Stop.Sending.Sick.Kids.To.School

[Jorvik1978]

The whole of my son's year group and the year below have been sent home from school thus morning as they have been decimated by D&V. Only 19 out of 34 in my son's class made it in this morning and another one was sick on the way home.

I know it can be hard to figure out arrangements if your child needs to stay home, and symptoms came come on quickly, but please, if your child shows signs of being ill, keep them at home! Schools have 48 hour policies to avoid this sort of thing happening.

It's so selfish! I get the urge to send your child anyway, or talk yourself into thinking it's not so bad.. but the reality is by saving yourself a day of 'childcare' you're likely causing the same issues for many other parents 😬

I don't understand why schools don't enforce this. I've seen loads of instances where a child is sick at school then get sent back in the next day and the school do nothing about it. Then the rest of the class go down with it.

Of course the main blame is on the parents but schools need to be better at this and ALSO not giving out awards for 100% attendance!

Is this secondary school?

My Y7 has had two sick days since he started (once was actual vomiting, once for migraine) and both times I've had a call to check why / been encouraged to send him in the next day. I asked about the 48h rule and was told "we aren't as strict about it and if he isn't being sick send him in and see how he gets on"

Last July we got caught up in the end of term norovirus outbreak that caused our primary school to close a day early. (3/5 of us ended up with Noro) so I'm a massive believer in keeping sick kids home but seems like some schools - like DC's secondary - have different agendas.

*** the primary school did insist sick kids were kept home when they had an outbreak last July (and have always asked people to adhere to the 48h rule) but nothing helped last year and they had to bring forward the summer holiday by a day!

Schools are doggedly making people send their kids in to hit attendance targets. What are parents supposed to do? DS's school tried to make him go in the day after emergency surgery. The pressure some schools put on parents to send their kids in is ridiculous and until that changes this will keep happening because parents are scared of fines/unauthorised absences/low attendance hanging over their heads.

ETA: And I know the schools are under pressure from the govt on this one. It absolutely needs to change in schools and workplaces that people accept when other people are ill and need time off to recover.

The state should stop nagging parents to send send sick children to school!
Attendance is all school care about.
Nothing Else.

Because the pressure on schools re attendance is HUGE and that’s passed on to parents

Also not all workplaces are supportive of staff with family issues. I don't agree but I understand why parents send their sick kids in.

Trouble is if your kids attendance falls below a certain percent they start threatening you with fines and court so yes I have to send them! My son vomits in school and they refuse to send him home 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think sometimes it can be difficult to judge. My son has suffered terribly from reflux since being a baby, so he can be sick regularly. He runs off to the toilet and throws up and sometimes doesn't even tell us. Unless he told me he had a stomach ache or felt unwell, I'd find it really difficult to distinguish between actual sickness and his reflux.

Also with diarrhoea, if my kids had one loose poo, I'd probably put it down to weetabix, spicy food the night before etc. Like you say, it can come on really quickly so one wouldn't cause me concern, but two or more would.

I do agree, though, with not sending them in if unwell. I think we've reached a point where the pressure from schools to attend regularly is so high (DS was off with D&V last year for three days in the autumn term and we received a letter of concern re: attendance), and the pressure on parents to be at work, I think sometimes kids are sent in with the view that school will call them in they're unwell, but by that point, it's spread already.

I think sometimes parents feel like they're in an impossible position.

That’s awful of them, I would change schools.

I really never understand why people don’t isolate when they have D&V. It’s a pain, but it’s not hard.
I think the problem is people are too caught in their own lives these days.

He is year 6 so won’t be changing schools

When my children were in primary, the worst parent for sending in their sick children was another teacher!

Amen OP. There is a push from some schools and a definite push from the government to send kids in ill. It's got increasingly worse over the last few years and makes no sense. The upshot is more and more kids getting sicker, along with their parents. Yesterday a child vomited on the desk my DD shares with them.

Last year, the ONS did a survey - the number of children with long covid had doubled since the year before. It was axed this year.

And I be other parents would complain if teacher/parent were off work to look after their own child too often

The UK needs a system like in Sweden where parents get paid a decent amount (80% of salary here) to stay at home with poorly children. So long as people are losing pay, they will always try to get their kids into school even if they suspect illness.

I've just this minute clicked away from another "every day matters" email from school, complete with a reminder of the prize draw children can only get entered into if they have full attendance. Oh and the special certificate of course.

@CandyCatsHat That's shocking. And think of the A&E/hospitals overrun with flu and Covid and Noro. Schools are a locus of infections. The two times I have caught Covid (I have every vaccine I can get my hands on as I have CFS so it has a major impact), it was school related, convinced of it . Caught it first time from collecting DS and escorting him on bus full of sneezing secondary kids, then last year from DS who is at secondary - within 1 week of him being back at school (no NHS vaccines available at that point). This year I paid privately for a Covid vaccine. If I get it, it means 3 months off work on average.

TBF our school doesn't hassle us, perhaps as DS has a lot of SEND. He's not very often ill but does have a lot of appointments at far away hospitals. Think he's on 90% attendance.

Mum used to send me and my sister in with streaming colds. I really resented it. Try learning French when your head is exploding with snot. I am more lenient and DH more like my mum.

Attendance targets are bloody ridiculous. As if keeping a sick child in a lesson does anything for their education

Maybe if the ridiculous attendance targets and punitive actions towards parents stopped, less sick kids would be in school?

Do you honestly think parents want to send them to school? They are hounded by attendance officers and pressured to bring them to school "Bring them in, if they're ill we will call you to come and collect them". On top of that the school wants proof of illness so you have to take them to the doctors that's if you can get an appointment. if you don't have proof it goes on their record and you could be called in for a meeting and threatened with prosecution.
Also it is at the discretion of the school to authorise absences due to illness so if they don't feel your illness is bad enough it doesn't get authorised.
FYI I know this because I work in a school.

This!

I wish, both my kids were ill once, my son was projectile vomiting everywhere and my daughter woke up with her eye swollen shut so I let work now I couldn't come in. A few hours later I had a call from HR asking me if I couldn't get someone else to look after him because I already used my dependant day and I wouldn't be getting paid.

It’s just so much more complicated than this though OP. No parent wants to send an ill child to school, every parent would rather keep them home and look after them.

But schools are relentless about attendance, absences, so are lots of employers, what are you meant to do if you would be let go for another day off sick? What do you do if you cannot afford to have a day unpaid? In an ideal world these factors wouldn’t even come into play but we do not live in that world

It's so frustrating. I work in a school and have to stop myself from rudely taking a big step back when a kid tells me they were sick yesterday/this morning (it's not their fault).

However, the 48hour rule is by no means a catch all for noro. Firstly, it can remain in the faeces for weeks. Kids are terrible for not washing hands well, scratching their bum, getting poo-y hands on the taps etc so it can be transmitted for a good while after recovery (obviously the 48 window is the most contagious period though, hence the rule). Secondly, the kid who comes back in 48 hr after their last symptom may have siblings/parents at home still unwell. They will bring vomit particles into school unwittingly because noro is notoriously hard to contain. One microscopic pin-prick sized vomit particle conatinung the virus iis all takes to infect the next person.

It's so incredibly hard to contain, even with everybody staying home for 48 hours after symptoms.

Unfortunately the pressure to attend from schools is increasing constantly. Absolutely I agree sick kids should be at home but when I reported my sick child as "too ill to attend" it was marked as an unauthorised absence. This is a child with a previously good attendance record. What are parents supposed to do?