The language in ISAMS related to Absence Requests is old-fashioned and confrontational. At present, a request is either 'approved' or 'rejected'. This conflates the notification of absence with its formal classification. Ultimately, parents make the decision about whether their child is present or not, and the school makes a judgement about how to classify it. Perhaps.... the guiding principle should be parents inform the school of their intentions. The school determines whether the resulting absence is authorised - i.e how it is coded using the standard DfE codes or others the school uses. Happy to supply suggestions about how to modify the language if needed but in essence: 'request' becomes 'notification', 'approved' becomes 'authorised', 'rejected' becomes 'unauthorised'. And the 'Request Rejected' becomes, 'this absence will be recorded as unauthorised'. The aim needs to be to keep the relationship cordial.
