School harassing us over attendance...

This is ridiculous and i’d be booking an appointment with the head. My DD was off a lot in year 9 and we got an attendance warning, the funny thing was it was them sending her home not me not sending her in. They wanted medical evidence for every absence. Absolutely ridiculous as she had an ongoing illness. She actually left this summer with all 9’s in her GCsE’s so their letter saying it was affecting her education was laughable. Yes target those whose kids are genuinely skipping school, but in this case? It’s too much and i’d be tempted to complain higher about this.

That won't work for a number of reasons.

Shorten the summer holidays - where is the money coming from to pay school staff the extra, seeing as they will be working more days than contracted for? If people can take a week off anytime, will parents accept lower exam results when they inevitably miss something important? Will parents take responsibility for catching up on the 25 missed hours of learning without adding to teacher workload by insisting that this is provided?

Self-certifying only works with people where there is a consequence to not attending. Every workplace has an attendance policy where you can get fired if you do not attend after so many incidents in a year, because, inevitably, people will take the piss. That will be even more the case in schools with weak parents who will give in and lie about a child's illness rather than trying to force them into school if they do not have to medically certify absence.

There is no ‘outstanding badge of honour’. Overall effectiveness grades have been removed.

The system is broken. Attendance is at an all time low. Instead of looking at the system and changing it the fine and harass parents with kids who are genuinely unwell.

I think they need to shorten the summer and offer a discretionary week that parents can take at anytime. Them people won't feel the need to lie to have a cheap holiday. Then maybe introduce the same system we have at work for illness. You self cert for 7 days and then need a sick note. The problem is things are different everywhere depending on you LA. My nephew had 2 term time holidays last year and they weren't fines. My daughter had chicken pox and I had constantly harassed. She finished the year with 95% attendance.

There is a lot going on in this thread! I've worked in secondary schools for 30 plus years, and I deal daily with parents who are angry with my school or distressed or in despair with various things.
Schools can't get everything right, not everyone's judgement is perfect all the time. We also struggle to fill vacancies and some key staff are themselves sometimes sick. We have also had 14 years of neglect and abuse from a hostile tory government who neither understood state education nor cared as covid tore holes through our provisions and progress.
Until the housing and cost of living crisis eases I can't see things changing that much. But we will be open again on Monday doing our best, and myself and the rest of the safeguarding team will be braced for the disclosures some children will make as they view the oncoming half term not with happiness but with fear.

Attendance is huge in schools. Schools are required to check that children are safe and some parents lie so it can be challenging to check they are safe.
We had a parent whose child was hospitalised and then absent for ages and I understood that they thought we were being intrusive but we needed to check they were safe as we only had mum’s word for what was happening. I contacted the Doctors to check they had been seen by them and were safe. That may have seemed too much for many but if mum had been lying and something awful had happened, parents, the media and society would be up in arms that the school had so easily accepted what mum had said.
Safeguarding can often be uncomfortable for the adults but we owe it to the vulnerable children in our society to still ask questions and check when needed. Not asking/checking for fear of upsetting an adult is not a good enough reason for me to not safeguard children.

I think there are a few things happening here. The first is that I don't think you communicated with the school enough. When my kids were at school I would ring every single day of absence with an update and I would ask them what was needed if it got to two or three days off. I would only not ring if they said I didn't need to. It sounds like you initially made one or two phone calls and thought that was enough. I don't think that's enough communication for such long absences. That's why they were chasing you because you weren't phoning them. Secondly, you do sound a bit over anxious about illness. For chicken pox you don't have to wait until the spots have healed just until they are scabbed over. You mention some quite extreme outcomes from normal childhood illnesses - and that makes you sound a bit overprotective. So it's likely these two things put together that have meant their safeguarding processes have kicked in. I would learn from it and make sure to stay in better communication with the school next time. I would have an open and frank conversation with them in a calm manner. Take your medical evidence in with you and listen to what they need from you and let them know you didn't realise you had to keep phoning with updates and that you will do so next time. If you work with the school that will reduce concerns on their part.

For those minimising chickenpox, that’s BS. My son had it at 2, absolutely fine bar a couple of days itching. My DD had it at 5 and she was really poorly - it took her 3 weeks to recover from the impact of the viral load. She went back to school after 2, when I thought we could modify other things (more sleep, little exercise) enough to reasonably get her through the day. Chickenpox is vile and I’m so glad children are offered a vaccine now.

Why am I on this chat? Because its a public forum? And yes, if the UK doesn't provide the vaccine for chickenpox then that is very shortsighted imo

Why are you on this chat? No, the UK health service does not provide the chickenpox vaccination. Most kids here get chickenpox in the first years of primary school.

it is good she has been flagged.
they are following protocol
i appreciate your daughter is ill but there have been terrible cases in the headlines so it is good there is protocol.

The UK does have bad attendance issues at school in general. This does not excuse harassing people who have had a GP certificate for a known illness that has been about for centuries.

OP, if the school is not responding to a formal complaint made on your behalf by a solicitor, then look at the next stage of the process.

Is there more going on here? Because it seems pretty unlikely that a school would have the resources to visit a child's home every day after a hospital stay....

Hi, I don’t know the policy at your school but at my kids school you have to call every single day and repeat they are ill and will not attend giving the reason. You cannot just call the first day and say they have chicken pox and will not attend for 5 days. I am guessing it must be the same policy at your kids school which is why they called you the next day asking why. As per my understanding this is to do with safe guarding so that they can confirm they have made contact with you and verified that your child is still ill.

So GPs can share information without consent for safeguarding purposes.

But actually this a good thing for OP as SS will shut it down quickly as it is a non issue.

And chickenpox? My kids are late teenagers and I have literally never seen a case of chickenpox - thanks to the vaccine. Is it not taken up in the UK?

Keep a diary of your daughter's illnesses day by day with lots of detail. Include photos for evidence of say spots on arms. Contact your surgery and ask for a letter from them or evidence that you have taken your child even if you have to pay for the letter. Keep a diary of all the times the school has harrassed you and ask for it to be in writing from them as you are keeping evidence of what they are doing and then go and see the head teacher and bring this matter to the board of governors and ask for an explanation. I was a teacher myself and my child was so well looked after, that if someone had done that to me I would by now have contacted a solicitor and also the local education authorities to ask for an explanation about this kind of behaviour as it was not conducive to my child's recovery. I suppose a lot of it stems from these tragic stories we see in the news about children being badly treated but it is overkill. Maybe they have had a case at this school of a neglected child so are taking these measures to avoid another issue, but you need to have that explained to you in writing.

Put everything in writing . After a visit do a follow up email to the head of x an y made a visit today. X request dd return to school despite being day two of chicken pox. This goes against your sickness policy which states......

Everytime.

Keep a log and if it gets too much make a complaint.

I think the school is OTT, not the mum. Common sense is so rare nowadays.

Perfectly put! I really hate love when people act like they are medical professionals when they are basically clueless. Some children get ill, and bounce right back. Other children might have a period of time when their immune system takes a licking and one infection will follow another.

I totally agree with the vomiting emojis for that poster. So very rude and unkind. Makes me wonder about them.

I nearly died from chickenpox complications as a 7 year old after someone came back to school too early with chickenpox. I was ill at the end of term, for the entire summer holidays and the first half term of Y3.

These schools putting pressure on for an early return make my blood boil.

I would change schools and I would also complain to the very top about this school.
It is absolutely correct that they "check in" but this behaviour goes beyond the pale

I had to do the same thing, and I was an adult.
My tonsils were gone, but I had strep so bad, my throat was red raw and could not swallow anything. I carried a bowl around for two days, until the first antibiotic shot started helping. Then could only swallow very bland liquids for a few days. I had to keep going in for shots for two weeks.

When I had it, actually severe strep throat, back in 1976, I had to spit my saliva into a bowl for the first two days, until the antibiotic shot started working. After I could swallow my saliva, I could only swallow mild liquids for about a week. I had to let baby aspirin dissolve under my tongue for pain relief and had to go off to the doctors to get antibiotic shots since I could not swallow a pill.

Not sure why you are being so obnoxious and rude to the OP. Everything she said is right on and has happened to many people. Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't make it not happen to others.

Uk compulsory school age is actually 5.