Attendance stats v ability to attend

[headb4ng]

Hi all. Not sure if this is the right place for this. My daughter is very keen to attend school, but her attendance stat is currently at 94%. Because of this when she is ill (migraine sufferer) there is always the comments from teachers and the standard letters back home. This actually has a negative affect with a huge emphasis of guilt on something that she cannot help. To the extent that she attends school when really she shoudnt. Despite us contacting the school a number of times of the situation, this is ignored.
Has anybody else been in this situation and how have you handled this?
Thanks

It happens.
Kid in DDs class regularly missed half a term at a time (in hospital)
it was the way it was

The letters will be sent out, you just need to keep confirming that yes, she's ill. If she keeps having time off then they may start requiring a doctor's note for each absence to confirm that she isn't just staying at home with a sniffle. I've also heard of schools demanding that the child be sent in regardless and that they'll be sent home if they're genuinely too ill.

Don't expect much sympathy, I'm afraid.

94%.Quite a few schools would kill to have attendance by the majority of their pupils above this, so I would not beat yourself up too much about this. As long as you and your daughter are sure that every day off is genuine then you know that you are doing your best.

The bottom line is surely the welfare of your child. If she is too ill to attend then I would ignore the letters & where possible don't show them to her. This ridiculous pressure on children is awful and I would not hesitate in keeping my DS home if he was genuinely ill. Having said that his school actually insists on sick children catching up with their missed homework etc. Such pressure

Dd2 gets migraines, as well as having hospital appointments for other unrelated conditions
The school has a copy of a letter from her GP confirming this. I also make sure that I always send a letter in explaining what's happened.

He attendance was well below that last year and I had no hassle/letters.