Sick Child at school, but not sent home. WWYD?

[curiosity]

DS1 came home from school on Wednesday with a sickness bug (his siblings and myself have also suffered with it prior to that). We also kept him off yesterday.

Coincidentally, DH rang and spoke to Head of Year on Wednesday morning about an ongoing, but fairly minor, issue. He rang to let her know it was still going on intermittently, and to try to avoid it becoming a big issue, not because it had become a big issue iykwim.

Today, DS1 returned to school, but was again unwell, so went to see the Head of Year, who refused to ring me because she said he'd got colour in his cheeks and she thought it was more to do with the ongoing problem, rather than him actually being ill. Consequently he stayed in school, and went straight to bed when he did get in.

Obviously, Teach is not aware that 3 other family members have also been ill, and has seemingly put 2 and 2 together, and thinks that DS1 is unhappy at school. This is not the case at all. There is an issue which needs dealing with, but he's generally not unhappy there at all!

I'm not having a go at the teacher at all, she's planing to deal with the issue in school and I can understand how the misunderstanding has occurred, but DS1 is actually sick, not getting stomach cramps because of this issue.

Question is, how do I follow this up?

Similar thing happened with my dd1 aged 8,
on 2 occasions, first time i did nothing,as i could see that it was hard for teacher toknow that illness was genuine, second time i asked teacher to give the 'benefit of the doubt'in future, and suggested that school were to contact me so that i could make my own assessment, this has worked really well,i suppose it depends on relationship the teacher involved and lines of communication.Its a horrible feeling though, knowin your little one has been ill at school.I hope he gets well soon

usually if your kid farts in the wrong direction they ring you up and get you out of work to pick them up.

in future. if you think your child isn't completly recovered dont send them.

Inform teacher that at any point if your child reports ill - you want to know

thereby having a clear line of communication

Lol, Custardo very true.

I did think he was well enough for school, or I wouldn't have sent him, but we all make mistakes.

It is very hard in secondary schools with sending children home. We have many children in our school who have a tendency to say "I don't feel well" when really they mean "I've got Maths next and I haven't done my homework". Also they then spend 30 minutes trawling round school trying to find a Head of House to sign them out, and so miss 30 mins of lessons even if HoH refuses.

Of course I am not saying your ds comes into this category at all, but many children do, and some teenagers are growing up not really knowing what it is to have to work when they feel 95% rather than 100%, some of them really believe they are ill when they are not, and many of them are losing the ability to judge whether they are fit and well for a day at school or not.

Depending on the school a HoH or Head of Yr may be responsible for 100-250 children, and may not know them personally and individually.

So I would say in this instance it was an incorrect decision, but not a bad decision. And personally I wouldn't actually follow this up at all, but obviously I would continue to monitor the other issue.

I hope he's in fine fettle on Monday morning.

When I was at secondary school I don't recall anyone being sent home from school in the middle of the day ever.

We did have a sick bay and a nurse though if you were very unwell.

Once I broke my nose playing hockey before lunch, but I still stayed at school the whole day (back in classes for the afternoon), and it wasn't until the evening that I discovered it was broken.

Another time I was physically sick before lunch and was sent to sick bay. The nurse phoned my mum but I begged to be allowed to stay because I had dress rehearsals for a play that afternoon

Obviously neither of these are probably ideal, but what I'm saying is it didn't kill me. When I started working it was virtually unheard of for staff to go home ill during the course of the working day: you just took paracetamol and soldiered on. Now it seems commonplace.

I fully understand why she made the choice she did, but given that she'd sent him home on Wednesday after he'd been sick in school, I'm just a little surprised that she didn't ring me after he'd been sick on Friday, if only to say she thought he was faking. (He was genuinely ill - he came home, threw up again and went to bed, missing an activity, and today should have been competing in an event, but withdrew - unheard of!)

I'm just a little concerned that she thinks he's so unhappy in school that he needs to fake illness, when the issue really isn't that severe at all. Still, if nothing else it will ensure that the situation is monitored in school!

DS1 has got gastroenteritis.

I'd play it quite subtly and would write her a letter which your son can give her on his return to school. Just say that you're pleased to inform the school that ds has now fully recovered from a bout of gastronenteritis and his GP has agreed that he is fit to return to school.

Hope he's feeling better soon, it's a nasty old bug.

mumsnet is great!

in the past couple of weeks whilst being on mat leave from teaching, i have read threads about
-teachers sending kids home at drop of a hat much to annoyance of parents
-and now not sending them home

brilliant!

Yes I think I might.

He's already feeing a lot better, thanks, although he's really not enjoying the dioralyte. Can't say I blame him.