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Attendance records passed on?

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:22 pm
by chardom
My 10 yr old DS has had a fair amount of time off school in year 6 due to an ongoing medical problem that he was born with. He is desperate to get back to school however as he is worried that his junior school will pass his attendance record up to his new big school. does anyone know if these records are actually passed up to big school?

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:12 pm
by zee
Surely if it was for medical reasons (that could easily be proven), they wouldn't take it the wrong way?

Also, if there is and likelihood of further problems or treatment, surely it would be useful for a future school to be aware in advance?

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:44 pm
by Ed's mum
My primary school certainly sends all sorts of info about the year 6s such as attitude to work etc. Unsure about attendance, However, I cannot see that there would be any problem with poor attendance for health reasons...why would there be?

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:53 pm
by perplexed
And even if it was just plain old poor attendance for no good reason, why would a child feel it would "go against them"? I presume that the only reason such information is passed on is so that a truancy pattern was detected sooner rather than later. This is clearly not a problem in your son's case as it was authorised absence for medical reasons.

If a primary school did not pass on an attendance record to a senior school, it would take longer for the senior school to detect an attendance problem, and more valuable schooling would be lost than necessary.

And it would be more the parents' problem as the child's, as it is their legal duty to make sure the child attends school (unless they are homeschooled of course!).