To think it's very unreasonable for school not to take my word DS is sick.

[VioletsArePurple]

DS has been home sick (sore throat, fever, headache) for three days. I have emailed them each day to inform them he is ill. No response from them on day 1 or day 2. He's going back tomorrow. Today (day 3) I got I an email from school with the following text: "...Just wanted to check in regarding how XXX is doing and also from an attendance perspective. Our school policy around holidays is to mark a child as unauthorised absence unless we have medical evidence for their illness. I wonder if you have been to the GP or hospital and if you have any evidence of this or a prescription bottle you could email us a photo of so I can change his attendance to illness once he comes back in."

AS it happens I was at the GP this afternoon for an appointment for me. And behind reception there was a sign stating:

SICK NOTES FOR SCHOOL ABSENCE
Your GP does not provide this information.
Please do not book an appointment.
A school should accept a note from the child's parent or guardian.
Speak to reception for further information.

Now, I should point out I actually love our school. But this email annoyed me. They have no idea how much I was looking forward to the first day of school. They can have DS all of next break to make up for it if they like.

I suppose always that I am coming from the angle that teachers regularly do passport forms free of charge but that is a separate issue. Drs refusing to do them (despite being on the accepted list) has rather passed the workload on to others.

I don't think it is reasonable , for example, for GPs to impose a blanket ban on sick notes full stop. We had a GP who refused to supply one for a child who missed an exam with suspected appendicitis.

I’d send them a photo of a pile of vomit. 😁

If the child is off all week I'll and school mark as unauthorised holiday then they should be sending for a fine. If they don't then they clearly don't believe it's a holiday!

When my DS was til anxious to attend school (knife crime in classroom) and they mark as unauthorised I told inclusion team that they can continue to do that and threaten me all they like. That is be glad to stand in court with all the evidence (and I had actually taken DS to GP!) and police report and victim support documents and social services documents etc. I'd love a judges opinion on the matter.

2 hours later I had an email saying absense would be marked as educated off site and they'd send work home!
They ignored my response asking them to clarify who would be coming to educate him offsite (and he didn't do the work!)

Ah. Just read attachment. Hmmmm.

Not sure this is joined up thinking,though, when schools may well be under a great deal of pressure and may be 'contractually required' to do something at a complete counterpoint to this!

Hey ho. I think we all agree GP's notes for a short 3 day illness is just silly.

We wouldn't send something like that usually, we just like to hear from parents each day to confirm illness absence. But if the child had attendance issues and was on medical evidence then we would ask for this, yes. I assume that's not the case here though.

Schools don't get to set health policy.

GP surgeries have better things to do that see children with illnesses that will resolve themselves in a few days.

If a school doesn't believe parents who say their child is ill, surely it is up to them to prove otherwise.

why is it always schools people have a pop at here and not doctors for being so awkward

Because it is the school policy that is unreasonable, not the doctors’. It is not in the best interests of any child, the NHS or other patients at the surgery to have children dragged into the doctors for a normal cold like virus. Schools have to find another way to deal with the few people who lie about children’s illnesses. Putting the burden on sick children like this is fairly outrageous.

I deal with attendance. Today I had lunch next to a child he was absent on the first three days of term. His “aunt” had called to say he had a bad cough and Mum couldn’t call as her phone was getting fixed. I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe. “Dave” looked utterly exhausted at lunch and I commented on it “you look tired has your cough kept you awake”. “No Mrs BuggerOff I’m tired because we only got home from (long haul destination) at midnight”.

“Daisy” was off on Monday & Tuesday with “D&V”. Yesterday she was sent to the office to have her nail polish removed. “That’s a very pretty colour but it’s not allowed in school”. “I know but Mum said it was too late to take it off when we got home from our holiday last night”.

Just two examples.....

Its annoying. Send a picture of the notice at GPs. DD's school have these stupid minor ailments cards that can be filled in by pharmicists. The most they can provide is paracetamol and I don't need a flipping cupboard full of the stuff! I just tell them shes vomited in the night, so I'm keeping her home to keep an eye on it (when really its a bad cold or something) and I get no questions now.😑

Was he sick? Send a photo of that in. Or a snotty tissue... there's some evidence!

Glad you're standing your ground and I hope they do change it to sickness rather than unauthorised absence

The bad behavior of some parents shouldn't mean the rest are expected to actually PROVE themselves 'innocent' for goodness sake

Our HR rules also state that if we are off sick adjoining a period of holiday we cannot self certify and need a doctors note. I think that’s pretty common... it’s certainly been the rule everywhere I’ve worked.

If it were up to me, I would scrap the attendance rules completely and spend the money used on hiring all the in-school ‘attendance officers’ on books, pencils, new trays, replacement windows and TAs for classes.

Apologies to all attendance officers out there but our school is simply falling down and I’d rather the money was spent elsewhere.

Sorry, BuggerOff, but so what? Do you assume all children are bullies just because some are? Do you expect parents to assume all teachers are shit just because some are?

This heavy-handed way of dealing with attendance is counter-productive. It alienates and pisses off supportive and conscientious parents with genuine reasons for their child's absence, while doing little to deter feckless or problem parents who give literally no shits about the school frothing over attendance figures.

Agreed in a way lazy but what do you suggest is done about those feckless parents? Just allow them to continue being 'feckless'?

lets that is ridiculous. Someone needs to track attendance. Our attendance people have multiple roles supporting pastoral staff. To get rid of them would push admin tasks back to teachers as you well know.

Plus, they are paid peanuts...to do an unappreciated, criticised and thankless task. It's not all about chasing up little Johnny's pointless sick note.

I'm assuming that it's only because they think that you are on holiday?

Perhaps they should have sent someone around if they are after proof?

If you took a child into the GP & they said that the child must stay off for say a week, would they then write a note?

why is it always schools people have a pop at here and not doctors for being so awkward

Because the doctor isn't being awkward. They can see a limited number of patients in a day and they should be seeing those with a medical need to be there. The rest of the waiting room also doesn't want to catch bugs unnecessarily. If schools want to "prove" an illness they should waste their their time sending staff members to everyone's houses to check the child is sick. Not wasting the time of other professionals.

If a doctor refused to provide a note when a child had appendicitis and missed an exam it would be a different story. In that situation they should give a note.

Sorry, BuggerOff, but so what? Do you assume all children are bullies just because some are?

Absolutely not! Just gave two examples to show why some schools take a harder line. We generally have very high attendance so we don’t take a hard line except with one or two persistent absentees who are under the EWO. We had four children absent on the first day of term, the two in my post above and one other where Mum actually came to the school and told me about child’s illness (she was taking younger sibling to a local nursery) and one who emailed and told us that they were on holiday.

YANBU, it's very insulting to parents, and the NHS is under enough pressure without having to prepare sick notes for every kid with a cold or stomach bug. In the school's defence, it may not be their choice: both national and local government are currently very preoccupied with the problem of absenteeism, and it may be that the local authority is demanding that the schools in the area should do this.

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou, you need up your game and request your Annual Leave is reinstated, as you were sick for that time period.

Institutions cannot assume guilt, it creates a terrible environment. What they need to do instead is actually take some action where they have a reason to believe that someone is fiddling the system.

I’m not sure it’s feckless. I would far rather have a term time holiday to be honest. Assuming attendance is good for the rest of the year I don’t think it’s a problem.

I don't know, Piggy, but doing nothing would be better than doing something that doesn't work and pisses innocent people off.
I don't think schools should be allowed to put something down as an unauthorised absence if they have no proof it wasn't illness. It is idiotic to demand evidence of illness when no there is often no reason for evidence to have been created.

I also think that chasing up of absence should be triggered by concern for the child, not by concern for the school's attendance figures. According to friends who have children in schools in other countries (notably Finland, who have a pretty good track record schooling-wise), unless there is specific cause for concern, when a parent says they are taking their child on holiday in term time, school says "Great - have a lovely time. There are work assignments available on the school website. Do some if you have time. Bon voyage!"

I would never take my child on holiday in term time (even if I could, which I obviously can't as dh and I are teachers), but I do think English schools are a bit hysterical about absence. And I think most kids with real attendance issues are from families who need outside support, not haranguing by school.

YANBU. I once had a teacher RING ME AT WORK to 'discuss' my child's attendance - she had been off with a chest infection, was now back at school, all properly communicated to school etc.

@itsweird who gets appointment cards?