To send my children to school today even though they are unwell and clearly contagious

[sicknotez]

They both have nasty coughs/colds. I know that the best thing for them would be rest (and their inhalers). I know they are clearly contagious.

But under the new rules as I understand I would need a doctor's note or it would be unauthorised absence? And it doesn't seem right to waste a stretched doctors time with this when they don't need anything prescribing.

So I guess I send them into school and wait for school to send them home and in the meantime they will infect their teachers and classmates?

It seems like a stupid new system to me.

They both have chronic conditions so it's likely they will need quite a number of days off in the year. Despite this they are both steaming along in top sets. They love learning and hate missing school and would happily do work at home when ill if teachers sent them some

It’s all very well asking ‘how many kids are off more than 5 days?’ - well those who get a serious seasonal illness, some with chronic conditions- and since those 5 days do not have to be continuous probably a lot of kids unfortunate enough to catch more than one thing - likely because of people sending other kids in sick!

It's not 5 consecutive days, it's 5 days total within any 10 week period

Last winter my son missed 2 days due to gastro and about six weeks later missed 3 days with a really bad cough and fever. Nothing to be done about it and I'm going to get fined 80 quid??? Bullshit.

More batshittery

x.com/ninawildflower/status/1839012656285470760?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa1_pR7aKkbHQ

No, you shouldn't be, as these were absences due to illness, and should be coded on the register as such. Absences for illness are treated as authorised.

You may need to check the codings as some schools are not complying with the law on register codings. The new guidance changes the consequences of this. So parents should check and ask for corrections where necessary.

I imagine widespread non-compliance would result in a national enquiry into the abuse of official record keeping at some point. In other fields manipulating official statistics for advantage is considered to be fraudulent.