How many days did your DC miss this year? What's "average"?

[PoppyWearer]

From what I saw on MN and observed from friends' DCs and at our school, with the cold winter there seemed to be more illness than usual this school year. Right?

Somehow DC1 (just finished Reception) escaped relatively unscathed and had one day off all year, when she had a bad cold and was completely exhausted. There were days back in Jan/Feb when almost half her class was missing, so how she managed not to catch any of the nasty bugs going round is a miracle!

(Not at all a stealth boast - there were other children in the school that managed 100% attendance (DC1 was upset she didn't get a sticker for attendance). Which absolutely amazes me!)

How did your DCs get on? Just curious if this was a bad year or not, and what to expect in years to come.

Dredging my memory as a child, I can recall missing a few days due to usual childhood illnesses, but did have one or two years with 100% attendance, when I was a teen.

Just realised that DD only had 5 days absence, not 11 - I was struggling to work out how she'd missed so many days. 2 days holiday, 3 days illness/fracture.

Ds had a week off with chicken pox, and one other day with an ear infection. Total all year - 6 days. A lot less than most of his friends (year R).

11 yo had 100% attendance

9 yo had 3 weeks off due to a strep infection which triggered a massive eczema flare up resulting in a 3 day hospital stay

School thought eczema wasn't really a good reason to keep her off so I sent her in and they rang me within an hour to collect her as she had made herself bleed, a lot !

ds1(9) 2 days.

OP, I think this is VERY unusual.
At our school, November and December, we had a spate of cough, cold, sore throat, flu , virus etc. Many children were off for over a week. Many people said their children were ill for most of Christmas.
The statistics of this thread, don't represent, what actually happened to many parents, in RL.

DD year 2 had 2.5 days off - was sick one morning before school and so was off for 48 hours. Half day I had to pick her up at lunchtime as she had temperature and was feeling rotten.
DS year 4 wasn't off at all.

I'm lucky that they both generally have good immune systems - think a lot of it is luck of the draw tbh

My DD was off for 3 days. One was approved holiday when we had to travel for a wedding. The other two were both sickness. She also had one day off in the snow but that was because school was closed to YR - we're a short walk from school so could have got her there if they'd opened.

ds (13) had about 8 days off: two virus infections with fever

dd can't really be counted- has been on half days after breakdown

from my own childhood I remember that I was rarely ill; my older brother was ill all the time

we were parented in exactly the same way and expected to go to school unless really ill- his immune system was just a bit sluggish

children are all different

Ds1 had one day off.

Ds2 had loads of time off, a week for a v&d bug he was so poorly with it he was nearly admitted to hospital. Then he was back at school for one day and got the flu and had another week off, i think the v&d bug had left him worn out and he is a skinny thing with no teserves iykwim so was just knocked for six with the flu.

Ds3 a few days but cant remember what for.

Ds4 loads again as he had a few pukey bugs and the rule is 48hrs off, most of the time he was only sick once but then had to have another two days off each time. Plus i have given him the odd day off when he was shattered as he was in reception and was just knackered at times.

They all had five days each that was authorised for holiday.

Have to say this was a crap year illness wise, it was in the run up to xmas and over cmas as well and i have never known a year like it, they were dropping like flies at school and i was ill and dd and dp were ill as well and dp never catches these things. I was so ill i had to get dp tp come from work. They have all been.fine since new year it was nov/dec time they were all ill.

Should add that, whereas my two have been lucky this year and had virtually no time off, I honestly don't get the 'wow well done' thing about attendance - unless its not illness/health related.

Totally baffles me. When I was a kid, I had loads of tonsil and throat infections, and missed quite a lot - 17 days, I remember seeing on one school report. I still did very well, and I was off because I was ill, simple. And no one commented or seemed to mind.

Perhaps its a British thing, the 'mustn't take time off if ill' thing? A remnant of stiff upper lips?

I do think it's a bit easier if your children have been at nursery. Their immune systems are a bit more built up so less likely to have tons of sick days during the first couple of years at school. Also something like chicken pox knocks you back quite a lot of days sickness - my two have both had it at nursery so won't have that on their school record.

Our school starts action on attendance at 97%, so 5.5 days over the whole year. I think that' pretty harsh.

One year my DD had 99% attendance. This year quite bad for both DD and DS - continuous vomiting bugs. Also, because of their special needs (DD diabetic and DS asd and other issues) days off for appointments with doctors, nurses, dieticians, you name it. In a way, I wish those types of absences weren't counted.

In reception 0 days off. In yr1 9 days including 7 days authorised holiday naughty parents

Thanks everyone, really interesting!

Agree with what others have said about nursery attendance helping. My DC1 is pretty robust and had most illnesses before starting school.

DS has just finished Y6. 100% attendance record for the first 6 years then 1 day off for taking a school entrance exam this year. He was very hacked off as it meant he didn't get the full 7 years at 100% even though it was authorised absence.

DD had 1.3 days off apparently - 99.35% attendance. The 0.3 is presumably when she was in at about 11.00 after a music exam. The one day was illness, it should have been two but I absolutely honest to goodness thought she was going back after 48 hours but I'd got my sums wrong and it was only just over 24 hours.

School has had a bad year for illness, staff and pupils. I really REALLY hope I didn't contribute to that.

My DS3 (y1) has 94% attendance for the year - that's quite low as he had a nasty flu virus that knocked him off his feet with temperatures over 39c for over a week and while he was still getting over that he caught a stomach bug that took a good few days to shift and meant he missed his own birthday party Ofsted would like to see all attendance at 98% or higher but that's pretty hard to achieve as that's less than 4 days off per year.

Ghoul I think that is harsh for primary. This year was a very bad year for our local primary with record low numbers on a few days. Lets hope the sunshine this summer has given everyone's immune system a boost.

Ye gods, all these healthy dc make mine look even worse.

Ds1 had a particularly bad year. Developed a squint which gave him double vision which have him headaches so he was off loads before he had an operation to fix the squint. That required two weeks off school for recovery and he still got occasional headaches adjusting. At one point he was taking the piss and claiming to be worse than he was thinking that he'd caught up after legitimate reasons the odd day here and there wouldn't matter. Teachers had to have words with him to get him back on track, saying he had to improve or he wouldn't be allowed to stay after next years exams, but he then got a throat infection caught off me (I was off work for a week).

Ds2 had the usual few days here and there of coming down with a cold which affects him badly triggering his asthma but thankfully not bad enough to put him in hospital as it used to

Ds had 100% one of only 5 childreb in his school of 108.
Dd3 had 5 days of 3 with tonsillitis and 2 withtthe worst womiting bug I have ever experienced. She was actually sick on the Wednesday and off Thursday and Friday buteeven Sunday night were we uncertain if she would go to school the next dau. School kept a close eye and sent her to a quiet room for the last hour of the day she was exhausted.
Unsure what dd1 and 2 had must ask to get their numbers of them. Will be 2 or 3 day's each

No1 son had one day off - he is 13 and that's the first day since he was 6 - he has had 4 days in total off school in 8 years.

No2 son also had 1 day off - he is 12 and that's his 5 day off school in 7 years.

So I would say our average is half a day a year but most of that is concentrated on the early primary years.

DS had 2 days off. Exams and transition day for new school in Sept.
He sulked mightily at not getting 100% attendance as he was in school just not the right one for those purposes !

My daughter has been having treatment for leukaemia for the past two years but managed 68% attendance this year (year one). Her teacher told me she has nowhere near the worst attendance in the class!

Ds1 Yr2 has had at least four days off sick (authorised), and we took him out for a day unauthorised to go to a family event. Ds2 Reception has had the same unauthorised day and I think two days sick. Both were full of colds and winter bugs when in nursery and pre school, and the year that ds1 went to nursery was awful for dh and me as well - he just bought all the new bugs home and we all got them. I had at least eight separate colds in the six winter months that year.

We've also been late to school twice this year when they were both still asleep in bed at 8:15am after an awful week of activities and both seemed to be sickening for something on top. I just thought fuck it, they obviously need the rest, and took them in when they woke which was about and hour late all in all. I did phone school and let them know though.

DD - none, 100% attendance.
DS1 - 39 days, but he had a systemic streptococcal infection and then appendicitis and an appendectomy...
DS2 - 12 days, due to hospitalisation for chronic brittle asthma.

DD who had 100% attendance DID have illnesses - 3 throat infections, a UTI and two d&v bugs, but each time she was ill it was holidays, or a Friday evening that she came down with it, and well enough for school by the Monday. She's in Y10.

DS1 has NEVER had time off like this - I joked with the HT that as he had had 100% attendance from YR, he was taking ALL his sick days in one school year! He was in Y6, and managed to get lvl 6 in his Maths SATS, and lvl 5a in the reading & writing SATS test and the same in the SPAG SATS test. He was mad because he was trying to get 100% attendance for the whole 7 years of Primary!

DS2 was in Y4, and having 12 days off is hardly anything for him, as one of his asthma meds (not routine, but when he's really bad he has to have it) lower his immune system, which means that if CP is going round the school, he can't attend until a week after the last confirmed case, so he has often had to take over 5 weeks off at a time. 12 days is nothing really for him.