Why do schools seem to treat parents like they are idiots?

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Massive generalisation I know, but have had this so much and it really gets on my nerves.

Had a phone call a little while ago, to demand ask why ds is not at school. Obviously I was polite and effusive in my apologies for misunderstanding the 'letting us know' rule - I thought it was on the first day of absence, not every single day.

He was ill on Friday and is still recovering. I would have thought they could make an educated guess that as we are rarely late, he has a great attendance record and I am not a drug addled loon or something, that he is off because he is still ill.

I rang first thing on Friday to tell them.

I don't get the security element as it was a quarter to ten when they rang, and therefore unlikely he would be easy to trace had he run away or something...

Someone please shed any light on this sort of thing? It makes me feel very rebellious and angry. It's their tone as much as anything, as though I have broken some cardinal law of whatever.

And they have just stopped him sitting next to his best friend, after sitting them together all term because ds was quite new and this little boy didn't have any friends (he has AS) and they got on TOO well apparently. Honestly. What is their logic??

Probably Pointy

A form would be fine...I tend to write a hand written letter if I haven't had phone contact.

I do wonder if they are having a spate of unauthorised absences atm and are cracking down.

My friend took her ds out last week for a family trip abroad, whichw as necessary as they're moving there soon - and couldn't get the head to OK it, so did it anyway.

Also another mum was saying she took her dd to some dancing on ice thing without permission.

I almost felt like saying to the secretary, 'Look, I am a single mother, I do not have time to shave my legs, would you mind explaining to me why you THINK he was not at school?' but it was the nice one today so I didn't

It doesn't have to be a formal letter or typed as long as it's signed & has the relevant information.

My favourite letter was one that was signed & dated & said

"Jason was not at school yesterday because he had the shits"

Job done.

As a teacher, getting on too well could mean chatting too much, not doing work. It might be that they moved all the children round which I do regularly. He's only 5 so of course it feels like forever - but it obviously isn't. At 5, they won't spend much time sitting in specific seats I wouldn't have thought anyway.
The school may not have phoned til 9.45 because you weren't the first parent on the list.
Mollie - do you mean that you would have expected an explanation if you'd asked about the seating change?

No that's fair enough Lilackaty...I don't want him to disrupt the class. It just seemed a bit sad.

But do you think yesterday they just needed more detail as the first secretary hadn't written down the reason he was absent?

There's a code depending on why the child is absent so that may have been missing - I is unwell, M is medical - there's about 20 different ones so I guess they wanted the right one, yes.
He should be able to still play with his friend as foundation is about learning through play. I hadn't realised he is only 5 when I started my post, sorry. My ds is 5 and his classroom doesn't have enough seats for them all to sit at tables - they do carpet work and focused small group work/

Thankfully we have a specific email address for absence notification, altho I have never used it as neither have been off at the same time so I have to go in anyway; I either tell the office, or the other one's teacher (dc's are in different buildings) and the message gets through ...

IF,

Our school has an answerphone, so I always ring outside office hours and leave a message - feel less like I'm being a nuisance as they can pick it up whenever they wish.

e.g. when I got back from A&E because DS needed steroids for croup I left the message at 2 am.

DS is in Year One and they sit in different places for register, home groups, literacy, numeracy and spelling. AND they shift the groups all the time.

When he was in reception they didn't have a fixed place to sit at all as it was either whole class (on the floor), play or small group work.