To find it increasingly annoying, that parents send clearly ill children into school

Hahaha! You are very naïve! Many places put you on a disciplinary for absence. My work is quite generous with 5 days allowed for dependents, but between 2 children that disappears quickly, especially if you have them off for every sniffle.

Think about it from this perspective. I’m actually a teacher - I’ve been coughed on and sneezed at endlessly this last 2 months (thankfully I have quite a good immune system) and don’t really mind - what I do mind is kids missing learning over a little sniffle. If I’d taken every day my children have been a little under the weather off these kids would have had many days of substitute teachers, instead they’ve have a consistent teacher.

Love the OP denying that schools EVER give parents shit and demand off-colour kids are sent in and it's ALL parents wanting term time holidays.

Nah - I've got two kids at the same school, both being off on the same day and neither of them being able to keep their gobs shut rules termtime holiday sickies right out.

School has the rudest, most unpleasant, aggressive attendance goblin going who has rung me before to demand evidence that DD1 had been throwing up overnight (sorry I didn't keep a bucket of vomit love) and that I sent her back in the second the floodgates were no longer open. Not as if my kids are habitual poor attenders either - one or the other usually gets a full attendance award each year, both well above 96% depending on how germy the year has been.

My son was sick, he was y6 doing SATS they hounded me several times a day to bring him in to complete his tests. Even though he had been physically sick and running a temperature.

Maybe think yourself lucky that your children dont attend a school that is so focused on attendance or that you have had a child that hasnt been able to attend school (and there are many which dont involve holidays) and then you feel you are encouraged to send them in sick.

Mixture. Rewards depending on attendance. Grief for time off, threats for being off, wanting doctor proof of illness.

Both parents having to work to keep. Roof over the head.

There is a list, even though I agree with you. Plus it can't be pleasant for the bairns having to go through it.

What do you mean by ill? A cold, a mild cough, they should absolutely be at school. These viruses are part of life and therefore society.

The proper flu, high fever, vomiting, then yes, they should stay at home.

Do you work op? And how old are your children now?

Schools do encourage it, our school have scrapped the 48hr rule and made it very clear that children need to be very ill not to be in, a cold, general lurgy etc doesn't cut it for attendance rules.

Same for many workplaces

Doesn't mean the actual teachers and parents agree with it

Schools do encourage parents to send their child in if they are ill.

there’s literally a national campaign being run by the DfE about it.

you personally might not have noticed but others have.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Gosh, it would be nice to live in your perfect world.

Presumably due to the schools forcing kids into school while poorly?

Depends what you mean by ill, self limiting illnesses like colds don’t usually require absence for school or work whereas if they are so sleepy they can’t get off the sofa they need to be at home. I think we have different thresholds as to what level of illness requires absence (this applies to adults in work too, with some professions having noticeably higher sickness rates and it won’t surprise you that jobs with better sickness benefits have higher absenteeism due to sickness… just saying, seen the figures, also the kids of stay at home parents have higher sickness rates than those in work… again stats can be misleading eg some parents can’t work because of their child’s medical condition skewing the stats but I got this from a headteacher…

Because people have to work and because schools actively request you to send your sick child in and not keep them home just for a “cough or a cold”. They want to maintain their attendance because they are judged on it and because they don’t want your child to miss key learning. Plus they know many kids magically perk up once they are in school.

My friend got a call from her DS’s primary school about his high absence. She went ballistic at them because they had actually sent him home sick more than they had kept him off. So yeah, they do have a problem and don’t use common sense.

Parents need to work.
Schools fine for poor attendance.
Children miss out on rewards for not having 100% attendance.

In an ideal world we would all stay at home to rest and not spread viruses, but we're not in an ideal world.

In Germany you can take leave for sick dependents and spouses- perhaps people should fight for these rights rather than being angry at parents who may not have any other options.

School have explicitly asked that we send them in with a cough or cold. Their rules, not mine.

A friend of mine works in a preschool and says the amount of children who should be at home recovering from illnesses but who come in last week of term before Christmas instead, is shocking. Fear of missing out often. While it’s nice, I guess, for little Charlie to not miss out on the party or the nativity play etc while he’s clearly really suffering from what is apparently more than a little cold, it’s not so great for everyone else including the staff. My poor friend always ends the term with at the very least a foul cold. Once it was a heavy cold, conjunctivitis and hand foot and mouth disease. All at the same time. Happy Christmas. I decided right then I never wanted to work with children and deal with their selfish parents

Because my children have the bare minimum days off and will go in if I think they can make it through the day. And still we get the report at the end of the year with a sad looking face saying ‘below school’s expectation’ for attendance.
Which makes me think screw you, you can look after my sick kids then!!

I do think it teaches resilience too, unless you’re in the 48 hour sickness rule or have a fever you’re going in!

My DC school doesnt have a 48 hour policy for d and v. Ive kept my kids off after vomiting (except in the case where DS has migraine induced sickness which is different from a bug) and school called to ask where they were. DS had a really awful bug earlier this year (we had to go to A and E twice) and was off school for over a week. They still emailed to ask where he was. I wouldn't have contemplated sending him in , but as he was 15 he was able to be at home on his own

Clearly you've never dealt with a child whose unwell a lot then 😅 school definetly do take issue if your child has too many days off due to being unwell

Selfishness. This is why we end up with flu spreading so badly and covid waves - schools are key sites of infection.
Also guidelines are ridiculous. Is it 3 days off school now if you have covid (or even no time off at all), even though many people test positive for 7+ days which means you are infectious still. Last year Dept of Education had a crazy ad campaign with mottos like 'Little Ed felt sick this morning, but he came to school anyway and look at him now!' so they are totally complicit in encouraging sick children in to school, all for the sake of attendance.