AIBU to think the school are being ridiculous

[happytoseeyou]

My DD (6) gets very rosy cheeks when she is tired. We attended a wedding at the weekend and she had a later bedtime than normal.

I took her to school as normal on Monday and as soon as I got into work I had a call from the school stating I had to go and collect her as they believed she has slapped cheek. I explained on the phone that she gets very pink cheeks when she is tired and she'd had a couple of late nights over the weekend, so there was nothing to worry about. They said they had the other children to consider and couldn't take my work for it and I had to collect her immediately.

When I arrived at the school the receptionist went to get her and and walked over to a large group of children sitting on the floor being read to. I asked if they were so concerned they why wasn't she in isolation they said they would get the head to talk to me, but I said to not bother as I had to get back to work. (luckily my mum was able to have her while I went back to work)

She still had rosy cheeks this morning so I called them to ask what their policy is as the NHS guidelines say that there is no need to be off school for slapped cheek, and they have said until I get a letter from a doctor giving DD the all clear then she won't be accepted back in school!

AIBU to not to want to waste NHS time to prove my DD isn't unwell, and even if she had slapped cheek (which she def hasn't) then the school should be in line with NHS advice and allow her to attend.

[suzy2b]

I'v never heard of slap cheek,and have worked with children in the past 2 grown up children and 3 grandchildren.

[OhLookHeKickedTheBall]

wasn't lethargic.

I'm not doing well here. Sorry for accidentally spamming

[OhLookHeKickedTheBall]

nothing wrong with her - other than the rash of course - she was lethargic or out of sorts I meant.

[OhLookHeKickedTheBall]

We had DD sent home recently for having a rash and a temperature. DH picked her up all worried and didn't really check her over in his panic. Got her home and no temperature at all, nothing wrong with her. She'd been running about at lunchtime on a hot day so had been sweaty when they noticed her rash. The rash was excema. School refused to have her back until it was confirmed. 2 hours in the walk in clinic later and the nice GP said they'd give us some more steroid cream for it. So at least I had that to show them when I took her in the next day.

[Pacers]

YANBU

We had this last year with DD, then 8. Similar to yours, she is prone to getting pink cheeks when tired; we’d had a busy weekend and she’d been outside a lot. Mentioned to school at drop off on Monday. Call from school at lunchtime: “DD is not well AT ALL”.

Drove from work in absolute panic, to find DD happily playing outside with the Yr6 class. No temp, no headache, no symptoms other than pink cheeks. School refused to have her back until I had written confirmation from the GP that she didn’t have scarlet fever

Huge waste of GP’s time, day of lost earnings (and awful fright) for me, day out of school for DD who came home and spent the rest of the afternoon trampolining.

I get it’s sometimes a hard line for schools to walk, but this can’t be the way to do it.

[Nothisispatrick]

This is ridiculous. I work in a school and we don't send children home from slapped cheek, and in fact once the cheeks go red it is the tail end of the illness and they will have already been infectious for a week or so!

Also I am pregnant and when we had it in our school I went for a blood test to check my immunity, turns out I'm immune as will many people be who have worked with children for a while.

[Wolfiefan]

Bonkers! You do need a meeting. If she's prone to looking flushed you could keep getting the same issue.

[AhWeCanDanceIfWeWantTo]

is

[AhWeCanDanceIfWeWantTo]

this isn’t absolute madness!! How much has this cost both you and the NHS??

[PrivateDoor]

I would definitely organise a meeting with the head and class teacher. They have been incredibly rude to you and I would find it hard to engage positively with the school after that. Have a meeting and explain your viewpoint.

I have had a similar issue and sent in a letter of complaint, received a standard reply of we are sorry IF you are not happy with our procedures. In my case, my dd had an ongoing issue which the school were aware that she received medical treatment for, but they suddenly decided to google her symptoms and came up with an alternative diagnosis which had already been ruled out clinically. They insisted she was taken out of school just like your dd. I was so angry that they felt they knew more than our GP.

[happytoseeyou]

Hi Thanks for all your replies.

I went to school yesterday with the printout and again stated that there was nothing wrong with DD, she has no fever, is eating well, and is her usual self (other than rosy cheeks). They refused to accept her back without confirmation I taken taken her to the GP. They even called me irresponsible ....there is nothing wrong with her!

I left without saying anything (as I couldn't trust myself not to yell) and I took her to our GP surgery where I had to wait for 1.5 hours to be seen, to be told she doesn't have a temperature, or breathing difficulties and has no symptoms of illness or virus so there is no reason to keep her off school.

This morning I returned to school, I dropped a letter into reception advising I had been to the GP and as I predicted she has been given a clean bill of health so would be returning to school today. I then went to the classroom entrance where the teacher stopped DD from entering and said, 'has this been approved'?
I asked 'has what been approved' and they said did I have approval to take DD back into school.
I said very calmly there is nothing wrong with her, there has never been anything wrong with her and the GP has verified this.

As I turned to walk away the teacher shouted 'you need to take this up with the office I will not argue with you in front of the other children'. I hadn't raised my voice so was quite surprised with this response, I just said 'I have notified the office that DD is returning to school' and left.

But I am furious, this whole thing is ridiculous, they send letters constantly about the importance of attendance stats and yet have enforced a 3 day absence, for no reason. Other than this episode, we have had 1 day off this year ... because the school was closed, because of the snow.

I do not understand their approach, their reasoning, their attitude and when I have calmed down a bit I will go and talk to the head. At the moment I feel I have kept my composure, but I think I need a couple of days distance ... otherwise I may crack!

[Fromage]

So the school has diagnosed your dd with slapped cheek and that diagnosis stands until disproved?

Ask to see the medical qualifications of whoever examined your dd without your permission.

[Littlebluebird123]

It may not help but what I thought was slapped cheek (and therefore ok to go to school) turned out to be scarlet fever. Which wasn't ok for dd to be at school until she'd had 24hrs of antibiotics.
So in that case, I'm glad I did go to the doctor and check.
Parents often don't check, or lie about when their child was last sick etc. So if they'd had a lot of this (not necessarily you, but in general) then they may be trying to be more strict to prevent having contagious diseases around school.

[WombatStewForTea]

I'm a teacher.
I'd put money on there being a pregnant member of staff somewhere. We'd send home for suspected slap check but would take your word the next day if you said it was something else

[Racecardriver]

Slapped cheek has already passed the point where it is contagious when the rash appears. I would make a complaint to the school for wasting your time.

[Pengggwn]

Sorry double post.

[Pengggwn]

What's the school sickness policy?

[disahsterdahling]

Just say you can't get a GP appointment for 3 weeks (in my surgery it could be 6 weeks as you have to see your own GP so if they are on holiday/not there for any reason you can't have a face to face appointment, you can only have a telephone triage and then they'll decide if another GP should see you).

[Pengggwn]

What's the school sickness policy?

[youarenotkiddingme]

How did it go?

[happytoseeyou]

That is correct - they have excluded my child for no reason!

I am heading there now armed with the print out of the NHS guidelines, wish me luck.

[Dolphinswimmingupsidedown]

So they’ve excluded your child from school for no reason?

[Dahlietta]

No, YANBU. When my DS had slapped cheek, I took him to the doctor who said he was fine to go into school as they're not contagious when the rash appears. He said the rash might get worse though, but it was nothing to worry about. I took him into school and relayed this. They said fine. I took him back the next day - they refused to take him because the rash was worse. I reminded them what the doctor had said. Nope, they made me take him back to the doctor so he could say exactly the same thing and I could take him back to school again. Sigh.

[sharkirasharkira]

I had the same thing when the DC's had some kind of rash - it wasn't at all similar to chickenpox and went away within 24hrs but they refused to let them back in the school until I had visited a doctor and been told the same thing. Did feel like a massive waste of time but they were idiots for many many different reasons so just wouldn't be told.

[youarenotkiddingme]

When my ds has slapped cheek (after a dose of tonsillitis he'd already been off for) the school told me I didn't need to keep him home unless he was unwell (unwell enough to be off iyswim?)