Unauthorised absence?

[thisdayjustgetsbetter]

On our way to school this morning my car suddenly broke down. I called the school asap to let them know and left a message as no one answered. Another parent kindly took my DS in although of course he was late.

However, it’s gone down as an unauthorised absence. I realise it was technically an absence but surely it was authorised given it was circumstances none of us could control and I let the school know?

I am assuming it is a U code, late but after registers have closed rather than O which is where they miss the entire morning session.

Look it might seem huge, Ignore it. No one is going to bat an eyelid over it. They won't change it. It isn't authorised. Ds had this in sixth form where his mate had come off his bike, an ambulance was called and Ds stayed with him until it arrived. He contacted sixth form but it still went down as a late.

You contacting school doesn't mean it is authorised, it means they are aware as to why your child is not currently in school but they will be in later. They won't change it. Your child was not authorised to miss school.

Honestly it doesn't matter. They can only authorise time off in a small number of scenarios and this isn't one. It will be a late mark anyway not a whole session missed.

I know - just feel bad for ds if it means he doesn’t get 100% attendance (I know they are a load of nonsense but he’s only four.)

It’s gone down as an absence - think I’ve removed identifying info

Assuming he made it in I'd ask them why it was recorded as that and not late.

I assume it was because after registers closed?

I appreciate this probably seems like a big deal when he's 4 but it's incredibly unlikely he would make it to July without a sickness bug or illness requiring him to be off so he wouldn't get 100% the attendance award anyway (although they are ridiculous and it's daft to be upset he won't get a flimsy bit of paper).

The absence as a previous poster has pointed out wasn't authorised so it goes down as unauthorised it's really nothing to worry about. I hope you're cars now fixed and it wasn't too expensive.

It would be a shame if he did though … he isn’t ill often at all, it really is a rare occurrence. I know that it’s no big deal. It’s just ds doesn’t

Thanks; I will ask tomorrow I think.

Don’t feel bad for DS, he’s 4. He doesn’t know what his attendance rate is and he doesn’t care - you do. I understand schools need to track this but please don’t obsess over the figures if he genuinely needs to be off school.

I work in further education so it's different, but I agree that this should be a late mark not an absence. The whole point of a late mark is that the child was there but came in late! Actually I think that this helps the teachers too, if they are trying to check who missed whatever was happening that morning, seeing that X arrived at 9.45 (or whatever) and they caught him up there and then so he could join the task that was still going on, and then was there for subsequent tasks, but he missed the spiel about costumes for the Christmas play at 9.10, but Y missed the whole morning, is important.

I’m confused as to why it isn’t, to be honest, otherwise it feels a bit ‘hung for a sheep.’

It is the code for late, these are the SIMS codes which shows a child is in for the register or why they are not.

L - late before registers close - meaning marked as "present"
O - Unauthorised absence - meaning unauthorised absence
U - Late after registers close - meaning unauthorised absence.

It has been a while so I can't remember when registers close, it is decided by the school. Here is the full list of SIMS codes. Random school chosen

https://millgreen.org.uk/attendance-codes-descriptions-and-meanings/

Look stop with the whole 100% attendance shit. We had 90% of a year group wiped out with norovirus, children were unwell, parents sent them in and then a child threw up on my child's shoes. So either a child was actually ill, like my own after this or some parents kept their children off school as it happened the last week of term in December and people didn't want ill children near Christmas.

I would suggest it would be better to have a 98% and above award system and I would contact school for that, far more positive. A child cannot help being ill. At secondary, ours had a 100% attendance and then a 98% attendance plus a special we know you have a chronic health condition one too. All of them came with rewards.

The fact is, your child was late. It happened to mine, year 6 never been late in his life, traffic lights were out at a major junction which meant a lot of children came in late. Ds was mortified because he also missed his in school duties.

It isn’t shit to me, I’m afraid. I was only asking, there is no need to be so belligerent and hostile. If it’s gone down as him missing a morning because he was late after the registers, then OK. I know what the SIMs codes are but the app doesn’t show the SIMs codes, just his attendance.

I actually think the school are being very harsh. We would definitely authorise for a broken down car, it's extenuating circumstances and you did ring in to explain.

How late was he? I think they have to be in before 9:10am at my school to go down as late, anything later is an absent mark for the whole morning.

However, in the grand scheme of things it really really doesn't matter that your child doesn't have 100% attendance anymore. It matters to you, but your child won't care at all. If he has no other absences he will still have amazing attendance figures. If he does, it will be because he needed them (illness or other authorised reason) and that's perfectly ok. It's much better for him to be off school if too ill to attend (for him and everyone else in his class). High attendance should rightly be encouraged, but 100% attendance really isn't the be all and end all. It's the 'well done for not getting ill' or 'you came in while ill and infected everyone else instead' award. Pretty pointless really.t

I remember my kids both getting a late mark from primary school when my car got a puncture. I called the school immediately to inform them. It’s just pathetic bellend stupidity IMO. We got a report at the end of the year with the total number of late marks. My kids had one late mark each - for this puncture. For the whole fucking year.

Britain is just made up of stupid policies and zero common sense these days.

Does it really matter? Likely he will be off sick at some point during the year anyway so won’t get 100% attendance.

It is possible but I wouldn’t say likely.

Actively discourage this sort of perfectionism in your child instead of reinforcing it. Things happen outside of our control - car trouble, illnesses - and they're not a reflection on us. Your DC's job is to attend school on every day he's able to, listen to his teachers, and put his best effort into his assignments. Schools shouldn't be handing out 100% attendance awards at all, but parents definitely don't need to be reinforcing that nonsense by giving it any weight.

That said, low attendance does impact learning and is often an indicator that something isn't going well either at home or at school, so schools need to be tracking it. They don't need an overly complex system (ex. distinguishing between missing an hour or three hours, parent called vs parent didn't call, we'll make an exception because you're never late, etc) because the difference between 98% and 100% is simply not significant so it's a waste of resources to try to be that precise. They just need something that will flag when a pupil has missed a significant amount of sessions or when attendance is dropping noticeably, neither of which is a concern for you or your DS.

Because he arrived after the register closed. It's a legal requirement to have an accurate register, which includes recording it as unauthorised.

ETA: the app is showing the statutory meaning of the particular code. Which is absent for the session.

Yes I was going to say that, the school has a legal obligation to record attendance in the prescribed way, in order the that it's a level playing field between schools.
Our senco told us absence is more of a problem for the school than it is for the children or parents.
My son was ill and was mostly better so I sent him in, the next day he was on his knees and off sick again. After that I did a phased return in discussion with the teacher which worked well and he got back smoothly to full time
Roll on the end of term and he got about 5 unauthorised absences for the afternoon sessions, because it's only counted as sickness if he's off the whole day.
It's rubbish but it is what it is.

Even if its an authorised absence, his attendance percentage would be the same. My DD missed 3 sessions this term (one dentist, 2 ill), all authorised but her attendance is below 95%... but it will be fine by the end of the year.