Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

School absence rules are super powering the spread of flu

259 replies

Pavementworrier · 09/12/2025 19:17

And people will die unnecessarily as a result and it's really annoying

Why the hell can't there be a rule that kids with flu or suspected flu (at least during peak flu season) don't have absences counted??

OP posts:
BettysRoasties · 09/12/2025 19:29

My oldest came home early today. Been in bed since before 5pm dosed up to his eye balls.

My youngest school even the teachers are dropping like flys. Our house is all full of various grades on this super cold d&v going around.

ShesTheAlbatross · 09/12/2025 19:28

Who cares what the school counts it as? I’ve absolutely no interest in my child’s attendance %. If she’s ill, she stays home.

The statutory guidance from gov is completely crystal clear that illness should be recorded as authorised and that medical evidence should not be asked for apart from in exceptional circumstances. No one should be getting fined for illness absences and if they are, point the school and the LA in the direction of the statutory guidance and tell them to change the absence to authorised.

TheTaupeScroller · 09/12/2025 19:27

Some parents keep obviously ill children at home, but other parents send theirs even when they're vomiting. Not much you can do about it.

If someone is contagious with no symptom, nothing can be done either way.

Idontknowwhy15 · 09/12/2025 19:27

School sent home the NHS guidance today about whether or not your child is well enough for school. Ofsted, etc make them obsess over attendance. My daughters have been off yesterday and today, we’re all (me included) feeling rough. Fevers, hacking coughs, no sleep. When the calpol’s at its peak power they get up and play a little - apparently this means they’re well enough to school. If I sent them in they’d infect half their class in time for Xmas, be miserable and probably take longer to get better. I get what you’re trying to say OP.

Underthemagnificentbeechtree · 09/12/2025 19:26

Ballondor · 09/12/2025 19:22

If a kid has proper flu, they aren’t going to school, rule or no rule, because they won’t have the energy to get out the front door.

Edited

The reason that flu is so contagious is because some people aren’t that ill with it and walk around spreading it.

Overtheatlantic · 09/12/2025 19:24

The government don’t own your children. You make the decisions and fight if you have to, but children with flu should be kept at home.

noblegiraffe · 09/12/2025 19:23

This is why school kids get offered the flu vaccine.

Ballondor · 09/12/2025 19:22

If a kid has proper flu, they aren’t going to school, rule or no rule, because they won’t have the energy to get out the front door.

OnlyMabelInTheBuilding · 09/12/2025 19:20

Why should flu be counted differently to anything else?

Swipe left for the next trending thread