Anyone else's kid already a persistent absentee this year?

[atownnamedalice]

Anyone else have a kid who is already persistently absent this year? If so, why?
For us it's illness.

Aha, not yet, but tonsillitis season is not yet upon us ;) We got down to 50% last winter... We will see if I keep my job this year 😅

Yes, because of illness. DD doesn't want to be off, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

Good luck on the tonsillitis front. 50%. Ouch.

Wow poor Dc.

What illness is keeping them off so much? Are school being supportive and providing any work for when they feel well enough?

Or are they just asking for drs notes?

Usually seems to go one way or the other

No because as usual the illness has mildly skimmed DD on its way to punching me in the face.

That made me laugh, but I know what you mean. No one ever says to parents "it's great you're getting all these viruses to build up your immune system"...
Hope you feel better soon.

First time was nearer start of term. Came over feeling ill and told teacher who said DC would probably be ok in a minute. Vomited in registration, so I guess that helps their stats. Second time was middle of last week when happened again. I wondered whether there was something food wise not agreeing with DC, but it's a rolling menu. So five days, but will be counted as four as made afternoon registration.

Main illnesses in ours at moment are RSV, v&d and covid.

No work sent home. Might be different if longer term, I don't know. There's a kid who's been struggling with various health issues following a virus about 6 months ago - don't know if he's getting work or not, but I suspect the days he's not in, he's too ill.

My ds11 missed the whole first week back with a virus that floored him.

Dd1 has missed 3 days of secondary school with a sickness bug that I think wiped out half of year 7! Most of her friends had it. Dd2 has missed 2 days so far with an awful cough that kept her up most of the night.

One of DD’s friends has missed a week for sickness, then their parents have taken her out for 2 weeks on holiday. So she’s missed half of year 7 so far!

Got a text yesterday to tell us the eldest is classed as persistently absent so far this year. She has had 3 days off ill. It is just how it falls as she doesn't usually have a lot more than that over the whole year. The youngest is at 100%.

My 6yo has missed 4 days already. In the whole of reception she only missed 2 days! She's just had two bad illnesses so far unfortunately - one vomiting bug, and one horrible cold virus/throat infection which involved a raging fever for 6 days (which now I have, whilst 38 weeks pregnant, but luckily I don't have a fever. Or at least not yet, I'm only on day 2...).

Hope you feel better soon and don't get hot too hard. Congratulations on your pregnancy. Our reception has its own outdoor area, so I guess with more freeflow and door open, there's more fresh air diluting viral load in the room, so less illness. Is it the same in yours?

@atownnamedalice yes actually! I had never even considered that before. Interesting. It's parents evening next week so I'm hoping not to get told off about her attendance then but what can we do if they're that ill?!

Yeah us. My daughter is 7 and has ulcerative colitis (diagnosed at 4) and has been sent home and kept off more than she's been in school so far.

2 weeks off with a burst appendix in wk3

I kept the work coming though. 'If you're well enough to play switch you can do some maths on showbie' 😂

Within the first week of returning to school in September my DD went down with Covid and was really poorly. Had nearly 2 weeks off. Better now though which is the most important thing!

Sorry your little ones have had a rough term.

My youngest has had four days off and has been sent home early once. The autumn term is always awful for colds. He'll claw it all back as the year rolls on but we can't be far off getting the shitty letter.

At this time of year, all it takes is a few days off for their attendance to look bad. My dd has had 3 days off so far. 1 for a cold(me and her dad had covid, so it may have been that) and 2 just now for Impetigo. Thankfully where we live, we don't get hassled for the slightest absence. Generally she doesn't tend to get ill much but it's just bad luck so far.

Children that have known ongoing serious illnesses are likely to have work arrangements with school not random D&V or colds though .

I bought DD the text books that school uses for her subjects / catch up on BBC bitesize when she feels better once her friends text her what they did in class. Or she'll send an email to the teacher and ask what they did / what page number she needs to do. But she's at secondary and in her GCSE years at Primary I wouldn't worry too much or stick a horrible histories / documentary on related to whatever topic they are on.

DS is 14 and has had maybe 2 or 3 days off school sick in his life.
I've had about 4 or 5 days off work in 23 years. We just don't get ill in our house ever.

We are an outdoorsy family though. Rarely have heating on in the house. Windows are open in every room of the house 24/7 for most of the year. Not sure whether that helps.

Well, I have two other kids who haven't had a day off since covid closures who endure the same heating and window opening regime as my germ sponge dc. Not sure I'm ready to lay ill health at the feet of central heating.

Sounds sensible.