'And will she be in tomorrow'?

thegirlintheattic

Our school you don't have to phone in everyday if you know when they will be off till, i.e. if you are calling Thursday about sickness the child isn't going to be in till Monday. This means that it can be marked on the electronic register, work collected from teachers if needed.

Our school also asks the nature of the illness, mainly to make sure it isn't infectious (we do have two children who have weak immune systems though), if it is an e-mail usually goes round to all staff without a name on i.e. "A pupil has been diagnosed with chickenpox. If this is a problem speak to x".

Surfbabe

We ask parents to ring in or email each day. We have to keep a log (for Ofsted and The Education Welfare Officer) of children off ill, so that we can prove that they parent rang or let us know and so that the EWO doesn't go chasing after them if attendance is low. Sometimes there is a genuine reason for lots of days off due to illness if the child has a compromised immune system etc. It is also a help in spotting trends - is a certain child always off for the day after they have seen dad, or always on a Thursday cos its PE. We also have a policy (recommended by Dept of Health) that if the child has been sick or had the 'runs' they must have 48 hours clear before they come back to school. Its helpful for parents to ring to say that it might be extended as they have had another bout and so will be back longer. It actually not helpful to just say they are ill as that can mean anything from a sniffle to full blown chickenpox! If we have had ten calls in the morning all from parents with children in the same class that have all got the same symptoms then we can investigate if there is a particular activity that happened.

fawd1

somewhat off topic, but the "will she be in tomorrow?" reminds me of when my mum and I went to look at a nursing home for my then very elderly grandmother. We were shown about by the manager who told us that usually, unless a serious illness was involved, residents spent the rest of their days there, meaning they had only a small amount of new residents every year. At which point my mum said "when will there be a vacancy?"

JimmyTheWig

daisiegg wrote: »

I was referring to the other posters who mentioned schools demanding more detailed descriptions of their children's ailments.

Yes, obviously if a child is off a lot and alarm bells are raised; that is a different matter. But I won't, as a form tutor, question every pupil who has one isolated sickness absence and whose parent has written in to say 'they're ill'. I will usually say 'oh dear, are you feeling better now?', or, if it was really obvious what was wrong with them I might say 'yes that was such a nasty cough!' or 'your migraines again? Poor you!' but I would never peer at them over the letter and ask 'What was wrong with you?!' if the information hadn't been offered to me. Even in the case of a persistent absentee this would not be the way to approach it - someone would probably phone home to gently find out if there was some sort of persistent medical problem, and take it from there. No one (in my school at least) would ask to a child's face for details of an illness.

That's good to know, daisiegg, and quite reassuring.

ginger_tony

l hate that its like the doctors receptionists too, you feel your doing something wrong. if a kids ill theres nothing you can do about it.

KME91

I'll never forget my dad sending my sister to school with a note saying that the reason she'd been off for a few days was due to influenza, and my teacher calling up my dad on the phone and demanding to know what influenza was and why was he making up illnesses. Even less funny when you realise he works nights and she called him at lunch time.....

And yes, the school was aware of this...

londonsurrey

Am I missing something here? If the parent is supposed to call up every day of the child's absence, surely it renders the "Will he/she be in tomorrow" question redundant?

thorsoak

In the USA, my daughter had to phone in before 8.30 am
on a dedicated number (school starts at 7.30/8.00) to notify of any absence; before 2.30 pm she receives an email enquiring whether the child is any better and may be in school the following day!

littlerat

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)

When my form tutor wouldn't leave go of "I was ill" or delicate comments for a day off my reply ended up being "I'm on my period and was bleeding like a stuck pig". Embarrassed him far more than it did me.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

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.

Doesn't seem great, there's medical checks that need doing if it keeps up and before going on a pill, giving medical advice seems unethical. Plus can you imagine if somebody had something wrong with their foot? "Get it chopped off and that won't happen" :eek:




Part of each school's assessment criteria is attendance, average per child (mean attendance in other words) so 1 having a lot of time off can effect it, one of the reasons I was given after my Mum died that I had to go back to school was so I didn't mess up their attendance levels (my an out of school assessment person). Very comforting when I was grieving, struggling with an (undiagnosied) anxiety disorder and worsening (also undiagnosed) depression.


Our school (both primary and secondary) would moan if you had too much time off, or came in with anything infectious. Which was a pain when I suffered with migraines, (and later awful periods) and kept catching things one year on top. They'd both complain if I came in due to spreading and complain if I didn't due to attendance.



londonsurrey, yes it's redundant, but also a very common policy, most schools seem to have it.