Any help and advice would be appreciated re: school attendance records and time off school to attend ballet associate programs and ballet exams

[MumToTu]

I received the dreaded attendance letter from dd's school last Friday, she has the occasional friday afternoon off school for her ballet junior associate programme and this combined with 4 days off sick this academic year and one medical appointment she is a now a"persistent Absentee" from school, as her attendance is 89.5%  Yikes I feel like a bad mum. 

 

As she is will be trying for grammer school place 2016, as well as hopefully ballet school, her attendance record will be taken into account.  Is there any better way to record her absences due to ballet associate schemes ?  If you looked at her record because her ballet lessons are recorded as "other authorised absence" it looks terrible! Her school are very co-operative and supportive of her dance and I am sure they will help if they can. 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Her attendance record should have no bearing on her being accepted into either grammar school or vocational school.

 

I wouldn't worry too much.

[MumToTu]

Thanks Picturesinthefirelight, its only hearsay I heard the Grammer school she is applying do this, a friend of mine whose daughters go to the school told me they check pupils attendance records before offering a place.  I know they are a very oversubscribed school, and once you are there they are very strict about attendance. I don't think our local mid associate scheme falls during the week if she was lucky enough to be granted a place on that in the future.

[Snape]

My friend has this problem our dd 's have ja's on Friday's .She had same thing attendance low on report. She asked for a copy of her attendance record and they had been using the wrong code. Making her appear absent on ja days instead of gifted and talented or educated off site. School had obviously agreed to ja absences. They changed her code and sorted it all out. She also rang Cumbria county council to double check what code it should have been. They said it should not count as absence and should be educated off site or g&t. Maybe have a word with your school to see if they are using correct code.

[MumToTu]

Thank you so much Snape, I am guessing your DDs maybe Manchester associates too with you being in the NW :-) It would look terrible on a school report I not thought of that yet as we only receive them once at the end of each academic year....  Her school are supportive and have said they will happily authorise all her absenses for ballet auditions/classes/exams. I will speak to the school tomorrow and I hopefully they can change her code.  She was motified to get the letter in front of the whole class (they all know what its for since the introduction of fines for holidays and get a bit excited when one gets handed out...!) 

Edited March 8, 2015 by Snowflake

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Is the grammar school a state school? If so I would have thought that checking attendance records was against the Admissions Code?

If private then private schools are usually very supportive of dance & sporting excellence.

[MumToTu]

No, its a state school.  I only have heard this by hearsay from a parent a long time ago, hopefully its just a rumour, she made sure her daughters had excellent attendance records she seemed to think the grammer school check them before offering a place.  Mind you if its on her school report too maybe they can check that way?  Her past school reports have always been so positive.  I am so hoping I can persuade the school to change her attendance code next week, as that would take herout of the "persistent Absentee" category set by the council which below 90% attentance, she's currently recorded as having 89.5%, so its only just below, at the moment.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Snowflake

[Oldermum]

When my dd was a JA her junior school was very supportive and booked her for out of school learning so her attendance record wasn't affected. Some of these Heads and teachers are beyond belief if they think all learning takes place in school. DD Head said obvious his support would be different if it affected her School work. but they actually bought her a special trophy for leavers assembly because despite all her dancing - associate classes, auditions etc she still came out with the second highest marks for her year. It's so annoying that dancing is thought of so poorly compared to say football it's about time these school  leaders under took some training. The skills  and lessons dancers learn far out weighs missing lessons at school. Active body active mind.

 

I also thought ballet exams could be classed as part of PE and therefore they shouldn't lose any attendance but sometimes you have to point it out to the school as they don't realise.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Oldermum

[Picturesinthefirelight]

State schools can ONLY allocate places according to their published admissions criteria.

 

So performance in an entrance exam is allowed for grammar schools as is distance from school, church attendance or similar but they are not allowed to interview children

 

Section 1.9 e of the Admissions Code specifically says they are not allowed to take account of past attendance.

[spooky]

All these attendance figures are absolute rubbish in my opinion and should only come into consideration if other problems appear e.g. falling behind in work/grades going down etc. Luckily all my dds are now past this stage but it has caused me numerous issues in the past particularily with my youngest dauhter who took part in panto and was also in a professional WE show. The school were often quite reluctant to allow time off and it was always marked down as 'authorised absence' so affected her attendance figure whereas others I know in the same productions but at different local schools had it marked as 'educated off site' and therefore it didn't affect the figure! Luckily dd was a very healthy child and by the end of the year her attendance was usually back up to around the 95% level having fallen quite low around Dec/Jan but I remember one bizarre occasion when I was called to collect her due to illness and then told by head of year that they were not happy to let her go home because of her attendance. It actually got to the point when I said to them that what they were saying was that they would keep an ill child in school just to up their figures! I also worked out that provided they were present for registration they were marked as present for that session (am/pm) regardless of what time they actually left. Thus I learned to 'play the system' and rather than picking dd up at the start of lunch would collect her just after afternoon reqistration or take her in for just the first half hour of school. Another stupidity was that each session (am and pm) were counted separately but in that school there was only one hour of teaching in the afternoon and four hours in the morning so missing an afternoon only involved missing 1/5th of that days lessons but on paper looked the same as being absent from the morning in which 4/5ths of the teaching was done! One time when school were being very difficult over authorising absence I actually worked out how many hours of each subject were being missed which if you discounted things like PE (she would be dancing anyway) and presented that to them. I do not envy you as I believe things are even more difficult now. So glad all that is behind us!

[sarahw]

Yes we had the same JA programme as you and it was recorded as education in an alternative location - didn't affect attendance. ....

[cornishprincess]

snowflake...don't worry!!!!!!!!!!

[MumToTu]

Spooky that must have been so stressful. Dd has a hospital appointment this Friday at 10 (she is in good health it's just for an injury from a minor accident hospital want to check has healed okay) so another 2 sessions missed, her school have 4 sessions in the day.

 

She's doing well at school, I believe her associate programme helps her do well at school, ie with her imagination for English, confidence in expressing herself, health, history, a little French, music, the list could go on and on. We had parents evening she's working above new level 5 English and Maths which is very good for Year 5 in her school. In the top group and well liked by staff and pupils. Just a persistent absentee... , dd works so so hard, bless.

 

I let you all know how we get on with dds school, I may phone the council first to ask their advice, a bit nervous....! Wish me luck!

Edited March 8, 2015 by Snowflake

[DancingDays]

Snowflake, when my DD had time off school for ballet related activities, it was always marked as "Educated off site" so that it didn't affect her attendance record.  Ballet is a legitimate educational activity so you should be able to ask her school office to re-assign the associate classes to that.

[LovetoDance2003]

Snowflake, I could literally write a book about authorised/unauthorised absences!! Had a nightmare of a situation back end of last year with dd headmaster/school!

Yes, agree you need to write a letter and request that the code be changed. Post a copy to head of governors also! Heads normally back down once you get them involved-I know from experience!

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I still get cross thinking of that now lovetodance

[LovetoDance2003]

Pictures. I was one smug mum a couple of weeks ago as I received a written report from a teacher who was unable to see us at parents evening and he couldn't have been more praiseworthy of DD. Without any prompting he said she never let her absences let her fall behind with her school work! Just what I needed to not just hear, but have written evidence of for any future absences required!

[MumToTu]

Quick update, spoke to council this morning, they explained unfortunately is at the schools discretion how they record any authorised absences. She said they could record it as duel education, which some local schools do for pupils attending football and junior Olympic programmes but maybe reluctant to do so because it may effect their funding. She advised I make an appointment to go in and talk to the headmaster.

 

So I'm going to nervously make an appointment to see her head, and try and politely request she's recorded as being duel educated on ballet afternoons, and if not how can I help bring her attendance up, maybe by taking her out slightly later etc. Her school are fantastically supportive of her, fingers crossed, just the losing funding thing may sway it out of her favour. They pride themselves on having a fantastic learning environment and in order to provide this they probably need the funds. Dd is so fortunate there she has 2 fully qualified teachers in her class of 28, so I can't complain.

 

If the school cant change her code, then the council advised including a cover note explaining her attendance record on any application for a Y7 place to explain where she's been attending a Royal ballet associate scheme, I suppose it will add that little extra something to her application having a talent for ballet :-)

Edited March 9, 2015 by Snowflake

[MumToTu]

Another very quick update, had a phone call from dds lovely headmaster, he's requesting a copy of her attendance record and looking into changing all associate absences to code BB or educated off site for her. That will bring her attendance right back up, he did explain he'd not come across the royal ballet associate scheme before and sounded quite excited for her to be auditioning for a place at The Royal ballet School and Elmhurst next year, did explain to him many apply for few places, but it is very exciting nevertheless.

 

I think the school thought she was just doing an awful lot of ballet exams lol :-)

 

So fingers crossed waiting to hear back from her school with a great new attendance sheet for her.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Snowflake

[DancingDays]

Brilliant Snowflake - that should do the trick

[sarahw]

Fantastic. Sounds common sense may rule for you.