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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

DD incorrectly marked as having unauthorised absence

20 replies

RedskyLastNight · 16/09/2019 13:30

Long story short ... DD has been marked as having "unauthorised absence" for an afternoon session when she was actually in school.

I have emailed the school attendance office, but they have not yet got back to me. I think I am correct in saying that, as capturing attendance is a legal requirement, the school is obliged to correct inaccuracies, but can anyone confirm this?

OP posts:

SarahTancredi · 16/09/2019 13:33

I can only vouch for a primary school but when I informed the office I was confused as to when it happend they corrected it there and then.

Should he reasonably simple

coconuttelegraph · 16/09/2019 13:35

How long since you emailed them, maybe the attendance staff are trying to tackle the problem of non attendance, it's entirely understandable that correcting admin errors isn't their top priority isn't it?

MarigoldGlove · 16/09/2019 13:37

This happened to my dd in secondary too. I didn't find out until I got her report and then I disputed it with the office. It was a right hoo-haa but if the government want to bang on about how important attendance is then I didn't want her to be recorded as absent when she wasn't. We have to jump through rings of fire if we ring up to report them as absent because of illness.

Bunnybigears · 16/09/2019 13:38

Of course they will correct it if it is wrong. How long ago did you email them?

SarahTancredi · 16/09/2019 13:40

it's entirely understandable that correcting admin errors isn't their top priority isn't it?
Well you cant solve absence issues if you target the wrong kids with admin.errors can you..

Seeline · 16/09/2019 13:40

Perhaps they are checking whether she was in school?

PenguinsRabbits · 16/09/2019 13:55

We've had this a few times with DS and I double check with him he was in lessons then get back to school and it gets corrected.

DD sometimes gets blank marks, that seems to be when teacher has forgotten to take the register.

RubbingHimSweetly · 16/09/2019 13:59

Was she definitely in registration? I used to miss it occasionally due to team training over running, then I would be marked absent and have to go explain at the office. Then they would check with my subject teachers that I had actually attended the lessons.

seaweedandmarchingbands · 16/09/2019 14:34

How certain are you that she was in school?

Original poster

RedskyLastNight · 16/09/2019 15:18

It's 5 days since I emailed and school policy is to allow 7, so I am not chasing them again yet and understand they have other things to do. I am just confirming that what I asked to happen is reasonable.

She missed registration in her actual lesson, but she was at another school organised activity at the time that registration occurred and went straight to her lesson when that activity finished. Part of my email was asking what she was meant to do in this circumstance so she doesn't get marked as unauthorised absence in the future (as it will happen again).

OP posts:

seaweedandmarchingbands · 16/09/2019 15:27

How do you know that is what happened?

Mummy195 · 16/09/2019 15:57

If she is at a school activity, normally a teacher will send the list of students present at said activity to the attendance officer. If she missed registration for the next lesson because of this activity, the attendance officer will confirm with her teacher if she actually showed up. Depending on how strict they are, she should not be the only one late, then she might have to explain why.

Original poster

RedskyLastNight · 16/09/2019 16:12

How do you know that is what happened?

Because DD is a highly reliable girl who is scared of doing anything that might get her into trouble!
And because she gave me a detailed run down of her day (it was just after the start of term so she was excited about new things; she doesn't normally do this) including a blow by blow account about what happened at both her overlappping registration activity and her post registration lesson. And if she managed to give me such detailed accounts without having actually been there, I am really seriously impressed. It's possible that she dawdled on her way from one thing to the other, but she was very definitely in both of them.

OP posts:

seaweedandmarchingbands · 16/09/2019 16:14

What I’m trying to point out, OP, is that it is the teacher who needs to be certain that she was there, not you, as you weren’t there. It’s all very well you saying take her word for it, but what if the teacher says she wasn’t there?

youarenotkiddingme · 16/09/2019 16:15

Yes you are correct they should correct it.

This happened 3 afternoons a week with my ds when he had an intervention.

I rang and spoke to attendance officer. I wasn't shirty.

I just said that I as concerned we'd be 'flagged' due to his attendance when he was in school having x intervention. I then asked about if that was recorded because if the fire alarm went off (there was some little what names going through a phase of that) would they know to be expecting him and be looking for him.

The att dance officer actually thanked me for highlighting that and they improved their procedure. Schools don't want to make mistakes - it just happens.

FamilyOfAliens · 16/09/2019 16:20

I wouldn’t worry too much, OP.

My feet haven’t touched the ground since we went back to school and amending attendance marks wouldn’t be high on my list of priorities unless recording the wrong mark would put a child at risk somehow.

Give it a week and phone the school office to make sure they’ve amended it.

Cornishmum00 · 16/09/2019 16:27

We had this when dd was in a private music lesson (in school) not her usual class, i called and it was corrected immediately

Original poster

RedskyLastNight · 16/09/2019 16:32

Which is why I wrote to attendance as soon as I was aware that she'd been marked incorrectly. A teacher is more likely to remember "yesterday" than (now) last week. The teacher running the "pre-registration" activity has written in her diary, so I guess that is some "proof" that she was there?

OP posts:

seaweedandmarchingbands · 16/09/2019 16:34

There is proof she was at the activity, but not the lesson. Look, I’m sure you’re right, but ultimately the teachers will need to confirm, so you can’t just tell attendance to change it. They will have to check.

LolaSmiles · 16/09/2019 16:41

So there's proof she was at the activity, but not the lesson. The teacher can't just mark her in the lesson (and we are told categorically not to mark any student present who has not responded to roll call and there's a limit on the codes classroom teacher can use too - usually present, late before registers closed, absent. The attendance staff are the ones who will investigate and overwrite marks e.g. M for medical etc ).

The attendance staff will have to cross reference the list of names from the activity and the time of the activity ending. They may also look at whether other students from the same activity arrived at class on time (we have a few students who will dawdle from activity to lessons and then tell the class teacher the activity is why they are late). That will tell them which code is appropriate for the situation.

Give them the time to respond and then follow up.

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