School have said to keep children home if they have a cold

[Oysterbabe]

Email from the school that says there's a lot of illness in the school amongst pupils and staff. They have asked that from now on we do not send children into school if they have coughs, colds, sore throats or sickness. Obviously I wouldn't send them in with sickness, if I kept them home with coughs and colds they'd be pretty much out until spring. AIBU to ignore them? My employer does expect me to actually work sometimes.

If they can't go in with a sore throat or cough, and can't be in school during heatwaves, snow and heavy winds then children aren't going to get much opportunity for education!

Jesus, my kids have constant runny noses from September to May!

I would love to keep my kids hidden away when they're under the weather but I'd never be able to work. It's just not reasonable or feasible, especially with the financial vice a lot of us are in.

As someone else said I bet the school is full of COVID

where do you work?! sounds great! i worked in the NHS for many years and they would have laughed their heads off then read you the riot act if you said you wouldn't come in with a cold.

Teacher here. YANBU. Our school has a rule that if they're ill enough for calpol they aren't well enough for school, but coughs and colds are fine !

Stuff that because they will then be at you about their attendance figures!

My kids school have been sending weekly emails warning us about the importance of attendance and how children should be in if they possibly can.

DDs school sent an email last week saying that if they test positive for Covid they should still come in unless they have a temperature or are actually feeling ill.

I have a cold at the moment, I'm snotty but am perfectly able to work so I'm still going into the office, my boss wouldn't take too kindly to me being off if it's just a cold.

Our school have said even with covid if they're well enough to be in, they need to be in.

This is what leads to pandemics....
yabvu
it's an attitude and expectation that must change.
have we learned nothing in the past 3 years?

@Mumtobabyhavoc

Hopefully we've learned that unnecessary isolation is a bad idea

You as a parent know when your kid is too poorly for school. A sniffle is not a reason to be off. Time to stop this mindset of we can only go about our lives when we are 100%. D&V is obviously a different story.

Yes we've learnt that lockdowns fuck people up. What's your point? :)

Naff that, send them to school (except when they have a sickness bug) What a load of crap!

I've had a mild cold for a while. Hint of a cough & runny nose (sneezing a lot) for > 2 weeks. If this goes on another week, was I supposed to take 3-4 weeks off work?

I went running for 30 minutes today... well enough to run 2.5 miles but not to sit at a desk, er...

No that's ridiculous. My 4 year old has just got over his second cold since starting school. He had no temperature, was still running around and eating/drinking normally so in to school he went. For colds, the only time I keep mine off is when they have a temp or genuinely are struggling to cope. If I kept them off every time they had a sniffle they would be off school til spring and I would be fired.

I just don’t get this. Then it spreads around. My youngest has just had covid, brought back from school. He’s missed 7 days of school and I now have it and have been ill for a week. Surely better to stay off for a few days and reduce the spread.

The attendance figures should (theoretically) be higher across the school if children with colds stayed at home because they won't be spreading it to every other child. So one child's attendance goes down but hopefully then everyone else's will be higher than if that one child went in. It's also the teachers you have to think about. I've had an awful cold this week that I likely caught from school, and so have many other teachers. Although teachers are just as bad for going in when ill so it is a bit hypocritical!

But staying home when showing signs of illness is considerate, no? Adults who are mildly ill and feel they can still function could wear a mask so as not to expose others. That's often a bit challenging for kids, but not impossible. 🤔

Maybe it’s over concerns with covid or something? Have they had an outbreak f covid in the school recently? 🤔

I don’t think it’s a bad idea to keep a child off school the first couple of days with a cold as this is normally when you feel most poorly and also when it’s most contagious🤷🏼‍♀️

You know, I tried to be considerate, keep my children home when poorly so as not to spread infection. Ended up in a meeting with the attendance officer where I asked her straight out 'So you actively want me to send a child with a streaming nose and cough in to school?'

She said yes. So there you are.

OP this is from the NHS website, you might want to show school!!!
Colds, coughs and ear infections in children
Children's colds
It's normal for a child to have 8 or more colds a year.
This is because there are hundreds of different cold viruses and young children have no immunity to any of them as they have never had them before.
They gradually build up immunity and get fewer colds.

OP that's batshit, their attendance figures will get hammered! Ours said they basically want all kids in unless 'very unwell'. DD has basically had a cough and runny nose since the start of term so wouldn't have been in at all under that policy.

I think a lot of people are missing the point. If everyone kept their child off school when they have a cold, there will be fewer children getting colds and needing to take time off. The argument "they're constantly sniffling between October and May" is irrelevant, that happens because they are constantly mixing with ill children at school. Take the ill children out of the school and your own child will suddenly get ill less.