To be angry at Children Sick Notes

[Manclife]

DC school has a new head teacher who is laying down the law. Amongst other things they're insisting parents get medical evidence when children are off sick. A quick search online shows most Drs either won't do it or charge for the letter. Also most minor children's ailments don't require medical intervention in the first place so there would be no record. AIBU to be angry that just to appease a head teacher I've got to tie up NHS resources? Has anyone challenged this successfully?

Also a GP, and I definitely wouldnt write a child a sick note for school nor would I expect the appointment system to be clogged up with children needing seen just to prove they were ill. If this started to happen I would write to the headteacher to explain why we wouldnt be doing any of this.

I would however write a letter for a child sitting external exams who was genuinely ill and that had been seen.

HTH

When my kids have been off sick it is almost always because they have been sick or are threatening to be sick! Under such circumstances I am guessing my GP surgery would not want them to come down the surgery and I am guessing school would have a fit if I tried to present my child to the school gates in such a state!

Our school has a parent/teacher group, I;d speak to them.

Totally agree with PP. Absolutely ridiculous like so many current education policies. Total waste of GPs' time and NHS resources. Not to mention an infection control risk as ill children who should be at home are dragged to health centres to infect others. I despair. Thankfully DCs' (primary) school doesn't require anything like this (unless genuine attendance concerns which I understand).

Oh we had this when ds2 was at pre school. He was 2 when it started. He had funding due to disabilities and of course due to those disabilities was off a fair amount anyway.....then he started getting a lot of viral infections etc and the manager asked for doctors notes each time or he would lose his funding.
I took him along for things I'd usually have kept him at home with, really wasn't necessary to see a gp but we needed the sick note...

Guess what....I wasthen accused of over medicalising ds in the basis of so many gp visits😳 You can't win sometimes

And this is why teachers have lost respect. It really doesn't smack of owning an intellect.

Come on, this not for someone being sick for a few days. This is to stop families going on holiday for a week or two during term time. At DS school its only for absences that long. And I think if they are seriously ill and off school for a week the school has a duty to check everything is in order.

Come on, this not for someone being sick for a few days. This is to stop families going on holiday for a week or two during term time. At DS school its only for absences that long

Ah I must have imagined the whole thing then and no it's not after a few days it was for the FIRST day.

@Fresh8008, yes, i agree it's the sledgehammer to crack a nut scenario. But it doesn't actually address the original problem of it being the same people doing things like that year in, year out. All it does is push the problem somewhere else, like to our over stretched and under resourced NHS.

DDs primary had introduced similar. If attendance drops below a certain % the school want to see a copy of prescriptions or confirmation of appointments.

Sorry Fresh but it is. The schools are under immense pressure to do something about their absence rates. They can hand out fines for unauthorised absences but cannot do anything about authorised absences. This has resulted in some schools deciding any absence which does not accompany a doctors note being ruled as an unauthorised absence. This happened to another poster on another thread whose child had chicken pox, which although she felt she could adequately deal with at home, was fined because she did not obtain a doctors note. Some schools are issuing statements that even in the event of a doctors note they reserve the right to make the final decision as to whether an absence is authorised or not.
Absence rates affect a schools Ofsted rating and Ofsted are coming down extremely hard on schools over them.

I wonder if Ofsted would think this is an example of effective leadership and management.

Our GP's offer a call back service. When the GP has spoken to you he/she decides whether you need an appointment or whether the matter can be dealt with during the call.If an appointment is necessary if it is deemed a minor illness you are often seen by the nurse practitioner. Chances of getting an appointment for a child with a sickness bug or a normal cough/cold, nil.

If my school tried this shit nonsense I would just send a note to the class teacher explaining the absence as usual and ignore the silliness.

I was under the impression that a couple of years ago the BMA or someone actually had school sick notes for short periods re,iced from GP's responsibility

Wow.
Just to confirm what others have said when posters whittle on about us teachers not having an intellect or needing to do the bins.
We do NOT make the rules. Slt do. We are just the puppets having to apply them.... as with uniform and attendance issues.
I am a minion in my school!

It's standard to self-certify for 7 days.
Sounds to me like either:

1. The head is on a power trip and just loves being an arse
2. They are trying to clamp down on parents who keep their child off for the sniffles and have managed to come up with an approach that is ridiculous.

I have sympathy it's the 2nd (i had a student who was regularly off because they were tired. Mum always said it was sickness - no chronic condition. Just off all the time) but it doesn't justify their approach.

wannabe and Maisy, I am sure it is not individual teachers' faults. Genuine question, as a parent, if you have a school with batshit policies / an arsey head, can you do anything? Short of moving your child which is not always an option?

Ginger, I fear Ofsted would see this as effective management as they certainly have some strange ideas about effective education .

Medical evidence. Hmm - anyone got any sealable bags?

Vomit, diarrhoea and really nasty green snot could go in there. Maybe an accidentally scratched off scab for chicken pox.

Bit stuck for tonsillitis though. Maybe a nice sputum sample that could be kept under a desk lamp to see what grows!

They will stop as soon as someone sends their child in to vomit the evidence at their feet because the parents couldn't get a sick note.

My Ds had not done a solid poo by the age of 6, in reception they kept ringing me because he 'had diarrhoea'. I kept telling them that was normal for him. They insisted I get a Doctors note.

I went along, doing as I was told, even though I was aware it was a waste of NHS Drs time. The Doctor told me to just go back and tell them!! I Did go back and tell them the Dr had told me to just go back and tell them and then they accepted it. They accepted the liquid poos, the vomiting in the playground then going into class, the vomiting and returning after no time off.

All because I had been to a Dr and the Dr had basically told me to tell them to do one!! That would be what I would do if they asked for a sick note. Same as I did when working and had a day or two off sick and was asked for a sick note. It is not a legal requirement, so go whistle!

At work our GP's said if the school want a letter for any reason, then the school pay for it.

I like the HT suggesting that you just send your ill child in and they'll send them home again if they're ill. So the rest of the children get ill? So the teacher catches a bug and is off work too and spreads it to their family and their child's school...

Were today's heads never teachers then?

Maybe pay for one scathing latter from your GP about how it is an epic waste of time and resources.