If your ds/dd is off school a fair amount with short term illness, how does their school help them catch up?

[Fauve]

My ds is off sick for about 2/3 days quite frequently, due to an apparent susceptibility to infections that are going round. He's now doing GCSE coursework, assessments etc, and he relies on asking mates to tell him what he's missed. Sadly his best mates aren't very studious at all, in fact they take a macho approach of 'school doesn't matter'. Any tips, please? What could I reasonably expect the school to do to help?

Bumping for you.

Same here, it's up to ds to find out from someone in his class what homework he's missed. I get him to phone one of the girls, or the geekiest boy to find out what should be in the HW diary, as his friends sound like your ds's friends.

Otherwise, could the form tutor find out for him?

I send work home for pupils if the parents request it.

When they return, I put together some sheets of what they have missed and catch them at lunchtime to go over it. Sometimes they are a bit slippery about catching up, but I really make sure those who need to work sequentially get caught up before their next lesson.

At our school, the parent phones the school and speaks to the Care and Guidance officer for their lo's year, who then organises regular homework for them. I often have e-mails from them, saying that X will be off for however long and can I provide work for them.

Also, the C&G officer would probably flag it up, even if the parent didn't. They check the attendance and especially in GCSE year, would do whatever it takes to make sure they are helping the child.

Thanks, everyone. Don't know if the school has a Care and Guidance Officer - will ask. Scienceteacher, I was hoping that teachers would do what you do. Mumblechum, no girls at ds' school, and lol at geekiest boy! And thanks for bumping, PuzzleRocks. One of the problems is that ds is so geeky himself that noone's that concerned about him IYSWM - he gets by, but doesn't get the results he should be getting. I suppose the C&G person is whoever's in charge of pastoral care?

Absolutely. I think its standard in most secondary schools, that they have a pastorial team, just all called something different.

Thanks, MaureenMLove. One of the problems at the school appears to be a lack of a proper sick room where ds could lie down if feeling under the weather. There must be guidelines about having a restful sick room surely? The one available is apparently like Victoria Station. I want to ask if they can provide a place for him to rest when not 100%. That way he could at least attend the most crucial lessons and just skip maybe PE, citizenship etc.

That's suprising. I thought all schools had an on site nurse. We certainly do in all the schools around here. Ours not only has a proper sick room, but does a lot of PHSE lessons.

We don't have an onsite nurse, or a sick room. If they are sufficiently ill to convince a Head of House, then they are sent home.

My school are not great at providing work for students who are off sick full-time, and I'm sure would be pretty hopeless for the sort of situation you describe.

At my son's school they would expect the student to find out from his peers and classmates about the work missed, and they would be expected to catch up in their own time.

Have you taken him to the GP to have his immunity levels checked? How old is he? How much time off has he actually had since September?

Thanks, Roisin. He's 15; we haven't had his immunity levels checked - didn't know they could do that. He has a serious-ish illness diagnosed and cured about a year ago and I tend to assume all this is fall-out from that. I think schools should have a sick room, though tbh. And take a bit more care of their students if off sick. I know teachers are busy though.

It is a difficult one. As a teacher it is rare for me to have ever have a full class of students; there are two off per class on average at this time of year. I teach 20 lessons so it means chasing up a lot of students each week. I manage it by asking/telling each child to catch up by copying up notes or photocopying them from another student at lunchtime. I provide any printed sheets that were given out. Then the student must ask about anything they don't understand. I tell them that if they don't ask, then I am assuming they are ok.

You can ask his tutor to collect some work for him, and go and fetch it from reception. Realistically though, he may only see particular teachers once or twice a week, and if he's only off for 2 or 3 days at a time, they may not have time to collect all the work before he's back at school.

The reality is that if your son is missing a lot of school this will almost certainly adversely affect his education unless he can work on his own at home.

Maybe worth considering if he really needs to be off - if he was at work (which he could well be at 16) he wouldn't be able to have 2/3 days off quite frequently....Or am I being a bit harsh?

I have just had my DD1 off school for 5wks, altho in reality it was 2wks of full missed work as it was over the xmas hols too.

she is at the moment still not able to do PE or dance (she is yr10 BTW so also GSCE coursework missed), so when the rest of her classes do those lessons she is going to the learning support class and her head of year has gathered in all the work she has missed and she is catching up there, and doing very well with it.

the school have been fab I must say.....very keen on helping her and also keen on making sure she gets back up to her grades they expect from her.

she did miss a maths test while off, and they tested her this week, but as she had missed a fair amount before the big chunk of time off, she has got a bad grade.....she has missed so much learning already it seems!

sooooo

her maths tutor has offered to tutor her for an hour every weds after school to help.....another reason to be pleased with the school.

I am sure that if you go in and speak to his year head, or form tutor, that they will email all his teachers and get all the work sorted out for him to either do at home or catch up on while in school.

they could also email him work home and him email it back.....most schools now have that facility.

DS had loads of time of last year (Yr8).

The school was brilliant. Firstly, they made him understand that Yr8 was the best year for this to happen in - settled at school, no SATS or GCSE's etc.

They emailed him work home and also messages to see how he was.

They gave him a reduced timetable, so he only went in for certain subjects and missed all the "fun" stuff - music, drama, art, ICT, PE, RE etc so his strength was saved for the stuff that is harder to catch up on.

In fact, they insisted he spent more time at home to not hurt himself!

Thankfully he is fully recovered now, but the school couldn't have been more helpful.

Thanks for those replies. I think I just need to have a meeting to agree to all those kind of concessions for him: emails to and from teachers; reduced timetable; and better sick room. I think it may be a case of 'if you don't ask, you don't get' and as I said ds 'manages' fine, but doesn't always get the grades he could. Seeker, we try every time to force him in, but I can see that he really is ill.

Reduced timetable is one I'm particularly keen on, because as it happens he has a long journey to school, but I could drive him in say for one crucial GCSE lesson, then drive him home afterwards if I can get the school to play ball with me on that.

My dd is in a bit of a similar situation, ill a lot.
(and in reply to Seeker's question, it is possible that she will not be able to work full time as an adult)

She is in Year 7, and as far as I can make out the school (very supportive) make it her responsibility to find out what she has missed, asking either her friends or the teacher.