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

I'm always confused by what we should be doing with sick kids. DD is similar to your DS, brilliant attendance, but had a cold and ear infection recently and I kept her off for two days. School still ask questions like have I booked a GP appointment, can I send them proof of the appointment...I really wouldn't have kept her off if she wasn't ill, and she had 100% attendance.
I saw a MN thread recently of a teacher asking why we send our kids in sick...so they don't want them in sick, but they also want you to send them in regardless of if they're sick? I never know what the right answer is supposed to be.

Never give too much detail when you phone in. Just say “unwell”!
cold implies well enough to be at school.
you have the wrong level of detail.

my children have probably had 3 or 4 days off between them in their entire school career, it’s no one’s business what’s wrong & perfectly reasonable on day one of an illness to not know the issue.
… phone earlier and get the answer phone, not the busy body!

if they phone back, either don’t answer, or tell them you’ve been up all night with an unwell child and hang up.

you could easily have been down playing cold for flu or covid to not panic a child within earshot. “Cold” impacts people in different ways.

probably not the approach if their attendance is below 85%, but when you say it’s usually 99% tell them to get lost or as them to PRINT you a full copy of the absence and attendance policy and to highlight where you haven’t been compliant.

Going in for 1pm - 3/3:30 seems like waste of your time

Do they really want him in school giving everyone else a cold. Who do they think they are the gestapo?

Parental instinct rules. There's a difference between a sniffle/cough whatever with normal energy levels and cold symptoms where you feel unwell, tired out, need to recuperate. Only someone who is with the child can see which it is.

School policy around absence has no nuance whatsoever. They have their policies, but I do find it irritating when you come up against it and are somehow made to feel like you're doing something wrong, just because you want your child to get better.