Told to ignore the 48 hour rule for D&V?

My Dd1 currently has an 89% attendance record. :( This is because she has had a lot of consultant appointments at hospital and that has necessarily resulted in days off school. In addition her IS has been compromised because of medication she is on so she's had a bit of time off for the usual colds coughs etc which she would normally have struggled through - but this year they have hit her harder. And she's had some time off for unusual stuff related to her medication - apocalyptic nosebleeds (which is a family thing but has been exacerbated by her medication). DD2 also has, I think, a poor attendance record because she catches everything going and her school has a habit of sending her home when she is sick - or even looking extra peaky - mainly I think because they are still overreacting to the slightest thing with her having not reacted last year and seen her end up blue lighted to hospital. This does worry me. But neither school have made a fuss, in fact both have been extremely supportive. DS hasn't missed a day of school this school year (but he is still 'working off' the 12 weeks he missed with whooping cough two years ago).

It seems bizarre to me that some schools can be so .....unhelpful, eg Couthy's school, and some can be so supportive. There really should be consistency. If either of my DDs was at Couthy's DS's school, I'd definitely not want him going in infecting them with winter vom - that is the LAST thing they need (especially Dd2 who is quite under weight anyway and the last time she had winter vom - 14 months ago - became very badly ill and took almost 9 months to gain back the weight she'd lost).

Couthy perhaps you should ask for a meeting with the head?

OP- do the school know all about your circumstances? If not, then they can't make allowances. I would set them out clearly and in full and send it to the Head and the Chair of governors. On the surface your ds has a worrying attendance record, and the school can't turn a blind eye to it, for his sake and theirs. You need to be communicating with them.

My ds2 is in reception.
He has been off now for 7 days with a nasty virus. Been to gp. Nothing they can do other than eye drops for the conjunctivitis.
He is ill. Ergo he is at home.

Looking at it impassively from the schools POV 2 weeks of in the 1st term with flu is automatically going to bring his attendance down to 80% (number changed to protect the mathematically challenged ie me... but a term is approx 10 weeks).

Attendance of 80% is a level that seriously impacts on a child education, especially in the early part of a new school.

We are now 6 weeks into the new term so your DS has had another week off? Again amending for simple maths - that's another 80% attendance record, now for the first HALF of year 7. Even if he never has another day off he's got attendance of only 90% for the year. Averattendance at my kids schools is 97-98%

Yes he's been unlucky re minor illness, but the school are not wrong in pursuing it I'm afraid. They don't know you/have no track record with you/your child. You could be one of those parents who just doesn't bother, they con't know as they've had your DS 16 weeks and he's been ill for 3 of them ( If they'd had him in school 3yrs and he suddenly had a bad run like this they'd know he was never normally ill - does that make sense?).

So try not to take it personally.

I'm meh about the 48hr rule for senior school kids. Some schools keep it others don't. THere was no way I could keep DS (6th form) off after he had a day vomiting. He wanted/needed to be in school for A level work (and like adults washes/uses hand gel etc and isn't all over other kids like primary school ones are!)

It is not a GP role to police minor illness, what ever schools/LA say.

I am horrified they are harrassing a child who was genuinely ill.
Op...can you get a local paper/radio station interested?

Awful. Write to school, cc to governors & LEA. Stress how you feel it is detrimental to be forced out when ill. Might also be worth pointing out that within the wider school community & their families there will be people who will be affected severely by v&d & it is therefore grossly irresponsible to suggest a contagious child HAS to attend school.

Definitely copy to the LEA as some of this madness might be coming in the form of pressure from them.

Maybe cc Gove as well - as it's this govts obsession with assessing schools on this sort of measure which leads to this madness (ds1 attends a special school, a lot of the kids have limited lifespans/severe epilepsy etc & do miss school due to their health - the school is expected to get the same attendance figures as local mainstream schools).

EWOs are desperately under funded here. I can't imagine they will be in the least happy chasing DCs who are genuinely unwell.

I'd let the school steam. (DD2's attendence has caused huffy notes for the last two years, for perfectly good reasons).

Thumb gp is well within rights. Sick notes are for those who work or sign on they are not for schools. There is an agreement between DoH and DoE that they are not needed school is being a pest blame them not everyone else they are trying to get to do more work.

Our upper school don't implement the 48 hour rule either. That's not unusual

Me too Badvoc.

Ok, you need to contact nice - who advise in the 48 hour rule and your local mp.
Also, write to the b of gov at the school.
This is ridiculous.
I am terrified of what schools in this country are turning into.

ewo - educational welfare officer

Educ welfare office (r)

health prot agency (website has list of illnesses and (self)exclusion times)

What is hpa?

Thank can't find them on mumsnet index?

What is ew and ewo?

Our GPs also don't do sick notes for children. It's not unusual - I did offer to pay but they still wouldn't do it and I don't blame them

You shouldn't be taking a child with D&V to a surgery anyway as you know - that's me stating the obvious and agreeing with you.

I think in this situation it would be helpful to know if the school can legally do anything if you refuse to comply.

I would be refusing to comply fwiw. I would write to the school, by email, copying in the chair of governors, and the EWO if I had their details (ring and ask for email address maybe) stating that I am complying with the HPA guidelines [link] and that if they have a problem with that they may take it as far as they wish, however sending a sick child to school is likely to cause a lot more absence (among other children and teachers) than it solves.

Some schools have taken the new laws and run with them without using any common sense - they will come down off their high horse in time because they will have to. It's an adjustment period as they get used to them.

They are probably all mouth - the EWO dept will be utterly sick of this crap because it takes their attention off the families who really are a problem.

Good luck. (oh - last time I had a similar issue I rang the EW office myself to make sure they were onside - they were, completely)

That's good!

You definitely need to ask the school to put this in writing.

Also, just visit the GP. If the school asks for sick note, tell them you will supply them with an authorisation to talk to the GP about contact on [specified date only] as you cannot afford to use non-NHS services (ie non-required sick note) and the school cannot demand you buy private services even from your own GP. (Wonders if they'll bother once burden of admin is transferred back to them).

I'm sorry you're going through this when you have so much else going on.

And I do get a bit frothy on threads where people say "just call them in sick" when they want an absence, because this is what tightening up on sick absences following abuse of the system really looks like, and an example of who it really hurts.

Make sure you let him know that washing his hands is a major factor in preventing illness and he needs to use soap not just water!

I found dd wasn't using the nasty brown soap at school, but she wasn't aware that water alone was just pointless...