To be annoyed at DS's school.

[Marioandluigi]

The school have just introduced a policy where they wont grant permission for children to be out of school in term time unless its for an emergency, so basically not for holidays. This is fine by me.

DS who is 8 needs to have some teeth taken out.He will be going into hospital in a couple of weeks and he will need to have the say of the operation off and I have been told that maybe the next day, so I wrote a letter to his teacher telling her that he would not be attending on those days.

Last night he brings home a letter from the Office Manager telling me that I need to provide proof of where he will be.

AIBU to feel a little miffed by this. Im not raging about it, but I dont like the assumption that I am going off on a jolly. DS hasnt got a bad attendance record, and anyway - who goes on holiday for two days in the middle of the week?

But if the school has an attendance problem then to perhaps shows that some parents are not to be trusted? And the school has to justify its attendance figures to the LEA.

Seeker, because it was a child in my class! I've seen the file.

YANBU, but nobody trusts parents these days, altough i can understand parents that take there children on hol in term time cos of how expensive it is in school holidays

Appointment letter isn't too bad though, is it? You get those free of charge. It's not that much trouble to bring it into the school, is it?

It's when schools ask for a letter from the GP every time your child has been off sick that it gets expensive: surgeries charge between £10 and £15 for those, so if you have a child with chronic health problems you can easily end up spending a substantial part of your food budget. Fortunately dd's GP was an old sweetie and often "forgot" to charge.

Why would you have to get a GPs note when your child has been off sick ?

Also don't think you have to pay for kids' letters as I had to produce one as evidence of my child being sick when it was the 11+ so they could reschedule a test for him , and another when he was fit to do it.There was no mention of being charged for either

It's no different to your work asking you for proof. My work (and everybody else's) had the right to request to see appointment cards when I was going for mw appts when I was pregnant - I was not upset by this. In fact, I had to have a lot of extra scans for DD3, so voluntarily took the letters into my boss so he knew I wasn't taking the piss.

As long as it's a blanket policy for the whole school, I don't see it as a problem.