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

Schools absolutely do hassle families if children are off ill.
They also pressure children to come in when ill as otherwise they will be excluded from attendance rewards.

And of course employers hassle parents who take time off for sick children. I've worked for employers who allowed you one day (unpaid) for your child's illness and then you were expected to find alternative care and come in to work.

Yep, so easy to say just keep your kids home when they're ill and don't worry about school, work, fines, disciplinaries...

Agreed, and even on a salaried job in the private sector you can pretty much be fired for anything.

A combination of things ,extremely unforgiving unkind employers who won't allow their staff time at home with sick children and schools pushing attendance like crazy.

Saying send them in ill !

If as a society we could move to a more caring child centered environment it would be better all around for everyone instead we are drifting onto the American model which is backward

How are you doing there floating about on your privilege? Every been in insecure hourly paid work?

Our school does. They send out someone to the house on the second day of absence to check how ill the child is. Even if they are very unwell they still expect them back the next day.

My DC had 100% attendance last year and had 1 day off sept for d&v a couple of weeks ago she had what we suspect was Covid - on her second day absence we were told we needed some Kind of proof she was sick so I took her to the walk in centre although fairly convinced she had a viral infection to get a note of attendance

she went in the following day. She wasn’t fully right and in all honestly she needed at least one more day off if not two

blame the overbearing and draconian attendance laws and policies that state we can’t be trusted to parent our children

OP your posts don't ring true. If you actually do have three children in the school system currently you would know what they're like re attendance. Children shouldn't be missing valuable days of education for minor illness. Attendance is a huge problem since covid and schools are right to crack down.

We're entering into a point in time where forcing both parents to work and therefore treating school like daycare is going to backfire.

Kids are an inconvenience for most, and I dread to think what things are going to be like in the next generation. Perhaps the state will get too big and collapse, and then we'll see a shrinkage of state schools, or maybe fewer state schools and more of a relaxed/less snarky attitude towards homeschooling.

Mine will go to school as long as she's able to. If there's a temperature I will keep her home because I have an understanding and flexible employer. If she has a runny nose, I don't think even my employer would stretch to that.

If she's got a sniffle I will always tell her that if she feels bad during the day to tell her teacher and ask them to phone me. The problem is that I don't know if they would. There seems to be a problem in some schools that's still akin to the 'wet paper towel' cure for everything.

Letters are automatically generated after percentage of absences (regardless of reason). I believe (but may be wrong) that letter format is from Government so if its threatening that is the Government wording.

However it IS up to the school if they send it out. Our DFS school would send it regardless but his HoY would message and say we are not worried we know and understand the reasons.
My DH has several children with multiple absences but the letters dont go out as he/the school are aware why.

However TEACHERS/TAs who have bugger all say in any of this DO NOT want sick kids in school, especially at this time of the year. Those kids spread it and recover just in time for the holidays whilst given other pupils and staff it and spoiling their holidays.

I do get thats its difficult but it doesn't make sending them in the right thing to do either.

For the five millionth time, the problem is our stupid 'attendance' culture and workplace policies, not parents doing the goddamn best they can with what they've got.

But - going to school ill doesn't teach resilience, it teaches adherence to the aforesaid culture and policies.

This
Chilldren will always be subject to coughs, sniffles etc
Some children will be kept off for the most minor of things whilst for alot of parents, it's a case of dosing with medication and keeping your fingers crossed. I'm not referring to illnesses that are extreme.
I worked ft as a single parent when my child was at school, couldn't take time off on every occasion.
@

😄😄 i'm not being silly

Pop yourself down to my dd's school and speak to the attendance officer yourself - terrifying lady

I just take dd in now, show the teacher that shes unwell again and then take her home

And thats only if shes really ill. If shes got a cough or the sniffles, she goes in 🤷‍♀️

I had no family, ex husband used to laugh if I ever asked him to do more than the 24 hours eow he occasionally committed too and if I was off with them I would lose all overtime for the next month. And I relied heavily on the extra money that gave me.
my kids sometimes went to school with a cold as I was doing the best I could when things were stacked me

Don’t be silly. The gov statutory guidance is completely clear that illness must be marked as authorised absence and that medical evidence is not to be asked for unless in exceptional circumstances. If schools are marking it an unauthorised and it’s leading to fines, they need correcting on the statutory guidance because they are ignoring it.

Sadly lots of people’s jobs would sack them for taking too much time off. These companies really don’t care that their employees’ children are off sick from school.

This is entirely not down to the parents ???

The school attendance team will threaten to take you to court should your kid get ill multiple times in the autumn winter term 😄

Not to mention the gp being unable to do anything for a viral cold or whatever. You dont get antibiotics for your kid anymore!

Not to mention getting an appointment, taking them out in the cold to the gp, for the gp to do nothing, then judge you when you ask for proof youve taken them to the gp!!

Its a nightmare.

Letters that can be chucked straight in the bin because illness must be marked as authorised absence and therefore cannot lead to a fine.

If someone is dragging their kid out of bed and sending them in to school unwell because they don’t like the tone of a letter, they need to stop being so wet.

My kids caught what I suspect was flu a few years ago. Both in bed for a week. Unfortunately this was the last week in September so school had been back less than 3 weeks. Their attendance figures were therefore appalling. Below 75%.

And boy did we hear about it!

Every sodding parents evening we had the target figure (96%) pointed out to us and how our figure was below it. Slowly slowly the figure went up which they were very happy about.

And I am a well educated, well off, borderline posh woman with two kids who are excelling at school. I have enough social capital that there is very little they can do to me. I prefer to have a positive relationship with school as that is nice but I don’t need to. I am not reliant on them to support my children with SEN as they do not have any SEN that needs supporting. I do not fear being reported to Children’s services because I am confident in my parenting. If the relationship with school fell apart I could afford to send my kids to the local private school.

So it was easy for me to shrug off their obsession with a quick “yep - they had the flu in September - it’ll go up hopefully”. But I can imagine it must be very hard to do so for some other parents whose lives are much harder than mine.

Luckily my ds hasn't needed any days off sick but his school along with others put incentives out for kids that have 100% attendance. Ours sent out emails that any child who attends everyday until Christmas gets the chance to win a massive festive food & treats hamper and the rest of the year there are fun school activities for the children, certificates and a small prize each term for 100% attendance so people send their kids in sick so they don't miss out on these things

Poor kids who are Sent to school sick as if its a health centre not a place of education let alone passing it to all the other kids and staff so close to Xmas.

I agree with op. Mine has just had a week off for chickenpox finally well enough to go in and then picked up nasty infection and is now most likeky off again with temperature and really runny nose tomorrow. I know its coz parents send unwell kids into school abd its not coz of work as the ones I know who do it are stay at home parents