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?

Arrange a meeting with the headteacher,what constitutes evidence?It sounds vaguely threatening,many illnesses will not require a trip to the GP.Would the school rather your dc attend and spread D&V or be contented to see the contents of your dc sick as evidence.

One finds current regulations concerning sickness very 'police state'.

The thing is though ita the handful of parents that have caused this silliness.

I was once sat in a cafe having a sneaky cuppa before work. Lady on the next table to me with her young son. I hear her ring school up. Tell school he wont be in as 'Tarquin has Gastroenteritis - he's really poorly - can't say when he'll be back this week". Phone put down with school convinced. Mum turns to Tarquin "come on! Hurry up we'll miss check-in!". Before ringing the taxi to the airport and producing suitcase after suitcase from under the table.

I'm sure my DD would rather be on her way to an airport for a holiday than in yet another hospital waiting room/treatment room/consultants room etc but Alas, these pesky medical problems!

I'm a GP practice Nurse. We had a local school who instigated this policy. After the third appointment and numerous phone calls to get us to write a letter we contacted the school to express our concern. I said look anyone can write the letter, the receptionist could do it - mine said something like.
" Mrs so n' so has contacted us today to ask for letter o say that her child is off school with a tummy bug. Yours sincerely. Ms Nurse"
Point is, as we explained, its a parents judgement whether to keep their child off school. Not every minor illness needs a Drs appointment just a day or two at home resting with over the counter mess as the parent judges. If the head has a problem take it up with the parent.
Th

Over the counter meds

Just ignore! I never tell school mature of illness either
Just ' X will not be im school til monday because she is unwell:

Op, I think you and all the other parents should agree to send in photographic evidence of your sickly children including bodily fluids etc. Once the head has had a few hundred pictures of snot and vomit shown to her she will stop this stupid policy.

Re the 90%. This will be DD. She has to go to the hospital once a fortnight. The clinic doesn't open at weekends so she will have to go in school time. I know that it's noted as authorised absences but I wish they would be some sort of separate more forgiving system for those with long term medical problems
If they were in our school we treat that differently.
We have to use the legally correct codes for their absence but when it comes to analysing attendance data where children have ongoing illnesses or conditions we don't push forward with procedures. If Ofsted want to have a discussion about that then we will fight that with them.

Often with children with medical needs we have packs to get them caught up etc.

Glad youbagree with me on the smug holiday man. He really was an insufferable git. (And this is from someone who thinks a week holiday in term time in non-exam years should be granted as long as parents dont expect us to do extra catch up).

Did you speak to the GP surgery op? What did they say?

This is rediculous .So if your child has the runs one morning and you decide to keep them off you need to get a drs note.How pathetic .

DC1 has chronic constipation. I had to get a doctor's letter so he could be issued with a Toilet Pass, I kid you not, and be allowed to go to the Doctor's letter cost £20. Toilet pass issued for half term. I was expected to get a new letter every half term. I refused.

Our school does this too. I am guessing that it's because parents are taking their children on holiday during term time and phoning in sick to get round it. I have argued with them before about those 24 hour bugs etc as it doesn't require seeing a doctor.

I don't think stretching another already overstretched service is going to help improve attendance or anything! If they really want to improve attendance they need to work with families not against them.

Ds has poor attendance due to medical problems (he has 3 appointments in the next 2 weeks which will mean missing at least one registration a day). When we got a new attendance officer at school she was a pain in the backside - final straw was when she phoned me when I was at hospital waiting for ds to come round from surgery they knew he was having! Thankfully now she has realised that as much as he messes up her pretty figures it is nothing any of us can control!

I always wonder with schools and bosses who ask for this sort of thing how in the world they got to their position without understanding how doctors notes work. The simplest Google search would tell them that doctors won't do a note for one or two days off. There are massive public campaigns by the NHS about not wasting a GPs time on colds and d&v which can be treated over the counter. How dense and oblivious does someone have to be to miss all this?

When I was an office manager I had a boss who tried to implement something like this and I had to repeatedly explain EVERY TIME someone took a day off that no, their doctor wouldn't do them a note for that and they could self certificate. Just how can people be so wilfully ignorant?

What are the school going to do if you don't provide a sick certificate? Absolutely nothing other than maybe pass your name on to the attendance officer, and i'm pretty sure they require a minimum attendance percentage to be interested anyway. Unless your child is persistently absent with poor attendance, I'd call their bluff and refuse. The head is probably trying to bully parents into reducing absence, as it effects their Offsted rating.

I wouldn't bother, some head teachers are complete knobs! Say sorry but their sickness and diorroheah bug didn't require medical intervention but I'm happy to send my child back to sit on your office all day!

Our school sent out a 'contract' asking us to agree to this policy a couple of years ago. I just wrote 'no' in rather large letters and returned it.

My children's primary school has also requested evidence of medical appointments with a threat of Education Investigation Service referral should parents not comply.
I will not be providing any such evidence if any of my children become ill enough to require a Drs visit. My word is enough in this instance. They are my children they do not yet belong to the state. We are after all a "free country"

YABU. It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but the school must feel they have an attendance problem and that this might make parents think twice before allowing their child time off when they are not really that ill.

A lot of (poor) employers do a similar thing. It shows weakness on the part of the person implementing the rule, but there is nothing you can do about it other than ensure that your child attends school even when they are sick. If they are visibly unwell (and physically unwell on school property or staff!) then the school will be wanting them to go home and can hardly expect the child to provide a sicknote.

I am lucky if I can even get through to my GP surgery let alone get an appointment so there is no way on earth I would be trying to get a sick note every time one of my children were off school due to sickness. Doctors are stretched enough without this nonsense.

Legally, this isn't enforceable. I'd tell them where to go, personally.

but there is nothing you can do about it other than ensure that your child attends school even when they are sick

Thus making all the other children and teachers sick, and causing potentially serious complications to those with pre existing conditions? No. Just no.

If they are requiring this from everybody then I would say they are exceeding their authority.

See www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564599/school_attendance.pdf

and in particular Code I which reads:
Code I: Illness (not medical or dental appointments)
Schools should advise parents to notify them on the first day the child is unable to attend due to illness. Schools should authorise absences due to illness unless they have genuine cause for concern about the veracity of an illness. If the authenticity of illness is in doubt, schools can request parents to provide medical evidence to support illness.
Schools can record the absence as unauthorised if not satisfied of the authenticity of the illness but should advise parents of their intention. Schools are advised not to request medical evidence unnecessarily. Medical evidence can take the form of prescriptions,
appointment cards, etc. rather than doctors’ notes.

This is totally,utterly ridiculous. You can't take a child to a doctor's surgery every time they have some minor ailment that means they cannot attend school. And if other GP surgeries are anything like mine,you can't get an appointment for a fortnight at least,unless it's really urgent. My 10 year old DGD suffers from migraines which make her feel very unwell,and cause her to be sick. She probably has to take one day off school every term because she wakes up with a migraine. But there's no way my DD would drag her to the doctor's just to prove that she was too ill to attend school. Besides which,I know from experience from when my DD was at secondary school and they were being funny about her having 2 days off after she'd had a kidney stone,our GP does not provide letters or certificates to authenticate illnesses.