when a child is off sick from school ?

tyllwyd

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

... I also don't think those statistics about the effects of absence on GCSE performance are related to cases of genuine illness, on the whole. Firstly, I suspect they assume the child doesn't make up the work (which I ensure happens with my kids) and I also suspect correlate with truancy and low performing individuals, as opposed to illness. ...

Yes, I had the "17 days off means a grade dropped at GCSE" quoted to me by a teacher, and I have the same doubts about whether it applies to equally to all children. I remember being in a school parent meeting and the teacher responsible for AGAT children was talking about taking the kids off to do enrichment activities - someone asked about whether they would be missing lessons and his response was "Oh, these are the kind of children who will catch up easily with the work missed".

I did manage to track down the paper that the statistic is quoted from once, but I've forgotten where I found it so a link would be great if anyone knows where it is!

Mojisola

Carl31 wrote: »

the ops child has been doing the equivalent of 4 day weeks since the start of term

That wouldnt concern you if you were a school beadteacher or something? thats 20% down on available learning this year so far

Illnesses don't come neatly spread out through the school year. This looks like a lot of time lost because there have been three bouts of illness in a short period.

What would do if your child was ill - send him/her into school regardless just so the statistics looked good?

Lunar_Eclipse

Mojisola wrote: »

What would do if your child was ill - send him/her into school regardless just so the statistics looked good?

That made me laugh, ironically as I'm lying in bed ill!

It also reminded me of the 'lies, damned lies and statistics' quote: Churchill?

JimmyTheWig

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I also don't think those statistics about the effects of absence on GCSE performance are related to cases of genuine illness, on the whole. Firstly, I suspect they assume the child doesn't make up the work (which I ensure happens with my kids) and I also suspect correlate with truancy and low performing individuals, as opposed to illness.

I would imagine, assuming that the statistics are true, that they are averaged across all asbences.
So, for example, a child who is able to catch up quickly wouldn't drop any grades from 17 days off while a child who isn't able to catch up quickly may drop 2 grades. The same may be true for children who make up the work vs children who don't make up the work.
[Note that averages don't always make sense. The average person has about 1 testicle and about 1 breast.]

This isn't a reason to send them to school when poorly. The statistics don't compare the child who has 17 days off sick to the child who goes in for 17 days when sick. If they are too ill for school then they shouldn't go.

Carl31

Mojisola wrote: »

Illnesses don't come neatly spread out through the school year. This looks like a lot of time lost because there have been three bouts of illness in a short period.

What would do if your child was ill - send him/her into school regardless just so the statistics looked good?

no of course not. But 20% is a lot of time to have off. Of course genuine illness is fine, but there are many cases where absence is not genuine, children miss education and leave school with less opportunity. Also, schooling is a public service, kids missing school for non valid reasons is wasting tax payer money.

These things need to be investigated, its the same approach for everyone. For every genuine reason a child is missing a day off oer week, there is probably a non genuine one. All the school is doing here is taking appropriate action to ensure the child receives full education to the best of their ability, but the op seems to have taken offence to this for some reason

Mojisola

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

[Note that averages don't always make sense. The average person has about 1 testicle and about 1 breast.]

Phew - glad I'm not average!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Don't worry about it.

I never messed around with attendance but still got a letter when the youngest dislocated her knee and couldn't manage to walk up the hill/dirt track to school for a week. She went in the following Monday and when they realised it meant she couldn't run up and down the stairs for each lesson, they wanted me to come and pick her up again (in 'the car' I don't own).


I never worked out exactly who was supposed to look after the sick child whilst you took the other children to school, though. An elderly neighbour isn't going to want a flu ridden child in their home. And you can't leave them alone or send a seven year old to walk to school alone or you get other parents shouting neglect (and teachers raising concerns). So there isn't much of a choice but to keep them all off sometimes if you don't have a car to leave the sick one in.


ETA: I had many absences for illness and injury. My A grades seem to disagree with the expected failure.

MERFE

My daughter had a fair amount of time off her first term in reception. She caught a few nasty colds in the first couple of months and needed the odd day off with them. Then she had chicken pox, she wasn't even the slightest bit ill but wasn't allowed to go to school. Then a tummy bug just before the Christmas term meant the first day back after Christmas I was presented with a letter saying if she had anymore time off sick for the rest of the year she'd need it confirmed by a doctor. She was only 4 as she is a younger one in the year - if she needed medicating with paracetamol for a temp when she had a cold she wasn't going to school and I wasn't going to take her to the docs for it either, what nonsense. As it turns out she wasn't ill again that year. In year 1 she had a couple of days off in the whole year but in year 2 she managed 100% attendance. She hasn't had any time off yet this year.

JimmyTheWig

Mojisola wrote: »

Illnesses don't come neatly spread out through the school year. This looks like a lot of time lost because there have been three bouts of illness in a short period.

I think to some extent that it depends on how long the OP and their child have been at the school. If they are new to the school then what is to say that they won't have these episodes spread throughout the school year?
If the child has been at the school for some time then I would like to think that they will take prior absence records into account when considering this. If they are new (e.g. just moved up or new to the area) then I think they have to take it seriously.
Since Baby P and Victoria Climbie there is a lot of pressure on the authorities to "do the right thing". Being off school for three days means, assuming a weekend is included, a 5 day gap where the child wasn't at school. This is plenty of time for bruises to heal.
I AM NOT ACCUSING THE OP OF THIS!!! But I can understand why the radar is going off. Three such occurrences in 12 weeks may suggest something is wrong.
They will investigate many such cases where only a tiny minority lead to anything wrong. But at least they are following up the leads. If three instances is too soon for them to investigate, how long should they leave a child who they think may be at risk?

Alternatively it may be that something is wrong at school and the child is feining illness to get out of it. It may be that the child is forging the sick notes (think Ferris Beuller!) and a letter home (with a threat of court, which couldn't be ignored) is the first the parents are aware of it. It could be that the parents think that this amount of sickness is average and don't realise that it may be a aign of a weakened immune system. (Again, OP, I'm not saying that this is the case here. 3 bouts of illness over a school year would be perfectly normal and if this his only absence of the year then it doesn't suggest anything about a weakened immune system. But again, without knowing, how long should the school leave it before questioning?)


Glad to hear that you are happy to talk to them about it, OP. With that sort of attitude I'm sure all will be fine.

gingin_2

MERFE wrote: »

My daughter had a fair amount of time off her first term in reception. She caught a few nasty colds in the first couple of months and needed the odd day off with them. Then she had chicken pox, she wasn't even the slightest bit ill but wasn't allowed to go to school. Then a tummy bug just before the Christmas term meant the first day back after Christmas I was presented with a letter saying if she had anymore time off sick for the rest of the year she'd need it confirmed by a doctor. She was only 4 as she is a younger one in the year - if she needed medicating with paracetamol for a temp when she had a cold she wasn't going to school and I wasn't going to take her to the docs for it either, what nonsense. As it turns out she wasn't ill again that year. In year 1 she had a couple of days off in the whole year but in year 2 she managed 100% attendance. She hasn't had any time off yet this year.

I found mine both had a lot of illness in the first term of the first year. Cold after cold. I think their immune system goes into shock!

I have 2 children, one who has had 5 days off already this year and one who has one day off since september 2011. If mine have a raised temperature, or have been physically sick they stay off, if not they go in. Last year I took my daughter in who was well but with a hacking cough and asked if she could be excused from outdoor P.E as it would just irritate it, only to be told if she wasn't well enough to do P.E, she wasn't well enough to be in school. I queried it with the head when I was leaving with her, only to be told it was fine

The worst I know that has happened at our school is that a comment gets written on the end of term report about improving attendance.