Probable fine for low attendance after genuine illness.

[Quietlife333]

So,
Cut a long story short youngest ds of three has managed to catch every bug going since September this year. This is not usual for him, he is otherwise well normally but has had tummy bug with the runs, serious throat bug with temperatures, vomiting bug and a really bad cold with tummy pain. His attendance was just above 90%
School reported us to welfare officer who said it’s fine I can see he has been genuinely ill. Also that attendance is going in the right direction now but next time you must provide evidence.
So DS was absent again for two days after picking up another bug at school very bad cold running nose bleary eyes tummy pain sneezing and coughing.
Our G.P will not provide evidence to be given to schools to account for children’s absence as policy.
I’m pretty sure we will be fined. But there is not a lot I can do other than send a sick child into school to avoid a fine. Which I’m not allowed to do by school policy.
Has anybody else been in this situation and how did it pan out? Frankly if they fine us I’m planning to recoup the costs by opting out of paying for any school trips. Until I cover the cost of the fine. I don’t think it’s fair to penalise parents for keeping genuinely sick kids home from school and while I don’t want to do this I don’t see anyway around it.

I think it's unlikely they"ll fine you for attendance just under 90%. That would account for about 10% of the school where I teach. We do monitor closely attendance at that level similar to what you're experiencing but we're only just considering going down the pcn route with a child with 68% attendance. Shes literally off one or two days every week.

Soontobe60- I can’t speak for most parents but I have to say I don’t blame parents who take their kids out for days out for holidays during term time.
You only live once.
School is becoming an ever increasing overbearing establishment in many people’s opinions for varying reasons.
I know many a parent at our children’s school who’s children go on holiday with them to visit grandparents on the other side of the world because to go during school holiday time would make costs so high families just simply would not be able to see loved ones. These trips are never authorised. One lady I spoke to recently said it would have cost her an extra 2.5k to visit her elderly mother if she traveled ten days later.
The majority of parents want their children to do well and ensure attendance, help with homework, stump up for enrichment activities, school team costs, early team drop offs or pick ups, we help with school trips, making nativity costumes, hours of craft based volcano homework, spellings, times tables because we love our kids. If a parent wants to then take their kids on a holiday that is also going to enrich that child’s life that they wouldn’t get to go on otherwise out of term time I say fair play to them. Not all education is class room based, some of the most fantastic experiences Cabot be had in a classroom.

Sorry - can not. I think I may need a few hours back in class.

I agree @Quietlife333 on the holiday front in many ways.
It isn't a perfect system but overall good attendance (on average) = good outcomes. Parents want a 'good/outstanding' school and part of that is results and attendance.

Tell the welfare office to contact go for child’s notes as this will prove your child was ill. GDPR May of course make this difficult but that’s not your doing and you don’t have to prove you’re telling the truth / they have to prove your lying

Could you possibly take photos /video him being visibly ill? Surely that'd be proof?

Schools and attendance really narks me off. At the end of term assembly just before easter ds school gave out easter eggs to everyone who had 100% from September till then. The head even did a speech how these children came into schol regardless even if they were ill. Worse still in july every child who has 100% for the whole acedemic year name gets put in a hat and names get pulled out and they win bikes, scooters and vochers for toys ots disgraceful in my opinion. Never a truer word than this post i read :
School attendance is not an achievement to be rewarded and measured - non attendance often relates to curcumstance not choice.

The head even did a speech how these children came into schol regardless even if they were ill. Worse still in july every child who has 100% for the whole acedemic year name gets put in a hat and names get pulled out and they win bikes, scooters and vochers for toys ots disgraceful in my opinion

That's wonderful. So the poor children with asthma or immune system related illnesses get even more absences though catching bugs so that other healthy children can be rewarded.

Exactly its disgusting.

Harleyisme- that’s terrible! It really makes you wonder what kind of people are looking after your children all day, and if they do actually have your children’s best interests at heart. I’d love to see some schools somewhere start standing up to this kind of nonsense. Also to be honest even if I had proof I wouldn’t send it anyway. I can’t stand this presumption of guilt and I feel like going along with it by providing proof justifies their silly behaviour. I resent this distrust of parents.
I now have a meeting to discuss attendance at school. That will be interesting;
Staff- we need you to improve x’s attendance.
Me- x has been kept home only when sick.
Staff- y was also absent on Monday.
Me- yes he vomited EVERYWHERE at 2.45 am.
Silence.

OP make a note of the meeting and send a copy by email to all present, and to reception. This is "evidence" for future. Also proves you're engaging.

I would ask them what motivation they think you have to deliberately keep DC off when they are well enough to attend?

Schools DO have some wiggle room on this, eg my DD barely attended Y6 (refusal/anxiety/bullying) and we had zero problems from school because she was going to get good SATS marks but also no real willingness to tackle problems.

I would ask them what motivation they think you have to deliberately keep DC off when they are well enough to attend?
We've had parents blatantly state they like DC at home to keep them company/look after younger siblings/wait in for a delivery.... I'm sure this doesn't apply to OP but lots of parents do have warped motivation to keep DC off unnecessarily.

Sauvignon- that is bonkers- one that they would do that- and two that they would happily tell about it.
I will be interested to see what exciting non vomit based things they think we are up to if any. Hopefully everybody just nods and says we have to do this bla bla bla we know he has been sick.

@Quietlife333 yup that's what they'll probably say along with "just be mindful in the future/poor attendance affects progress" etc etc. Unless their attendance is absolutely chronic or they genuinely don't believe you, an attendance meeting can be quite productive and non-painful!

And yes, it is totally bonkers! It's hard when you've got mostly sensible parents but a fair few who have a totally different view on education

Move to Scotland! Quite common for kids in my sons school to be in 2 week holidays to florida and other “exciting” places and nobody seems to give a shit. Half days on Fridays so attendance is very low on that day.

The head even did a speech how these children came into schol regardless even if they were ill

This is not something to aim for! So many adults make themselves more unwell by forcing themselves into work when they are ill. Children get sick - we shouldn't be telling them that less than 100% attendance is a bad thing.

My son has been very ill this school year (75% attendance) and his school said that they can authorise his sick days with evidence - appointment cards and permission from me to speak to GP. The gp wrote one letter but refused to write any more but the phone call seemed to suffice.

our doctor will not give out sick notes for children, i totally understand this as the ques would be out the door every day but what you can do is ask for a copy of the consultation even if its just a phone consultation which you can pick up at reception.

One of mine is at 100% attendance for the year... the other is currently at 93% - every single absence accounted for and relating to ill health, medical appointments it's not possible to reschedule or occupational therapy appointments. I've had NO aggro with the school at all - and the school have said to me that if it gets queried they'll happily explain the circumstances behind absences and not to worry about it.

Yes there are piss-takers out there - DD1 has a friend is mysteriously off a lot of Fridays when mum doesn't work for example - but it's gone very far toward parental persecution in some schools these days. The school we moved DD1 from were requesting doctors notes for any absence after 2 days through the entire year... anyone who's had a child start reception knows how they catch absolutely everything going that first year of school. I think the GP surgery told the school where to go on that particular plan!

So attendance meeting wasn’t exactly inspiring this week.
It’s hard to fully explain without giving too much personal information out.
Cut it short as I can. The school have said previously this absence of the most recent couple of days had to be recorded as unauthorised on the word of the council.
However council said in the meeting when I asked them, that the head is the only one who can decide to make the absence unauthorised. The head said they both accept that dc was genuinely ill. It seems the bug was going around.
They both accept that the G.P. won’t give letters for children at all. They do not think dc is at risk and were at pains to let me know they really think dc is fine in that regard.
However they have still decided to mark unauthorised. Which counts in criteria towards a fine. More or less halfway points. Some woolly talk about safeguarding in general and not being able to single us out for special treatment incase that got around. Even though dc isn’t at risk and they say they believe the illness was genuine.
Thing is the absence doesn’t meet the schools criteria for unauthorised absence.
I think it boils down to the school being a bit over zealous in this particular case and council pressuring parents through schools to get better attendance through a policy of the threat of fines. In doing so ignoring the individual needs of children in their care. Helping to spread illness to other kids and teachers by making parents feel they must send sick kids in.
I now don’t feel bad at all if I have to pass any fine we get onto the school because they have used their discretion against us wrongfully.

They are marking the register illegally if that's the case as illness is a statutory defence. Join the fb group against school holiday fines/pcns and fight it legally.

Also when chatting about what constitutes proof. Council said that children’s prescriptions should be photographed and sent in. Appointments could be sent in the form of emails copies for cards given etc. Or that I could give permission for the council to contact the G.P. Direct. Which I have to say I was horrified by.
Does nobody have any right to privacy anymore? It really goes beyond acceptable levels of interference in people’s lives. When I said this I was told
Well....safeguarding.
So it seems we are all treated like we are guilty of some horrible treatment of children and have to routinely prove otherwise now. It’s too much. I am considering writing to my M.P. About the local council policy and it undermines the privacy of families.

Arnold- Thanks for the info.