Phoning in sick to school

[roadkillbunny]

My dd is off school sick today and when I was dropping off ds at pre-school I said to another Mum (who also has a child at school) that Mrs X sounded ill herself and the other Mum expressed surprise that I call the school when dd is going to be off sick, if her DC is sick she doesn't bother calling, she is not the only Mum I know who has said they don't call school when their child is sick and this surprises me, I have always thought that is what you are meant to do so that the school know what's going on.
So I was wondering, how many people call the school and how many don't think it is necessary? I don't know if it makes any difference, the parents who have told me they don't call are reception so are either only just of legal school age or aren't yet of legal school age where as my dd is Y1 (although I called school if she was off sick when she was in reception).

Always phone the school. Not necessarily every day though. For example dd came down with chicken pox at the weekend so I called the school on the Monday and told them she definitely wouldn't be in all week (she was only 4). I would have called again on the next Monday if there had been some reason for her not being in.

DD's school even called me once after I had called in because the person taking the call hadn't written it down.

We have an absence line to call. If you don't ring in to say your child is off sick the school will call you. Personally I think it's rude not to.

There are very valid reasons for the school wanting you to call or contact them when a child is sick. It is around safety, how would you feel as a parent if at 4 o'clock your child had not returned home and had not turned up at school and nobody had told you but assumed that you knew what was happening, alternatively how would you feel if your read in the paper that your school had failed to investigate why an abused child had not turned up at school for a number of days.

Now both of these scenarios may sound melodramatic but this is why your school will chase you up if you do not contact them.

they usually have a policy of ringing on first day and if for eg they have vomiting you have to keep them home at least 48 hrs anyway so i usually tell them if its anything else i usually ask DH when he drops the other dc's off to pop in and let them know but a call or a email should be enough for a few reasons , for their personal safety and to save them ringing round lots of parents also in case they are truanting , its the only polite thing to do and i usually give them a rough idea when they will be back if it crosses over the weekend and they are not going to be back on the monday i usually ring again as its a new week so they will be expecting your dc otherwise, i wouldnt let my dcs walk alone in primary but a lot of parents do or they cycle imagine stranger danger or getting god forbid knocked off their bike ,,seems obvious to call and keep them informed to me

the important thing is you also have to send in a letter when your child goes back into school explaining the absence as the phone messages don't entitle a teacher to write the reason for the absence into the register -there has to be written evidence from the parent in order to authorise the absence -and Inspectors physically go through the registers and match up absences to letters to check.