Would you send reception child to school today ? Illness related

Well all the pieces were there to make this an unsurprising development.

@savetheday hope you had an ok night and the kids are doing better today x

well done for getting a GP appointment! ours is really good for seeing kids fast too, it really helps!

Poor thing, probably the same thing as turned into an ear infection for your son, hope she feels better soon! It's so hard when they're that little, they're not great at recognising that they feel a bit rough or communicating it and the draw of fun with friends is strong! It's fab that she's so keen to go into school though, I'd see if you can have a chat with her teacher when she goes back about absence and what they want you to send her in with - I suspect the teacher won't want to catch things either and isn't thrilled when parents dose with calpol and chuck them through the gates.

If she’s not eating and not happy in herself wouldn’t send in either.

I find if you get them up and about the temp often drops. I’d get dressed and breakfast down her. Bit of calpol and make the call just before you leave. I think I’d be sending her personally.

NHS says don't if they have a fever, I'd keep her off but speak to gp today and see what they advise, fever with no other symptoms is odd.

I assume there has been no sickness or diarrhoea? Has she eaten her breakfast? How is her appetite?
This is another judgment call I am afraid OP. Don’t think you would be wrong to do either. If it was me, I would probably keep DS off but that’s just me. Give her an extra day to recover? She clearly has a virus of some description and she is fighting it off heroically, bless her, but she does still have a virus and could potentially still pass it on I guess

Our school said to send them unless really unwell as they tend to perk up.
As they said they will pick up loads of common colds and generally OK

D&v obviously is a stay home, as is other contagious things like chickenpox.

...I just meant it sounds like you have school anxiety? Jeez 😂

As reassurance...
In one year, DD got..
A bad cold (1 day off)
A d&v virus (6 days off, it was nasty!)
Scarlet fever (2 days off)
Impetigo (3 days off)

Plus a weeks holiday (agreed by the school before the illnesses).
So 17 school days. We had no problem with any attendance monitoring as they were all authorised absences. It was just one of those things.

It sounds like she's just had a lot of things, you can't help that! She'll probably get fewer things this year, it sounds like her class is small which will help.

If mine has a fever in the night it wakes him up so i'll tend to dose with Calpol or nurofen, so I don't send him in because it's probably just controlled by that and it's usually been a disturbed night. It doesn't seem fair on him or anyone else so I just let him sleep and call school. He's either thrown it off after a good sleep and goes in the next day or needs topping up with Calpol. I don't send him back until he's got through a night with no fever without needing medicine.

Just do what you think, you know your child. keep an eye on the situation, speak to her teacher when she's back from this and check that your approach is fine. If she seems to be having a lot of time off then review but don't worry about it yet!

@savetheday I have only read your posts and it sounds like you had an unnecessarily hard time on here. Child waking up with raised temp, seeming a bit off colour when there is already illness in the house is one of those situations that is ‘borderline’ IMO. FWIW, I don’t think you would have been wrong to keep her off but I don’t think you were wrong to send her in, either. It’s a judgement call isn’t it.

I'd be wary with having a low threshold, I used to be the same with my eldest (SAHM so easier to have a lower threshold!)
Our attendance did start to drop down as it's giving days off like these here and there can soon add up.
I think when they are too poorly for school it's usually very obvious and the decision is easy, if you aren't sure and they seem fine i would always send now and speak to the teacher. They can always be picked up if needs be!
Not judging at all just speaking from my experience as I used to feel the same as you.

How much has she been off sick? She's only just started reception hasn't she? Was she off a huge amount from nursery?

Follow your gut, don't send her in sick and see how she goes. If her absence seems high then think about changing your threshold! I wouldn't worry before that.
I don't send mine in if he's off colour and clearly brewing something and his attendance record is fine. A day rest to throw it off before it takes hold properly means he doesn't give it to as many classmates and only needs a day or two rather than feeling miserable, getting sent home after sharing it around and needing more days to recover.

And yeah, before they're 5 they're not at compulsory school age anyway.

It is a bit different in reception as until they're 5 it's not considered the same (school may still raise concerns but there isn't much they can 'formally' do). The school website and/or local authority website should have an attendance policy- not sure if it differs elsewhere.

You might not get fines but there are trigger points where you'll have the joy of interventions and plans etc. DS' attendance in KS1 wasn't great because he was in and out of hospital; even with a letter from his paeds consultant, letters for all appointments, evidence of GP visits etc we had to have meetings with schools, attendance plans and to meet with someone from the council I'm pretty sure it was. It wasn't even ludicrously low. Not saying people should send children in when poorly or be scared, but it's not the case that they can be off whenever with illness and school aren't bothered.