Worried I'm going to get in trouble about my DC school attendance

[Crunchymum]

Reception aged DC has had 8 days (stomach bug x5 days and virus / flu type illness x3 days) and year 2 has had 5 days (flu)

It's only November so I fully expect more illnesses.

Am I going to end up in trouble?

Legal age to start school is 5 so likely nothing to worry about!.

Doesnt matter what the legal age is. Once they are there they are expected to be there.

They will.probably mention it however all you can say is that they were ill. There is really nothing they can do.

I cant believe our horrendous luck with illness and as I say it's only just the start.

Last year mine had 100% attendance in this term (DC2 was full time in the nursery). They have both been so bloody ill.

If they mention anything I'd suggest their review their hygiene.

If you sent your kid in puking they would send them.home anyway.

NHS guidelines are 48 hours anyway so asking you to send them.in would he asking you to flout professional guidelines they are presumably trying to enforce themselves.

Take a look at the attendance policy for the school. It may well be that for a reception child that has been ill they will just send a snotty letter saying something like "we appreciate small children get ill but we would like you to know that your child's attendance has dropped below 96% and the EWO will closely monitor future absences." The worst thing they will do is call you in for a meeting to tick a few boxes and you can only say that they were genuinely ill. Just keep the office informed and make sure they've updated the register to say they are ill. The EWO is normally more concerned with kids who are off every Monday rather than a whole week of absence.

Thank you.

There has been an outbreak of chicken pox (letter sent home) but mine have both had it thankfully in the holidays but there have been a lot of people off.

The only hygiene policy I worry about is that of my grotty little 4yo. She is vile

We had a reception year like that last year. Attendance was down in the 80s. We phoned the EWO ourselves and explained (also have other kids in same school without such low attendance who were in on days ds was off sick). They were fine. They are more concerned with persistent regular absence or lateness than genuine absence for illness.

Mine have overlapped by 3 days but yes good point that the older DC was in school when the younger had a week off with a tummy bug (that she then gave to baby and caught again but over half term!!)

EWO won't do anything about an under 5. Well, ours wouldn't.

I was thinking that it wasn't too horrendous as your Y2 child didn't catch the tummy bug that your YR had. Could've been worse!

To be honest I think this is the worst time of year for bugs and a lot of dc catch things they might not have later in the year when they've got a bit more stamina for the school day, if you see what I mean. So probably you're over the worst and fingers crossed, it might just be the odd cold thereafter...

I'd emphasise the importance of washing hands, especially after going to the toilet. Reception children are especially rank and don't see anything wrong in using the toilet, then picking their nose, then clutching their friend's hand, then putting their finger in their mouth, etc.

Letters about absences are automatically generated by attendance falling to a certain percentage, don't take them personally. If your child has been off because they're ill, it can't be helped. You might feel your child's absence is causing all sorts of flux in school when the reality is there's a bug going round and yours is one of a dozen (or a full third of the whole school, in ds's memorable Y3).