Poor attendance, how to help DP see this is not ok?

[DreamyCritic]

DP received DSDs report last week, she is in Y10. Subject wise all good mostly passes and ATL is 2 across the board however attendance is 89%.
DSD is a bright girl and polite/good student but will avoid school wherever possible.

We are looking to take all our DC abroad in December for a long weekend which will require a few days out of school. I have spoke to my sons (Y10 also) school and as his attendance is 98% the HT agrees he will authorise the absence as the trip is educational along with it being a family break.

I am concerned the given DSDs poor attendance they will refuse the absence & DP simply keeps repeating that 89% is not that bad.

I am struggling to get him to see that regardless of the trip 89% is poor and he needs to take it seriously. Anyone have any suggestions as its difficult ground for me given that he can become very defensive of DSD.

I am struggling to get him to see that regardless of the trip 89% is poor and he needs to take it seriously

But by taking your own child out of school in GCSE year you're giving the message to all of them that attendance isn't that important, or at least it's secondary to having fun.

You're equally as crap IMO.

So your father is nearing the end of his life but you're waiting till the Autumn to visit

I am surprised that a school would authorise holiday (in the OP you say educational then further down it's to see your father for the last time - I understand both reasons might be valid for you) so far in advance. You never know what could crop up for your DC, their attendance might be lower by then.
My DC school do Y11 mocks before Christmas so there is no way they would authorise absence then.

Aww, what a lovely comment.

I know it's not a lovely comment - but leaving it six+ months before you visit your dying parent isn't exactly lovely either is it.

No titchy

My father has been given a terminal diagnosis which means he won't see next summer and as Christmas was always his favourite time of year I wanted to see him for the last time then. The December dates are the ones I can afford although is not going to be Christmas day.

89% is a very poor attendance rate, you're not wrong. I've had written warnings about fines at higher than that.
However it's unrelated to permission being granted for the trip. Your son's head is giving permission at his own discretion but it's not usual for any time off school to be authorised unless it's for a look round a college (educational) or funeral (family). That's the way it is with my children's schools anyway.

Honestly at 89% attendance I think i would take the unauthorised absence on the chin anyway as I'm sure it's not the first one to have brought the percentage down that much and out of all the days off your SD has had, at least this trip can be justified.

Rather than pay for 4 of you to go during term time, could you either go alone, or just with your DS (as it's his grandad) but during school holidays?

I wouldn't take children out of school during GCSE year.

89% isn’t poor attendance ffs. Her grades aren’t suffering either, so she obviously does view education as important, just not the warm bum on a seat 100% of the time part.

As pp have said, no HT will authorise a term time holiday even with 100% attendance- and as you updated later this trip isn’t a holiday or even an educational trip but an urgent family trip to see a dying close relative.

I am with your DSD’s parents on attendance.

89% is a very poor attendance rate, you're not wrong. I've had written warnings about fines at higher than that.

The fines are for unauthorised absences regardless of attendance rate.

89% is not a poor or very poor attendance rate. 60% is very poor, 80% is poor.

Of course 89% attendance is poor... that's slightly more than 1 day every fortnight.

You can argue that attendance isn't important if you like, but by any measure, 89% is pretty low.

89% is poor attendance, schools would be questioned if their average attendance rate was this (unless a Special school)
It is deemed persistent absence

Absent more than (on average) one day every two weeks is poor. Most workplaces would be questioning that, unless there were a couple of clear reasons for absence.
Our school sends out letters to parents for anything under 90%.

It's also not clear that OP DSD grades aren't suffering, she might be doing better than mostly passes if she attended all the time.

I don’t agree. 89% really isn’t poor or low.
It is missing at most 1 day in 10 (some schools mark more than 15mins late the same as absent)

@SummerFeverVenice it's classed as persistent absence.

School isn’t a workplace/job. Schools that are not very good push high attendance because it can be an easy tick on the Ofsted rating. The better schools don’t really care because they don’t need super high attendance to get a high Ofsted rating.

@SummerFeverVenice so if a school had high persistent absence rate and they didn't do anything about it they would get a high Ofsted rating?

Don’t care what DoE says, 89% attendance isn’t bad or poor or persistently absent. The definition is utterly mad. Imagine if I argued to the court that my child was persistently present if they only went to school 10% of the time! 😝

Well, you might not think it's low but most people would agree that 1 day in every 10 is pretty high. And the research seems to suggest a significant impact on attainment for those missing school that frequently, though obviously, individual factors will produce different results.

You can't just say it isn't poor or persistent - it isn't an objective fact. You can say that it isn't poor or persistent in your opinion but most people, including most schools and the DofE, will disagree.

What happens is by schools not pushing children to be present 100% of the time, fewer parents then force sick children into school who spread their germs around and get sicker meaning because the one sick day wasn’t taken, the school now have five extra sick days.

Being relaxed about attendance rates slashes the #1 cause of absence which is illness and your average overall absence rate for the entire school doesn’t drop but goes up.

It is the poorly managed schools that push individual children to have high, almost perfect attendance rates and stigmatise just good enough attendance such as 89% as “poor” that causes a self-inflicted crisis of rampant illness pushing overall attendance down so you have to bully parents into sending in sick children. It’s a vicious circle.

The better schools, well know better and counsel being sensible and relaxed on a child with attendance of 89%.

I know it is all opinion. If cannot say it isn’t poor attendance, than why don’t you remind everyone with a different opinion that they cannot say it is poor attendance? Since it is all opinion anyway, you should be consistent in your public service announcement that we are all just expressing opinions.

Well, given that it's all just opinion, it is only the government's definition that carries any real significance.

You could argue in favour of whatever opinions you like - you can say that 10% attendance is excellent for all I care. The point is that your opinion is totally irrelevant and unhelpful to anyone if the DofE don't agree with you.

I am concerned the given DSDs poor attendance they will refuse the absence & DP simply keeps repeating that 89% is not that bad.

He is a bit thick then

Out of interest

how well do you and DSD get on? How often is she over? What the hell does her mother say about this?!