School asking for medical evidence.

[Flossy1989]

DD attendance is not the best it's 89.6 she's off now with sickness abd and the poops. The school is asking for medical evidence. I mentioned this some time ago to the gp. Gp said they should not be demanding medical evidence. Also I don't take my children to the gp over a tummy bug. It's not needed and it's wasting GP time.

I'm tempted to send them a picture of her vomit. I won't. It just really pisses me off gp is not impressed either from what he said before.

I'm on hold to gp /reception now doubt I will get anywhere. Caller number 15

The school like all schools are fully aware that GPs don't provide sick notes for illnesses like that.

Therefore the only proof they can get is a display of the actual bodily fluids of the teen has. In this case it's vomit but in in other instances they appear to want to see her period blood.

I agree. My daughter has Crohn's disease, has been in a flare, had 6 hospital appointments this term, a colonoscopy, an iron infusion, on heavy duty steroids and her attendance for the year is 91 %. If a chronically ill child in a flare can manage 91, I can't see how an ordinary healthy kid would be at 89 unless you've had a run of dreadful luck.

No what are they going to do put you in detention?

Send them an email stating your child has sickness and diarrhea and you are keeping her off school in line with nhs guidelines and withing the school sickness guidelines state firmly you will not be wasting a Dr's time to tell you that they don't need to see her and you will not be spending money on a sicknote

My sons is 83% he catches every bug going all but one is authorised absence because the attendance officer decided that 48 hours for sickness meant 48 hours total even though he was still ill on day three 🙄

Where is she catching the sickness bugs from? Children at school? They need to have zero tolerance for parents sending children in sick and better cleaning staff

It sounds like because her attendance is unusually low they might be requesting medical evidence, whereas with higher attendance it would fall under the guidance to not unnecessarily ask for medical evidence.

If there's a medical reason then school can put adjustments in place to support a child attending school.

Equally though, she's been given medication from a healthcare professional for one of the things affecting her attendance but isn't taking it. Missing school because the medication given might cause a teen to gain weight doesn't seem like a good course of action.

DD's school asked for this as she had ongoing gut issues. It was pointless wasting my GP's time so I spent 10 mins rustling up a letter in Word with the surgery logo copied from their website. Never got questioned any further.

At my child's primary school they say the child's needs to stay home 48hrs after the last vomiting/shuts at dd secondary school they are told to go back as soon as it stops .

Oh my, where the hell did you work? Wormwood Scrubs?
Shocking.

One day off sick a week......🤔

Yeah I'd send the picture with a comment that it would be a waste of gp time

Nope, in a very nice area of west london.

I actually felt for the parent though. Her son would get sick when distressed and crying. So I’d have to send him home for 48 hours. Even though I knew he wasn’t sick wi to a bug, but SLT rules. Any sickness, no return for 48 hours. She was at risk of losing her job, and I was the cheeky wanker who sent her kid home for nothing and then had the nerve to lecture her about attendance. When I refused to, my head was on the chopping block with the head teacher.

It was a fucking disgrace and I really felt for the parents.

Teachers would send kids to my sick room for nothing and insist they were sent home, they didn’t want her back in class. And then I’d have to bollock those same parents for attendance. No wonder they hated me. I hated me too but I needed the money and couldn’t find another job.

Yet if my children were sick and I had to stay home with them, I would get merry hell from my boss (the head), telling me I should have sent them in to their school so I could come to work. Fucking hypocrite.

I have to say OP with attendance that low you have to understand why they are clearly concerned and want to keep an extra close eye on attendance. If your child is genuinely poorly that frequently then you do need to go to a GP and figure out exactly why that is. Or is it that she is staying off for more than she should be e.g. staying off when she has a sniffle, on her period, headache etc and so when you have an instance like this when she is genuinely vomiting and unable to go in, it is almost the straw that breaks the camels back for her attendance.

We had to do this with our old school - dc had long term conditions, frequent infections plus medical appts etc - we gave evidence and they still reported us for FII ( new term for munchausens by proxy) and we were at risk of losing our dc. After that we home educated

I thought this would be a reception aged child catching every bug going, that is incredibly low for a teen with no enduring underlying health condition.
Have you asked for support from the EWO?

When you do the evidence, the clock on attendance re starts every September. So you only need to document from September.

My DD has hashimotos thyroiditis. I think her attendance at one point got down to about 20% but she still got 3 A's in her end of year 12 exams.

Kids are ill. Sticking an ill kid in school is not always appropriate.

@Teacupsandrollups why is it nonsense.

If a child is sick, they are sick. The medical
Professional do not provide sick notes for illness of less than a week.
Schools know this

It's bullshit presenteeism.
Best ignored.

Mum/GP knows best. Not a
Court in the land will fine a parent for a kid that's sick.

Op just keep your own record of what's going on for your own peace of mind

Congratulations to your daughter and to you on getting into Cambridge, I'm sure you're very proud but you seem to have missed the point I was making.

I was responding to someone who was saying it doesn't matter and I also questioned why op didn't seem to know why her daughter had been off so much - 'illness etc' did not indicate a long term health condition or disability to me.

For what it's worth, my attendance at school was shockingly low (abusive family) and I did very well. But I think that's the exception rather than the norm.

Extremely heavy period. They say no to going to the toilet.

This blatant discrimination against girls because of their sexual characteristics would be the first thing I'd take them to task over.

I don’t understand what schools want you to do, she can’t go in as she’s ill and contagious and she doesn’t need to see a GP and doesn’t need to make the Gp take a week off when she infects them and everyone in the waiting room. Bonkers. I’d be asking them to come and sit with her and witness, if they’re not worried about infection or send them a stool and vomit sample as medical evidence.

You're not going to get a detention. You've got a sick child, a GP who's probably fed up to the back teeth of this sort of thing and an officious school administrator who needs to complete a form. In a situation like this you do what you can with what you can. You have a smartphone and a sick child at your disposal.

Do it!

I would 100% send the picture, and if they asked again in future I'd take a picture with a newspaper showing the date and a clock showing the time, because I'm passive-aggressive like that.

Don't let people treat you like crap and be worried about how you come across to them. They should be more concerned with how they're coming across to you, which is petty bureaucratic timewasters.

My answer was also going to be "send a picture"

You can't take a child with D and V to a GP surgery (even if you could get an appointment!).

I'd send their policy to them that states she must be clear for 48 hours and ask if they are asking you to ignore that and nhs advice?!

She can email telling them so if a fine does appear you have evidence of what your dd is off with.

I asked the school if they wanted photos of diarrhea and vomit or to stop by and inspect the toilet and they said no and stopped harassing me.