School won’t authorise absence for illness

[G172125]

Looking for some advice. My Daughter is off school with chicken pox and will probably be off for most of the week. The school are requesting medical evidence before they will authorise the absence. I have sent a photo of my child showing her spots but they said I needed to go to a chemist and get them to give me some calamine lotion with her name and a date on it. I’ve been to three chemists and they have all said they don’t provide proof and are fed up of schools sending parents to them. They said it would be going against nhs advice to put calamine lotion on chicken pox and they won’t print a label for me to stick on the bottle if I buy some. Her Gp won’t provide a sick note or appointment. Her attendance is at 97%. She was sent home in September and also just before half term with a sickness bug both were marked as unauthorised even though she was sent home from school vomiting. Who can I complain to about this? She is only on day two of chicken pox so will definitely be off most of the week and I want to avoid getting a fine that I can’t afford at the minute.

Ridiculous. Contact your local Councillor or Chair of the Education Committee locally. Hope your DD feels better soon but if they carry on also lodge a formal complaint.

Good that it’s now sorted but if not I’d have told them I’m sending her in and I hope that no staff or students are pregnant or immunocompromised as she’s highly infectious. Or I’d have told them that you won’t be paying the fine and you’ll go to court if necessary (do the education authorities take people to court if they don’t pay the fine).

When I had a chickenpox (admittedly as an adult) I self-certified for a week but then had to get a certificate for a second week because I felt totally wiped out. The GP said this was only to be expected from a viral infection.

I couldn't bring myself to give a fuck what the school want in this situation so would either ignore them completely or escalate dramatically (Ofsted, MP, governors). I wouldn't waste another second engaging with the school on the matter though.

You won't get a fine. You only get a fine if it's a holiday or a persistent absence. This is neither.

You’ve provided evidence. Forward the email with the photo to the head teacher and the chair of governors, and tell them that if they require further evidence they are welcome to visit for a welfare check. They are probably overly suspicious because it’s around half term.

You are my age and you may well have had it, it was described to me as "invisible" chicken pox. The doctor suggested my BIL may have had this because he is now in his 60's and has never had an "official" case of it. Its where you get no spots although you would probably get ill but it would be hard to diagnose. My daughter was desperately ill when she was 6 and almost died, it was only when a spotted (no pun intended!) a few, like 8 or 10 spots dotted all over that her Dr realised what it was, she was already on antivirals and thankfully was ok but it was touch and go for about 48 hours, it was terrifying. My then husband caught it from her (he was 32) and we were warned he would be very very ill too, but actually he got through it pretty easily, he was far less ill than she was. That too was really worrying as I had a family friend die from it when he was in his thirties and caught it from his kids.

A friend of mine had similar. She thought she'd never had it, got tested for antibodies when pregnant and she did have them. Must've had such minor symptoms it never got noticed.

Will pharmacist give virasoothe or poxclin?

Sadly in some instances parents are saying its chicken pox to take kids for a weeks holiday as they know chicken pox = a week off. This happened several times at my kids school recently.

I totally agree. From my experience, it’s not even the Headteachers that care. It’s the pressure the schools are under from Ofsted/the government to increase attendance figures. I sit on several governing body meetings in job role, and in every single meeting I sit through, where there’s an update on attendance, the Headteachers all say they understand why families take term time holidays, or benefit from a few cheaper days before/after half term holidays, but they’re bound to follow-up on such absences.

I totally understand the need to follow-up attendance when children are persistently absent, but when they otherwise have good attendance, and families are saving a couple of grand on holiday prices, I think it’s ridiculous to penalise them.

As an attendance officer at a primary school I can absolutely tell you this is unacceptable.
I would only ask for a proof of illness if the child has 90% attendance or below.

I would then accept a photo of said chicken pox and the child would be marked as ill.

We do routine home visits on day 3 and 7 of illness (for the children under 90%) and if we can see the child is ill, which is very obvious with chicken pox, again we would mark the child as ill.

I would demand a meeting with the head or phase lead, there is no need for the attendance team to be questioning you without good reason.

If you are unable to secure a meeting with the head I would write to the board of governors or if an academy the trustees.

Also bear in mind that is not the school that fines you, it is the local council. So as others have said keep a record of all your conversations, try to have all conversations written (email etc.) if possible and then if the council do fine you, you can raise a grievance with them.

The school are being completely unreasonable here.

I hope your daughter gets better soon.

And that requested pharmacy evidence is ridiculous and means absolutely nothing (as well as being a silly choice of medication).

This is really appalling. Schools need to be improving infection control not forcing infectious children in.
Please don't listen to the people saying to take her in, she needs to stay home both for her own welfare and for that of others who she might infect
It's definitely worth a letter to your MP about this. Ask them to improve infection control in schools too - we need improved ventilation/air filtration as well as infectious children being allowed to stay off. Perhaps some remote education could be offered. It's probably schools fault she is sick in the first place.
I hope she feels better soon 💐
For any parents whose kids haven't had chicken pox already it's worth getting them a private vaccine if you can afford it - cheaper than having to take time off work/cancel a holiday etc

From the school data it won't show that it's medical unless the register is correctly inputted to show this.
Marking it as unauthorised will look like it's non genuine reason for being off

Tell them to F off. What an absolute palaver over a genuine illness wasting so many people's time most especially your own.

Is the chickenpox vaccine not available as standard on the NHS?

This is great. Set them on each other!

Completely ridiculous from the school. Honestly!

Arf! We have a receptionist like this at our local surgery, and whenever he answers the phone I feel my shoulders relax, as I know that he will (a) deal with a serious problem and (b) call me back. He is exceptionally quiet, calm, polite and utterly lethal!

The state ownership of our children needs to stop. I'm outraged on your behalf.

Also, imho, Virasoothe is much better for Chicken Pox that traditional calamine.

Schools cannot legally require a GP sick note or pharmacy proof for chicken pox — GPs don't issue sick notes for children and pharmacists are right that it's not their role. A photo of the spots plus your own written confirmation should be sufficient.
On the unauthorised absences — if she was sent home by the school themselves and they then marked it unauthorised, that is worth challenging in writing to the headteacher. Schools cannot fine you for absences they themselves caused.
Your daughter's 97% attendance also works strongly in your favour — that context matters if it ever went further.
ukworkrights.co.uk has a free school rights checker that covers exactly this situation — no login needed

But it's not a persistent absence or a holiday so the unauthorised absence doesn't matter as the child hasn't had a long period of time off or lots of different absences over the year.

@G172125
have you a history of poor attendance, Or slightly dodgy reasons for it

When the school were on my back about absences (due to official illnesses) I contacted my GP surgery telling them that the school wanted proof of illness and they just told me to tell them that if they want proof they need to pay £20 for a doctors letter as a sick note cannot be provided legally unless ill for more than 7 days. I told them that and they soon backed off.

They can fine after 10 unauthorised absences - that's 5 days..it is highly likely CP will cause 5 or more days absence

Calamine is still indicated in Nice guidelines although it was last updated in 2023. There are definitely better treatments available however like virasoothe.

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/chickenpox/management/child-or-adult/