Teacher long term sick

[DBI78]

Hi, after children returned to school from half term my sons teacher was off sick. My son has sen, would not typically tell me something like this and struggles with change. Nobody told me, he has a one to one but she's very new so it may not have occurred to her to let me know. It wasn't obvious as the TA always stands at the door for drop off and pick up and caus of covid we are not allowed in. This is year 2 so children are 6, I found out after nearly two weeks. When I spoke to head teacher she was very dismissive saying they wouldn't let parents know if a teacher is off. Several parents complained so on third week we got a text saying a relief would be covering this week. Just wondered if this is standard policy in schools ?

Yes, completely standard here. School can't and won't tell anyone due to GDPR. However, I'm surprised DS didn't tell you himself they had a different teacher.

The teacher is protected by the same laws as other workers. If a sick note is 2 weeks then they'll get short term cover in for that time.

But the teacher and head won't know if it's long term necessarily. Only when it's for a fixed period can they get long term supply in.

The shortage of teachers makes getting any supply hard, and those that do supply often do not want long term contracts. They left full time contracted teaching for the flexibility and control of their day to day.

It’s hard when their are other factors at play but as others have said it’s nobody else’s business that she is off or for how long. Indeed how long may be still unknown

We have had a teacher off since half term. They have had Covid and are not yet recovered, but only signed off one week at a time. We found out Thursday pm they were signed off for another week. We don't know beyond that, so can't tell the parents any more. We have had to use a new supply this week, as by Friday last weeks supply was booked up. It is frustrating, but not a lot anyone can do.
If we knew how long they were off for we would book one supply and tell the parents, unfortunately life doesn't work like that. I spoke with my colleague over the weekend, fortunately they are making a slow but steady recovery. I hope your child's teacher gets better soon.

We have two teachers currently off sick.
No way would we be sharing their circumstances with parents as it's very personal. We don't know how long they'll be off so can't tell parents and getting hold of a supply teacher to do a long but unspecified term contract is more or less impossible.
So I'm guessing this sort of combination is why they're keeping quiet. There's not a lot they're able to tell you.

Yes. I only know if my kids teachers are off sick of they tell me.

We had this. Ds’s teacher was off for the majority of Year 3. He had undiagnosed at that time autism. He struggled with the disruption never knowing a procession of standins learning very little but in the same breath being criticised, punished and made to feel shit about himself for struggling to cope with it all. Pretty shit. No I don’t want to know ins and outs but a brief heads up that his teacher would be off for a while would have helped rather than the constant unknowing from day. To day. To day. 😒

But the head and the person sick might not know if they're able to work day to day.

I know the children's needs especially if SEND are high. Rightly so. But the welfare of the teacher and their health is just as important, and schools have to abide by employment and health/safety laws like every other employer does.

@Dontfuckingsaycheese

We had this. Ds’s teacher was off for the majority of Year 3. He had undiagnosed at that time autism. He struggled with the disruption never knowing a procession of standins learning very little but in the same breath being criticised, punished and made to feel shit about himself for struggling to cope with it all. Pretty shit. No I don’t want to know ins and outs but a brief heads up that his teacher would be off for a while would have helped rather than the constant unknowing from day. To day. To day. 😒

Same 😔

Thank you everyone it's good to understand from the other perspective. Pre Covid it would have been more obvious as we went into the classroom. It is hard for Sen children, a big part of my son managing is preparation so not knowing makes him struggle more which impacts on behaviour at school.

Just wondered if this is standard policy in schools?

Is what standard policy in schools?

For teachers to be sick?
For teachers to be sick and parents not told?

When people in any job are ill, unless they’ve had an operation where you can’t drive for eg 6 weeks, it’s difficult to say when they’ll be back or know if you need to find cover for 1 day/5 days/3 weeks or 4 months. It’s also none of the parents’ business what’s wrong with them.

I presume there was an adult in the class covering each day? What exactly do you think you should have been told as parents?

@Howshouldibehave
Could it be possible to say to parents with children who might feel really unsettled by their teacher being away (ie SEN) ' "Mrs / Mr XX is off at the moment and we will of course do everything we can to ensure there is continuity and a happy environment for the children and we will of course update you as and when we can." Surely a simple statement like that doesn't offend any sense of privacy but reassures parents? Saying nothing just makes people feel uneasy.

[quote Placido]@Howshouldibehave
Could it be possible to say to parents with children who might feel really unsettled by their teacher being away (ie SEN) ' "Mrs / Mr XX is off at the moment and we will of course do everything we can to ensure there is continuity and a happy environment for the children and we will of course update you as and when we can." Surely a simple statement like that doesn't offend any sense of privacy but reassures parents? Saying nothing just makes people feel uneasy.[/quote]
We have previously told individual parents of children with SEN, more information. One mum instantly went on the class WhatsApp group giving a sensationalist version of what she’d been told, causing an endless stream of phone calls to the head from other parents complaining that they hadn’t been told, wanting to know who was in the class, who would be in there the next day, how many other teachers would be covering, what their qualifications were and what date the class teacher was coming back.

I would expect the 1:1 adult to explain to the child that there was a different teacher in the class that day, what their name was and to reassure them that everything else was still the same.

@Howshouldibehave. But not every child with SEN has a 1:1 adult. And many children, not just SEN children, don't adapt well to change, especially in the early years of KS1. Of course individual parents can't be told at the expense of all parents as that will seem discriminatory, but a solid, reassuring, timely missive from the school surely would work well, without giving away any information that disregarding the employee's privacy. Well being of children has to be considered too.

[quote Placido]@Howshouldibehave. But not every child with SEN has a 1:1 adult. And many children, not just SEN children, don't adapt well to change, especially in the early years of KS1. Of course individual parents can't be told at the expense of all parents as that will seem discriminatory, but a solid, reassuring, timely missive from the school surely would work well, without giving away any information that disregarding the employee's privacy. Well being of children has to be considered too.[/quote]
I was talking about the OP’s child’s situation, who does have a 1:1, as this is her thread.

I would expect the children themselves to be told who was teaching them that day and who would be teaching them the next, if that was known (it often isn’t, due to a lack of supply teachers).

Parents are not usually told unless the period of sickness is very long term and a cover plan has been put in place. A lot of our staff absences are agreed by GPs on a week by week basis which is very difficult to arrange cover and could cause alarm if parents were informed that, ‘Mrs X isn’t at school at the moment, she’s been signed off until next Thursday, but it may be much longer, we have cover for today, but the agency will let us know in the morning who we will get for tomorrow’ etc

@Howshouldibehave I can see that there are difficulties in getting the commutation worded right, but as a a communication specialist all I can say is that the 'say nothing' approach is always the worst option, however difficult it is to say things the right way, and whatever the work place. You then leave a gap for people to make things up / distort/ fantasise - and that doesn't help anything.

[quote Placido]@Howshouldibehave I can see that there are difficulties in getting the commutation worded right, but as a a communication specialist all I can say is that the 'say nothing' approach is always the worst option, however difficult it is to say things the right way, and whatever the work place. You then leave a gap for people to make things up / distort/ fantasise - and that doesn't help anything.[/quote]
I’m not suggesting that ‘nothing’ is communicated to the children, who are the priory here.

The children will be told that their teacher is absent and they have X today. They will also be told who they are having the next day (and beyond) if that information is known-sometimes it is, but often it isn’t.

@Howshouldibehave But why not communicate with the parents too? We all know what young children are like - plenty of teachers here telling us that we shouldn't believe half of what our children tell us about the school day and they often forget things. It makes parents feel odd when they aren't communicated with and reassured about important things like an absent class teacher, especially when in this modern world we are deluged with paperwork about all other aspects of school health and safety. It's really not rocket science?

[quote Placido]@Howshouldibehave But why not communicate with the parents too? We all know what young children are like - plenty of teachers here telling us that we shouldn't believe half of what our children tell us about the school day and they often forget things. It makes parents feel odd when they aren't communicated with and reassured about important things like an absent class teacher, especially when in this modern world we are deluged with paperwork about all other aspects of school health and safety. It's really not rocket science?[/quote]
Because often the only information that can be given is, ‘Mrs X isn’t here today and possibly not tomorrow. I don’t know about Wednesday, no. No, we don’t know who will be teaching the class tomorrow yet. No, we don’t know when she’ll be back.’

My head will try to communicate what he can, it’s not always easy and you don’t know when ‘a few days off’ will turn into something more. In our experience, all the parents want to know is who will be covering, and that information isn’t always available. We communicate with parents what we helpfully can.

@Howshouldibehave this is happening in our reception class at the moment and barely anything has been said and parents are made to feel bad for caring about the continuity aspect for their children But what parent wouldn't care about this with such young children who are just starting to settle. It just feels disrespectful to the parents and to the children not to do the very best job of trying to communicate. Its a tough one to get right I can see that, but at least your school is trying, not all do.

[quote Placido]@Howshouldibehave this is happening in our reception class at the moment and barely anything has been said and parents are made to feel bad for caring about the continuity aspect for their children But what parent wouldn't care about this with such young children who are just starting to settle. It just feels disrespectful to the parents and to the children not to do the very best job of trying to communicate. Its a tough one to get right I can see that, but at least your school is trying, not all do.[/quote]
Agreed, it’s really hard and SLT will be worried about continuity for the class as well. There are huge absence problems in schools at the moment, mainly due to covid and stress, but also a huge lack of budget for supply cover as well as a lack of actual supply teachers-it’s tough. Sorry to hear your child’s class teacher has been off-I hope they’re ok and well enough to come back soon. I have a friend recovering from covid who was ‘strongly encouraged’ to come back to work at the end of the ten days as they were struggling to cover her, but she only managed a week back and has now been signed off for longer-I’m guessing this won’t be an isolated case.

@Howshouldibehave Not my child's class. The problem with this case is that it has happened before as the poor teacher has difficult pregnancies and talks really openly about it to parents - she is one of the teachers who really seems to enjoy the parent body and forms close bonds with them. So as the whole school community know what is wrong, and feel awful for her, but the school brazenly say nothing, meanwhile the whole parent body know that she will be, quite understandably, unable to come back for the duration of her pregnancy (and then of course for maternity leave) - and when there is a different cover every few days, it makes people really cross that they won't address it. Meanwhile the children are suffering from constant changes. I find it odd that our school don't tell parents when any teacher has had their baby either - surely this is a happy joyous moment and the parents and children are delighted for the teacher - why wouldn't you say something? It makes you feel odd as a parent, like there is something wrong with ut - the vast majority of us are good humans with nice children who feel really happy about such events but there is a 'say nothing' approach which I find odd and haven't heard of in any other sphere (correct me if I am wrong!)

@Howshouldibehave

Just wondered if this is standard policy in schools?

Is what standard policy in schools?

For teachers to be sick?
For teachers to be sick and parents not told?

When people in any job are ill, unless they’ve had an operation where you can’t drive for eg 6 weeks, it’s difficult to say when they’ll be back or know if you need to find cover for 1 day/5 days/3 weeks or 4 months. It’s also none of the parents’ business what’s wrong with them.

I presume there was an adult in the class covering each day? What exactly do you think you should have been told as parents?

Parents not updated. For young children and children with Sen, new teachers everyday can be pretty unsettling. If parents know this is happening they can support their child. But I take on board other comments. It's been three weeks and I assumed we would have been told something and wasn't sure if school were slack but apparently not.

Another reason I hated teaching. Nosey parents thinking your health status should be shared with the world. Nightmare.

I hope the teacher isn’t seriously ill.