School fines for being ill or late

pelirocco

I am so glad mine left school some years ago.

jrtfan

I would say make sure you're there on time and don't worry too much about the letter. Attendance can sometimes drop to below 95% over a full term, especially the autumn one when kids are very young (lots of cold, flu, norovirus going around etc) but it's the overall attendance come July that matters.

We had a letter before Christmas one year because son's attendance had fallen below 95%. He'd vomited on one occasion so that was a mandatory 48 hours off (school's rules, not our choice). Then, he'd had several medical appointments meaning he'd been absent for a morning or an afternoon. Finally, he had a cold/flu thing immediately before Christmas. All genuine, just a matter of bad luck and I knew that by the summer, his attendance would be back to acceptable levels again.

Unfortunately, we received another letter at Easter (his attendance overall since September was 94.5%). It would have been 95 or above, had my mum not died and my son not had an authorised day off to attend her funeral.

These letters are generated automatically and it's to do with Ofsted, as I understand it.

GwylimT

It isn't a surprise that attendance has a clear link to performance, the more time you allow a child to miss, the more their performance decreases.

It really isn't difficult to get children to school on time, my daughter has never been late to school, in his entire school carer my son was late once as he had to wait for our neighbour to take him in as my wife had been rushed to hospital.

I regularly had children in my tutor who were dropped off late my parents, apparently they were late up, yet they had found the time to do their hair and make up, odd that!

The school day isn't a surprise, if you're late simply get up earlier and leave the house earlier, you it owe it to your child to ensure their education is not being damaged.

gayleygoo

We have been late to school a few times recently, mostly related to having a young baby, so I'm either sleeping in, getting through the morning on 3 hours' sleep, or still breastfeeding at 8.15am when we need to be leaving! Organisation is indeed the key, but sometimes I have to make the choice between finally getting to bed for some sleep, or weeping into packed lunches and finding a P.E. kit at 10pm when the household has finally settled down.

There is a late book that gets signed if they've missed the roll-call, so they don't get marked as absent just because they are there several minutes after 8.50am. Several mornings a week I rely on others to take my children to school, so it's not always within my control either.

I guess they have to have guidelines for absences, as a few parents (and I know of a couple) who don't think anything of getting up at 9am, and dawdling into school at 10am, if they bother going in at all. As long as you've provided notes for the sick days you should be fine though.

carmina_piranha

My child has had 3 days off so far, so his attendance is only 83% but going in tomorrow will bring it up to 84% and I expect that next week will take it above 85%.

At his point in the year the first bug they catch can put their attendance below 85% so if I get a letter so be it. I would have sent him in on one of the days, but there's a 48 hour rule about vomiting. The second occasion was also for vomiting, but as that was on a Thursday evening luckily he only missed one school day because of it.

anna_1977

I don't know if you've managed to get the SIMS report yet but if you have you are looking for the 'O''s on there.

In order for a school to even contemplate a fine you need to have 20 absences in 100 sessions - this is 10 days off in a 10 week period. IF you are late in the mornings then the marker should be an 'L' if it is not then query...most schools say you can have an L up to 9am.
If the SIMS record is showing an O for morning registration and then present for the rest of the day then don't worry, you are highly unlikely to get a fine for that. In order for the school to fine they have to do to meeting with a number of people who would assess the case. you would then be given a time period to improve said child's attendance record before they pursue any further.

LannieDuck

SeduLOUs wrote: »

It's the only comparison I can draw as I don't have children. One day off in every two weeks seems very excessive though.

The only other experience I have is my own attendance record which was 100% throughout primary and high school apart from a week long bout of gastroenteritis type illness when I was ~6.

DD2 started nursery about 6 mths ago, and was been ill with one bug after another for about three months. (She'd have a few days being well and back at nursery, then she'd come down with the next thing.) My OH and I have both just about run down our annual leave due to it. Not all of them were actual sickness days - some of it was the time period required from the nursery before we could send her back.

If a child starts school without having been exposed to all the germs at nursery, they could very, very easily be off for an average of one day per two weeks in their first year, just through normal childhood illnesses alone.

SeduLOUs

LannieDuck wrote: »

If a child starts school without having been exposed to all the germs at nursery, they could very, very easily be off for an average of one day per two weeks in their first year, just through normal childhood illnesses alone.

I do appreciate there's an element of luck, and if a child gets ill a child gets ill.

One year might be forgiveable under such circumstances, but absence at this level consistently across multiple school years would obviously raise alarm - the OP even said that the letter refers to this year's attendance being monitored as a result of last year's being low. If this year's attendance improves, no problem. If it stays low, then there is cause for concern...

LannieDuck

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I do appreciate there's an element of luck, and if a child gets ill a child gets ill.

One year might be forgiveable under such circumstances, but absence at this level consistently across multiple school years would obviously raise alarm - the OP even said that the letter refers to this year's attendance being monitored as a result of last year's being low. If this year's attendance improves, no problem. If it stays low, then there is cause for concern...

Yes, agreed. I think perhaps the school has a point if it's the later years of infant school.

Counting_Pennies_2

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

I must admit I'm a bit shocked to hear that if your child is late they are classed as absent.

My son is often late at the moment because he's having physio and I always try to get the 9am appointment (1st of the day) as its less disruptive than taking him out later. The last appointment is 3pm as I think they do the more serious cases later on.

He usually gets in around 10am - usually a bit before. So he still has over 2 hours of the morning left, so its not absent. Lunch is at 12:15 at his school.

You would do better taking the last appointment of the day.


In order to pass the numbers game they need to attend both registrations. One in the morning and one after lunch.