School want to know too much

[Balinahome]

My daughter started school this September (she’s just 5) and I had to request a days ansence due to an appointment I had which I’ve known about from before she started school. The reason stated on the request form was ‘for personal reasons I will not be able to collect my daughter from school’ As I wouldn’t be around to collect her from school and I had nobody else available to collect her so she had to go to my MIL for care until I returned from the appointment.
I received the form back from the headteacher which stated that the School cannot authorise avoidable absences which I am very irritated about as they have no knowledge of why I couldn’t collect her therefore how could they possibly know it was avoidable? I found the comment to be obtuse especially given that she is not yet of compulsory school age. I’ve sent the head a strongly worded (but not rude) email in response stating that my personal life has nothing to do with School AIBU?

However, the OP's daughter has started school and, therefore, her attendance is compulsory - just as if she were of compulsory school age.

I don't think it is. It is expected, and you will get a 'telling off' if you don't send her but you can't be fined, taken to court etc.

No Autumn her attendance is not compulsory. There is even a separate register. The school would prefer your dc to attend , but legally they don't have to.

Even though she’s on school role she doesn’t have to attend and the OP can’t/won’t be fined.

AutumnTrees - you are wrong. There are no measures in place to allow schools to enforce attendance when a child is below compulsory school age. Whilst they shouldn't be taking random afternoons off, the parents cannot be penalised if they do as no offence has been committed. However, once the child reaches compulsory school age it is an offence under section 444 of the Education Act 1996 if the child does not attend school regularly.

mydc

I don’t know where you’ve got the idea of a separate registered for children under CSA. Someone else posted about it too and unless your school is different from every school I’ve worked on, they are on the same computer system, and therefore the same attendance system, as everyone else in the school.

I can’t imagine the extra work having a separate database for reception children which would cause - it would have to be updated every day and each time a
child became of CSA their details would have to be migrated over. Pointless.

prh47

While there’s no legal requirement for children to be in school until they’re of CSA our school encourages them to attend because we feel if they didn’t want to attend they should have deferred. The LA won’t fine them and we won’t refer them to the EWO but they will still get a green, amber or red letter every term and they are still included in our monitoring data for Ofsted.

Having said that, we’ve never had a parent use that excuse to take heir child out of school so it’s never been an issue x

It’s very common for some of our parents to take advantage of this and only bring their summer borns occasionally when they feel inclined and nothing we can do about it.

I wonder why they don’t just defer? I would think a random pattern of attendance would be very unsettling for a child. Surely better not to have them start at all until they reach CSA?

SuburbanRhonda
Maybe i'm cynical but they probably lile having school as free childcare but then only want it as and when it suits.

There is even a separate register. The school would prefer your dc to attend , but legally they don't have to.

I am responsible for the registers and monitoring attendance, there is NO separate register and hasn't been anywhere I've worked.

OP if you are still reading, the "nosey" receptionist (and we are MUCH more than receptionists) would have been trying to clarify whether there was a way to auorise the absence. I recently pressed a parent when they said the child would not be in 'for a personal matter' and it was actually a legal appointment that the children needed to attend which meant we could authorise the absence.

I think you might be right, maisy

I think they realise that a request to defer a full year is unlikely to be successful

There’s no such thing as compulsory school age in the UK.

Actually there is such a thing as compulsory School age which isn’t the same as compulsory School attendance just to be confusing.
http://www.home-education.org.uk/articles/legal-csa.pdf

There’s no such thing as compulsory school age in the UK

Yes there is. It is the correct legal term as set out in section 8 of the Education Act 1996. Any child of compulsory school age must be schooled (i.e. educated) but they do not have to attend a school.

Oh dear. This does not bode well. 7 weeks in most children will have at least one friend to go to a play date with there are loads of other ways to get round pick ups. School will not thank a parent who just takes a child out as its not convenient

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou
Then there is a separate code.

From www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance
"Administrative Codes
The following codes are not counted as a possible attendance in the School Census:
Code X: Not required to be in school
This code is used to record sessions that non-compulsory school age children are not expected to attend."

“This code is used to record sessions that non-compulsory school age children are not expected to attend."”__
Not expended to attend isn’t the same as absent

Its not always that easy to find someone to collect your child from school, not everyone has friends and family that can do this, after school clubs don't usually do one offs, I am pretty sure that one day off in reception at age 5 will not effect her future A level results!!!! None of us want to tell the dr's receptionist our reasons for seeing the dr so why should we want to tell the school secretary

None of us want to tell the dr's receptionist our reasons for seeing the dr so why should we want to tell the school secretary
Nobody is saying the OP must divulge her medical history! This has been said to death on this thread.

People are saying that it is perfectly reasonable for a school to ask information when someone says 'my child will be off becausr i have an appointment and can't/won't get appropriate childcare even though I've known about this for months'. Then when the OP gets arsey and defensive people are pointing out that asking a little info is reasonable and being deliberately vague is not needed.

Had the OP said 'unfortunately I have a medical appointment and amcan't get a pick up for hometime. DC will be in until X and then I need to take her to MIL' then school probably couldn't authorise it but they wouldn't have a massive question mark over the situation.

Now the OP is probably identified as a potential 'that parent' and thry'll keep a closer eye in attendance, which is probably wise as she has said she will lie next time she needs to keep DC off school.

this thread is going round in circles!

mydc

There is no separate code.

The code for “not required to be in school” isn’t used for children who are on roll but are not of CSA. Children not if CSA have the same as every other child on roll.

So in our school, for example, if they don’t turn up because a parent has an appointment, they will get a code O for that day (unauthorised). If they’re not in but it’s authorised, it will be C.

The code for “not required to be in school” (Z in our school) is used mostly for when children start mid-year. The weeks before they start are back-filled with Z codes on their attendance record.

Ours are recorded as an x on days they attend but are not compulsory but as / or \ after they turn compulsory. Absences etc are recorded normally.

I have used x in the past for a child on roll. This was for a child with special needs who had a phased entry and only did mornings for the first term of reception. He had the x code for the afternoon but if he did not come in for a morning he did not get an x code (although he was 4) he got m (medical appointment), I (ill), o (unauthorised) or c (authorised - for example a grandparents funeral).