School attendance dropped from 100% to 98% after early morning GP appointment, is this normal?

[monywilliams]

Just looking for some thoughts from other parents.

My son is in Y2 and had 100% attendance until last week, when he had a GP appointment first thing in the morning. I let the school know beforehand, he came in straight after, but because he missed the register, they’ve dropped his attendance from 100% to 98%, even though he was in for most of the day.

I asked the school about it, and they said that’s just how the system works. If a pupil misses the morning registration, even by a few minutes, it is recorded as an authorised absence for that session, which counts as half a day absent and affects the overall percentage.

What’s a bit frustrating is that last year I picked him up an hour before the end of the day for a GP appointment, and it didn’t affect his attendance at all. So leaving early is fine, but arriving late (even for a medical appointment) isn’t?

He never misses school or arrives late, so it feels a bit unfair to have that drop on his record. Has anyone else had this happen?

This this is completely standard and how it's done in all state schools.

I would just leave his primary school attendance record off his CV when he's applying for jobs in 20 years and hope it doesn't get brought up at any interviews.

That’s correct. A GP appointment that was after afternoon register would have helped him keep his perfect attendance.

It will go up again through the school year.
Thers about 400 sessions in a school year, so one won't make any difference over a year. But there's only been 70ish so far.

I have had this happen too. But ultimately attendance records are long forgotten as they grow up so I let it go (though I did spend a good few weeks annoyed about it at the time). My kids are now late teens so this may be why it no longer bothers me. Hope your child is ok regarding the appointments too.

It's a ridiculous system btu yes attendance goes by if they're there for registration. Saying that in most schools one authorized absence won't affect anything at all. If he is in one of those schools that feel the need to reward 100% attendance, then I can assure you that very few children get it anyway and he won't feel left out.

Standard, absence is always measured on whether the kids are in registration (morning or afternoon) or not. The percentages always look ‘worse’ at the start of the school year when there have been fewer sessions.

Who cares what’s “on his record” in this respect? It’s an authorised absence, you’re not at risk of a fine. I don’t care how they manage their internal admin of recording students as long as I’m not getting fined over it.

As others have said, it's standard, but pretty daft...my daughter was praised for drastically improved attendence in the summer term once once, when she'd been off one day ill each term, but the figures showed a huge 'improvement', purely because the more days have elapsed in the school year, the less a missed morning or afternoon affects it!

Yes, it's completely insane. My friend's DD has an attendance of 85% through early morning appointments, BUT she has missed no lessons.

Yes completely 'insane'... perhaps the teacher should just sit updating the register all day to provide parents with real time data rather than teaching.
Apologies for snarky tone. But it's not the data that's the issue, it's what's done with it. If your friend is getting actual grief from the school (not just automated updates which are pretty necessary with large schools) then that's what's unreasonable.

Totally normal and completely unimportant.

Yes, they get an absent mark for the whole morning, which I find ridiculous. My son missed a lesson a couple of weeks ago (sixth form and failed to get up on time 😞) and his attendance plummeted.

I always look sideways at people who boast that their dc has a 100 percent attendance record. They are normally the kids who have spread everything to the rest of us, who then take time off to ensure ours don't do the same.

At least as far as I'm concerned, it's no trophy, and I think it is irresponsible of schools to give awards for it.

LOL 😂

Isn't that a pretty useful message for an adult or almost adult man to receive?

So he has missed 1 out of about 67 sessions so far this year making him 98.5%. If he keeps that one as his only missed one for the year he will end up back at 99.74% attendance. Why on earth would anyone care enough about that to bother the school with?

😁

I don't know why you'd assume that children with good attendance are the ones spreading everything. Some children are simply healthier or get over things quickly.

By the way, I'm one of those parents who always keeps their children home an extra day until they're fully recovered.

Thanks to those who responded kindly.
I wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of one day’s attendance. My point wasn't really about awards or trying to keep up a perfect record, it was more about how inconsistent the system seems when arriving late for a medical appointment which affects attendance more than leaving early.

And private schools too in my experience.
it doesn’t matter at all.

I never took any notice or even knew the attendance %. They only missed school for medical reasons and what that meant for the schools attendance records was the schools business not mine.

It’s a blunt tool, I agree, taking the measurement only from the register. But it probably serves as a reasonably good guide for the schools % records. As I said above I never took any notice anyway.

It's been an observation more than an assumption.

Glad to hear you don't prioritise the record over the necessary absence though. But some definitely do.

We had an attendance award winner in one of my dc's classes who had spent the entire term with a hacking cough and snot dribbling out his nostril. The parents were all fed up.

It makes no sense. My DD has 100% attendance despite having had three appointments during school hours in the last month! But she didn’t miss any morning or afternoon registrations, so it didn’t affect it. Totally bizarre. But honestly, who cares. Makes no difference to anything.