Does a letter about authorised but below expected attendance have any long term implications?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

My dc attended lockdown school during lockdown 1 as vulnerable children due to issues their ASD big sibling was experiencing due to the situation. Lockdown 2 came around and big sibling coped so I kept them all home, homeschooling daily, completing all work set, thinking I was doing the right and responsible thing. It was not easy, having 4 dc to school alone during this time.

I have just received an attendance letter, because their attendance is 73% (entirely due to authorised absence during lockdown 2 - nothing else). Phoned head thinking it was a mistake, but he said no, they have been told by the LA they must send these to all pupils who could have but didn't attend lockdown school.

Can I just ignore this, does it have any significance in the long term? I'm quite miffed and upset about the whole thing tbh.

I'm concerned about potential future ramifications, and also my ex picking up on it and making a fuss, which he is highly likely to do should he come across it.

If it’s authorised, then nothing to worry about. EWOs will only pursue unauthorised attendance. Most won’t this year as in a unique situation.

A pointless letter really. Makes no sense for a school to do this as they could have used COVID codes to not impact on their overall school attendance figures. HT has fine an own goal here. Unsure why! You’d think HT would have been grateful you didn’t add to the numbers on site. Especially if you engaged fully in all the work and school didn’t spend time doing calls to check in you’re doing the work. Most schools had the battle of declining requests to attend school!

Thanks - that's useful, and that's just what I thought, that I was doing the right thing in not increasing on site numbers
I shall just forget it then.

Schools don’t have to report attendance to parents this year which shows that it’s another unusual year. Don’t give it a second thought. It won’t make any difference to anything.

My dd had 100% attendance until y6 when she had 3 surgeries and some treatments which obviously necessitated authorised time off. I received their letter and was cross due to the way it was written. It was all "disappointed" and "regular attendance is important" and "encouraging attendance" etc. I understood that it was just a generic letter but given dd had been ILL, I was pissed off that the tone of it was so presumptuous.

Anyway, she's about to start her GCSEs and the letter is merely an irritating memory. It has no consequences as all absence was authorised.

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

Thanks - that's useful, and that's just what I thought, that I was doing the right thing in not increasing on site numbers I shall just forget it then.

Maybe write to school to say that you wished to support school/ lockdown effort by keeping child at home where you could. You ensured all work was completed. The school did not insist on attendance at the time. Refer to if school made contact.

The reality is if an issue with you attending, it would have been linked to being highly vulnerable- under social care- if this was the case, a social worker would have been involved.

School have codes for all Covid linked reasons and these do not impact on attendance figures for child and school. If no concerns about a family, I’d be using these!

@ShowOfHands

My dd had 100% attendance until y6 when she had 3 surgeries and some treatments which obviously necessitated authorised time off. I received their letter and was cross due to the way it was written. It was all "disappointed" and "regular attendance is important" and "encouraging attendance" etc. I understood that it was just a generic letter but given dd had been ILL, I was pissed off that the tone of it was so presumptuous.

Anyway, she's about to start her GCSEs and the letter is merely an irritating memory. It has no consequences as all absence was authorised.

That’s where you’d tweak your standard letter. Need to raise… but fully understand the reasons and absence was unavoidable. Or remove the letter from the pile if done in a mail merge!!