To send my kids to school 'sick'?

[Frume]

They are 6.5 and almost 5yo. They both have quite bad coughs and colds. No temps. Not struggling with breathing other than the blocked noses. We live in the South East and have been to London recently. I also have a cough but my partner does not.

Now I don't want to be 'that parent' who keeps their child off when they have a cough or cold.. but obviously amid the whole covid19, I have no idea what I should be doing with regards to sending them in or keeping them off?!

I'd keep them off.

Keep them off. No other parents or staff will appreciate being exposed to any kids with bad coughs and colds.

Coronavirus aside, you describe them as having quite bad colds, so I would probably keep them off until they're at least a little bit better.

Keep them off. Even if it's not covid19, who wants to catch their colds anyway.

They have bad colds they should be off school.

I'm absolutely fine with keeping them off (and would be pissed too if my child caught something from someone who should have been off!) and I'm in a position where I can do so, I was just unsure where the line is as we are usually told to send them in if they have a cold without a fever.

I

I would keep off a DC who was running a temperature (regardless of what they might have got)

No temperature, and it would depend on how ill the DC seemed, and whether I thought they could cope with the school day. If I wasn't sure, I'd send them in (mine often perked up when they got moving) but arrange my day so I could collect promptly.

Keep them off

They're okay in themselves. No temp, snot isn't green (sorry!). Just chesty coughs and blocked noses.

I'll keep them off tomorrow and see how they are on Tuesday. Glad I'm not overreacting.

Keep them off.

...i thought standard practice (common sense/decency) was to keep your children home when theyre sick to protect other kids or their relatives who might be immunocompromised, and to protect staff who would be unable to work if sick? I always thought its unbearably selfish to send your sick children into nursery/school for other people to deal with.

I absolutely agree @someoneelseentirelynow. The advice we are given by their, with regards to coughs and colds, is to only keep off if it's also accompanied by a temperature that isn't reduced with calpol. Other than that we are told to send them in.

I don't agree with this and don't tend to follow it. If I believe my children to be contagious or if they are feeling to crappy then they don't go..

i thought standard practice (common sense/decency) was to keep your children home when theyre sick to protect other kids or their relatives who might be immunocompromised, and to protect staff who would be unable to work if sick? I always thought its unbearably selfish to send your sick children into nursery/school for other people to deal with.

Schools put unbelievable pressure on parents to keep their attendance records high, because OFSTED puts unbelievable pressure on schools.

The thing is my children's schools both say that a bad cold is not a reason to stay home. They tell you to dose them up and send them in. They haven't changed that advice at all even though we've had a confirmed case of corona virus in our small town ( a parent of children at our local school)

My ds has had a head cold and sore throat all weekend. No temperature or cough and otherwise well, he'll be going to school tomorrow. In your case I'd say it depends how ill they feel, plus lots of children get post viral coughs that last weeks, they'd never be at school if we kept them off for every sniffle.

Our primary has said any children sent in with cough / fever / shortness of breath and or appear unwell will be sent home immediately and kept separate while waiting for parents

Send them in. People are ridiculous these days. You should only miss school (or work for that matter, and what they learn now will stay with them for life) “ill” if you physically could not manage to go in and somehow function. Not feeling 100% (or even 50%) isn’t good enough.

to only keep off if it's also accompanied by a temperature that isn't reduced with calpol

That's dreadful - it should be unmedicated temperature normal, for 24+ hours

@EarthwormJim9 that's bullshit. This attitude is why stuff spreads so much.

I think a bad cough + living in the south east should mean keeping them off school at the moment. Kids can have very mild Coronavirus symptoms but can pass it on to others who can become very ill.

If they were in their GCSE year I'd say dose them up, give them a pack of tissues and send them in. But as they're so little I don't see the harm in keeping them off til they're feeling a bit better.

He’s got a cold. Send him in.

@SomeoneElseEntirelyNow

My ds has had a runny nose/cold/cough on and off for months. It has been one thing after another since October. I couldn't have kept him off nursery continually throughout that time or I would have lost my job. If he has a temperature or is off his food/not himself he doesn't go in.

I do agree with you about sickness. I work in a school and a few weeks ago a sickness bug went round many of the children. The number of children telling us they had been sick that morning or the day before was astounding. It spread like wildfire and no wonder.

We'd call you to pick them up if you sent them in with a bad cold and a cough. My school isn't in the UK, though, and we don't care about attendance figures. (We are an independent school and would only start to worry if your kids are off school quite frequently without good reason.)