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.

we could turn this into a thread about uni use of temp contracts - mine's up again in 2 weeks time - no clue what's going on - as per usual!

you are right of course, I'm definitely not defending the head here or the mentality of schools over sats. I can't imagine doing it myself either.

Hi. My 10 year old had an accident playing football yesterday. We thought it was sprained and put a support bandage on. This morning it looked bad and we took her to hospital. Rang the school to explain. School rang back (8 calls) and we were told to discharge her and get her to school for her exam and then we could take her to hospital after. I refused. They then called my husband many times until he came to hospital and said he had been told if we didn't take her there would be consequences. So, against my better judgement, my husband discharged her from hospital and she is now having to do her SAT Reading test.!! what do people think to this?? I am really mad!

There won't be consequences for your child.

Might be better to start a new thread Wendy

The only consequences worth worryingredients about are if your dd damages herself further by not receiving medical attention.....

Cory much sympathy re your dd. Sadly the understanding doesn't last for chronic conditions in adults either - temporary visible stuff like broken bones yes, chronic invisible no.

When trying to work with severe chronic illness my manager snapped at me that I'd never taken time off due to 'pain', (pain was actually the easiest part of the condition to handle and work around!), she didn't know I had pain and was I in pain that moment? I gave her a polite yes and fought the urge to give her a list of all the multiple joints that were aching at that moment. As far as she was concerned unless I was grey and shaking and crying, (and she never saw me when I was in that state) how could I be in pain? Her only experience is acute pain meaning major crisis and fix needed. Chronic pain that you live with 24/7 and peaks and troughs, and which you have to manage around and deal with all the time - no. Didn't compute. Which is why staff often don't get and properly support children living with chronic pain and regard any deviance from what every other child can do as behaviour needing managing because they must be exaggerating.

Shocking that HTs are actually putting SATS above basic child welfare. If the child is ill they are ill. That needs a letter to HT and governors, and copy in the LA.

If children are vomiting they cannot go into school. The school is no doubt disappointed that a child they thought would get 100 plus is ill, and I know teachers do feel they have worked so hard to get the chuldren to do well, but that should not result in undue pressure. They are able to find out if the child can come in to a rescheduled exam but that's all. If that is not possible, it is not possible. They tend to be less concerned about children who are likely to be well below 100!

Zombie thread

"If a pupil is absent on the scheduled day of a test and returns within 5 school days, an application for a timetable variation should be made after the pupil has returned. Schools should only make applications for timetable variations before a pupil returns to school where their absence is planned for a known time period."

We've had two children break their arms already this week 


That was to Wendy btw

This is so silly. Why don't they have a make up test day for those who couldn't attend? Or just not count the ones who could not attend! Geez

They do

On behalf of all schools who manage to treat their pupils with respect and consideration during the period of SATs can I apologise to all parents of schools where staff are treating their pupils so appallingly. As mrz has indicated their are ways and means for pupils to take the test within a short time period around the set dates. There is no excuse for this kind of behaviour.
I would suggest that where this kind of thing happens that you make a formal complaint in writing to the Chair of Governors. I suspect in many cases it may well fall on deaf ears but nothing will ever be improved if you do not start the ball rolling. I would like to hope that the Chair of Governors would be thinking as much about the well-being of pupils and staff rather than about an extra 1 or 2% on the SATs scores but maybe not.

This happened to a friend of mine who's daughter was bright and set to get level 5 or 6 was really ill the whole week. The school put massive pressure on them so she ended up taking her in just to sit the sat then going straight home to bed again. It was crazy!! Completely wrong but a symptom of the ridiculous amount of pressure that is put on the school.