Do you think I should complain to the school about this.

[petetong]

I sent my ds to school today, he has a cold, but other than a sore throat and cough on exertion he can cope with the day and felt well enough to go. I gave him a letter to excuse him from PE, but the PE teacher made him participate and said that he shouldn't be at school if he isn't well. I am very angry, but am not sure if I am over reacting.

If he is well enough to be in school he is well enough to do PE.
He could have been exerting himself at break time for all you know.

What harm would he come to if he did PE?

You should never excuse a child from PE. It's just not British.

'Tis only a cough and a sore throat. That lady with cancer, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, ran for thousands of miles.

C'mon PeteTong. Toughen up, girl

The problem with "if he is well enough to be at school" comes when the school is so keen to push its attendance record that parents feel bullied into sending their child into school even when they are not very well. I often sent dd into school when she was unwell and feverish, because her headteacher kept threatening us with social services if children had too many absences.

I think the teacher was right. A cold and cough should not stop your DS from doing PE.
If he really wasn't well enough to do PE than he should have been at home.

Sorry couldn't get back earlier. I work in a school and asked one of our PE teachers what the deal was. He said that he does make students who have brought in a note do PE, but with certain exceptions. Students who normally partake are forgiven if there is the odd occasion when they are truly not feeling up to it. My ds comes into this category. He also said that he would never expect a student who was feeling ill to partake in a full session and would find a suitable job i.e. instead of playing football, being linesman, referee or ball boy. I did say that if my ds didn't feel well enough to take part in the PE lesson that I would simply keep him off school in future and the whole office erupted, especially the EWO who wasn't impressed with my suggestion. Seems like the ordinary parent can't win.

Cant you just write: dear mean pe teacher, unfortunately petetong ds will not be participating in pe class today as he has been unwell, if you need further clarification do not hesitate to call me on xxxxx. sorry enter key not working, so spacing a bit out

Next time I write a letter, I will not be so polite and will state that my ds is not to do pe and that if he feels that my ds should not be in school if he can't do PE then I will give him my phone number and he can call me to pick him up.

Petetong - our secondary school wouldn't make a student do the pe lesson and like your school would "find a suitable job i.e. instead of playing football, being linesman, referee or ball boy. "

As someone else in the thread said you might go to work but would skip the gym if you felt under the weather.

When DD's asthma is bad I excuse her from games. I've never been questioned though the school is an old fashioned prep school with a robust mentality.
Thet accept that though she may be fine to study french with her inhalers she's not fit to streak accross the fields ona cross country.
Ditto when she had weeping blisters from an extra curricular sports event.
That said, they know if she's fit she's out there in the wind and rain giving 100%.

Exactly Litchick, my ds likes to participate and is in no way a shirker which is why I was annoyed on this occasion.

I'm surprised at people's reactions that if you are well enough to go to school you are well enough to do PE. I think this is wrong. You should listen to your body. Sitting in a warm environment doing a lesson is completely different to running around, getting out of breath in the cold.

Getting tired and cold doing PE must reduce your immune systems ability to fight the cold. I think you have every right to complain.

agree with laxymum.

Also, if the school are extremely strict on attendance- basically, you have to be almost unconscious not to attend- then they have to accept that not all students present on a certain day are going to be fit enough to do PE. Can't have it both ways. If they say, you shouldn't be in school unless fit to do PE, then they have to accept that unwell pupils will stay at home.

Dd is very prone to ear infections and her last school would not accept her taking time off for these. Now I don't think vigorous exercise in the cold (let alone swimming) is a good thing if you have an active ear infection. But staying at home waiting for the EWO didn't seem a very attractive option either.

Personally, if I go running in the cold when I have a bad cold, I tend to develop pleurisy or other lung infections. I've learnt to listen to my body. My GP says there is nothing intrinsically wrong with me, I just need to show some common sense.

But the petetong didn't say that her boy had a bad cold or had asthma - he had a sore throat and a cough on exertion.

If he had a bad cold, presumably he's be at home, and if he was having an asthma attack then of course he couldn't do games.

But if every child with a sore throat and a bit of a cough was excused PE they might as well shut down the PE department from November to March!

You should see the number of letters parents send in excusing their children from pe. Masses and masses. You are being completely unreasoanable.

seeker Sun 01-Feb-09 07:55:36 Add a message | Report post | Contact poster

"If he had a bad cold, presumably he's be at home, and if he was having an asthma attack then of course he couldn't do games."

That depends very much on the school and the individual parent. I felt pressurised into sending dd in when she had a bad cold, because of the headteacher's response to absences. There are headteachers who will make life a misery for any child who is frequently ill and consenquently make pupils frightened of taking time off even when they should.

Maybe I didn't explain well enough about how ill he was, but I did say he had a cough on exertion, he was also feeling generally ill, but I am of the opinion that you can cope if you take paracetomol to get you through the 6 hours at school. His school does not take kindly to students taking time off. He has had 100% attendance for the last 4 years. I would have thought that if I was an over fussy parent then I would have allowed my dcs to take time off for any minor illness, which I clearly don't. My dh and I have a very strong work ethic, which I am trying to instill in my dcs that you don't just bail out if you are feeling slightly unwell. However, as supersalstrawberry said earlier, just because I attend work doesnt' mean to say that I would also go to the gym.

Did your letter also ask for ds to be kept in at break/lunch time and from other lessons where he may have exerted himself?

If not then the oversight is yours not the schools.

Perhaps Petetong's ds is sensible enough not to take responsibility not to overexert himself at breaktime if he was unwell. We have no evidence that he was running around playing football at breaktime. If he was feeling unwell, most likely he wasn't.

My ds certainly wouldn't have exerted himself at any other time of the day as, like I said, he was feeling ill and to exert himself made him cough which ultimately made him feel worse, which is why I wrote the letter.

Get a grip PT.

Any PE teachers on here? Surely if a child started coughing like mad, you'd tell them to take it easy for the rest of the lesson?

I am all for kids going to school but if he is as ill as you are claiming I wouldnt have sent him in the first place.