To think that a temperature isn’t always the deciding factor ??

[Unrealisticideals]

For school absence ?

Our school is SO strict and say absence for Illness can only be d+v, c pox (and illness listed on nhs website) or an Illness WITH a temperature.
They want them in with sore throats , coughs , colds (which yes sometimes it’s fine to go in with a cold) .

The thing is I’ve had my ds actually fine in himself with a fever and at other times extremely unwell with nasty viruses with no fever (very sore throat , exhausted, sinuses totally blocked, headache) and school say they can’t authorise for that as he should be in with those symptoms !!!

I know myself I can feel really unwell and not have a temperature?!

This is primary school and so much pressure!

The other terms were 97% and 93%

You then refuse to take his temperature and say his high temperature is being managed as you’ve dosed him with calpol.

Vitamin C and zinc are what you need. So make sure he has some orange juice in morning and hot cocoa in evening.

I am the parent. If I feel my kids are not well enough to go to school they do not go. They do nit have any phones tablets gaming etc if they are off. If they are well enough they read or draw or we do a little mathletics etc. school is not compulsory. Education is and that takes many forms. When you ring the school to report the absence tell them this. Also they can call to the door but they have no automatic right of entry so it is up to you whether you let them in. They are not doing this for the child’s or your benefit. They just want to keep their attendance figures up. I have been very unwell with no temp before. Illness takes many forms and this is true also for children. You are the parent and deciding factor. You will know when it is just a sniffle or cough and they are well enough to go to school or when they are not.

I won’t send my kids to school with a fever, ever.

But equally, I agree with you, and know perfectly well it’s possible to feel very unwell without a fever. Show me a child who’s able to learn when they feel terrible, pouring with snot and coughing badly. Not to mention the issue of spreading their virus to everyone in the class.

School attendance policies are nuts.

Schools have no right of access to your house. You do not have to let them in and certainly they can’t insist that you take a child’s temperature right there in front of them!

If they call round and he is genuinely ill, they will be able to see that. If he is tearing round the house having a grand time they might raise some eyebrows.

Kids go through bouts of illness, sometimes nothing and then a run where they catch everything going and it floors them.

Long time ago now, but my dd got swine flu and then everything that was doing the rounds left her like a limp lettuce leaf. Her attendance that year was low. Then nothing else for ages.

some parents do have a very low threshold for keeping children off, and if a child is regularly off with low level illnesses and no known underlying issues then that will get school questioning things.

i don’t agree with a send them in regardless policy - Ds has two conditions whereby a run of the mill cold can land him in hospital. But I do think there is a balance to be found.

I don’t think 90% is objectively very low although I know you are correct in that the school views 90% as very low or “persistently absent”.

It correlates to only 3 absences every half term and as the school is deliberately pressuring parents to send in sick and contagious children, they’ve turned the school into a big soup of a disease vector. If they didn’t put pressure on, they’d likely have better absence rates!