Missing a days SATS due to illness - school response

[hermione1968]

My 11 year old son was off school with a viral infection last week and therefore missed the intense (very pressured) SATS practice. The doctor said he had a viral infection. Appearing to be recovered I sent him in on the Thursday but was called 2 hours in to be told he'd been sick and to fetch him. When I said I would keep him off on the Friday, so as to minimise the risk of him passing it on, and possibly causing other kids to miss the SATS this week, the receptionist agreed. He went back to school Monday as was, seemingly better, but yesterday, when he came out, he had a sky high temperature, was shivering and had an immense headeache. During the night he deteriorated, vomitting numerous times, soaking wet through with sweat. I followed the correct absence procedure by leaving a message on the school answer phone at 7:30am. At 8:39am the school called asking if he could go in. I explained what was wrong and heard the headmaster in the background say 'no-one's that ill'. I was then, what I felt, pressured into agreeing to take him in for an hour at 11am, despite telling them that I doubt he even had the energy for the walk there. I then took my son to the doctors who said he had a viral infection and should not go into school. I asked for written confirmation of this and he gave me a print out which said viral infection, plenty of fluids, paracetamol and rest. On phoning the school to inform them my son would not be going in as he was far to ill and the doctor had agreed, the receptionist said 'so he can't come in for an hour?'
Am I being too overly sensitive here, with regards to my anger at the way the school have responded? They were all to eager to call me when he'd been sick the week before and to keep him off. At a pre-sats meeting months ago, the headmaster insisted that the kids would not be pressured and that if a child was ill, then they were ill. Your thoughts would be truly appreciated.

The headteacher is an arse. He is concerned only with performance results, not the welfare if the child.

Appalling behaviour from the school.
Sadly it doesn't surprise me- it happened to a neighbour of mine a couple of years ago.

I think that's a shocking reaction from the school and that you are quite justified in feeling angry. The school clearly does not have your son's best interests at heart, only their own. If they were expecting your ds to score highly then it is even more disgraceful. In your shoes I would be feeling very glad that he's nearly finished there....

Yep Headteacher is an arse. Actually is he not breaking with the LEA rules on quarantine following vomiting? Our LEA are very clear that if a child has to be 2 days clear of V&D before they return to school. Call the LEA and ask for their advice.
Hope he feels better soon, sounds like a nasty bug.

Thanks everyone. And I never thought about that HMGRS. Will check now. x

Just thought. The school had said he could do his SAT in isolation so not sure if the vomitting thing applies???

Dd was also ill with a viral infection at time of her SATS; she was also unable to sit upright or hold a pen due to a joint condition. School sent out a TA to take her SATS down to dictation. So I thought I was pretty inured to this sort of thing. But your head takes this into totally new realms of arsehoodness. Would he come in to work himself if he was that ill?

I wouldn't send my child in BUT I know there have been children sitting SATs in the heads office with a sick bucket next to them. Or one year a group sitting them in a parents kitchen, supervised by a teacher, all with chicken pox.
The headteacher has regained his sanity, and is boycotting SATs, but did say if your child is really ill don't send them. A very different message than 4 years ago (although I know then he didn't really agree with what he felt he had to say).

same thing happened to us last year....headteacher even offered to come get him and drive him back home afterwards as i had an ill baby at home also!!

Another reason why SATS shouldn't happen!

Message withdrawn

Makes me wonder how often you see the head propped up in assembly with a bucket next to him.

This type of double standard really annoys me: I cannot forget a meeting in dd's school about her poor attendance and the difficulty caused to the school by her chronic and extremely painful joint condition: the first 10 minutes were taken up by everybody crowding around the head of admin and fussing over her because she had a broken arm. When the attention finally turned to dd, the contribution of same head of admin was to ask dd's paed: "How do we know when she really is in pain?" The paed looked non-plussed and answered "She'll tell you, won't she?". It didn't occur to anyone to ask same head of admin to see any proof that she really couldn't use her broken arm.

Agree with everyone else. And also willing to bet that your DS is a bright kid whom they would expect to get good marks. Well irrespective of his school work I hope he gets better soon.

it's the system's fault though

your child will now be marked with a 0 on the school results and it will pull down the reported grade average

abysmal process isn't it?

my friend's son went to a mainstream primary - he has severe special needs, global development delay and at the age of 11 was around 5 or 6 educationally - my friend's son grades at age 11 also had to be reported.

I think it's fine for a school to question a professional re pain levels in a child. Most, not all, most children I know will put it on in a school environment particularly to get out of doing stuff they find boring or difficult. You see it time and time again.

No you are not being overly sensitive, you did the right thing for your child.

The head is wrong and I would recommend you raise the issue with the Board of Governors / LA. The head really needs to think about why they are working with children if they would pressure a sick primary pupil in this way. Wonder what Ofsted would say too.

Yeah well, so what if it does pull down the mark. If my best university students are off sick that will pull down my marks and may affect funding= whether I have a job in a year's time or not. Doesn't mean I could tell a grownup I expect him to be in the exam room with a sick bucket, does it?

School teachers aren't the only ones under stress: in fact, half the colleagues in my department are on temporary contracts; they still have to behave like civilised human beings! Because they deal with adults and you can treat adults in a less than civilised manner.

"I think it's fine for a school to question a professional re pain levels in a child"

I should have made myself clearer: the paed had already written several report to explain that dd's condition was causing her severe pain and that the school needed to take that into consideration. But just because she was a child, medical opinion could be disregarded "because we all know children tell fibs".

Fyi adults pulled sickies too. Fibbing about one's state of health is a well known problem in the British workplace. But it would still be considered unacceptable to assume that an adult was lying if they had a doctor's certificate and had never proved unreliable in the past.

The head's response to dd's condition was "Yes, mrs Cory, we do understand that Corydd is ill, but you can't expect us to be happy about it". He knew from countless medical reports that dds pain was incurable. Yet when an adult member of staff suffered something as relatively minor and soon-to-be-cured as a broken arm, he was full of sympathy. Adult pain is a misfortune. A child's pain is a discipline problem.

I know what ofsted would say - they would say - why has your sats score fallen to below that predicted and below the average - you must be a crap school - satisfactory or failing grade maximum - threat of special measures. and there were recently noises made that a school put in special measures will see the head teacher sacked! One above average ability child being off for sats pulls the whole average right down.

that's one of many reasons why sats are so crap.

I'm really sorry about your son and the school's response. It sounds appalling. It happens frequently in schools and is very very and makes me feel that our kids are put through all this for stupid reasons

Yeah well, until last year I would have been sacked if I couldn't get good enough results (like many junior academics I was kept on temporary contracts).

That is still no excuse for treating other human beings like shit though. I'd rather lose my job than telling someone who has a raging fever and is throwing up that he has to sit an exam to make me look good. What if he became seriously ill or had convulsions as a result.

you are right of course but it really is completely different at uni - the pressure is honestly just not the same. I'm on a temp contract at a uni now and it is an absolute breeze. they haven't had 20 years of oppression by ofsted and death by a thousand regulations. It's warped the way children are treated at some schools now (I'm sure it's not all but this story is quite typical of a school's response to illness during sats). mine are doing sats now (just ks1) and have been crying during the practice tests and been really stressed out. Aged 7! It is a disgrace.

you are so right about the pain as well. ds1 just broke his arm and they didn't want to give him anything more than paracetamol cos he's a child - like they feel pain less or something! another subject that makes me very

Well, we do have the REF you know, sanfairy.
My uni has been promised serious cutbacks on staff, and it is definitely going to be performance related. And being on temporary contracts for 17 years (!) and getting sacked at the end of every year, with no guarantee of a job after the summer, as I was, is not actually a bed of roses. I did lose my job for a bit and things were quite hard for us.

I still couldn't treat somebody like this though, not even an adult, still less a child.

Dh's firm has recently had to lay off half their staff and is threatened with closure; this is the fourth such massive job loss since he's been working there; his boss is still a decent human being and does not take his stress out on his staff, though his own job is hanging on a thread.

I would be making a complaint.

Regarding the unprofessional behaviour of the headteacher while you were on the phone, the ridiculous request for you to take your vomtiing child into school to sit an SAT.

Were SATs not in progress you would be ripped apart for sending a recently vomiting child into school.