To find this new school rule ridiculous?

[Wherearethebees]

My children have returned back to school with a new rule in place that each child is only ‘allowed’ 5 days of sickness per school year. Any other sickness will be unauthorised leading to a fine.
Several families received letters that their children had X amount of days sickness last school year and this is their warning to not repeat it. I received one as my eldest needed an a&e visit in June which resulted in a week off school, (as well as several days through the school year for a chest infection and separate ear infection) I kept them updated and provided proof.
Apparently it doesn’t come under their invisible list of which illnesses are acceptable to have during these 5 days.
I understand that it may be to avoid children missing school as they just can’t be bothered to go in, term time holidays which have doubled recently in this school and fake illnesses so they can have a day at home, but there are children who are genuinely unwell and can’t plan ahead for this or foresee when they will be unwell, particularly in winter when there are all sorts going around.
My youngest for example has had 3 awful colds this year from nursery, enough to be floored and unable to play or eat much for a few days, so basically I would be fined for keeping my child home to recover if this was a universal rule. It’s not like I want to have time off work and lose pay, as well as lose money to the fine, so what do they think they are achieving?
This will cause a spike in children being sent to school unwell spreading illnesses and causing even more children (and even teachers and other staff) to be unwell.
Does anyone else have this rule at their school? Is it really enforceable?

I mean did we learn nothing from covid. If you are sick stay at home for a few days. The world will keep turning. Why the schools/ lea/ ofstead can't show some common sense is beyond me

These are the rules on illness:

Code I: Illness (not medical or dental appointment)

365. Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness absences. Schools should only request reasonable medical evidence in cases where they need clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register – i.e. making a decision that code I is the absence code that accurately describes the reason the pupil is not in school for the session in question. In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical
     evidence be requested to support the absence.

366. Where medical evidence is deemed necessary, schools should not be rigid about the form of evidence requested and should speak to the family about what evidence is available. Schools should be mindful that requesting additional medical evidence unnecessarily places pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointment system, particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Where a parent cannot provide evidence in the form requested but can provide other evidence, schools should take this into account. Where a parent cannot provide any written evidence the school should have a conversation with the parent and pupil, if appropriate, which may in itself serve as the necessary evidence to record the absence.

i've seen this quoted across both threads. does anyone have the link to it directly?

If it's an academy I doubt the LA would care

In reception half of DS's class went down with CP. We were all dragged into the head and asked to explain what we were going to do to prevent further absences. I told her she was being ridiculous and do I bring a spotty child in next time

I know she was under orders from higher up but jeez

How easy do you find it to even get triaged the same day at your surgery, let alone an appointment?

A lot of schools seem to be completely misinterpreting the legal changes to the fines set up.

It's ridiculous. And quite worrying how many have interpreted it in a way that's clearly not correct, and absolutely won't stand up in a court.

The amount of pressure being put on parents to send unwell children to school is both ridiculous, and also a serious worry to parents (like myself) who have vulnerable children. It's bad enough that parents already feel financial pressure to send unwell children to school as they don't want to risk their jobs, without adding more to the mix.

Very glad I no longer work in schools as well as it's another level of disrespect to school staff to expect them to try and deal with even more unwell children.

How stupid were the school??

Who in their right mind thought the children were 'absent'?

What did she say to you then??

The head of a local secondary tried to implement a policy a while back that all sickness absences had to be signed off by a doctor.

The local GP practice sent him their private pricing structure and asked how he wanted the account to set up as unnecessary appointments and notes are not NHS time.

The policy was quickly shelved

What medical proof? No one needs or gets medical proof if their child has a temp, I has thrown up or a myriad of other general illnesses.

I don't believe for a moment that a school would knowingly falsify the register - which is what they would have to do in order to prompt fines from the local council. Falsifying the register is a massive safeguarding risk and would likely get whoever did it fired.

Email them and ask for it in writing that if your child has had 5 days off and then gets chickenpox, they still want them in...........

It's the LA that issue the fines, so yes they would care.

A question about headteachers:

Do they really sit down, come up with a policy, run it past the SLT and governors, get it written up and send out to parents without ever saying "Hang on, is this actually lawful? Do we have any authority to do this? Maybe we should have a read of the relevant legislation and DfE regulations before making complete fools of ourselves."

A GP rightly won’t give you an appointment or fit not for a bad cold, D&V, chicken pox and a wide range of completely normal childhood illnesses.

They don't offer fit notes for school children full stop. Our GP has written to the school saying he will not provide doctor's notes under any circumstances, pre-empting the school trying to bring in any of this nonsense (although we have a sensible head so I doubt she would anyway).

Following covid you'd think we might've learned something as a society about spreading illnesses and the need for some degree of isolation/common sense when infectious. Apparently not.. attendance mandates are a joke.

Yes it's ridiculous and punishing parents who have sick children. What if they have an operation and long hospital stay . What if they have the flu or any other virus that takes time to recover from.
I think the parents should challenge this and I don't think it's legal

DD1's school has just implemented the same rule. She suffers from migranes triggered by her hormones and menstrual cycle. She has to lie still in a darkened room for most of the day to get any form of relief from it. I can't send her in when she is like that and I can't be dragging her to the GP to get a note (I wouldn't get an appointment anyway). We just have to hope that this year is better than last year and if/when she hits 5 days they will be pragmatic about it.

She needs to be at the GP to get this sorted out - the progestogen only pill would probably get rid of them.

In reception half of DS's class went down with CP. We were all dragged into the head and asked to explain what we were going to do to prevent further absences. I told her she was being ridiculous and do I bring a spotty child in next time

I'd have ignored the request to go to that meeting. I'm not a child to be dragged in to the headteacher's office for a telling off.
I'd be very happy to go in if there were behaviour issues with my DC, because I support the school on that. But I'd not be attending a dressing down for not sending a child in with chickenpox.

The statutory guideance is here:

Educational establishments must not routinely request medical evidence.

"In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence."

So the only "evidence" the parents have to provide is phoning to say they are ill. It will not be an unauthorised absence.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf

The government are losing grip on schools hence ever more ridiculous policies. I don’t mean just Labour, Tories were at it too (remember those insulting adverts a few months ago “look at her now” 🙄?).

Rather than spend time and resources looking at what is wrong, at WHY attendance is down etc they slap on more and more stupid rules and regulations in their pathetic desperate attempts to gain some control.

Maybe they need to look a little deeper and do some actual research and put some actual thought into this problem.

I can answer this as an ex teacher.

I my opinion, yes they do. Most HTs feel untouchable and feel they can pass new rules as they like. And are untouchable to a large extent. Most SLTs and Governors are yes men and rarely question anything a HT implements. Most schools are run on a top-down power structure and sadly the role of HT often attracts power hungry people who aren’t very bright.