What is classed as a possible attendance day?

[yodabo]

I am really wondering what people think of how schools have to register absences from school, (Primary) whether it be, sickness, holiday, or other reasons.

We received a letter to see an attendance officer after my sons school (he is 9) reported his attendance at 89%, obviously this being below the minimum requirement.

I am sure most school use the same system of 1 full school day = 2 possible attendances. Therefore, at the time of the letter, my son could have attended school 250 times (125 days), however he attended 222 sessions (111 days) hence 14 days when he did not attend. Now this may seem horrendeous to most parents, however, he did have that terrible australian flu in January, and was off school for 2 weeks, and the other 4 days, were the usual stomach bugs going around the class etc and me adhering to the 48hr rule. This was a one off year that he missed such a big chunk of time due to flu. The whole family had it and it was awful!

we received a letter from the headmistress, stating my sons attendance was below the required standard, and then she started mentioning unauthorised absences etc, and a potential meeting with an attendance officer. To be honest this got my hackles up! none of the absences were unauthorised, in fact it states in the Education Act 1996, that when a child is sick, and the school are informed, it is an authorised absence. Therefore, i queried the head, and asked why unauthorised has been mentioned, and her reply was that, this is the letter she is required to send as per the Education Department (GOV).

I delved a bit further, and found that again, as the per Ed Act 1996, a child is deemed to be prevented to attend school by reason of sickness, and therefore, i have argued that as my son was prevented to attend school, due to sickness, then this is not a possible attendance, day, and furthermore, as he was able to attend 222 sessions, and he attended all of these 222 sessions, then his attendance is 100%!

Now you all might be thinking that i am a dog with a bone here, but to a deeper level, if schools are having to report children as absent to the County Council and including the days which are deemed are preventable to attend, and in turn, not possible, then the schools are doing themselves an injustice in any league tables, and furthermore, had i have accepted the offer of a meeting with an attendance officer, we would have both been wasting our time, as my son was just sick, not playing hooky, or on holiday, just sick!!

I really am after trying to get some support to take this inaccurate reporting further, and to get schools to provide maybe 2 attendance reports, one for days attended out of the school term, and the other for the individual childs possible attendance.

I also appreciate schools have an incredible job to do, the teachers at my sons school are awesome, and it is this injustice to the schools that i am really questioning. The irony is that if the County Council had sent the attendance officer to meet me at my sons school, they wouldnt have had a clue whether this child with 89% attendance was tall, short, thin, fat, or any other combination, he was purely a statistic that fell below the Governments standard.

Any comments (please be kind!) would be appreciated!!

[MaisyPops]

I think had you come on with the approavh of 'schools seem to spend a lot of time dealing with attendance, what do people think the flaws are. I was thinking... Wouldn't it be nice to discuss alternatives?' the thread would have taken a different route.

Instead it was essentially 'I don't like being given a letter saying my child was absent because they have 100% attendance -
except the days that they weren't in. How stupid is the system. Now I'm going start trying to quibble over a total non-point and then change my tone as the thread develops to make out like I'm actually benevolently trying to help schools'.

Do I think the current system is perfect for absence? No.
Do I think a perfect system exists? No.

Eithet way an absence is an absence. If school is open to educate and a child is not there then their attendance % goes down. Fairly straightforward

[yodabo]

Maisypops - i could have not included my sons attendance, however, i was using it as an example, to give some backbone to why I looked at the DFE and Ed Act. Time and time again in the thread i repeated that I was not wasting school time at all, but was asking if anyone else felt that the DFE standard unauthorised absence letter, which quotes the Ed Act, contradicts itself , but everyone jumps on board as if I am taking this one letter all the way to No 10!

Its done, you seem to now understand that i am not a persistant school parent that makes the Headteachers life hell and makes all teachers resign...... I am one of the very quiet, compliant, nice mums (who doesnt waste anyones time) who saw what i feel is a contradiction, which is causing the schools huge amounts of time and paperwork, and was asking other MN's what they thought. I never changed the tone of the thread as I knew where i was coming from all along - but repeatedly having to defend myself was and is very frustrating.

[MaisyPops]

I haven't said you make headteachers' lives hell.

Equally, it's not really a contradiction though (as people have said).

Schools are judged on their attendance and unauthorised absences.
If school is open for people to attend then it's open.
If a child is absent, they are absent.

Different parents will ring in sick and the thresholds for people calling sick will vary from total fabrication, mildly run down, the sniffles, full on flu, appendicitis.

Under 90% attendance at this stage in the year is a month off in the school year. It is what it is.

[ShakespearesSisters]

My little girl threw up on the carpet at school and wasn't allowed in even if I wanted to send her. I do see that if they refused to allow the child into school it shouldn't count as a session they missed as they were forbidden from being there so all absence and and unauthorised absence report would make interesting reading.
(Oh, she was fine withing 10 minutes of collecting her and was attempting handstand and cartwheels - she had over indulged in chocolate cake that had been bought in for someone's birthday)

[BackforGood]

Lot of sense talked by maisypops there.

[MaisyPops]

But it IS a session missed. If I'm not in work, then I'm not in work. I could be in hospital having my appendix out and be off for a while... but i'd still be absent from work.

I can see the occupational health/HR meetings for the next generation:

OH/HR - So Mrs Blogs. We're having a meeting because you've hit a trigger point for absence and we need to see if any additional support is needed to help ypu be in work
Mrs Blogs - but it wasn't possible for me to be in so how are you judging me on my attendance. Why are we even here?
OH/HR - you weren't in work on the following occasions in the last year so we want to have a chat
Mrs Blogs - but that's not my fault. If i cant actually physically be in work then who are you to tell me that I've got a problem with attendance. Other than when I've been poorly I've got 100% attendance
OH/HR - well obviously... but ARE talking about the periods of absence
Mrs Blogs - but how are you? You can't seriously tell me you're having an attendancr meeting with me when I've been at work all the time, except the days when I was poorly?
OH/HR - we're looking at discussing the times when you weren't in work to put some support in if needed
Mrs Blogs - but why are we even discussing those? Your trigger point means nothing anyway. You say I've not been in work all the time but I've been in all the times it was possible to attend
OH/HR - You were absent on a number of occasions.
Mrs Blogs - yes.
OH / HR - so that's what we arr talking about
Mrs Blogs - but why? I've already told you I've been in all the time I could possibly be in. If it's not possible then that's that. You're just being silly with statistics. It's obvious I've got 100% attendance.
OH/HR - we just want to see what can be put in place to help you following periods of absence.
Mrs Blogs - But why would I need that. This ks a waste of time because yoy keep talking about absence and attendance but I have already tols you I have good attendance. If it wasn't possible for me to be in work then that doesn't count and now you're wasting everyone's time having a meeting about some made up trigger point when I clearly haven't hit it because I've been in work 100% of the time, except when ill but then that doesn't count does it.
OH/HR - (bangs head against wall)

[BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou]

A possible attendance day is any day on which the school was open to pupils.

At my school if a parent tells us a child is ill then we record it as “I” and it is an authorised absence. For percentages it is still an absence though. We do, on occasion, change an “I” to one of the unauthorised absence codes, eg when the child comes in tanned and tells us about his lovely holiday, or when the parent tells us the child has measles which is a notifiable disease which is then checked by local health them who discover the child is actually fit and well at Disneyland Paris!

If a child’s attendance is brought below a certain level soley through illness then the health team can check medical records and advise the educational welfare officer if the illness is genuine.

Even your our reception children the average attendance this year has been over 95%. Our key stage 2 absence (OPs DS is in KS2) is over 97% so below 90% would be very worrying to the EWO who would tell the head to send out the letters.

[BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou]

And the letters take up practically no time at all. There is no “dictation” of letters. There is a simple few key strokes to produce a list of pupils below a percentage, a few more key strokes and a mail merge is run with the standard letter attached and populated with attendance figures (and attached report in our case), the head signs (in some schools this is also done electronically). It takes longer to put them in the envelopes than to produce the letters!

Our EWO comes to school maybe once a month to check data and any meetings with parents are set up for a day when the EWO will be in school.

[SuburbanRhonda]

OP, for someone whose job depends on accuracy of information your posts are littered with mistakes.

Just sayin’

[user789653241]

My ds had less than 90% attendance in the past and sent automatically generated warning letter. Never had meeting or asked to have meeting. It's because of both regular visit to hospital and odd illnesses. We always provided all the evidence, appointment letters, gp appointment card, discharge letters by hospitals, etc. But if we were asked to have meetings, I wouldn't have problem with it, just had to tell the truth.

[spanieleyes]

And the meeting with the EWO will go ahead whether you are there or not, it just means that the process moves forward without any input from parents.

[yodabo]

I'm going to leave it here, i think my original post has been totally misinterpreted, maybe i didnt explain myself well enough and used too much personal information to give reason behind my question.

I should have just asked peoples opinion on the Ed Act stating 'prevented' and the 'possible' attendance in which they request schools to base their percentages on. I would still have had the same response, ie, that just what schools have to do, but would have saved myself the abuse and name calling, and criticism of all my flaws! a thank you goes out to SuburbanRhonda :)

just for the record however, my child is never off for trips to Disney, or holidays, they are only off when they are genuinely ill. I do however, appreciate that not all families are being totally honest when they call a child in as sick.

Maisypops, you seem to have really invested alot of your time in creating a little scene to get your point across.... I dont actually disagree with how you have written it, but on the other hand, heres a very short version from where i was coming from :

Child is ill and parent informs school, school marks this as authorised absence, but as the child is below the attendance threshold, parent receives a letter quoting the education act section 444, which in turn states

(3) The child shall not be taken to have failed to attend regularly at the school by reason of his absence from the school— (a) with leave, (b) at any time when he was prevented from attending by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause,

So, the school have to write to a parent and invite them to a meeting to discuss attendance, even though they were aware the child was authorised to be absent due to sickness.

[Whydoilikebroccoli]

I had a similar letter from the school about my dad's absence as he had two weeks recovery from an operation. Sadly, within two weeks of returning to school he got a d&v bug that had him off a further 4 days and I had to send him to school when he'd gone deaf with the nasty cold and still healing from his operation. Really I should have kept him home. Hmm I think there is a distinction between illness and medical absence. I do believe that when a child has been off due to an operation/medical problems, those days shouldn't count towards the no. Sessions missed because a medical professional has said you cannot attend. But minor illnesses etc should be counted. Spoke to my lovely head and she just explained that if we did get called to a meeting, she would just explain the medical history and no further action is taken.

[Whydoilikebroccoli]

DS not dad

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

In a way, your last sentence sort of explains why illnesses should be counted, Why

The job of the EWO is to assess whether the issue is likely to be long term or not and whether there is appropriate support available if it is. They aren’t going to be able to do that if those children aren’t referred to them because absences due to illness aren’t included in the overall absence stats.

[greenbean007]

Sorry to be blunt! You’re being ‘one of those’ parents. The school has to send you one of those letters. My son’s school sends them out for anything less than 95%. It doesn’t matter to the overall attendance percentage, if it’s classed as authorised or not. If it’s illness than don’t worry about it. The school’s don’t make the rules, the government do.