when a child is off sick from school ?

Mojisola

susieanne wrote: »

The school are now threatening me saying if they are off again i will be reported and talking about i may end up in court.

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

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.

Agree with all your post, Jimmy, but the first reaction from the school should be a chat with the parents so that the school can assess the situation, not a letter threatening court action.

I've had problems with children being ill and needing to stay off school (eventually diagnosed with ME) and initially the school and the family worked together on the problem and I was quite happy for the EWO to come to the house to see us all. If the school's first response had been a letter talking about court action, I wouldn't have been half so cooperative!

ruthybabs

5 days off for a cold is a whole week-or possibly longer if over a weekend. I find it hard to believe that a cold would make a child unable to attend school for that long. Most colds whilst leaving you below par for a good few days only have a day or 2 where you may be unable to function.

Missing nearly a day a week for a term is an awful lot. I would be concerned at how much my child was missing.

I am not unsympathetic by the way- I am a mum of 5 and know that kids get ill and get bugs and sometimes get run down and get 2 or 3 things after another, but unless they are really very ill and unable to do much more than sleep or are very contagious, I rarely keep my children off at all and certainly not for more than a day or 2. (And yes I have had the child that is 4 and 3 weeks when they started school and the child who recurrently gets tonsilitis and was very ill.)

Vitamin supplements or a tonic like minadex may help if the child is recurrently ill as they can help boost them up and make them less vulnerable to the myriad of germs in school.

The school has an obligation to query attendance that falls below a certain level.

mandragora_2

tyllwyd wrote: »

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!

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RTP-09-02.pdf
p57 of this report has stats and a graph, along with the not-too startling statement that:
'There is a clear relationship between absence and progress
between Key Stages, with average CVA scores falling as absence increases. However, only for those pupils missing more than 10% of sessions is progress substantially harmed.'

So it's not too surprising that there is a drive to act on attendance which falls to near the 90% mark.

This is the guide the govt produces which summarises all the key legal info relating to attendance for parents information.
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

andy.m_2

Speaking from experience, witha tummy bug or owt, our lad is champing at the bit to be back at school the next day, and a cold will maybe make him feel down for a day at the most. Children's metabolisms are such that illnesses have little to no effect on them.
Admittedly if there is an infectious disease then that is different, but you list days off for cold and 3 day stints for tummy bug, are you not letting your child turn into a wettie when in reality they could be back at school next day or 2 at most?

Don't listen to those that will say it is a blanket standard letter, schools deal with thousands of children, they know a mile off if someone is taking the p1s5 and are duty bound to react acordingly.

jellyhead

Also, if a child seems to have a lot of colds or flu type symptoms and is too ill for school regularly it's worth getting checked by the GP.

My eldest had some blood tests when he was in year 8, or maybe year 9. There was nothing wrong with him, but the GP commented on how he looked like he was wasting away, same as his form tutor had said. He seemed weak and flu-like too often, and let's face it a 10% absence rate isn't something they can do long term - they'd fail at college/uni/apprenticeship or get kicked out of a job.

I thought my eldest might have been anaemic but he was fine, and it passed within a year or so. The GP said it might have been a mystery virus after swine flu. School sent him home at the drop of a hat because he 'looked so forlorn'.

jellyhead

andy.m wrote: »

Speaking from experience, witha tummy bug or owt, our lad is champing at the bit to be back at school the next day, and a cold will maybe make him feel down for a day at the most. Children's metabolisms are such that illnesses have little to no effect on them.
Admittedly if there is an infectious disease then that is different, but you list days off for cold and 3 day stints for tummy bug, are you not letting your child turn into a wettie when in reality they could be back at school next day or 2 at most?

Don't listen to those that will say it is a blanket standard letter, schools deal with thousands of children, they know a mile off if someone is taking the p1s5 and are duty bound to react acordingly.

A wettie? That's a rude word around here.

barbiedoll

My son had a terrible attendance record last year, he had 3 different episodes of sickness, he was off for a week each time, all over the course of around 4 months.

The school sent us a letter asking us to attend a meeting with the "truancy officer". My husband wasn't very happy, our son wasn't truanting, he had been ill and the school had been notified by us both by phone and in writing.

My husband attended the meeting (I was at work) and he was surprised at how helpful the school were. They asked if there were any other factors, such as bullying or worries over coping with the work. When they were reassured that DS really had just had a spate of picking up bugs, they were no problem. We had seen the GP anyway, as DS eventually ended up with a chest infection and when we mentioned that DS had been ill several times, he commented that some children do tend to pick up viruses etc more easily during puberty. I'd never heard that before so I have no idea if it's true.

No-one is going to take OP to court just because a child has been off sick a few times! It's good that they are keeping an eye on attendance, we'd all moan if our kids were skiving off and no-one at the school had noticed or bothered to tell us. Schools are damned if they do and damned if they don't!

thegirlintheattic

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Can't help you with procedure, except to say the school will simply be following their protocol and like you, I wouldn't be concerned. It sounds like your child has been unlucky; I think that's the way illness goes sometimes as one's immume system is weakened.

My kids drag themselves in when I sometimes don't think they should, but I'm a bit surprised by some of the comments. It's parental choice and judgement whether to send a child into school when they are ill, or simply feeling unwell. Personally, the way education is these days with tests every week and what I see as fairly stressful environments, I don't think they're the place to be if you're not feeling virtually 100%. Also, there'd be much less spreading round of horrible colds and other illnesses, that make you feel quite dreadul (wanting to be in bed all day) if people didn't drag themselves in to school when they should be resting. Is this really in the child's interest?

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. Research suggests you can cover a GCSE curriculum in an average of (only!) 30 hours, just to keep perspective on time efficiency in schools and illness related absences.

As a parent, I am legally responsible for my child's education, so time off for illness should fall firmly on my shoulders and not the schools.

The statistics are overall attendance averages - not a select group - so illness and all included. BUT they are average, some kids do a lot worse, some do a lot better. It's still a worrying statstic, and whilst some children do catch up, it is often (especially at GCSE) not as good as being in the lesson in my experience.

As for covering a GCSE curriculum in 30 hours, that is complete codswallop - a unit of most GCSEs take a minimum of 20 hours, and often the material builds on prior learning so if you have missed a lesson you then struggle with the next bit of work.

jellyhead

I suspect that teenagers who find school a demoralising struggle because they can't keep up are going to take more time off than those who love school. This might explain why those with lowest attendance don't do so well.

zoesmummy_2006

my son started reception in september and has so far had about 10 days off. Hes had tonsillitis and had 3 days off with that cos he had a raging temp, was listless and drowsy all the time. Then he caught the dreaded sick bug (and passed it onto his sister!!) and he was ill with that physically for 3 days and the school wouldnt allow him back until he'd been clear for 48 hours. So even after he stopped being sick and was feeling better he had to stay home another 2 days. And then school called me cos he was burning up and complaining of feeling poorly, I went to get him and he'd fallen asleep in class. He had tonsillitis again :-( fortunately that was friday morning so he had the weekend to get better.

I had his first parents evening a couple of weeks ago and was concerned about the time off he'd had already and spoke to his teachers but they said not to worry, that they expect illnesses this time of year. xx