Note from attendance officer

[Moanyoldcow]

I'm quite irritated to have received a note from the attendance officer and I'd like to understand the possible repercussions of lower than 'ideal' attendance please.

My son has just started Reception. He came down with a terrible cold on a Sunday with a fever, bad cough and very runny nose. He was off for Monday and Tuesday.

I sent him back Wednesday and Thursday but I misjudged it as by Thursday he'd relapsed and I had to leave early to collect him. He was off on the Friday and Monday. By Tuesday he was much better so he returned to school, only had a cough and has been in school as normal since.

The letter says some tosh about 'hope his attendance improves' but acknowledges he's been sick too.

What are you supposed to do? Send them in sick and keep attendance high just to appease the officer?

It's really narked me. The only way his attendance could've been improved would've been if I sent him in sick which is directly against their guidelines.

Urgh. I hate all this shit.

"Perhaps try working with the school, drop the attitude and support them in wanting kids to attend?"

Working with them for what? Her child was sick. Presumably op followed procedure re: informing school. Why should there be anything further to deal with or work with, or support the school with, from that very common, simple situation?

Liadin - it was not an automated letter and it's less than 5 weeks into term - how can you calculate a significant percentage so early into the year?

Schools have online portals for inputting attendance, which will give you a percentage of days attended/missed. I certainly don't have to sit down and work it out individually, I just keep an eye on the system.

The letter may have been addressed to you, yes, but there is likely an internal policy that says parents should be notified once attendance is below a certain percentage. That's what I mean by automated in this case.

They'll be looking at %s. How ridiculous it would be to actually look at the child and the situation!

At this point in the year, it will only take a few days off to fall below 90% attendance which is a lot of school's benchmark for flagging poor attendance.

It won't take long to get his % up again with good attendance.

Liadin - the letter specifically mentions my son having been ill and hopes that he's better. It may be a template but it was personalised and referred to his absences being due to sickness. The next sentence mentions hoping his attendance will improve.

There is nothing I can do to improve his attendance short of sending him in sick.

Honestly - I totally get the need to keep an eye.

It's just, if you take the time to personalise the letter, you must've assessed the case and therefore you'd know the letter was unnecessary.

If it was purely standard I'd have chucked it and moaned to my husband. End of.

That's precisely it AVeryBigHouse - if he remains well for the next two weeks his attendance will be 91%.

The monitoring less than 5 weeks in is arbitrary and inaccurate.

Liadin, I think your response isn't fair. To the people in education system long enough, it's a known facts that you get these letters, and if you have genuine reason, you don't need to worry about them.
But most of the time these posts are from reception parents, who are new to system, and if you receive these letters so early in the year(which I did), it is very scary and worrying.
Maybe school can inform new parents that you will get these letters if your child's attendance drops certain percentage in the info eve or something, and inform if you have genuine reason, there's nothing to worry about. Then there will be no upset parents.

No, they probably send it as a precaution. If you turn out to have awful attendance throughout the year, they then have this paper trail to confirm they've alerted you. It really doesnt matter for the vast majority of parents, but you can't target specific people (and every year we have parents who we know will take numerous days off, and parents who won't) - the policy must apply to all.

Also, in my online portal I can input absence reasons - which is how I can remember that for example Shane was off on the 5th October to attend a wedding (obviously inventing children here). It really isnt hard then for admin staff to check it and tailor the letter to the situation.

Sounds like they did assess it, which is why they remarked on his illness. They know it isn't a case of you feeling like not sending him to school that day. But if he drops below a certain threshold, that letter needs to be sent to all.

Yes, that's fair irvine. I just think that OPs attitude to the school letter is disproportionate and ridiculous - the twattish comment underlined that for me.
There is worried, and then there is ott.

91% is still shit attendance even over a long period. It suggests one day off a fortnight.

If he doesn’t have another day off all academic year then he will be on 97% which is good.

So what do you do if a child is sick all the time?

Say I have a repeat of last winter.

Came down with rotavirus on a Sunday night. Vomiting until Wednesday so 5 days off owing to mandatory 48 hour exclusion. Then 3 weeks later he got some bug which meant antibiotics but had fever for 3 days (can't send them with a fever obviously) and some diarrhoea. He only missed 4 days because it was end of term - would've been more like 8 otherwise. So that's 9 days in a single term.

That takes attendance down to about 85% which is bad. But I can literally do nothing about it. So how do I 'work with the school' or 'improve' his attendance?

I'm wondering about the OP. What happens to the hildren being treated for chronic illness? Do they get constant pointless letters?

Sorry typo- Wondering about that OP

Improve his attendance just sounds like a stock phrase to me - a roundabout way of saying hope his health improves and he isn't as ill. You're reading too deeply into all of it.

While I don't teach in the UK, I gather that Ofsted are big into attendance, so it's really not surprising that schools issue these letters. It's a way of showing that they are aware and creating a paper trail that they can refer back to if they've to hand the case over to an attendance officer.

Or "hope his attendance improves", was that the phrase I think? It just sounds like a generic line to me.

I know Bubble. My son is just 'one of those kids' - I took him to the doctor because I just felt it couldn't be normal, plus I get all the crap he gets too which is vile.

I think that the fact I can just see this same nonsense every bloody term I already feel sick of it.

I long for one of those robust kids who can tear around when really ill and shake it off in a day but mine just isn't like that and I've learned not to push it with what he's capable of.

I made a mistake the other week sending him in because it's all new and I want him to settle and I feel terrible that they had to have me collect him.

Maybe Liadain.

Hopefully I'm overthinking it. I suppose it's just hard to feel you're being criticised for something you have no control over all.

It's all about number crunching and for stats purposes. Good attendance makes the School look good.

Ignore Ignore Ignore.

If your child is unwell, then they are unwell and shouldn't be at School.

The problem is the amount of twats parents that send their unwell child into school. It is unbelievable. Even when they've been sick. They couldn't care less about their own child let alone anyone else's for that matter.

But that's a whole different thread.

Seriously? Ignore it and don't give it anymore thought.

But what if your child has, say, cancer? Do the letters keep coming when they miss school for their treatment?

Bubblebubblepop, to answer your question about children with chronic illness, yes we did. Until he became well enough to only attend couple of appointments a year and so much hard work not to catch any regular illness. But fortunately, I was always reassured by school not to worry.

I would imagine that there is then a note on the file - possibly copies of letters from consultants, parents etc. Like I said - paper trail to prove they aren't sitting on their hands and are aware of attendance issues. Afaik there are also teachers in hospitals for long term child patients, so maybe they are marked as being educated elsewhere.

Mind you, luckily none of the children in my school have cancer, so I'm just assuming here.

The problem is that it's a catch 22.

Like I said in my last post, the amount of idiots that don't follow the 48 rule after a child has been sick is outrageous. Unbelievably selfish and it makes my blood boil.

Then there's the whole good health certificate attendance certificate awarded each term.

Jeez, don't get me started.

Yes, Liadain, at my ds's hospital, there are school facility for children with long term illness. He didn't need to register there fortunately, so I don't know the details, but I assume maybe they can get signed off as educated there.

* I'm wondering about the OP. What happens to the hildren being treated for chronic illness? Do they get constant pointless letters?*
No they won’t. Not if they’ve provided evidence which supports the condition/absences.

From a school’s perspective: we have to do it. I hate doing it unless attendance is a real concern. I often send sticky notes to soften the blow. We are not doing it to piss you off, schools are under so much pressure to improve attendance.

Bare in mind plenty of parents/kids do take the piss. Some are overly precious and some are gullible and believe their child is ill when they aren’t. Some just don’t care about education and don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Of course most (I hope most) are genuine but far far from all.

Attendance is a large part of Ofsted - I doubt you’d want to send your child to a non-good school. We are responsible for how your child performs at various stages, and attendance impacts this. Our hands are pretty tied!

I was asked to interview in a hospital once irvine - didn't take it as I imagine it's incredibly difficult to work with very sick children and I don't think that road is for me! I presume they are recorded as attending there.

Hopefully your ds will never need to use the hospital school