an eyesight problem, please ensure she cane see to copy from the board or George is on crutches please release early or Raj is off sick, Mum has asked for work to be sent home). All schools have had a good computer system to flag up SEN etc.