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

I don’t agree with 100% attendance certificates for students or school staff. I think it sends the wrong message.

I keep my kids off if they’re sick, but I work from home and the school doesn’t have attendance targets. If my circumstances were different I may well have had to send them in if they were able to get through the day.

Also, I have got it wrong on occasion when I was convinced they were faking and then they’re sent home.

I can quite see why many people end up sending sick kids into school.

I was a teacher and was horrified that the headteacher of my young DC’s school had decided to keep DC in school when clearly unwell “because a teacher shouldn’t be asked to leave school”. Yes, I should have - so my DC could be looked after at home, by me.

It's mostly work. If you had 3 kids for example and especially if one of them is nursery age and picks up everything you could be taking multiple days off work throughout the year. I'm not condoning it (I'm a primary school teacher) but I myself would feel the pressure to come into work if my kids were sick (I'm lucky my husband works from home).

No, nothing to hide. But I'm starting to agree with PPs who are questioning your capacity of putting yourself outside of your own experience.

It really doesn't matter if I have 'anything to hide': the DfE are doubling down on attendance and schools, who are judged harshly on failure to meet attendance targets, are throwing the book at parents. It is disconcerting to be under scrutiny and be brought to the attention of external agencies whose job it is to 'support' your parenting.

How old are your DC, OP? You sound like the parent of a fairly young child, or perhaps someone who doesn't mix with other parents much -you appear strangely determined to stick to your perceived idea of how schools manage attendance.

I'm lucky to have an employer that is flexible and also the schools in Scotland don't freak out as much about absence. But I know from working in retail in my teenage years and then as a temp for a long time that it was an absolute nightmare for parents. The managers were often petty dickheads, piss them off even slightly and you would be on the rota down to your minimum, or you would have your days off at either end of two weeks so you were working the maximum without a rest day. They never believed anyone when they were off and there was a real culture of despondency. If you were an agency worker you could forget it, it was absolutely a black mark against you. One of the places I temped before being in my current job, which was in payroll, the attitude towards the temp agency warehouse workers was horrendous and is one of the reasons I left there as soon as I could. Having schools on your case on top of insecure and unstable employment must be intolerable.

I don't understand why people need to be busy patting themselves on the back instead of having some empathy and compassion for people who are in those situations. The run up to Christmas is the only time some people can even GET work.

Firstly, you're wrong. Secondly, other parents know it's unfair. Its also unfair on them when they have to go to work unwell. And thirdly - you're wrong.

I happen to dislike germ spreading too as my middle DS was so vulnerable to chest infection when he was younger and someone else's little cold could become a hospital admission for him. However, workplaces in my experience are really cracking down on absence. Disciplinary procedures start on the third occasion in a rolling 12 months at my workplace. With yourself and say 2 kids to cover its easy to see how things could escalate quickly.

My DS had a cold (which tested positive for covid) the week before Xmas the year before last. I kept him home because a) it was a pretty horrible cold and b) no one would want him spreading it especially in the run up to christmas when people are going away/seeing elderly relatives etc. I filled in the attendance form and said he was off with covid and got quite a pass-agg reply that they would be expecting him to return to school ASAP.

The first sentence of your response doesn't make sense, but I'll have a guess at the general gist.

I do keep my DC off when ill. But irrespective of what I personally think is the right thing to do, schools have rigid attendance policies. DC's school will make unannounced house-calls, insist on TEAMS meetings to see the child if absent for more than two consecutive days, and refer families to education welfare and Early Help, if they believe parents are not cooperating with raising attendance. DC2 is a grade A student across the board -a few days off with a chest infection won't knock her back- yet we have been on the receiving end of lots of communication from school concerning her 'persistent absence'. I'm a teacher, so not too fazed by the bluster, but I imagine it can feel quite intimidating if you're not used to it.

How is it seemingly so impossible to understand that you are in a fortunate position and your husband is in a fortunate position and that that might have something to do with your smug self-righteousness?

Imagine one or both of your employers continually pushing back on you, creating a hostile environment, not allowing you to WFH, withholding shifts and your ability to make money - it wouldn't be so sweet and rosy then would it? Do you really think parents don't WANT to leave their children sleeping in the morning if they're a bit sniffly? Do you really think the difference is that you're just a superior human being?

Many Parents seny their kids to school with clear and obvious COVID symptoms when isolation was necessary. Of course they will continue to do is if they have the flu COVID or whatever because "living with it" is policy

Since then usforthem and similar emphasised that every school day matters. You will recall the government took London schools to court to keep them open for just 1 extra day.

The emphasis is to get kids in to school at whatever cost because the drop in attendance is due to avoidance rather than genuinely higher levels of illness. We were told kids need to catch everything going to develop their hybrid immunity so now you do have vomiting kids not allowed to go home until the afternoon mark and similar.

Bit rubbish if you catch COVID or flu just before Christmas but this is literally government policy.

So do you grasp that you are both fortunate to be able to do that and that it's so far from the norm?

You're very fortunate.

Worked in a secondary school even if a child had vomited in the morning AT school we weren't allowed to send them home or call parents until they had got their afternoon attendance mark. Just ridiculous, once had 10+children sat in a corridor all had vomited all waiting to be allowed home.

As a primary school teacher, I hate it. I literally pick up every last bug going -it's a myth that exposure to lots of infections makes one more resilient.

I know that attendance policy stipulates that we pressurise parents to send sick children in, but when their eyes are glazed, they're coughing and sneezing all over me, there are hot flushed cheeks, sticky tissues and crusty noses everywhere, and I wake up in pain every morning knowing I can't just have a quiet day, putting my head down and working at an office screen with a lemsip, but instead have to deliver a full-on, all-singing, all-dancing high-engagement 7-hour routine, then I hate this insistence on presenteeism in our schools.

Because we live in a country where lots of people work in jobs on minimum wages and/or zero hours contacts, plus anyone with less than 2 years in the job can be fired for no reason and then of course there are all the people on temporary contracts or who are self employed. Good for you if you can afford to lose your job or several days pay, but most people can’t.

i paid £140 for the chickenpox vaccine because i was a lone parent who would have her entire savings wiped out if my son got chicken pox and I had to take 10 days off work unpaid. And I am a teacher, who couldn’t be fired for doing that but who had a school who were constantly harassing and guilt tripping me if I took any time at all of with my son.

its funny how parents don’t complain about teachers going to work when sick, in fact they are all outraged if their kids have supply staff because their children aren’t learning enough and their routine is scuppered.

Imagine the stress of having to send your poorly child to school or else lose your job? Then you might be able to understand why people send sick kids to school.

Categorically not true.
I've just received a letter from DD's school following time off with a respiratory infection (which we take seriously as she's asthmatic) specifically saying that all students are expected to attend unless they have diarrhoea or vomiting. Under the heading "Unfit vs Unwell", parents are informed that a cold, a temperature, a respiratory infection etc is to be treated with over-the-counter medication, and said pupil delivered to school as usual. School reserves the right to visit the young person at home to make a welfare assessment and determine whether they are unfit or unwell.

So schools definitely put their foot down with regard to absence arising from illness too.

So you have a professional job that has some flexibility and can be done outside of specific hours and potentially from home?

Thats a privilege a lot of people don’t have. While I agree with you that sending poorly kids into school doesn’t benefit anyone, blaming parents who maybe have to chose between keeping their kids at home and not having a job anymore is missing the point.

"I have never had any issues covering child sickness and my kids' schools haven't harassed me over it so this must also be true of everyone else". Come on op, use your imagination a little.

It's such a delightfully naive way to look at the world! Children come first, sure. Except that a large proportion of parents work in types of jobs which do not offer sick pay or parental leave pay. Spending a few days off work with a sick child (who is well enough to attend school) has real implications for their pay. I'm sure kids don't massively benefit if parents suddenly can't heat their home of buy food.
These are the same parents who unfortunately have to go to work sick as well for the same reason. I had one sick day in 20 years and that was when I literally couldn't get off the loo with a stomach bug. Because SSP doesn't exactly cover rent and bills.