EWL letter

[MerlinFromCamelot]

Just has a letter from the school saying DD’s absence is 91.5% which is below the target of 95% etc... School has referred matter to EWL who will follow attendance closely.

A few weeks ago DD came out in a rash, because the rash only effected one part of her body the GP said they could not exclude Shingles. I phoned the school and told them about this, I asked them what I should do next as my DD did not appear ill. The school said that if the GP could not exclude Shingles we should not bring her back to school so we did. In total she was away from school for 5 days until the rash had cleared up. (the rash was in her face and as such it could not be covered up with clothing.)

Ealier in the school year she had tummy bug. I had left a message on the school's absence line saying that she had vomited overnight and that I was going to keep her at home for the day but that she should hopefully be back the next day. A few hours later I received a call from the school saying she should be kept away from school for a second day because of vomiting.

I don’t really understand why they are sending me this letter. It was the school who did not want us to bring our DD back to school on two occasions and told us to keep her at home.

There has however been another matter with the school at the end of last school year, not related to absence. The class was split in to 2 new classes last year and DD ended up in a class without any of her friends. She was upset about this and has not been very happy at school since. Is the school perhaps thinking that because DD is not happy in school we as parents are letting her skive???

The letter ends by saying we should contact the school office if we wish to arrange a meeting to improve our DD’s attendance. (which we have done)

Sorry if this post is all over the place but feeling really miffed. Any advice very much appreciated. If feel we are not at fault here and I would like to put this right but have no clue where to start.

Thank you.

op, has the letter come from outside of the school? If so, it's what the local authority have to do. It's pretty rubbish, and worrying i know.

they have targets, and boxes to tick. all they want to do is see you and you tell them what you have told us.

Even thought you've explained to the school, the schools don't always tell them and even if they do, they like to chase attendence up themselves.

Have been there. There are a few threads recently about the high levels set now for attendance, so be comforted that you are certainly not alone.

You are not at fault, and do put the thing about the classes out of your mind. NOthing to do with that. x

No, the letter came from the school.

The EWL has allocated a case officer to my DD's case. Have tried to ring her but she is off sick! The senior officer is away but the council are not sure where. Looks like I'm not going to get any wiser from the EWL any time soon.

last time i had am appointment with the education welfare officer (works for local government) it was delayed as she was off sick.

It is just standard procedure and not a very good one. It adds to the stress that someone with a chronically ill child is going through, for example.

MerlinfromCamelot -

The most likely explanation is the percentage of absences has triggered the system and the school has to write to you.

You may get visited but you have clearly explained the absences here and I suspect the EWL will have no issue. I'd take it as procedure and not personal.

This is about ensuring that schools keep tabs on persistently absent children. Know that the system can and does accommodate illness - and just accept that in your case there is no issue but this is here to identify children who's parents are too chaotic to get them to school, etc.... - which ultimately in such a situation you might want the state to intervene.

In terms of issues about splitting classes - schools get complaints on this regularly (as does MN) - so I suspect it's already forgotten. I wouldn't treat the issues as related or even entertain worrying about that.

HTH

@ piratecat how ironic!

Merlin

The letter ends by saying we should contact the school office if we wish to arrange a meeting to improve our DD’s attendance. (which we have done)

Do you think you need help to get your Dd into school?? It sounds to me more like an option than an instruction IYSWIM.

File under 'bin' you have been to the GP, who I am guessing will have enough info on file, let the EWL do the work. As said above just tell them the truth....and then chill, I'm sure there will be many pupils whose attendance is way lower than that in the school.

I think it is ridiculous that they set these attendance targets so high TBH, I think they do more harm than good. Frightening parents into sending a child who is unwell into school who then spreads the germs in that small, busy, warm, germ friendly environment which if you think logically will result in more absences in the long run is just ludicrous

Do you think you need help to get your Dd into school?? It sounds to me more like an option than an instruction IYSWIM.

Well if they have any ideas as to how to stop DD becoming ill then I would like to hear it. All absences have been explained to the school, so why sent me that letter. If it was one of those automatic generated ones from the council/EWL it could somehow be explained as a department with too much money/ resources. But it is coming from the same people who told me not to send her in school in the first place.

Schools are under a lot of pressure to improve attendance. Anything dropping below 95% will automatically start a change of events, all designed to try and improve attendance.
From what you describe the possibility of improving your child's attendance over the last twelve months would be nil. The parents that they will be concentrating on are those where there is a pattern of 1,2, 3 day absences with vague illnesses, especially if the attendance is less than 90%.
I would not worry about it. It is a shot across the bows philosophy to try and scare parents into improving attendance but actually says quite a lot about the school in that they do not have the sense to be picking their fights with parents where there is genuine concern over attendance and not ones where there is a clear record of illness.

Don't worry about it. I had a letter from our school yesterday advising that ds has 92% attendance and anything below 95% is considered a problem as it adversely affects childs progress. In my case the school also knows why ds was off. He was in hospital for 2 days and then had 2 separate morninghospital appointments relating to his hospital stay. He then had a bout of d&v which resulted in 48hrs rule being enforced. I filed my letter in the bin. Its a box ticking exercise so that if ofsted walk in they can show that they are doing what they can to improve attendance.

Thank you for all your kind replies.

Managed to get my blood pressure down, feeling a lot calmer!

Feeling sorry for those who's DCs have a chronic illness. The pressure those families must be under, it is wrong. Bad enough worrying about a child's health, these parents don't need the school sending silly letters.

This happened to me. It's funny one of my DD's absences was 5 days off for an unexplained rash (that the school had sent her home for!).

We had to have a meeting with the Deputy Head and the Education Welfare Officer and I had to prove her 'sickness' (each and every incident of absence she had originally been sent home early from school with).

I phoned the EWO to express my disgust and she confirmed what the deputy head at my school (I am a teacher) told me- that school's have discretion and are supposed to use it when deciding which families to refer to the EWO.

Anyway I went to the meeting, I promised my child would never be ill again (if only this were possible), I told the deputy head that there was no way I was paying the 'voluntary' school fund, and then I moved her out of that school and in to another one the following week. I received a letter telling me DD was discharged from their services that same week.

My point is, is that the school's hands aren't tied. They have referred you, no matter what they say. But as long as you are co-operative, nothing will happen. You won't get fined or taken to court or anything like that if you tell them what they want to hear.

Schools not school's!!

Thing is I don't want to tell them what they want to hear. The school referred me whilst they themselves told me to keep DD at home. I would like an explanation from them why they have reported us to the EWL. If they do this purely to satisfy ofsted than they can write that down for me...

I understand that completely as I felt the same. I think I managed to make my point and make them all look stupid in front of the EWO.

But whilst I insinuated that if my DD is ill it's not my problem, I agreed to the bit about her not having any more time off because I just wanted the matter dealt with and the case closed.

I realised that it just wasn't the school for me. I would have been worrying constantly about how they were 'judging' me. Once I realised that the best option, rather than fighting with the people who I'm supposed to trust with my daughter's education, was to remove my daughter out of the care of these stupid people, the more calm I felt!

DD is now in year 5. Had she been any younger I would have taken her out. Not just because of this incident but because this is no longer the school we had chosen for our Dd1 all these years ago. Head retired a few years ago and it all went to pot!

I would see the EWL, give her a nice cup of tea and explain that you were keeping your dd at home on the school's explicit instructions.

I am one of the parents of a child with a chronic condition and the only thing that kept me sane over the years was getting the support of the other professionals.

Improve? Are they going to open at weekends to make up the lost days?!

Think that is not a bad idea actually!