This school absence policy seems harsh

[Maybeshesbornwithitmaybeitssertraline]

So I follow my dc schools on facebook and facebook assumes I must want to follow all the local schools.

Anyway one of the local primaries have announced this year that unless the child has vomiting/diarrhoea then they need evidence of a gp/hospital appointment to get an authorised absence. Any absence will mean a text message from school on day 1, a phone call on day 2 and a home visit on day 3. Any child too ill for school but not needing the gp should be given calpol/throat sweets etc and sent in.

I suppose it's meant to help safeguarding but this just seems harsh for primary aged children.

That’s the policy we have at home. D&V - stay home. Chest infection or similar - GP. Accident - A&E. Anything else, dose up and crack on.

We can’t take time off work every time we have headaches, colds, period pain etc. We take medicine and crack on.

That is just ridiculous. Say a child got chicken pox, they don’t need a GP visit or need the hospital. Do they rock on into school.

I'm sure they will be sending all the children with viruses and fevers home as soon as they get in

That is ridiculously wasteful of GP's. There are plenty things you need to stay at home for that do not require a GP visit.

GPs will not usually see children for standard childhood illnesses.

schools are increasingly asking for gp evidence and most GPs refuse to provide it on the grounds it is not NHS work.

yes, many schools have a draconian absence policy.

Ridiculous waste of GPs’ time, and against the statutory guidance on illnesses, which states that unless the school has a reasonable reason for not believing the parent, the parent’s word is enough for an authorised absence for illness.

ETA - this is the wording from the July 2026 gov guidance, and is what I’d be sending the school if they tried to give an unauthorised absence for a my child with a fever or something else that GPs won’t even see a child for.
“Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence
to support illness absences, and should not have blanket rules requiring this. In the
majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school can
be accepted without question or concern. However, schools may request reasonable
evidence where they have genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of
the illness, or when they are seeking to support pupils with prolonged or repeated
patterns of illness”

Chicken pox? Flu? There are plenty of things a doctor won’t see you for which still require rest.

For the first time in 3 years we’ve had an email from school about attendance and illness, it’s all been quite case by case and relaxed before but when we had the heat wave attendance plummeted with kids off for being hot or tired and it’s been low already this term so they’re being a bit more specific.

Balance is surely key.

Depending where you live, good luck getting a doctors appointment the same day.

DD had 98/99% attendance in primary and the times she was off she was just ‘unwell’ and often needed to sleep.
All this will do is spread illness, DD is back in sixth form and this week they are all getting sick. It’s the nature of mingling.

We wonder why everyone is so burnt out and depressed when you aren’t even allowed to rest for a day when you feel rotten. (Adults and children)

I am not sure it’s harsh on the pupil

if they are too ill they are too ill - and you can simply say so when they message and turn up

if they child is too ill no caring adult would insist they are sent to school

yiy just say you have phoned the doctor and they said try next week

I don't get this. If you tried to take a child to the GP for something viral but not life threatening wouldn't they just tell you to give Calpol and fluids and rest? Would they even want to see you for that?

It’s unfortunate when some schools show how little they value children and staff. At best, this policy is misguided, lacks intellect and common sense.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/12/uk-academies-very-sorry-for-policies-saying-pupils-must-attend-when-unwell

It’s ridiculous and should be ignored. If a child is ill they aren’t going to learn anything. We all know how severe a viral sore throat can be, yes the treatment is painkillers , strepsils, throat spray etc but you also need to rest! I know of a child forced in when unwell with a virus , made to do PE and ended up hospitalised with cardiomyopathy due to over exertion when ill with a virus. It’s dangerous.

Schools need to ease up a bit. If they didn’t force ill kids in then viruses wouldn’t spread as much and it would reduce time off that way!

Schools have no authority to enforce such a policy. They are just putting on the frighteners. Your GP will probably also have a published policy saying that they don't have time or resources to give GP appointments to every child who is too poorly for school and they will not participate in such a charade. Use your common sense and keep your child at home if they are properly unwell. If a dose of calpol does make them well enough for school then yes they can and should go in but there are plenty of bugs that will make a child too unwell for school without requiring GP attention, and the NHS is under enough pressure without school pushing an unnecessary job of endorsing parental common sense like this. A phonecall on day 2 and home visit on day 3 of an illness is fine if the school has the resources - there's certainly going to be some fake-illness holiday scenarios caught that way, and if the child is actually ill there's no harm done by those things.

What about flu? A total waste of GP time to go with flu but impossible to 'dose up and crack on'.

Why stop with D&V? Why not go the whole hog? There’s fewer long term repercussions with D&V than some other viruses. They could have some children as D&V cleaning monitors to build their “resilience”. Imagine having a chronic illness at this type of school. The irony of course is that this type of school increases the risk of a child ending up with an illness like long covid.

Bet the local GPs haven't okayed this.

How about flu? Chickenpox? High temperature? You can't go to school with those but you don't need to go to the GP either.

What about things where presumably the school doesn’t actually want the child in, but the GP (rightly) wont see them unless there are complications? Chicken pox, for example?

I’d assume the school has a high absence rate because of children being kept home for sniffles and parental convenience, so they have to tackle it somehow.

When I worked as a practice nurse in a gps not so long ago, this was starting to become a trend. Schools telling parents to get letter from GP/proof of seeing medical practitioner for absence of one or two days due to minor childhood illness. Often children weren’t seen, as triage system didn’t warrant an appointment and directed parental care, NHS advice online etc. If child was seen and parent asked for a letter we would refuse as this wasn’t a service we offered or that the child required.
I don’t understand why schools are allowed to direct parents to do this as firstly it is usually completely unnecessary (as the parent knows as well) and secondly a very poor use of GP time and appointments.

Fully agree.

It doesn't stop people lying either, because you can contact a GP about a not ill kid and get an online message saying they won't give an appointment but telling what to do- I've had this before. Also people can just say it's D and V, thus turning some one day skives into two.

I worked in a school where a GP practice rang and told us they wouldn’t give out letters for one day absences.
I asked DD and she said why doesn’t everyone say they have S&D (and then be excluded for 2 days).

One of the schools I worked in took a hard line with the staff one year over sickness. The bulk of sickness in staff was injuries and S&D in kitchen staff. However the Head wanted to do it. You had to speak to her every day when she would tell you to go to the GP, some staff did and the GP was telling them they needed to be off (normally they would drag themselves in) or they were pushing for a sick note so they didn’t have to speak to her every day. Our sickness rates went up.

Bet the school staff love that policy!
Believe me many 4 yr olds often have no idea of how to blow their nose, dispose of tissues etc.
Plus As already said when little ones are feeling ill they don’t want to be in a busy classroom they want to curl up on the sofa and sleep.

I just don’t care about thinks like this they can have whatever rules they want but I won’t be getting doctors notes and I won’t be sending a sick child in

so they can mark it unauthorised if they like - what does it matter