School attendance incorrect do I just let it go?

[buswheels]

DC is year 11 has missed 6 days of school for an overseas trip and been marked away on holiday during term time.

DC wasn’t on holiday they were on a trip (probably best described as an ‘intercultural exchange’) which they had been chosen to attend.

This isn’t a school organised trip but one they applied to an external organisation and were chosen to go on. They actually cut the trip short so as not to miss too much school.

Our attendance coding rules state that they should be coded as ‘not enrolled’ so as not to affect their attendance record.

New school rules state that if you miss ‘too much’ school you will be given no extension on school work, you won’t be allowed to go to the formal and a couple of other things!.

We appealed the coding, pointed out where it is wrong in the rules from the ministry of education and I had a long phone call with the head telling me no absence of more than 5 days can be anything other than unjustified and he won’t change the code.

But he’s wrong!

Basically there is nothing I can do is there? Head is adamant that he is right and won’t change it, DC has been off and won’t be eligible for some of their goals. I can appeal again and win but either way head is going to be pissed off with my DC! Should have just stayed away for the extra week!

Any one had a similar experience and got any advice?
TIA

What’s the difference between this trip and a holiday if it’s not a school organised activity though?

Who organised the trip and what did dc do when on it?

Who organised the trip? Was it more than 5 days of school missed? It sounds like a non-school based trip abroad which counts as a holiday.

Is this a school in the UK/England?

"Not enrolled" doesn't sound like the right absence code to use, in either case.

Surely once a student gets marked as not enrolled their space then gets freed up for someone else?

No school not UK, the coding is by numbers I’m looking at what each number is defined as and paraphrasing. @taxcon it’s a temporary thing for the duration of being away if you are not enrolled you don’t need an absence coding, you get reenrolled when you get back. It literally affects nothing other than the kids % absence.
she missed 6 days

kid is a ‘high achiever’ on a national excellence/training/preparation programme this was a trip as part of that, so not a school trip, not a holiday

I don’t see why a head would un-enroll a pupil just so it skews their absence figures to be honest.

Yes, I would appeal again. The Head is probably already pissed off at you, so you may as well go all in.

What is the complaint process in your country? Schools in the UK are legally required to use the correct absence code, and legally required to correct inaccuraces. Do you have similar laws and is there a higher authority (like local authority, education board, OFSTED etc) you can complain to? If not, write a formal letter identifying the error, the school's refusal to correct it and ask for it to be added to his academic file within a certain time frame. Then do an access request to check his records and ensure it's been done.

Is there a code for something like 'offsite education'? Can you get the trip organiser (was it a formal body, like a sport camp or science organisation etc?) to write a letter highlighting the educational value of the trip, that it wasn't a holiday and summarising what your child learned/the skills they got out of it? Also highlight that it's a shame they cut the trip short by a week, but demonstrates how much they value their education,

Because that’s what the Ministry of Education rules tell them they should do?

more accurate to wonder why they would go rogue and just make up something surely?

In what circumstances though?
Surely they don’t unenroll for every single absence or there wouldn’t be a series of other absence codes in the first place? So what specifically makes you feel that this absence needs to be unenrolled but the school feels differently?
If every child is unrolled for any absence why would there even be an official attendance record?

Thank you

I will get back into the rules again and see what duties are on schools.

it’s so disappointing that head has decided to dig in his heels over this the rules are actually quite clear.

I think that nobody here will be able to help unless you say which country you are referring to. In England, there is no code to account for these circumstances.

No the rules are very specific they say if child is doing X then use code y

my child was doing x

head has said your child was away 6 days I feel anything over 5 has to be unjustified (this is a rule he has made up, it literally says this nowhere)

there are a limited number of unjustified codes, holiday, bunking off and 1/2 more. So he picked the ‘best fit’ unjustified and said holiday. DC was not on holiday!

The rules really are very clear.

Its just weird you’re claiming the wording is incredibly black and white, yet the school disagree with you and you haven’t incudes the specific rule you feel applies in your situation so ultimately I’m not sure what you want from anyone on here.
If you share the specific guidance you feel applies perhaps people could help but otherwise you say one thing, the school disagree.

I disagree it doesn’t matter what my child was doing and what the code was. I’m not asking what number the head should use I’m asking whether it’s worth doubling down on being correct in absence coding at the expense of pissing head off?

I guess it’s a personal thing no one can know how interested my head is in absences, maybe they think it’s all a distraction. Maybe it’s like your gcse results when you have a PhD? No one cares any more. I don’t know and am wondering what experiences other parents have had. Is it worth pushing or does literally no one care?

It depends on your country again, I would think, as to how much school attendance is taken into account by other organisations.

I would want the attendance record to be correct, but especially if it meant my child was subject to sanctions that otherwise shouldn't apply. Like being prevented from attending year group events, or academic things like being granted extensions for school work that otherwise they would have been able to get.

At the end of the day you took your child out of school for something not organised by the school and they weren't unwell. Maybe you should have recognised what the implications would be before you took them out? Rather than changing the 'coding' I would ask if there was another way your child could still take part on what they are going to miss out on. Volunteering within school or something similar?

Did you contact the school to unenroll them. I would assume this would require you to sign some paperwork. Also to re-enroll them surely would also require a parent's signing something.

Yup it is

i’ve explained head has made their own decision that more than 5 days has to be unjustified and looked for a code to validate that.

when I said but it should be this they just deflected, they asked me why I cared? Told me my child could still go to the formal because their absence would get better over the next 6 months, said children worry too much.

I deflected right back told them I care because you care 🤗

so we got nowhere

Once you remove the head assigned pre-requisite that anything over 5 days is unjustified and read on to the next paragraph it’s there in black and white if you are doing X use code y!

Sadly for us we were informed of the new rules after they had returned!

Why do you take issue with explaining which piece of the guidance you feel applies?

Plus is there a reason you didn’t agree this with the school before he went? It seems like a given that any absence would have to be agreed by the school. If you had discussed it in advance you would have know about the 5 day rule.
Were you really just going to take your son out for 2 weeks initially and not inform the school in advance?

No we were only informed of the new rules and new consequences after they were back. It looks like a technical ‘un enrolling’

I believe they actually get a number each day that records them as not attending due to being absent doing X. It’s actually common enough that it has it’s own code but because the rules are new my dc is the first at the school to do this.

Maybe you missed the bit about the school not being in the UK? I have literally explained it to you.

DC was offered a place over the holiday so the absence was added to the end of the holiday, we emailed them and got no reply. I didn’t expect them to be working and in fact we were all told not to email during the holidays because they wouldn’t be read or answered! We then got a reply just before school restarted which said nothing about coding. The system is new we (parents) were informed about it recently in fact I was informed in a personal reply when I queried why DC has been recorded as term time holiday. It doesn’t even show to me on the parent dashboard as term time holiday, one of their teachers told them they had been recorded as term time holiday and it was wrong so they should appeal. When I queried it I was told about the new attendance coding don’t think the other parents really know what’s coming!

DC has a friend who is off to the states for 2 terms when their parent does a sabbatical according to head they are going to get 2 terms of unjustified absence.

And yet you still can’t apparently paste the very clear rule that applies to you so this is clearly pointless.

No point getting into gossip about other families, you have no idea what their situation is or what has been agreed with the school. That’s none of your business and not relevant.

😊