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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

No authorisation for being sick!

59 replies

pumpkinsweetieMasPudding · 17/12/2012 08:58

My dd who is 4 has the winter vomiting bug, she has had it since yesterday & was sick yet again this morning.
Phoned school this morning and ive been told they no longer authorise absences unless a sick note is obtainedShock or if a child has actually been sent home from the school premises!
Aibu to think this is ridiculous?
So angry that this is going down as unauthorised.
This a new school policy since they became an academy a few weeks back.

Ive been told by office to try to obtain a sick note from doctors.

OP posts:
SirSugar · 17/12/2012 09:25

Dear school,

Please amend DDs absence from school yesterday from unauthorised to authorised. Due to the nature of her illness, winter vomiting bug, I do not fit the criteria of your current absence policy due to the fact that the GP surgery does not want her within puking distance of the surgery and, as I am sure you will agree, neither does the school so that her absence can be authorised.

Please address this note of absence to someone within the school administration who has at least an ounce of sensibility to adjust your records accordingly.

I have taken appropriate action to ensure that fellow school pupils and teachers have a winter vomiting bug free christmas by not sending her in, of this you should all be grateful.

SleighbellsRingInYourLife · 17/12/2012 09:28

" All you are doing then is punishing the other pupils"

And the sick child.

samandi · 17/12/2012 09:29

YANBU, that's stupid.

freddiefrog · 17/12/2012 09:34

YANBU

My friend's children's school introduced this policy at the start of this academic year. They no longer do it as it was totally unworkable

UC · 17/12/2012 09:38

Are you sure they don't mean you just have to write a letter when she goes back to explain the absence?

badguider · 17/12/2012 09:40

what does it matter if it goes down as unathorised? secondary schools surely can't deny a place based on bad attendence? i don't see why it should matter what the school put on their paperwork, the child is too ill for school, that's all that matters to the parent and child.

[genuine question - what possible harm could there be? i don't imagine the EWO visiting every child at that school who is sick without a gp note]

flow4 · 17/12/2012 09:50

The GP is unlikely to write a sick note for a child. The formal statutory sick notes are now called 'fit notes' and are a statement of your fitness or non-fitness for work, and so not issued to children. They are only issued for illness lasting over 7 days. The self-certification form here also makes it very clear this is for employees.

Any other kind of sick note is an informal non-statutory one, and not covered by GPs' NHS contracts. A GP asked to provide one for a child could legitimately charge (usual rates vary from £15-40) - and since GPs are busy folk, they'd probably refuse anyway.

Whether the school likes it or not, they are going to have to accept parents' own notes. Silly sods.

DorisIsWaiting · 17/12/2012 09:56

Ring them up and say you'll be dropping her down to school . When she's sick again please give you a call.

Highlight the fact that this would be the lesser of two evils as there are more likely to be imunocompromised people at the GP's where you will have to go for a GP note. So when she's sick again please can you send her home and mark her down as sick...

VicarInaTutuDrankSantasSherry · 17/12/2012 10:01

ludicrous. I would challenge it or ask them if they would rather you brought her into school with a highly infectious stomach bug right before xmas? Or ask them to obtain a sick note and see how easy they find it.

YANBU.

Jingleflobba · 17/12/2012 10:08

I would phone your GP and let them know about the school's new policy, give them the phone number and the head teacher's name then sit back comfortable in the knowledge that your GP will probably sort this for you!
Honestly, if they knew how many sick notes doctors have to issue every week along with the rest of the piles of paperwork they deal with they wouldn't even bother with this.

SavoyCabbage · 17/12/2012 10:14

So would I jingle.

EdithWeston · 17/12/2012 10:15

Our GP will not contemplate any form of note for an absence of less than a week.

I would write back to the school and state that as they do not accept this is a genuine sickness you are taking their email as confirmation that you should bring your DD (currently with D&V in the middle of one of the largest norovirus outbreaks ever) into school where she will mix with other children, until she has puked/shat on the premises. Copy it to PTA, other parents, LEA, Governors, PCT and MP.

Bossybritches22 · 17/12/2012 10:29

Do what you think is best for your child -whatever ticky box they choose to put that absence in is up to them, it will have bugger all effect in reality so let them have their petty little rules.

Don't let it worry you cuddle your poorly LO & have an early start to Christmas! Better now than next week.

Xmas Grin Merry Christmas.

nannyl · 17/12/2012 10:32

Your child is 4

you child does not legally even have to go to school at all.

id think no more of it

Original poster
pumpkinsweetieMasPudding · 17/12/2012 10:48

Thanks for the replies, i see i'm not b u in thinking it's a very stupid tatic in keeping kids in school.
I won't be sending my child into school as it wouldn't be fair on her, but i would love to see their faces if vomit was to cover their schoolGrin

I won't be bothering my docs surgery with this nonsense as not only will they probably charge me for the note, the bug will obviously spread like wildfire whilst we are there.

It may be lunacy but it's all true, its a new policy drafted in-one of which i assume is to deter people from taking dc on holiday.

Thing is with this bug now becoming an epidemic across the uk they'd be stupid to coax the pupils into school with such an illness as they risk the entire school catching it & it is definetely not a nice bug to get.

OP posts:
Original poster
pumpkinsweetieMasPudding · 17/12/2012 10:49

Merry christmas to you to Bossy x

OP posts:
peaceandlovebunny · 17/12/2012 11:52

ask for a self certification form?

i have every sympathy with your dd. i'm off work (school) with winter vomiting, too.

Bossybritches22 · 18/12/2012 00:34

My 2 have both done well this term with no bugs/illness' then wham, DD 2 got appendicitis, ended up in hospital having surgery & poor love has had one thing after another,wound infection,then stinking cold & now it's on her chest.

DD1 has had such a stinking cold she's had endless nose bleeds & ended up in A&E yesterday with a really bad one.

TBH I'm tempted to keep them off now & start Christmas early, they'll only pick summat up & if I can get them over this by next week we'll be Ok for family meet-ups.

CoolaYuleA · 18/12/2012 01:09

The form they are asking for is one which is used by employees or people claiming benefits.... It is therefore not applicable to, and won't be issued for, children.

Methinks this "policy" was drafted by someone a numpty who isn't actually aware of this.

I'd be inclined to point it out to them.

RyleDup · 18/12/2012 01:14

Oh who cares. Your child is sick. She can't go to school. Let them document it however they want. End of!

CatPussRoastingOnAnOpenFire · 18/12/2012 01:16

Oh Fuck em!

Kytti · 18/12/2012 01:31

Send them to school to be ill there and make everyone else sick.

Only kidding - btw -

AndABigBirdInaPearTree · 18/12/2012 03:41

"GP doesn't want kids coming with vomiting to the surgery unless they are deteriorating. I'd be happy to bring her to school so you can confirm that she is indeed throwing up."

incogneetow · 18/12/2012 04:07

This is just about artificially massaging attendance figures.
If children are encouraged to come into school, to then be sent home; then they get their mark for the morning (even if they are only there for half an hour).

It's bonkers. School attendance figures improve. But the consequences of children not being in lessons still remain, but masked by improved attendance figures.

MammaTJ · 18/12/2012 06:10

What a waste of the doctors valuable time. Tell them to stick it. She is four, does not even have to legally be in school. !!

Seriously, this will make people send their DC in when ill and make bugs spread even more quickly through the school and cause more sickness.