'And will she be in tomorrow'?

tyllwyd

I think it was probably just a bossy receptionist, but it might equally be something to do with school procedures or statistics. I had my dd's form tutor complaining that her attendance had dropped below 90% - but it was in October, so her 3 days off with a cold knocked the percentage absence right down, and later in the year it wouldn't have had such a big impact (which as a maths teacher I think he should have appreciated!)

concerned43

I got the same attitude from DS's school - so whenever he was off ill, I called them everyday and went into great detail about the amount of times he's been sick, where he was sick, the volume/texture etc. I could hear her wrenching over the phone - serves her right, nosey ***
Now they don't ask any questions :rotfl:

MX5huggy

Caroline_a wrote: »

It's a bit like if you want to make an appointment with your GP because you're ill you have to be able to predict the future - 'I can fit you in 3 weeks on Tuesday at 8am..?' Of course I could be dead by then. That'd serve them right!! :T

If you are dead by then could you call to cancel, missed appointments cost money you know.

scooby088

At our school if any of the children are ill because of infection then the school's policy is 3 days away minimum as they don't want it spreading.

daisiegg

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I think it is slightly odd for them to even be asking what is wrong over the phone.
I had to phone in for our daughter being off school earlier this week. Lets just say that the initial problem was that she wasn't pooing, which turned into her not being able to stop.

How much detail did the school receptionist want??

You should see it from the opposite side - the amount of times I get notes about girls in my form saying 'she wasn't in yesterday as she was having a really heavy period' etc! What's wrong with just saying she felt unwell?! If I was the girl I would be mortified handing that to my teacher but they don't seem to care (which, actually, is probably a very healthy attitude)

JimmyTheWig

daisiegg wrote: »

You should see it from the opposite side - the amount of times I get notes about girls in my form saying 'she wasn't in yesterday as she was having a really heavy period' etc! What's wrong with just saying she felt unwell?! If I was the girl I would be mortified handing that to my teacher but they don't seem to care (which, actually, is probably a very healthy attitude)

I guess from a parent's perspective it is easier for the child to hand in a note from a parent about this than to hand in an ambiguous note and be asked by the teacher what the problem was.

But yes, I agree - too much information!

elisamoose

From the school side......we are targeted on attendance as a school and Ofsted look at our figures in detail.That means being able to produce evidence that contact was made and the detail of that contact.So ' Ill' is not enough!
We also like to know what is wrong so that we can see any patterns which might need reporting...for example when swine flu was around we picked up a trend really quickly from symptoms and reported to public health department.
We just have a job to do ...sorry

JimmyTheWig

That's very interesting elisamoose. Thanks for that.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

daisiegg wrote: »

You should see it from the opposite side - the amount of times I get notes about girls in my form saying 'she wasn't in yesterday as she was having a really heavy period' etc! What's wrong with just saying she felt unwell?! If I was the girl I would be mortified handing that to my teacher but they don't seem to care (which, actually, is probably a very healthy attitude)

Well, my BF's sister phoned in a few times with 'tummy ache' or 'not well' for her eldest DD - then she got stroppy phone calls from the attendance officer demanding to know exactly what was wrong with her, and when it was explained it was heavy, painful periods (as she had only just started them), the reply was 'if you put her on the Pill, that won't happen'.

Needless to say, both Mum and Dad (who is VERY concerned at the thought of his little girl becoming a woman) were less than delighted at the thought of sticking a 12 year old on contraception to keep the school's attendance figures up.

aliasojo

elisamoose wrote: »

From the school side......we are targeted on attendance as a school and Ofsted look at our figures in detail.That means being able to produce evidence that contact was made and the detail of that contact.So ' Ill' is not enough!
We also like to know what is wrong so that we can see any patterns which might need reporting...for example when swine flu was around we picked up a trend really quickly from symptoms and reported to public health department.
We just have a job to do ...sorry

Actually, they already knew what was wrong. In fact the school told me the previous day that there was a bug on the go just now and we had a conversation about it and the symptoms daughter had.

I only wrote 'ill' here rather than go into details.