School absence rules are super powering the spread of flu

It's unpleasant to be in school when ill, so why would I send them? Not everything is about what the school has declared.

Exactly this.

Not counting an absence doesn’t make it not an absence and whereas that may make sense in primary school trust me in High School things move quickly - sixth form even more so so they don’t want to miss too much to have to catch up on

Plus we are still coughing a week later we can’t hide in quarantine

I agree in a way (ie in the infection control sense).
The arbitrary approach to school attendance is frustrating (my own daughter is rarely off, she's been off school ill just one day since summer. I think probably most pupil absence is unnecessary tbh). I've no idea how much this attendance obsession is applied to teachers? Because teacher attendance is my biggest frustration. My daughter's English teacher has been off sick for several weeks, and it's affected her confidence with her upcoming English prelim.

Yet if this was a parent social services would be straight round but because it’s a head teacher she probably got away with it.
I wouldn’t want her around children. What a bitch.

😬<groan>

Is this one of these idiotic I'm so dumb and therefore the world outrages me where OP never comes back?

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

You find it annoying that people are dying? Are you a socially awkward 12 year old????

😷in case OP's idiocy is catching. Social contagion 'n all.

I don’t know how you’re supposed to differentiate between mild flu and a regular cold, it’s not like GPs would run a flu test for every case of the sniffles and young kids are often snotty November-March so you can’t expect them to not attend school or nursery for a third of the academic year. Then if it’s bad flu they’re going to be far too unwell for school, probably running a fever and maybe even puking so wouldn’t be going in anyway. So I don’t really get what point you’re trying to make? I know it was a bit of a miss this year but taking up the flu vaccine for your kids (and yourself if eligible) and instilling good hygiene habits like hand washing, blowing nose into tissue etc. are all you can do really.

and yet you retain parental autonomy. I'm not taking a sick kid to school for school to make the parenting decision I should have made

Any sniffle could be 'suspected flu' though. I'm not keeping a kid home if they are not actively unwell.

exactly.

my child won't get an attendance certificate/ prize because he had an operation in September so literally missed the first day back. His surgical reviews, it's an hour each way so if it's say 2pm he didn't get his afternoon mark. and then we've just had 11.5 school days off for his latest operation.

why is your kids flu to be treated differently to my kids operations?

if they're ill, keep them home. if they don't get their 200% certificate, that's life. they normally get a book or bag of sweets etc. youngest two always get it. I but eldest whatever his classmates get. he's not ill on purpose

A lot of the problems stem from the tone of the letters, which are typically both haughty and patronising. An actual conversation tends to get everyone so much further.

and yet quite rightly your kid isn't in school. you made that choice. as her parent.

the absence rule doesn't make you send your sick kid into school. parents do.

Plus needing a Dr letter for minor bugs that keep them off school. Just refused to get one for a 48hr upset stomach. Dr packed with flu cases - don’t want to waste their time or catch flu.

luckily school was okay about it.

that seems excessive!
Was the absence on a Friday or Monday? I know some schools are clamping down on pre Christmas holiday piss takers. But that is so annoying for you given you have an exemplary record and a good attitude towards attendance!

Why would it be counted any differently than any other illness.

if you’re child is too unwell for school keep them off, if they are okay for school send them in…

Cross post, okay you win 😆

YANBU. Half DD's year is off with "cold plus diarrhoea" at the moment which is almost certainly covid. She's missed three days this term - two when she had this bug last month, and one for a streaming cold. I got a phone call from school to follow up and ask me what was going on!! They were very polite about it but essentially asking me what the reason was for her having three days off. THREE. In the cold months when there are a million bugs around. What a waste of time - and way to sabotage their own attendance figures if they get ill children to come in and spread it around.

My dc had one day off last week,100% attendance before that,school sent the attendance officer round!boiled my piss that did!

No it is parents sending kids in ill. I don't care what the school has to say, if I think my child is not well enough to attend school they will be staying at home. It is not up to the school to decide how ill your child is! Ours have tried to say unless your child is actually being sick just send them in, they will send them home if they decide the child is too ill to be at school. On top of this they have added 3 weeks of special treats for those who are in every day, so children who have the misfortune of picking something up (probably from school) miss out!

I keep my kids home if they are too ill to go to school, otherwise they go in. I'm not going to stop my kids getting an education because they have cold symptoms, which may or may not be passed on to someone else who may or may not get worse symptoms than them. DD had a day off this week because of period cramps and a headache. I'm genuinely not interested in other people's cold and flu issues.

Yeah but you can ignore that. I would. My DD has 100% attendance through pure luck of never being ill on a weekday so I’m not keeping her off at the drop of a hat. But if I felt she was too ill for school I’d keep her off, I wouldn’t send her to school for them to decide whether or not she was too ill. I can, and will, decide that.
They have to mark illness as an authorised absence. You can’t be fined.

When my kids were ill I never considered attendance. If they were ill they were off.

At the start of this school year - we were categorically told by school to send children in with a cold type illness and if they were deemed too ill to be in school, they would be sent home. Seems absolute madness to me, but I think they were struggling with attendance in some areas.

That's not entirely true. I had proper flu just before Christmas last year - was swabbed - but I was still up and about getting on with daily life. Not everyone with flu is bedridden. I felt like death but no time to wallow around in it, had to get on.