...to worry about primary school attendance?

[Llanali]

Argh, DC has just started school, last Thursday.

She came home from said school with an upset stomach on Friday, and has had D on and off over the weekend, so I had to keep her off today. And now she’s had another bout, so it’s off tomorrow.

I’m panicking about absense already! She was fine throughout pre school and has only had a tummy upset once in her life before. Bloody typical,

Can anyone reassure me I’m not going to get stroppy letters? This is our first DC starting school, I’m not sure exactly how this works.

Illness can't be helped. There will be lots of absence in the next couple of weeks as the kids all bring their individual germs into the school and share them about! Do keep her off for 24-48 hours (check with school) after symptoms have cleared, to help stop it spreading. They'd much rather you DC was off an extra day or two than pass it on to another couple of pupils!
Hope she feels better soon 💐

You may get a letter, they're automatically generated if attendance drops below 95% (or 90 maybe?) and early in the year that's easy to do. Ignore the letters, I always have. Don't stress, DS is year 9 now, we've had 70% attendance due to genuine illness in the past, I've had a lot of letters 😂

You may get stroppy letters, but just ignore them!

I would be raising it with the school to see whether they can put measures in place to increase handwashing etc. Sometimes schools have had to shut down for a deep clean. Presumably nothing has changed in her diet.

Poor you and poor dd. Dont worry, this- Im afraid- is entirely normal. My ds1 had 11 days off sick in reception and ds2 had 8 or 9. They just caught everything. In subsequent years however neither of them have had more than 3 days if sickness in a year and most years it's 1 day or none at all.

You may get a letter but just bin it. School is no place for a sick child.

Please don’t worry about letters when your child has been genuinely poorly.

One of my jobs in secondary school is I am the signer of these letters. I hate it when attendance check time rolls around again. I get dozens of anxious/angry phone calls from parent with children who were genuinely unwell. The ones I need to target specifically rarely bother. But it has to be done.

The advice I give he anxious parents is take a glance at the attendance summary if the letter does arrive and just see that it all looks ok. Your dd is too young really but by secondary sometimes parents notice patterns on the summary that they had missed in the day to day rush.

If it helps at all I have just returned from mat leave and was off work for two days within a fortnight. Schools spread germs

My child was meant to go back to school last week and hasn't made it in yet due to illness.

It is bad timing and I expect to get an attendance letter and it will be filed straight into the bin.

Just posting, so you know you are not the only one :)

I am worrying about this too, and I am the teacher! Struck down with a nice d&v bug on Thursday night and been off work since. Don't worry about it, it is clearly doing the rounds!

If she's only just started reception, is she still only four? I don't think there's much they can do if she is under compulsory school age. Just make sure you keep the school updated and send in a note when she returns.

If under 5 then they can't fine you anyway so don't worry.

My dd's attendance was only 87% in reception due to endless hospital appointments, d&v bugs and vomiting caused by asthma attacks. Several stroppy letters but no action. It will continue for year 1 as she is still under the hospital.

As long as you send a note/contact the school then it will be listed as authorised due to illness

Don't worry about letters.we got one for my ds.... He had a sick bug then just as he was about to go back to school after 48 hrs he was sick again....so was off over a full week. The teacher handed me the letter and said to ignore it they knew he had been poorly...they're just sent automatically.

When he started nursery he managed 3 days before getting sick.
When he started reception he was sick the 2nd day. It got better from yr1 onwards.

This happened when DS started primary. He hadn't been ill for ages but came down with D&V and was off for a week.

We did get the standard letter but by the end of the year he had 97% attendance. It actually doesn't count in reception but if they are ill, their ill. Especially with D&V, it rips through class rooms!

Those letters are what the shredder is for if it's genuine illness and you'd send her in if ok.

You can't do more than that.

Don't worry about it. Definitely make sure she's better before sending her in.

As a pp said, they don't legally have to be in school (or educated) before 5 so no official action. They may send letters/ask questions. But that's part of looking after kids and making sure there's no underlying issues to flag up.
Reception is often a year of illness as there's a whole bunch of new germs to share around. The joys. :)

Don't worry about it - honestly!! As long as you know you only ever keep her off for genuine illness, who cares? She's 4/5yrs old - what's she gonna miss that she can't catch up on? Her health is more important.

My son (now 11yrs old & very rarely ill) was off LOADS when he first started school - always seemed to get tummy bugs, colds, coughs, ear infections, etc. I used to fret about it all the time & write notes or arrange meetings with the school (in response to the snarky attendance letters!) to assure them that he was genuinely poorly & there was many a time that I sent him back to school against my better judgement when he really needed an extra day to completely recover or sleep!

Don't let worry about attendance interfere with your judgement as a mum - you know your little one best & you decide if/when she's in a fit state to attend school.

Absence through illness is much higher, statistically, in infant schools and it’s a bit cack that we have to judge it against primary attendance stats. 4/5/6yr olds are still developing their immune system and will be likely to have prolonged periods off for the childhood illnesses like chicken pox. Automatic letters once attendance drops below a % is a bit ridiculous this early too. If you’ve been back 5 days and absent for 2, that’s like 60% attendance. But over the year, 2 days becomes much less significant.

My youngest had 93% attendance in reception because he caught every bug going, and chicken pox. His brothers had 100%, up till the last week when one of them caught chicken pox also.

It can't be helped, and I ignored the warning letter, especially as most of the time they'd sent him home ill.

Schools only compulsory the term after child's 5th Birthday so unless you deferred for a year, then I wouldn't worry.
Schools tend to see a pattern with absences but they would rather you kept your DD off if she's got a bug. Believe me, the teachers do not want it

Don’t worry about snotty letters. You may get one, if you do just shred it

DD is only 4 and she’s genuinely ill. She needs to be curled up on the sofa not in a new, busy environment infecting lots of other kids

Thank you so much for re assuring me!

She isn’t really poorly, but has had three bouts of D Between 5am and 3pm today, so she she can’t go until Wednesday at the earliest :(

I’m worried all the others will be making friends and getting used to school without her, but I know there’s nothing to be done and it can’t be helped.

She’s 5 in a couple of days, so sounds like this term shouldn’t count anyway! I didn’t know that so thanks again.