School asking absent child to come in later

[TreeXmasTree]

Hi

My Y4 child woke at around 3am sneezing constantly with a runny nose and said he didn’t feel well enough for school. He’d been awake from then on, so I kept him home and left a message with school saying he had a cold.

School called back asking for more detail and said that under NHS guidance sneezing/runny nose alone are fine for school. I explained that I’m normally quite strict about attendance, but given he’d been up since 3am and was exhausted, I didn’t think he was fit for a full day. They said that was ok but suggested he could possibly come in later for the afternoon register if he’d had some sleep.

I said I’d see how he was and let them know before 1pm register. Just wondering where others stand on this - am I being overly cautious, or is it reasonable to keep him home for rest in this situation?

His attendance has always been over 99% so I’m a little shocked at how the school is handling this (although I realise this is due to pressure from DfE)

Please share your thoughts? What would you do?

TIA

They want him in for his mark and to see for themselves. Then they'll probably let you take him home. I had it every illness. Even throwing up they wanted to see it for themselves.

It's not fair on them being dragged out into the cold.

our primary school used to say that if they needed Calpol they were too ill for school.

School is BU about this

I think it’s sensible. If he doesn’t feel well, obviously he doesn’t come in. But if he does, better than staring at a screen all day.

In situations like this (unwell but not fever/vomiting unwell), I send mine in but say, see how you feel in an hour or two, and if you don’t feel well, tell a teacher and I’ll come collect you. 90% of the time they stay in school and feel fine by end of day.

I’d be reminding the school he’s my child not theirs, and it’ll be for me to decide if he’s well enough for school and send him in accordingly. Fuck them and their attendance stats. So glad my kids are just about all done with school and their nonsense.

Exactly

Also they have short memories, not that long in the grand scheme of things since they were shut for months on end and even when they deigned to reopen, whole classes of kids were sent home to self isolate for 5/7/14 days when there was fuck all wrong with them

I wouldn’t even consider it - if my kids are too sick for school they won’t be going. Mine currently have 100% attendance (it won’t last) I would be furious if the school contacted me to question a day off or legitimate sickness when so many take time off left right and centre. Hope your son feels better soon.

I take that approach with my kids school. They don't like it but there isn't a damn thing they can do about it. I'm not at school - i don't have to follow their arbitrary rules

Schools are there to educate children, not pry into what adults do with their kids.

Schools will usually say it's okay to go in with just a cold but as he was awake from 3.00am it would seem reasonable to keep him off, it's not like his attendance is poor.

It's not a decent strategy if a child is also ill and otherwise has near perfect attendance. And it has of course put the child and parent under pressure, that has been the net effect of calling and was exactly their intention in doing so; to suggest that it wasn't is just silly.
There is absolutely no harm in a child missing a "whole day" if they do so a few times a year. There is harm in discouraging parents from letting their children stay home when the child is genuinely not fit for school.

Schools have gone mad.

Last week I had to pull da out of school for an emergency dental appointment - it was literally 40 mins out of class - he had fallen on his face at school the day before and knocked a tooth very hard.

School actually questioned it and asked for a copy of the appointment text. Why on earth would I take him out of school mid morning for 40 minutes for no good reason? I had gone to the trouble to take him in at 8.45am and had to pick him up at 10.30.Not something I’d do for fun! He’s only in Year 2 so he doesn’t have tests. I can’t understand why they didn’t just take my word for it.

Every time someone mentions this, it reminds me of when my DD was in Y2 a while ago. She had a sore throat and a red rash, and I thought I should keep her home. No fever, but still I thought she was unwell enough to be home.

The school pressured me to send her in as I'd had to bring her on the school run with a sibling any way.

It turned out she had scarlet fever (the fever started the next day). There was then an outbreak at school with loads of kids off sick.

It's never worth spreading the germs. That's what my take home was from my experience. Since then, if I think the kids are ill I keep them home.

Then you should also know that a child with usually high attendance being reported as off because they are a bit snotty absolutely should ring alarm bells that there might be more to it. Ergo a safeguarding concern.

Schools are bound by the policies set for them that are centered around what Public Health England consider a valid reason to keep a child home from school. A cold is not one of those reasons.

You should also be fully aware that the targets are set by national government and not by the schools themselves. They don't particularly want snotty kids in spreading germs, however, their hands are tied but as usual MN users blame the school rather than the actual people at fault.

Our school has this policy of chasing up sickness on a daily basis when kids are off, I think that they have a list and a script.

My youngest was once sent home from school with chicken pox (so I know they know it was true!) I rang the next day to confirm it was definitely chicken pox and said he wouldn’t be in for at least 10 days to avoid passing it on.

After about the third phone call from the school I said “actually he’s feeling fine, so I’ll just bring him in shall I. Please can you just let all of the adults in school, and the class parents, know that he’s still contagious incase any of them are pregnant and need to risk assess. We’ll be there in 20 minutes”.

They backtracked very quickly!!!

What the hell?!

Schools seem to be becoming a bit draconian about this. They don’t seem to trust parents when they say their child is unwell.

I work for 111 and had a parent of a 17 year old call up with a severe headache and some light sensitivity. She was clearly unwell (didn’t want to look at her phone so really quite poorly) and her dad said the school needed PROOF in the form of an email or certificate to say that they’d sought medical advice! I told him that she is legally allowed to self certify for a week, but GPs can issue a FIT note after that time. FFS!

My daughter has chronic physical and mental health issues and her attendance is around 60%. Thankfully her school is very understanding which is just as well as they’d get it with both barrels if they tried to pull that shit with me!

I would tell them I appreciate its NHS guidelines and they’ve been told to do it therefore my tone is not directed at them. But I registered their absence as they are ill, end of conversation, do not call again.

But my mother would have sent me in, even if I felt like death and guilt tripped me with she’d go to prison if I missed school so I will always be DD’s advocate tbh.

No one becomes “thick as mince” because they miss school when they have a cold. Stop being so dramatic.

Of course they do when the parent keeps them off an extra day every time a teacher upsets them. Or maybe I read the post incorrectly? Actually I know I didn’t. You don’t want to believe it and that’s fine but I know it to be true. I have the misfortune of teaching them.

My 3 year old nonverbal autistic son was given a unauthorised absence because I kept him home cause he had been awake all night from being unwell. Needless to say I lost me s* and gave the school what for, all I was told is its government guidelines now, so now when hes had a sleepless night i send him to school and because hes tired he becomes very dysregulated and has many melt downs so ends up they ring me to send him home, my response when I get a phone call is 'you told me that being up all night isn't a valid reason for absence so you can deal with his meltdowns' this is a mainstream school and im currently awaiting his EHCP to get him into a specialist setting 🤞 (hes also on a part time timetable so not even there for his full allocated time)

He isn't compulsory school age so rhey cannot do this

I used to work in an office like that: you had to crawl in - spread the germs - to evidence your unwavering commitment to the job [and prove you really were dying].

Just meant everyone else got sick.

My DD dislocated her shoulder on way to school on SATs day and I had to take her to hospital where she was given pain relief and had it relocated. Head was texting me links to
revsion sites asking her let her practice them on my phone whilst she was waiting! She was in so much pain she was crying for goodness sake. Took her home after and head rang to ask could she take the that afternoon - said she’d come to our house to supervise that she wasn’t in contact with her peers. I declined that offer and she has to go into school at 8am to take it before other kids arrived next day!
as for your son, just let him rest for the day x

Ohh sorry misread it!!

If it's a runny nose and all it needs is a nap, then coming in for afternoon registration makes sense to me. I've certainly done it with mine when they've perked up after Calpol and a nap. Going into school after break is what we used to aim for.

My daughter has the same cold and I didn’t even consider sending her in. She’s SEN but very resilient and just didn’t want to, even though she’d be missing her two favourite clubs. I guess I’m lucky in that school would never question me as they know how protective I am and are quite nurturing. I’ve sent her in before with a cold but not when she’s sneezing, nose blowing, red eyes like today.
You absolutely did the right thing! Apart from after he could have been contagious and some kids (ie with asthma) can get very poorly if they can a virus.

Keep him at home. They are only hassling you for their benefit. That is, so their attendance records look good for Ofsted.