Secondary School asking for Drs consultation notes then not accepting them as proof of abscence

[MumsTheHero]

Has anyone had previous experience of this.
My daughter in secondary school was recently off with a serious case of the recent flu that's been going around. Constant high temp of over 39. Being sick constantly, not eating for 9 days straight while also being bed bound all that time, which then left her extremely weak and wobbly on her feet.
The school policy is only 5 days can be authorised and then it's unauthorised unless sent proof of illness. Due to it being a virus i knew the Drs wouldnt prescribe anything so i had already had to waste Drs time just to get an unnecessary appointment to satisfy the school needs of proof of illness. After a battle with the Drs to get her consultation notes as they had said its none of the schools business, they finally gave them to me which I forwarded straight to the school.

The school are now declining the proof they asked for and said because it didn't state for how long she would be off for they wouldn't be authorising her abscence.

I think this is absolutely ludicrous. How can a Dr or anyone predict how long someone is going to be ill for and feel they are asking for unreasonable evidence now. She now has 3 and a half un authorised abscences because of this, so if for some reason she ends up having 1 and a half more days off ill we will be getting a fine.

Does she normally have bad attendance?

Why do you care what they record it as?

No her attendance is always really good and this is the first time I've had this where I've come across her getting any unauthorised abscence due to illness while being in secondary school. She is in her second year.

Because we do not wish to recieve a fine and have the stress of having to take it to court due to genuine illness

That’s a pretty serious case of flu to be off school for almost two weeks so maybe that’s why they are questioning it? NHS guidelines say 4-7 days you should normally be over it so maybe they are looking at that and feel it is longer than it should be (and yea everyone is different).

No they can’t predict how long someone would be off but based on the illness and symptoms as well as seeing your daughter they could give an educated guess, but based on the NHS guidelines it would be 4-7 days so that doesn’t help you.

Unfortunately sounds like it’s a case of those are the rules and they apply to every one on every situation and it doesn’t always make it logical. What doctors notes could be given other than she has the flu?

I think the fine is 5 sessions in a row off. Hopefully she won't be sick for so long again this year if you can have 5 days of without a note. Sometimes attendance officers get a bit over zealous.

Just to cover yourself, I would send an email to attendance and cc. Head of Year 8. Say you have done what you can and can do no more. Write what you've written here about needing to fight for the doctor's notes etc. Write that they can mark it unauthorised as they wish but if you get a fine in future, you are willing to fight it as you feel it's unreasonable considering you've done what they asked for - apart from the doctor's prediction of an end to the illness.

Then leave it.

Hi yes it was a serious case of the flu that had been going round our area. Our whole family had it one after the other over 2 months, each of us suffering for upto 9 days bed bound and being sick the whole time. 1 of us even had the ambulance out to us and they confirmed they had been called out numerous times over the same symptoms.

My daughter see the Dr 3 days before she went back and all symptoms were noted in the consultaion notes. He advised us to keep her off the next 2 days ( which unfortunately wasn't written in) due to her still being very weak, gagging and extremely wobbly on her feet, having to have me as an aid to not fall over. I had stated all this in my emails to the school that it would be extremely irresponsible for me to send a child into school who would need help walking from class to class and up and down stairs, expecting a teacher to be my child's carer,taking away their responsibility of teaching.