Unauthorized school absence

[Debbiep11]

Anyone had this situation before.
I went to pick up my son early from secondary school due to our dog going in for major life saving surgery and me needing help.
Anyway , the school attendance team kicked off , gave me a lecture and said they do not agree with him leaving early (less than an hour early) and said they would mark it as unauthorised by them.
I get the feeling I am going to be in alot of trouble for doing this.
Anyone else come across this issue before ?

Our secondary have an intercom system and SLT alsO carry walkie talkies so no running around the school. It is a large building though so I understand not all schools will have the same.
I didn't know registration is allowed to be delayed until the end of the day though, wouldn't it have to be at the begining of the afternoon session?
How would you know who's not back from lunch if you don't take registration at the beginning of the afternoon. That's a safeguarding issue in itself.

Register in each lesson, then formtime at the end of the day - means those with detentions are less likely to be able to claim 'We had a cover teacher! Nobody told me I had a detention!' and the ones who do seem to get lost at some point between lesson 4 and 5 have somebody who knows they were there in the morning definitely didn't have a music lesson/appointment with careers/are part of the football team leaving at 2.10pm for a match with the Anytown Academy A Team. Additionally, this means that anybody who has an appointment at the orthodontist/hospital at 11.00am is able to come back and get both sessions marked as present, being good for them in references for college and the school in terms of attendance.

The issue is that they cannot authorise absences for things like this. You don't explain the link between picking up your son and taking the dog to the vet either, I suspect the school were confused too.

Honestly anyone who has worked picking up the phone for the absence excuses will tell you that schools just are fed up with parents taking the micky so they have to be equal to all (yes I've heard not coming to school because goldfish died, not coming in due to a furniture delivery , late because has to take younger sibling to dentist (mum had hangover it turned out), got to urgently visit cousins new baby ... I only temped there for a week as a favour!

You need to treat it like a shitty employer who moans and grumbles and tells you in how much shit you've left them for not coming in and emotionally blackmail you, that let you have the time off anyway because there's fuck all they can actually do about it.

Roll your eyes and move on. Just like they're bound for protocol for excessive absences, they also can't do anything for one afternoon session missed in a school year.

They'll take a register in each lesson to make sure everyone who should be in is accounted for but many are switching to form time at the end of the day, rather than straight after lunch, to gain their overall afternoon attendance mark to stop exactly the kind of thing outlined in the op. It's so common for children to be collected for various reasons after gaining their afternoon mark. They end up with 100% attendance and zero unauthorised absences, when in fact they've missed the best part of 4 or 5 afternoons for random unauthorisable reasons. I don't blame secondary schools for clamping down on this. If you're taken out of school at 1:30-2pm several times each year, you don't really deserve those afternoon attendance marks.

It's really not a big deal (the unauthorised absence not the poor dog). My dc didn't get in until after 1am from a school trip one day last week, he got an unauthorised absence the next day for not going in for registration and PE, I just shrugged, his attendance has been perfect all year, no harm done.

Bit late to the party here but I also find it hard to shrug these things off even though common sense dictates I should and I was very recently diagnosed with autism myself. I think this has been a key to understanding how much I sometimes focus on a different aspect of a situation than most people and also struggle with "heartless" bureaucracy more than is usual. Not to mention making the arrangements people are suggesting. You may not be interested in getting a diagnosis, but bearing in mind that your son may find himself in similar scrapes, it could help to find strategies to mitigate your own distress that may be transferrable. I hope I haven't caused you any offense, I am just sharing my own thoughts about how to cope myself and with my young children who may have similar struggles.

Why is this under ''primary education'' if it's about secondary school? lol