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.

But the point is that it is a school thing for record keeping and safeguarding purposes. School children’s medical absences don’t have to be authorised by a Dr in the same way that paid absence from work does.

The school don’t want to show ofsted poor attendance statistics but from the child and parents point of view, the labelling of absence as authorised, or not, has little consequence beyond the fines. If a parent has evidence of genuine illness they can choose to avoid the fine and let the LA take them to court. I’m no lawyer, but I predict that the LA’s legal representatives might advise them not to pursue a case in these circumstances.

Send an email

Dear HT,

I notice that despite sending DD home with a sickness bug <put in date> that requires an absence of 48 hours once clear - I note you’ve marked the absence as unauthorised.

She now has chicken pox which require at least 5 days off and again it’s being marked as unauthorised despite me not being able to send her in. I have shown a photo.

Please refer to the guidance which clearly states schools should not ask for medical evidence unless there is concerns.

Please respond to me within 5 working days outlining how you are going to chance these absences and what you are going to do further.

I require a written response so o can escalate further if needed.

many thanks

xxxxx

I would also tell them that they won’t be sending her home given the 2 times THEY have sent her home has also been recorded as unauthorised absence and you don’t want that on her record again so you won’t be picking her up during the day

Something I don’t understand is that the school should be recording your daughter’s absence with an ‘I’ code in the register to signify that she is ill. An I code is automatically an authorised absence. There is no category for an unauthorised absence when a child is ill, so they were presumably recording her absence inaccurately in the official register until that sensible teacher stepped in.

They could actually get into trouble for this because it’s really important that non attendance is recorded accurately by schools. Using the correct code is a legal requirement. You have done more than required by the statutory guidance by sending photos (all that is officially required is for a parent to notify them on day one) so I would be making a big fuss about this, particularly as they still haven’t sorted out the wrongly recorded sickness for a few weeks ago.

Ask for the attendance officer to come out to the house . They csn see your child through the window. Job done

Can't believe that she was actually sent home & that was classed as unauthorised.

Remember the days when your mum or dad sent a note in with you when you went back in?

Never heard such a ridiculous policy! I’ve had two DC go through school and worked in a school.
I once had to question an absence due to mental health issues which they wanted to mark as unauthorised but they backtracked pretty quickly (got advice from the Sendco where i worked ).

But why put families through additional stress and harassment?
If my child is in hospital having surgery they can not be school. I should not be getting phone calls from the head teacher saying they need to return to school sooner than what the consultant has told us or else we are at risk of fines. It's barbaric, it doesn't help unwell children feel better quicker by threatening fines.
And yes the likelihood of this getting as far as court is unlikely and the evidence would likely mean we would win if it did.
But why put families under unnecessary stress for things beyond their control.

It serves no purpose, doesn't improve attendance and damages school/parent relationship and trust.

If they actually put it down as medical (authorised) it would be easier to explain by incorrect recording it as unauthorised the school is making it look like the problem is the pupil/ family rather than health

Id just be really petty with this and take her to reception ask to see the head.

Well what a fucking way to run a school, you'll know to get in touch with the head of year 7 if you have anymore sickness problems. Thank goodness someone was actually concerned for the student health.

Take her in. They'll soon send her home.

Really? As a mum to a 4 and 2 year old, every other child I know this age has already had chicken pox. How do so many avoid it until secondary school?

Schools don't receive a penny for the work they do in following up, investigating, evidence gathering, submitting lengthy forms and producing bundles of evidence for Local Authorities to consider issuing Penalty Notices.

They also have to refer them - and when Ofsted visit, if there isn't any evidence of doing this for every case of Persistent and Severe Absence or unathorised absence, of calling, messaging, visiting, bringing in for meetings, referring to the LA attendance team, having more meetings, liaising with SW, VSHs, etc, minutes of meetings, signed agreements, medical evidence, etc, etc, etc, it's a guaranteed way of getting a crappy grade - if an inspection team feels so inclined, they could completely fail the school on the basis of safeguarding - and a particularly forceful LA could also (because they have access to the live attendance data) insist upon more referrals or spark off a safeguarding inspection of their own.

By all means investigate why schools don't receive recompense for the additional hours spent trying to improve attendance and having to meet this additional compulsory task or why they can be criticised for not pushing families on attendance when the kids concerned have very real reasons affecting their attendance, but thinking it's a moneymaking exercise for schools that should be investigated to reveal some Machiavellian scheme to increase leadership pay/buy better teabags for the staffroom - well, you're not going to get the big reveal you think you are..

That's ridiculous. Imagine not being able to get a GP appointment for a really serious problem, because the GP was too busy having to write unnecessary medical evidence letters to satisfy an overzealous attendance officer.

What a waste of resources.

I don’t know why this 100% attendance has become such a big deal. So what if some kids are off after half term? When I was at school in the 80s/90s, kids regularly would take two weeks off school to go on holiday and NO ONE CARED. Teachers didn’t care, local authority didn’t care, other kids didn’t care. No-one fell behind. And everyone continued attending school and went on to get jobs and go to university.

Ever since they’ve brought in this dictatorship it seems it’s having the opposite effect, causing huge anxiety to everyone involved.

I don't think it's too uncommon to get it in secondary. Couldn't find stats for secondary age, but JCVI said it's 50% at 4, and 10% hadn't had it by aged 10.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-varicella-vaccination-programme-jcvi-advice-14-november-2023/jcvi-statement-on-a-childhood-varicella-chickenpox-vaccination-programme

They also said covid and lockdown reduced spread and increased the pool of those who aren't immune, which makes sense. There's going to be kids in secondary now who in the parallel universe where none of it happened would've got chicken pox in 2021 aged 7 or whatever, but didn't.

My DH and a close friend both got it at about 25! And DH was the youngest sibling in his family too - goodness knows how he avoided it!

I got it at 3, DS wasn't even 2 years old before he got it. However, he went to nursery.

I'm 52 and I've still never had it.

100% agree @Scamworried I was responding to the poster that insisted children’s medical absence needed to be authorised. I’m team don’t be so ridiculous.

Send her to school, when half the kids come down with it, they’ll know it’s genuine. Unbelievable action by the school

@G172125 that is a disgrace how schools in England treat parents and children if they are ill they are ill. Complain to your MP.

They will have their own policy but it should be based on Government guidance not just making up silly rules that have no bearing on medical advice. Medical evidence doesn't have to be something you can physically show them, it can be consulting a doctor or pharmacist and explaining to the school what you have done and what advice they gave you. Speak to the Head and if you get no joy, register a complaint, they should have a complaints policy on their website.

Schools are just bloody stupid!

I would have taken your child in to show them the proof! Fecking idiots.

Nor indeed encouraging her to return to school early with it to infect other people. I nearly died at seven years old due to chickenpox complications.

It's ludicrous that this is the situation on England. In Scotland nobody cares about attendance!