90% attendance - am I going to get in trouble

[farrowandballs]

DS (Yr 1) has got his school report today and it says his attendance rate is 90%. Is this a problem? The cut off point for a 'poor' attendance rate was 94%. Anyone got experience of this? Am I likely to get stern words from the school?

I don't know - you might get a letter. I suppose it depends on why he was off. If it is all down to illness then I can't see them following it up but if he had a 2 week holiday and then some illness too then they may do because they will point out that without the holiday his attendance would have been ok.

Thanks. Its holidays and I guess illness? AmAm surprised he's missed so much tbh. We get or rather got 10 days authorised absences a year and he took all those but im struggling to remember anything other than chicken pox. Sorry for typos on phone

I don't know if you're going to get in trouble or not. But your DC has attended only 9 out of every 10 days of school this year. I'd be really upset if that was the case for my DC unless there was a compelling medical reason. Your DC is missing 10% of their learning time!

I think the cut off is 85% for a letter here. I was surprised to find ds was nearly 90%-he seemed to have had a huge number of absenses, but he'd have had to miss another full 2 weeks to be getting a letter.

190 school days. 90 percent attendance means 19 days missed. If you took 10 days for holidays, then he's already at about 95 per cent attendance. Doesn't then take much to drop below 94 per cent.

Thanks for your responses everybody. I suppose it does add up. Was just a bit shocked it was so low. Hopefully our cut off point is also 85% as I have a really positive relationship with the school, as does DS, and I would feel really bad if that has been jeopardised by his poor attendance.

AlienAttack I don't think I agree that my DS is missing 10% of his 'learning time' - he only turned 6 this week so he's still very much at the stage where he is learning all of the time! I have no concerns about his progress nor does the school. However, now the school are no longer authorising 10 days absence a year I suppose we won't be having any more term time holidays and next year his attendance rate will improve. I don't believe that necessarily means he will be learning any more of the time than he would on holiday, however.

farrow naturally I meant "learning time" at school. It would concern me if my DC had missed 10% of their learning time at school, unless there was a medical or non-preventable reason. But guess we can agree to differ.

I think it's concerning that you are surprised that his attendance is low and you weren't already aware of the amount of days he had missed before the reports came out. Your son may be learning all the time in and out of school but he'll have a missed quite a bit of what everyone else learned in class if he was out for 2 weeks, which won't be covered again when he comes back.

I agree. Yes, they are learning all the time, but school subjects - particularly maths - build on what has gone before, so missing a chunk of school time for a holiday may mean he has missed something basic, which he then struggles to build on.

Exceptional holidays (once in a lifetime type things) are worthwhile children missing school for, but a week or two in the sun a bit cheaper is not worth missing school for - in my opinion, of course.

Tbf, op hasn't said what the 10 days holiday was used for, it may not have been '2 weeks in the sun'...I had 4/5 weeks out of school in my last year of primary for a holiday. It was visiting family in South America, travelling all round to many cultural sites (think Andes/Amazon), the whole time writing up a diary to then present back to my classmates on our return. Doubtful, we'd have managed to get this time in school hols. So time out of school with family can also be very educational.

Agree with Galena
I think your real issue is your attitude to school learning.
Very little of school learning is advisable to be missed imo.

You are concerned about the relationship with the school.
But I would be concerned about his learning. Which is the aim of the game.

At our school you would receive a letter stating that the school will be monitoring future attendance and if you would like to meet with the HT to discuss ways to improve attendance levels then you're welcome to do so.

Nothing more than that at that level.

Thanks again everybody for your comments.

I supposed I am also surprised/concerned/disappointed that he has had 9 days off sick, and it is important to me that his attendance rate improves next year. However, as I said there are absolutely no concerns on my part, or the school's, about his progress in any subject, and the school have not suggested any negative effect of the absences in the report. The holiday and trips away that he has had during term time have supported and extended what he learns in school and they have been taken with the full support of his teacher and the HT.

I was just concerned that the extremely low attendance rate would lead to intervention from 'higher powers'. It appears this won't happen, which is a relief. The school issued a letter last week to say they could no longer authorise absences for holidays/trips etc. so term time trips won't be happening anymore in any case.

And yes, the term time days out did include 5 days of sitting on a beach making sandcastles. He learned to swim without armbands and count to 10 in Portuguese. It WAS the holiday of (his) lifetime

I suppose thats what they are trying to make people aware of.

You said you had had a holiday and he had been ill so if you hadn't had the holiday then the illness would have made his attendance ok and illness is unavoidable.
I think a lot of people don't realise this. They think ten days holiday is allowed therefore it is ok but then don't think about the fact it is actually 10 days absence including illness which is classed as acceptable absence levels so a holiday often tips that over the levels.

does that make sense.

yams I really hope I don't come across as having a bad attitude to school learning. My DS's school is excellent. He loves it and is educated to an incredibly high standard there. A huge proportion of his learning does take place in school, I agree, and they have taught him a tremendous amount, and really encourage and nurture his passion for learning.

periwinkle yes absolutely. That penny just dropped this morning actually. I didn't think about it like that before and I'm sure I'm not alone. It looks like we're going to have to be more organised and do more at the weekend instead. But that's ok.

80% is the threshold for legal action I think.

I think that is why I have always been surprised people assumed holidays in term time was 'ok because 10 days was allowed'. My mum was a primary school teacher so I have always known how difficult it is when kids are off and miss 4 or 5 phonics that week etc. fair enough if they are ill but for a holiday it was difficult to want to put in extra effort to catch them up. So to me it was always obvious that those 10 days had to be purely for illness (or a funeral or something like that)

I think the thing is you don't have to do loads to enhance their learning at home but little things can be done after school/at weekends or in the holidays. This summer I have found some archaeology events on locally (there is a national archaeology thing going on - will see if I can find the link) a couple of nature walks, mostly free stuff. we have been growing some fruit and vegetables and flowers in the garden so they have enjoyed that and learned from it. We are having a week away in a cottage in the south west which was £500 in August which is relatively cheap for a family of 4. It is next to a farm so they will see farm life as well and it is a change and we plan a day trip to London. Our weekends are normally just go to the park/playground, see grandparents and play in the garden. We maybe do 1 or 2 days out in a half term or Easter holiday. We don't do that much, perhaps we should do more but I like to think they can learn from everything they do and the free stuff you can do at home is just as good. We do do little science experiments too, they are fascinated with our (cheap) telescope, we have made icebergs and watched how they float in water, how they melt in hot water, they currently want to know how robots work so we are going to do a simple circuit in the holidays with a couple of wires, battery and light so they can see it.

It obviously hasn't done him any harm this year but I in the future it would be better not to take time off other than for illness. Work will increase and if you miss a basic concept at some point you often always struggle with it.

Just wanted to come on to say that at my ds's school, they count each half day as an absence. So effectively 20 absences is actually only 10 days, which over a whole school year is not that much because kids will always pick up illnesses.

Might be worth checking if your school system is the same if you're worried. Also, for what it's worth, I think your dc's attendance level sounds entirely reasonable and am surprised at some of the comments you have got!

onedogandababy, did you read my comment? I said quite clearly that once in a lifetime things were worth missing school for but bog-standard holidays less so. Your fantastic experience wouldn't have raised my concerns.

However, I'm sorry OP but learning to swim without armbands and counting to 10 in Portuguese wouldn't have done it for me. Yes, it's the best holiday he's had so far, but it isn't a 'once-in-a-lifetime' holiday he'll no doubt have many more experiences similar in his lifetime. Not worth missing school for in my opinion

periwinkle i'd be very interested in that link please.

here it is - the Festival of Archaeology
www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/
you can find things near you, lots of hands on stuff, looks good to me. We are off to look for fossils at some point in the holidays I hope. I loved doing that as a child.

Perwinkle thank you so much for that amazing link. There are even a few events locally I can take the kids to, which is brilliant (and unusual as I don't drive and we live in a very rural area).
Addicted Yes a parent I spoke to at the park after school today said that might be the case when I spoke to her about it but I think maybe he just has missed more than I'd thought.
Galena I think we'll just have to agree to differ.
Thanks everyone for your comments and input.

But addicted a percentage is still a percentage. 90 percent of 190 days is 171 days which is 19 days of absence. 90 percent of 380 half days is 342 half days which is 38 half days missed, or 19 days.

90 percent attendance means only attending for 9 out of each possible 10 days.

Doesn't matter if it is measured in days or half days.