What would you expect to happen if your child vomits at school

[JoeWicksHair]

Just after a quick feel if I'm BU.

DD (yr7) vomited at school on Friday motning. Teacher in break duty was told, evidence visible on the floor, DD told to go to the student support office. They kept her out of lessons for over 1 hr, told her she looked pale, quizzed her on what she'd eaten etc. DC felt rough but mustered through lunchtime until leaving on an early finish as is usual on a Friday.

When I saw her she was still ropey but also upset, believing school had contacted me and I'd left her there feeling ill. Obviously we cleared this up quickly but it left me really annoyed at the school. The person who took charge if her in student support was her year groups pastoral support staff member to boot!

I'm astounded a parent wouldn't be contacted if a child has vomited at school, at the very least to inform a parent out of courtesy even if not to come collect them. My DD potentially having a vomiting virus is relevant to our whole weekend, we were due to visit an eldery relative in a care home for starters which I had to cancel but didn’t have enough notice to let another family member know so they could switch their plans to visit meaning our relative had no one visit. If DD'd felt well at hometime there's also a real chance she wouldn't have mentioned it & I'd not have even known she'd been 🤮 then taken the virus into the care home.

So AIBU to think a parent should always be called / informed when a child vomits & is visibly unwell at school?
Or not?

Before I raise it with them tomorrow for clarity on what happened, why I wasn't contacted & schools sickness policy (which is not available on their website), to moderate my tone if I'm BU. Thanks!

At DS secondary school if they are sick they are sent home for full 48 hrs

I (horrendous mum that I am) made the mistake of sending him into school at usual time on a Wed morning - student services emailed me to say the 48hrs didn't expire until 11:40 that morning and to note for the future
(In my defence he spent all the Monday and Tuesday after being sent home actually feeling fine )

If she'd just been sick once they possibly wouldn't ring, just monitor and they would expect a child at high school to be able to tell their parent on getting home that they had been unwell. My daughter is in year 9, I've never been rung if she's been I'll at school. Her friend once fell and broke her fingers and she was expected to tell her mum when she got home ( this wasn't great to be honest though..)

I'm surprised by some of these responses. In every secondary school I've worked in if a child vomits parents are called immediately and told to come and get them. No way on earth would we send them back to class and hope for the best.

I was also surprised there was no sickness policy available, I'd have expected that as a standard thing that schools would have to have & to share.

They have to go to first aid, collect them immediately and and not allowed back for 48 hours. However if migraine related this is not the case.

The 48 hour rule doesn't apply in my kids secondary school. I also work in a school and so many kids say they feel sick, it is a hard balance to reach.

I'd expect child to be sent home.
I'd expect child to tell parent about it if they weren't sent home.

I'd expect her to be sent to the school nurse and then the nurse to call me and say she needs to go home, but then again I never heard anything from the school the time she got hurt bad enough in pe to get a black eye so who knows.

I think that if they have actually vomited they should be sent home.

I thought you meant she was 7, not in year 7.

I wouldn’t expect to be told at the time no, maybe afterwards?

But mine are in the indie sector and the schools are partly boarding so they have a san.. but still if they have the capacity to look after her that seems fine to me. If she wanted to go home she could have asked them or texted you - obviously it’s upsetting she was upset because she expected you to come, but you have explained that now, so no harm done.

I would 100% expect to be notified if my 11 year old was sick at school. I would be following this up on Monday morning; they have a duty of care given that she was visibly sick. What if the sickness was a symptom of a more serious problem?

Those people asking why she didn’t tell the OP- read the post properly- she did- at the end of the day when feeling abandoned due to the school not calling home.

Side note- the 48 hour rule does need a dose of common sense imo- a fair amount of sickness is easily explained by other factors.

They fulfilled their duty of care

They monitored her, she wasn’t sick again.

Good job at my school we’re a bit more caring then. The duty of care is to inform the person with parental responsibility so they can decide how best to care for unwell child.

In your opinion.

Id not collect my child for a one off sickness incident unless otherwise unwell.

I can’t imagine many parents would at that age either.

My year 7 puked. Was sat on a seat in reception with bucket. I came and got him

Your child vomits at school and you wouldn't collect them? Really? Goodness.

Sick once?

Of course not, it’s also not the norm in any of the secondaries round me and seems to be common with other posters in this chain.

Id absolutely collect my 11 yr old if they’d be sick. I can count on one hands the number of times they’ve been sick. It’s really not normal so why wouldn’t you treat it as such. The child is ill.

Would you think it’s normal to finish your day at work after vomiting?!?

Depends on the child, I was sick and fainted every single period as a teenager…. Constantly in the medical room but rarely sent home…. Depends on the child, they definitely didn’t phone home unless I’d run out of painkillers.

in state schools there is not a school nurse only an emergency first aider to provide first aid, not general handholding, “ I feel sick”. Maybe she was showing too much stiff upper lip and being calm about it. If she’d been sick multiple times she’d have been sent home.

You do get kids who make themselves vomit so they can go home believe it or not to avoid certain lessons or situations.

Hope she’s feeling better, you can contact school but I’m doubtful you will be satisfied by the reply..,

Of course, I’ve frequently finished work after being sick once.

Most adults do.

I’d expect to be contacted, and to pick my DC up. When I was at high school (not that long ago), it was 48 hours if you’d been sick.

our secondary would call and expect us to pick up.
My dds go on public transport and it would take a huge amount of persuasion from me for them to let her walk to station and travel on the train (rightly so, it would not be sensible)

But they don't have a 48 hour policy on vomiting.

Your point about your relative is irrelevant IMHO. Not school responsibility. Your child should tell you if unwell amd understand more important if going to visit fragile people. Also if e.g. norovirus you dd would be obviously more and more unwell.

In second we had to ask to be picked up unless we were obviously leg broken etc. Imagine school expect her to contact you or to ask if she wants to go home?

If she was sick in morning break, monitored for an hour and then had an early lunchtime finish anyway, I wonder whether they thought they were doing the right thing keeping her going and not calling you, especially if she was saying she was able to soldier on. It is difficult. Many teens lie or exaggerate to go home, and many parents are cross if we fall for it or if they are not that ill when they pick up.

Have they got your up to date details on the system? Just wondering if the tried to contact you and couldn't get through.