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

No one is suggesting the school is launching a FGM inquiry. I think you jus hoisted yourself on your ow petard

They think you are lying about your flight back and only arrived yesterday or today.

We had to turn two families away this morning who claimed on their signed paperwork that they had been back and quarantining for 2 weeks - despite the fact that we saw the children on Google meet last Thursday, sitting on their terrace in Portugal!!!

We had to turn two families away this morning who claimed on their signed paperwork that they had been back and quarantining for 2 weeks - despite the fact that we saw the children on Google meet last Thursday, sitting on their terrace in Portugal!!!

Ahh, I really hope there's been some mistake because if they really were in Portugal last Thursday......

www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-measures-to-protect-the-uk-from-variant-strains-of-covid-19

Technically, the child is off-rolled after not being able to attend for four weeks, unless it is through sickness.
So all the children, unless critical workers families, are off-rolled then? They have not been allowed at school for a lot more than 4 weeks...

If the child had disclosed to a member of staff, how would we address it as a school when they were out of the country?
frankly, it's none of your business!

@KingscoteStaff

They think you are lying about your flight back and only arrived yesterday or today.

We had to turn two families away this morning who claimed on their signed paperwork that they had been back and quarantining for 2 weeks - despite the fact that we saw the children on Google meet last Thursday, sitting on their terrace in Portugal!!!

I really hope this is wrong.

Because if that's the case they should be in hotel quarantine.

It might be time to put in place different rules, about school census and so on, when it has been nearly an entire where children were not allowed at school.

It will be to check quarantine dates ..... my daughters school had several pupils bring covid back from their holidays .....causing chaos :(

@Atalune

No one is suggesting the school is launching a FGM inquiry. I think you jus hoisted yourself on your ow petard

Err, many posters have suggested the FGM risk as the reason the school might want to know about visits to ‘a home country’

You might want to read the thread before ploughing in with shitty comments otherwise there might be some perturb hoisting occurring

The school has definitely stepped out of line here. It’s not for schools to police the comings and goings of people. Like a few others I do feel this is the start of a slippery slope. Does it matter if they were logging on from home or anywhere else? Where do you draw the line? In other threads people who are struggling with WFH and homeschooling have been recommended to form a bubble with one of the classmates and send the child to that house each day. But it seems that the mother taking her own children somewhere that she can work and get the home schooling done is unforgivable.

The mother already told the school she had completed the required quarantine period. That’s enough. But the school has chosen to demonise her and suggest she is lying and wants “proof”. If she had called and said the child had fallen and twisted her ankle so wouldn’t be coming to school they would not be asking for “proof”.

@FakingMemories The mother already told the school she had completed the required quarantine period. That’s enough
People do sometimes lie or make genuine mistakes. My school has had to send out several reminders not to send children in when household members are awaiting test results.

But the school has chosen to demonise her and suggest she is lying and wants “proof”
‘Demonise’ her how!?

If she had called and said the child had fallen and twisted her ankle so wouldn’t be coming to school they would not be asking for “proof”
I have been asked to show drs appointments letters to school before so they can authorise pupils absence. Not a problem to provide and the school were doing their job checking the reason my DC was missing school was genuine.

I think an important thing to remember here is that parents were under non legal obligation to provide and facilitate support during remote learning.

The school could do welfare checks and they could offer spaces for pupils not engaging but parents did not have to accept them. They could refer to SS if they had welfare concerns regards safeguarding.

So the fact the OP child accessed home learning and school were happy with welfare checks at the time they were meeting the requirements of the school. (Which weren't legally binding).

The only legal bit was that schools had to provide set hours of learning and that could include watching videos or links and they didn't have to even provide live learning.

So if OP didn't mention off because of quarantine or even just said quarantining without mentioning regale school wouldn't have known because there was no requirement to be in the UK when government closed schools to most pupils.

There was a requirement to only travel for set reasons and to isolate on return.

And a latent could go away for the whole 6 weeks summer. Longer if independent education.
You do not need to inform school because they are not physically required to be there at that time.

@FakingMemories
People do sometimes lie or make genuine mistakes. My school has had to send out several reminders not to send children in when household members are awaiting test results.

IMHO there's a big difference between sending out reminders, perhaps detailing the legislation involved and OTOH actively demanding to see these supposed "flight details" from those parents who have already said they have quarantined.

BTW I wonder if we are ever going to get clarification about the claims upthread about travel to Portugal?

I work in a secondary school and have checked with our admissions and attendance officer, and our school also asks for details of flight out and in of the country if pupil has gone abroad at the moment.

@notimagain, locally to me in the first week of September term, a family returning from holiday in Europe tested the child as they were exhibiting a Covid symptom then they seemed better so sent them into school - positive result came through, bubble burst, disruption to a year groups education for 2 weeks plus putting other children /families and staff at risk of contracting Covid - unfortunately schools cannot rely on trust alone. If people don’t have anything to hide it’s not a problem.

Is it the job of the school to check whether people are abiding by quarantine rules? I would simply confirm that the flight back arrived on that day and quarantine regulations have been complied with.
No need to give details of the outbound flight frankly, it makes no difference to anyone where the child was over the last few weeks especially if they were attending remote learning.
Re the comments with children been out of school for a period of time etc - this really doesn't apply during a pandemic where there is no school to go to

our school also asks for details of flight out and in of the country if pupil has gone abroad at the moment.

Well I hope all that a narrative is acceptable ....e.g. Flt number, dates, departure point, destination point"..

Having worked in the travel industry I'd sure as heck not be providing any paperwork with booking references/e-tkt numbers/details of other travelling in the party, even post travel..

And what does your school do if people have destroyed/wiped paperwork post the journey..which they are entitled to do?

@notimagain why do u say no paperwork with e ticket numbers?

why do u say no paperwork with e ticket numbers?

In part because of years of (annual) refresher courses where it was emphasised that the details of a passengers booking (all of them) were not something to be shared lightly for all sorts of reasons I'm not going to get into here.

TBH if I pressed if I was in the OPs shoes I'd either provide highly redacted paperwork or be be tempted to provide what basic details of the inbound flight (as mentioned above - date, flight number, airports) and then point out that boarding cards, e-mails etc have either been wiped and/or have gone in the bin.

@Worknoplay

I work in a secondary school and have checked with our admissions and attendance officer, and our school also asks for details of flight out and in of the country if pupil has gone abroad at the moment.

do u know why are they asking for outbound and inbound?

To be clear, if they asked for inbound im more than happy to provide without hesitating because i would assume they are checking she has complied with quarantine period.

But just wondering why they are also asking for the outbound and referring to it as some sort of leave of absence?

thanks

Why wouldn't you give it to them?

Possibly because even though there's been a lockdown and no physical school, you need to be resident in the UK to during term time to qualify for a school place. (Holidays out of term time are treated differently). Schools have the right to remove pupils that go on holiday for over the permitted time period. Some schools will hold the places, others won't.

Possibly as a safeguarding concern as prior posters have pointed out.

@Worknoplay

Why wouldn't you give it to them?

I have given it to them yesterday morning.

Im just trying to understand the rationale behind asking for both. Thats all. I have not seen any explanation that states why BOTH are needed that's why i asked you what the reason was since you said you asked in your school

@RamblingFar

Possibly because even though there's been a lockdown and no physical school, you need to be resident in the UK to during term time to qualify for a school place. (Holidays out of term time are treated differently). Schools have the right to remove pupils that go on holiday for over the permitted time period. Some schools will hold the places, others won't.

Possibly as a safeguarding concern as prior posters have pointed out.

Thank you. That is clear enough

@confusedwithschool did the school respond to your email? Did your DD go back into school today?

@RamblingFar

Possibly because even though there's been a lockdown and no physical school, you need to be resident in the UK to during term time to qualify for a school place. (Holidays out of term time are treated differently). Schools have the right to remove pupils that go on holiday for over the permitted time period. Some schools will hold the places, others won't.

Possibly as a safeguarding concern as prior posters have pointed out.

The first part, if accurate, would appear to me to be potentially discriminatory tbh. There is a pandemic. Usual routine is out of the window and it seems perfectly reasonable for people to go where they will get the most support if they can, including abroad. There is no impact on the schooling of that child who has only missed one day.