Child marked absent from school because he had a doctors appointment

raydator

Hi,

Wonder if anyone could give me some advise.

Normally the following would probably not be an issue but in our case it's a big deal!

My son is just about to complete his sixth year in primary school. His school report was delivered today and it stated that he had a 99% attendance record to date this year. Now 99% out of a hundred is excellent, but what happened to the last 1%. Well I had to bring him to the doctors one morning to get him checked up as he was unwell back in December.

Now I hear you say what's 1%, well if I add in that in the six years completed he's only missed one day back in first class due to being unwell it's a big deal to my son. He prides himself (and so do I) in the fact that his attendance record to date is excellent.

So I went to the school today and asked why he was marked absent when he did attend school after the doctor visit. I had him in the school no later than 11:30am. I was advised that my son had missed roll call in the morning and therefore was marked absent for the day. When I put it to them that he did not miss a school day I was told the system does not allow them to mark my son as present after they marked him as absent.

Surely they could update the system? Why should my sons attendance record be recorded incorrectly? He was upset today when he saw his school report.

What can I do? Should he not be rewarded for school attendance rather than punished?

I'm sure you can tell from the post that I feel quite passionate about this issue, so please no comments telling me to get over it or its only 1%...
We want his school record to reflect his actual attendance at school.

Thanks for any information or help in relation to this...

siobhan08

raydator wrote: »

Hi,

Wonder if anyone could give me some advise.

Normally the following would probably not be an issue but in our case it's a big deal!

My son is just about to complete his sixth year in primary school. His school report was delivered today and it stated that he had a 99% attendance record to date this year. Now 99% out of a hundred is excellent, but what happened to the last 1%. Well I had to bring him to the doctors one morning to get him checked up as he was unwell back in December.

Now I hear you say what's 1%, well if I add in that in the six years completed he's only missed one day back in first class due to being unwell it's a big deal to my son. He prides himself (and so do I) in the fact that his attendance record to date is excellent.

So I went to the school today and asked why he was marked absent when he did attend school after the doctor visit. I had him in the school no later than 11:30am. I was advised that my son had missed roll call in the morning and therefore was marked absent for the day. When I put it to them that he did not miss a school day I was told the system does not allow them to mark my son as present after they marked him as absent.

Surely they could update the system? Why should my sons attendance record be recorded incorrectly? He was upset today when he saw his school report.

What can I do? Should he not be rewarded for school attendance rather than punished?

I'm sure you can tell from the post that I feel quite passionate about this issue, so please no comments telling me to get over it or its only 1%...
We want his school record to reflect his actual attendance at school.

Thanks for any information or help in relation to this...

If they said the system can't be changed then it can't. I had a similar system in secondary school. We were given swipe cards where it would be our responsibility to swipe in before 9 for the morning and at lunch time for the afternoon. If we swiped in at 9:00.17 we were classed as being absent for the morning because it was all linked to a computer. In the end year report card it would that we were absent for that morning,even though we were only late by 17 seconds and attended all morning classes. If we were again late swiping for the afternoon than that would be an absent day.
So a system that can't be changed after the fact does exist.

It does state in Circular 0028/2013

b) a pupil will be marked either present or absent at the time of roll call and there will be no provision for adjusting the Roll Book (Leabhar Rolla) where a pupil subsequently does not complete the full school day or arrives after the roll call;

Page 8/9
Section 3 Arrangements for the Roll Book (Leabhar Rolla)
3.3
Of the following document.
https://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0028_2013.pdf
Your children missed roll call. Therefore he was marked absent for the day

If you had always planned to bring your child to school after the doctor's. could you not have rang the school in advance to tell them he would be late due to a doctors appointment?
The school could probably have marked him as present had they know it advance that he would be there later in the morning.

Really just tell your son to not worry about it 99% is still excellent. I never missed a day of primary school in the 8 years I was there. It was never done consciously I was just lucky enough to never be too sick not to attend. As soon as I went to secondary school the never missing a day thing went out the window and I wasn't bothered about continuing the record. In a while he wont be bothered by the record.

Zaph

raydator wrote: »

What can I do? Should he not be rewarded for school attendance rather than punished?

Exactly how is he being punished?

mansize

Even if he was market absent for 1/2 a day, his absence still won't be 100%

He wasn't present 100% of the time.

He was absent

lazygal

If he was at the doctor, he wasn't attending school. That reflects what happened on that day and his actual attendance. What exactly is the issue here?

o1s1n

If all the other students weren't marked as absent when they attended doctors, your son's 99/100% score wouldn't be nearly as impressive as it currently is.

xabi

Id be more worried about what % he gets in exams.

Delphinium

I have another view on the subject. Hope he was well enough to attend school and not likely to pass on a virus or some such. I speak as a parent who had to keep a child in remission from cancer and his siblings out of school for months on end to protect him. He did eventually come into contact with a child who had measles and had to endure four days of injections to help his immunity. So please parents keep sick children at home.

mansize

Delphinium wrote: »

I have another view on the subject. Hope he was well enough to attend school and not likely to pass on a virus or some such. I speak as a parent who had to keep a child in remission from cancer and his siblings out of school for months on end to protect him. He did eventually come into contact with a child who had measles and had to endure four days of injections to help his immunity. So please parents keep sick children at home.

I thought that too.

Avatar MIA

Sometimes schools give out certificates for full attendance. And kids love them, why else would schools do it. At such a young age I can understand the importance for the child.

However, he didn't have a full attendance. His excuse for being absent was a good one, but absent he was.

The system is to encourage people that would be lackadaisical in their attendance, but the school is correct in its policy.

AlanG

It would probably be better for both of you to learn to accept something like this rather than fight it when you are actually short of 100% attendance. He most likely only feels bad about it because you cant celebrate his 99% record.

racso1975

Would love to know how much of this is him and how much is you. Also I would assume he got this obsession from you.

It is great that he is so aware the importance of attending school but given that he is upset by a 99% score what happens next time? He won't want doc appointment or dentist or whatever and when genuinely ill is he gonna be more stressed about his attendance record?

Either way he was partially absent so 100% not achievable

evolving_doors

raydator wrote: »

Hi,

...He prides himself (and so do I) in the fact that his attendance record to date is excellent...

Then that's enough.

Intrinsic motivation is worth more then getting rewarded by someone else. Sure, acknowledgement from someone else is nice, but think in the long term; If he gets the impression that there's no point in attending regularly if you don't get any acknowledgement then your on a hiding to nothing. 80% of success is showing up.

Shint0

Your child's attendance record is laudable and it's great to strive to be the best that we can be. On the otherhand it's not always possible to be 100% perfect all the time or it could set a child up to being afraid of failure or afraid to make mistakes which can often have a negative effect. I think the 99% outcome is possibly better than 100% and perhaps a valuable life lesson. We can't be perfect all the time.

raydator

siobhan08 wrote: »

If they said the system can't be changed then it can't. I had a similar system in secondary school. We were given swipe cards where it would be our responsibility to swipe in before 9 for the morning and at lunch time for the afternoon. If we swiped in at 9:00.17 we were classed as being absent for the morning because it was all linked to a computer. In the end year report card it would that we were absent for that morning,even though we were only late by 17 seconds and attended all morning classes. If we were again late swiping for the afternoon than that would be an absent day.
So a system that can't be changed after the fact does exist.

It does state in Circular 0028/2013

b) a pupil will be marked either present or absent at the time of roll call and there will be no provision for adjusting the Roll Book (Leabhar Rolla) where a pupil subsequently does not complete the full school day or arrives after the roll call;

Page 8/9
Section 3 Arrangements for the Roll Book (Leabhar Rolla)
3.3
Of the following document.

Your children missed roll call. Therefore he was marked absent for the day

If you had always planned to bring your child to school after the doctor's. could you not have rang the school in advance to tell them he would be late due to a doctors appointment?
The school could probably have marked him as present had they know it advance that he would be there later in the morning.

Really just tell your son to not worry about it 99% is still excellent. I never missed a day of primary school in the 8 years I was there. It was never done consciously I was just lucky enough to never be too sick not to attend. As soon as I went to secondary school the never missing a day thing went out the window and I wasn't bothered about continuing the record. In a while he wont be bothered by the record.

Thanks for the information and link. This helped clear this up about the way the system works.

OneOfThem Stumbled

raydator wrote: »

Normally the following would probably not be an issue but in our case it's a big deal!

Now I hear you say what's 1%, well if I add in that in the six years completed he's only missed one day back in first class due to being unwell it's a big deal to my son. He prides himself (and so do I) in the fact that his attendance record to date is excellent.

What can I do? Should he not be rewarded for school attendance rather than punished?

I'm sure you can tell from the post that I feel quite passionate about this issue, so please no comments telling me to get over it or its only 1%...
We want his school record to reflect his actual attendance at school.

Thanks for any information or help in relation to this...

Attendance is the least meaningful method of grading. It means you were there. 100%? 10%? Who cares: what matters is how much you have gained from your attendance, not the fact that you were in a room.

Your son is perhaps 12, will be going into secondary school next year. He will have to get used to far harder knocks than missing out 1% of attendance. A primary school record is literally not worth the paper it is written on. He will probably just have to get used to not always getting 100%, even when it could be argued that it isn't fair: because, that's life, and if school doesn't train you for life, what good is it?

Call me Al

All other things being equal the important thing is the quality of schooling, not the quantity, and this is what you really need to get across to him.

He was absent at roll call so he's marked absent, which is his actual attendance. I know you said not to say this but it really isn't a big deal to be getting so passionate and worked up about.

Moonbeam

I completely understand your issue.
My little one is only in 1st class and has never missed a day her report this year said that she did.
She was 15 minutes late one morning because her brother fell and cut his knees.
That certificate at the end of the year means so much to her and to me.
I feel that we often have to give up stuff to have them there every day and it is not easy so they deserve the credit for it.

lazygal

Moonbeam wrote: »

I completely understand your issue.
My little one is only in 1st class and has never missed a day her report this year said that she did.
She was 15 minutes late one morning because her brother fell and cut his knees.
That certificate at the end of the year means so much to her and to me.
I feel that we often have to give up stuff to have them there every day and it is not easy so they deserve the credit for it.

I completely disagree with certs for attendance and children being expected to aim for 100% attendance. A sibling of mine had to miss a lot of school through no fault of their own and these kinds of 'rewards' are really unfair. It isn't as though going to school every day is an achievement or anything, it is simply the luck of the draw, as your child now knows. There is no reason why attendance needs to be an issue unless it is a lack of attendance for unscrupulous reasons.
Also, what stuff do you have to give up to have your children in school every day? Mine go to school, they get picked up, that's part of being a parent. Not something that shows there's any great sacrifice on any of our parts.

Stealthfins

As a parent I teach my kid that too much pride is as bad as to little confidence.

Roll with it I say,because if one can't handle a bit of disappointment or losing the game,it's going to be a miserable existence.

I think you're looking into this too much,kids need knock backs to help them grow emotionally.

Take a rose in the garden,they need plenty of sht to grow....bit like life really ðŸ˜႒

raydator

Moonbeam wrote: »

I completely understand your issue.
My little one is only in 1st class and has never missed a day her report this year said that she did.
She was 15 minutes late one morning because her brother fell and cut his knees.
That certificate at the end of the year means so much to her and to me.
I feel that we often have to give up stuff to have them there every day and it is not easy so they deserve the credit for it.

It would seem that we are being knocked for valuing our kids attendance.. All I wanted was advice on the system in place and in return we are being told that it's an obsession from the parents.

lazygal

raydator wrote: »

It would seem that we are being knocked for valuing our kids attendance.. All I wanted was advice on the system in place and in return we are being told that it's an obsession from the parents.

Every parent or guardian who's anyway responsible values their child's attendance at school. However, my parents didn't value the attendance of my sibling who might miss weeks of school at a time less than that of the rest of us. It is a sweeping generalisation to make that those who don't send their children to school for myriad reasons (health, bereavements, emergencies etc) value attendance less than those who send their children to school simply to get a cert at the end of the year.

Call me Al

raydator wrote: »

It would seem that we are being knocked for valuing our kids attendance.. All I wanted was advice on the system in place and in return we are being told that it's an obsession from the parents.

I value my child's school attendance. I also valued the medical advice that said he required his tonsils removed or that he needed to attend his grandparent's funeral.
Despite what you appear to believe they aren't mutually exclusive choices.

njs030

Has your child never been sick in all his time in school? I hope you aren't sending a sick child to school to pass on his bugs to everyone else.

Unfortunately he was absent and will be marked as such, even if he was marked in for the time he was present it would only be 99.5%.

_Whimsical_

Moonbeam wrote: »

I completely understand your issue.
My little one is only in 1st class and has never missed a day her report this year said that she did.
She was 15 minutes late one morning because her brother fell and cut his knees.
That certificate at the end of the year means so much to her and to me.
I feel that we often have to give up stuff to have them there every day and it is not easy so they deserve the credit for it.

That's really disgraceful if she missed out on a certificate. As you say it takes a lot of effort for both the parent and child to make a record like that and it should be rewarded. We should teach 6 year olds that if they strive for something over the course of a year that it will count for something. Similarly there should be a big congratulations given to a child in 6th for never having missed a day. There should be a bit of discretion in these things, they are only children after all. We should be raising kids who take pride in their commitment to something and everything should be done to encourage it.

lazygal

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

That's really disgraceful if she missed out on a certificate. As you say it takes a lot of effort for both the parent and child to make a record like that and it should be rewarded. We should teach 6 year olds that if they strive for something over the course of a year that it will count for something. Similarly there should be a big congratulations given to a child in 6th for never having missed a day. There should be a bit of discretion in these things, they are only children after all. We should be raising kids who take pride in their commitment to something and everything should be done to encourage it.

Hold on now, what 'effort' exactly? What achievement is perfect attendance, anyway? I consider myself a diligent parent and we've vaccinated our children against everything possible but if they are sick, they should not be in school and them not being sick is not possible to control.
Perfect attendance is not an achievement, it simply means through accident or design a child has been sent to school every day.

silverharp

Every kids has to learn about " the man" at some stage :pac: , my own son had his own brush with an unsympathetic marking system recently, he normally gets his math tests perfect or with one error , this one he had 7 points deducted because in each question in the working he added area sides without using the unit of measurement even though he used it in the final answer. we all thought it was a bit unfair but its a lesson in following instructions.

byhookorbycrook

So the school should ignore DES rules? Roll call has to be done by a particular time- should a child who appears at 12 be marked as present? 1? 2? Where does it stop?

Should the children with measles in Kerry all struggle in for the sake of perfect attendance? I think you need to consider this as a non issue and move on.

I vehemently disagree with certs for attendance, by the way. Many children with chronic illnesses are doing well to be in on any given day , never mind all 183

bucketybuck

raydator wrote: »

so please no comments telling me to get over it or its only 1%...

But sometimes that is the only correct response.

Tasden

notjustsweet wrote: »

Has your child never been sick in all his time in school? I hope you aren't sending a sick child to school to pass on his bugs to everyone else.
.

Mine isn't quite as old as op's child but she hasn't missed a day due to illness since she started school. She rarely gets bugs, had two common colds her whole life (one as a young baby before school and one over Christmas holidays) and just one antibiotic as a baby. Shes had her own health problems but some kids just genuinely don't pick viral/bacterial things up. I, on the other hand catch every cold going and make sure to stay off when possible so as not to pass it on.