School absence rules are super powering the spread of flu

so you want to punish other kids and teachers by hoping to pass on your kids illness as a way to punish the head teacher?

I mean I agree those assemblies are shit. kids with 100% get the certificate and a small prize here but no separating them out to party whilst their peers work. As a mother of a kid with chronic illnesses, I feel your pain but why punish the other kids? it isn't their fault they're not off more than your kid

then what? you're frustrated teachers are ill. you don't want the teachers in ill. if they're not in ill, their has to be a substitute teacher. you don't want the teacher sacked and replaced, so you have to have interim teachers whenever their ill. you can't expect Mrs Interim to take no other jobs just in case Ms TeacherYr10 is ill, so you have to have different interim teachers.

what do you propose then?

so instead of continuing to sensibly parent their children, they'd rather send their kids into school unwell than deal with their own feelings over a letter they know is pointless?

well I'd be pulling her out as soon as possible. a school with so little respect for staff or children isn't somewhere I'd want my children. expecting kids to sit there whilst their teacher vomits into a bag and then carries on teaching phonics, I'd just phone my child in sick until January

I agree that those awards are just completely shit. And as your reaction shows, really poorly thought through (although I do think your response is unnecessary, and shitty for other children & parents).

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/flu/

My DC's school have half termly attendance assemblies and name all children who have 100% attendance and reward with certificates. All the other children are made to clap and cheer them. It's a whole big deal. At the end of the year, those children with 100% have a whole assembly where they sit on the stage, get a certificate, get vouchers, and then have the afternoon 'off' to have party food and watch TV. Again, all the other children are made to clap and praise them, and then they go off to their normal lessons.

Tell me that isn't punishing children for taking time off school for the sin of being unwell.

Until the day when that practice is stopped I will send my child in with pretty much everything short of diptheria, if they themselves are feeling well enough to go. That includes chicken pox D&V, COVID and flu. My secret hope is that they puke on the headteacher themselves.

@OldTiredMum1976 It’s a safety and safeguarding issue and the government should know who is enrolled where and what their attendance is. A few days sick is neither here nor there. Tracking dc in unregistered schools is a matter for the government and most people recognise the need for this.

Im not sure who you mean by 'we'.

Im certainly not suggesting people should be off

Im trying to debunk the continuing myth that if you have flu, you're virtually bedbound.

This is not true.

If you're well enough to be up and about, be up and about. Its as simple as that. Any one of us could be carrying this or that or the other, its human reality.

A study? Or do you just mean there’s an interesting anecdote?

You're wrong. Why are people continuing to post things like this?

@OldTiredMum1976 I am not sure you can blame th government for a flu that is literally around the world!

Also the current school regulations and guidelines came into force August 2024 they were made and laid before Parliament February 2024 so before the last general election!

@OldTiredMum1976 If a parent forces their sick child into school just because they’re worried about receiving a snotty letter they’re a shit parent and a massive wet wipe to boot.

The reason staff have been absent this year will be because there are far more nasty bugs circulating, nothing to do with letters. I’m in my fourth cold/Covid/flu since September. Last year I didn’t have one all winter.

I’m not sure one year which has very high flu figures nationwide is a great demonstration of any particular behaviour change tbh.
Are parents really deciding that children they felt should stay home last year should now be forced in when unwell so that they don’t get a letter..? Have they considered getting a grip?

My DS's school currently have some teachers putting 'poorly' students on one half of the classroom and well students on the other half.... well that will solve it ....😉

There’s been a very interesting study with this at our school. It’s a private and, before this year and shitty Labour, the local council had no involvement with absences because it was private. Our head has always been very sensible and it ran very well. Parents were good at keeping poorly children off, the odd holiday was fine as well, no one took the piss - great!

Then came fucking Labour who always have to ruin a good thing. Now, we have to report all absences to the council - not that they can do anything about them - and we have to send a sniffy letter after 10 half day absences even if a child has been in hospital for a week. Consequently, parents don’t like getting this condescending letters so have started to send in poorly children to avoid them. This year it’s been like a plague city. Every teacher have had the worse illness of their lives - 2 have been hospitalised and our attendance figures are ironically worse than ever because everyone is so ill. This has proven what our stupid attendance policies do and is why the state should be involved in people’s lives as little as possible.

We should make sure we get jabs. It greatly lessens symptoms. Far too many elderly don’t bother let alone anyone else.

As an aside, the only (two) people I know who’ve had flu this year were both vaccinated shortly beforehand. 🤷🏼‍♀️
Perhaps the vaccine is a part of the problem?

Would be interested to see the stats on this.

No not at all.

what I meant is it’s not the absence rules spreading flu it’s people that are unaware they actually have flu which can’t really be helped

I think there's a lot more that can be done about it, at both LA and gov level.
The upper echelons, certainly in Scotland, are only interested in headline statistics. Substance, not so much.

I don’t know what you mean by “not counted”? It’s an authorised absence if they’re off. There’s nothing wrong with that, but obviously the school has to record the face.

Counted towards what?

If you mean attendance awards and all that crap, what they should be doing is getting rid of awards as they’re ridiculous.

But if they don’t “count” all the time kids are off, every abusive parent will cite “flu” every time they want to keep their kid under the radar.

School don't make you come in when you're 1ill though. It's your choice as a parent to keep your child off or not. You judge it yourself. If they try and put a bit of pressure on then I remind them Im the parent and I'll let them know when they'll be back thank you very much. Schools do have safeguarding obligations which is absolutely fair enough, they can pop by if they want but I'll decide when my kids are back in school. Never had a problem.

No.

I can only go off what I’ve heard but my own child said her teacher was carrying a sick bag last week, three children yesterday and on Monday two children from her class threw up in school one in the dinner line.

She’s in year 5 and not known for making up fairy tales, friends child in the same year says her daughter is saying the same.

My child’s teacher carrying the sick bag was then off school for three days after that day.

“The average number of sick days was 5.3 across all teachers in 2022/23, when those who did not miss any school was taken into account.
By comparison, the average UK worker was off for 5.7 days owing to illness or injury in the 2022 calendar year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.”

Not sure about the latest figures. Teacher absence since Covid has increased, and so has pupil absence, for various reasons including Covid.

No it is not fair to have supply teachers in exam years but sometimes there’s not a lot that can be done about that.