Childs school asking for flight details while out during Pandemic

[confusedwithschool]

hello

pls posting here for traffic and NC for this. I need your opinions please. So I had to travel out with my kids on Dec 20th to my home country (my partner is there and immediate family)due to come back on 2nd January to attend to something urgently with some of our properties.

Now because school wasn't opening on 4 Jan , i extended my ticket to get help with childcare while working from home (my uk employer was aware i was working from abroad due to chilldcare)., planning to return when I was sure schools were open.

now I'm back and called my 7 yr old's school that today is the last day of quarantine so she will be in tomorrow.

Her school is saying her being away is almost like her taking leave of absence when going to school physically. im like no, she was logging in every week to do her school work and they can see that too. I didnt see how her location was an issue

Now they are asking for her flight ticket going out and coming in?

im not sure why this is needed. im puzzled because if i had known it had to be disclosed she was out of the country during the pandemic i would have happily disclosed it. Does anyone know the take on this?

Thanks for your opinion

the OP's partner was in the other country, and OP says that the meeting was to take care of some of 'our properties'. Her partner could have done it.

I think the OP is not telling the truth to us, she went to visit her family , I doubt that she it was absolutely necessary to go to the other country for business reasons.

Do you actually know anything about FGM? One of the biggest signs that it may have happened is when a girl is taken back to their home country for what ends up as an extended period of time, often due to medical complications, often with the excuse that someone became ill whilst they were abroad so couldn’t return. It’s epidemic. But hey, you stick with your opinion that supporting young girls is intrusive. I’m sure it’s far better to not hurt their parents feelings, and just accept that this kind of abuse happens.
So there's literally no other considerations in the OP's case, the first conclusion on the school's mind should be that she planned this in advance to abuse her child away from school. Not that there's a pandemic going on and a working mother wanted support from her family? No, that's a completely unrealistic scenario.

So you have been out of the country for nearly 3 months and did not let the school know, in my children's school her placed would have be removed.

Just provide the details
Its not hard

Shame you couldnt of come back earlier so she wouldnt of missed the first day back at school where all new rules would of been explained

I think the OP is not telling the truth to us, she went to visit her family

A. It is currently allowed to go abroad to visit family.
B. In December, it was also allowed to go on holiday. That only became illegal on 4th January

It may also be to check where the school's processes fell down. If they were doing welfare checks but didn't know your DC was out of country, they might want to know if that information was missed because the staff didn't check or because the family lied.

@SnackSizeRaisin

I think the OP is not telling the truth to us, she went to visit her family

A. It is currently allowed to go abroad to visit family.
B. In December, it was also allowed to go on holiday. That only became illegal on 4th January

You're wrong. Much of the country went into Tier 4 lockdown from the 20th December - which coincidentally is the date OP said she left the country. By the 20th, if you lived in a Tier 4 area you weren't allowed to leave it.

Do you actually know anything about FGM? One of the biggest signs that it may have happened is when a girl is taken back to their home country for what ends up as an extended period of time, often due to medical complications, often with the excuse that someone became ill whilst they were abroad so couldn’t return. It’s epidemic. But hey, you stick with your opinion that supporting young girls is intrusive. I’m sure it’s far better to not hurt their parents feelings, and just accept that this kind of abuse happens.

Sorry but that is just stupid. Op has told them that her child has been abroad. She didn't try to keep it a secret. If they have concerns about fgm, how does seeing flight details make any difference? How does it "provide support for young girls"?

The reason for not returning was given as childcare due to schools being closed. The schools were indeed closed, causing problems with childcare for many parents. It's not some kind of dodgy excuse.

It would be unusual to take a child out of the country for 2.5 months and not tell school ... as a pastoral lead that would be on my radar in terms of the transitions for the pupil. I would also find it very strange they were working remotely from abroad and this was not mentioned to the class teacher on a pastoral / well-being level.

I have started requesting return flight details to ensure appropriate quarantine time before return to school. Sadly in Sept we had an unexpected amount of parents send students in aware they had not quarantined for the correct time period.

Do they think you might have visited South Africa or Brazil?

You're wrong. Much of the country went into Tier 4 lockdown from the 20th December - which coincidentally is the date OP said she left the country. By the 20th, if you lived in a Tier 4 area you weren't allowed to leave it.

Most of the country was never in tier 4. It only applied to London and a small number of neighbouring areas.

Are you concerned that you will be fined for leaving a Tier 4 area? Is that why you don't want to provide the outward flight details?

I'm actually finding some of the comments here a little scary...I thought vetting the details of those arriving in the UK was the responsibility of the Home Office/Border Force Officials and the Police.

Whilst I understand the school in question may have justifiable concerns over education and health of it's pupils it does sound like some people here are seriously suggesting that in addition to all their other responsibilities schools and school staff should start to involve themselves in actively policing national "quarantine" measures.

That's one heck of a slippery slope.................

Perhaps you want to read the thread again then. Schools already have a responsibility for the health of their staff and a duty of care to all their pupils. If someone doesn't quarantine, then that potentially impacts the health of staff and other pupils.
It's like sending a child into school with chickenpox or strep. The school sends them home and writes to everyone reminding the school community that infectious diseases don't belong in school.
Not to mention, the point a PP raised that the school will be inundated with questions from parents seeking reassurance if OP's DC tells everyone they spent the last 2.5 months abroad.
Schools aren't involved in issuing fines but I wondered if OP was confused about that.

They need to check isolation

But yes, there can be rules about funding if a child leaves the country for a prolonged period, it probably requires paperwork.

I dont really get why anyone would have anything to hide here. What do you lose if you just provide the information OP?

The only other thing I can think is they are stressing about her logging into Google classroom from an unknown location. The school will have risk assessed kids being on video etc based on it being their normal UK home address. There may be other issues the school should have considered if she was abroad and they may want to prevent unnecessary risks happening in future by documenting what's happened now.

There could be any number of reasons.

But if you went during term term that could come under holiday during term time.

If you flew December and have flight details with intention to return and didn't that's a different scenario.

Your return details probe you followed quarantine.

As for remote learning elsewhere I don't remember any guidance saying it must be child's home address (many have learnt from childcare bubbles home) and a leave of absence was for pupils in special schools who would have a space and it was agreed for child to stay off. (And that's a whole different discussion re why it differs from Ms!)

@Jinx2020

It would be unusual to take a child out of the country for 2.5 months and not tell school ... as a pastoral lead that would be on my radar in terms of the transitions for the pupil. I would also find it very strange they were working remotely from abroad and this was not mentioned to the class teacher on a pastoral / well-being level.

I have started requesting return flight details to ensure appropriate quarantine time before return to school. Sadly in Sept we had an unexpected amount of parents send students in aware they had not quarantined for the correct time period.

It would be unusual to have schools closed (to most kids) for months on end - so what's 'unusual' for 'normal times' is hardly bloody relevant.

I support schools asking for return flight details if they find a child has been out of the country, but I don't support 'pastoral leads' who seem to forget that children have parents & that the school does not 'own' the children.

It matters not where the child was logging in from. Beaks out.

@Teenangels

So you have been out of the country for nearly 3 months and did not let the school know, in my children's school her placed would have be removed.

Bu the said child was logging in every day and completed all the work, so it's not like she wasn't there at all. She probably did more work than many kids who stayed in the UK.

@SabrinaMorningstar

"Perhaps you want to read the thread again then. Schools already have a responsibility for the health of their staff .."

And if you'd read my comment again you'll see I wrote:

" I understand the school in question may have justifiable concerns over education and health of it's pupils"

Without knowing anything about the OP this may well not apply to her, but at our school we may well be concerned about sage-guarding eg FGM.

Children who attended school on-line are recorded as having attended. There is no way Op's child is in danger of losing their place.

@Teenangels

So you have been out of the country for nearly 3 months and did not let the school know, in my children's school her placed would have be removed.

that's stupid, if you go abroad in the summer, you don't lose the spot?

The OP didn't take a long holiday and removed the kids for months, the OP ensure the homeschooling was done in the same way as everybody else did.
It makes 0 difference WHERE they were

It wasn't the decision of the OP to take the kids out of school physically, she wasn't allowed to bring them every day...

It matters not where the child was logging in from. Beaks out

It would be helpful if the OP came back and updated. Otherwise you are left with half a story and all people can do is speculate.

It’s a safeguarding issue. You ought t have informed the school.

She could have been out of the country to marry her daughter to a old man. For FGM. For any number of extremely unlikely scenarios, however schools should know where the kids are.