11 Plus Exams Forum

My 11 year old son was off school with a viral infection last week and therefore missed the intense (very pressured) SATS practice. The doctor said he had a viral infection. Appearing to be recovered I sent him in on the Thursday but was called 2 hours in to be told he'd been sick and to fetch him. When I said I would keep him off on the Friday, so as to minimise the risk of him passing it on, and possibly causing other kids to miss the SATS this week, the receptionist agreed. He went back to school Monday as was, seemingly better, but yesterday, when he came out, he had a sky high temperature, was shivering and had an immense headeache. During the night he deteriorated, vomiting numerous times, soaking wet through with sweat. I followed the correct absence procedure by leaving a message on the school answer phone at 7:30am. At 8:39am the school called asking if he could go in. I explained what was wrong and heard the headmaster in the background say 'no-one's that ill'. I was then, what I felt, pressured into agreeing to take him in for an hour at 11am, despite telling them that I doubt he even had the energy for the walk there. I then took my son to the doctors who said he had a viral infection and should not go into school. I asked for written confirmation of this and he gave me a print out which said viral infection, plenty of fluids, paracetamol and rest. On phoning the school to inform them my son would not be going in as he was far to ill and the doctor had agreed, the receptionist said 'so he can't come in for an hour?' This happened yesterday and my son is off again today due to still being ill.
Am I being too overly sensitive here, with regards to my anger at the way the school have responded? They were all too eager to call me when he'd been sick the week before and to keep him off. At a pre-sats meeting months ago, the headmaster insisted that the kids would not be pressured and that if a child was ill, then they were ill. Your thoughts would be truly appreciated.

hermione1968 wrote: Am I being too overly sensitive here, with regards to my anger at the way the school have responded? They were all too eager to call me when he'd been sick the week before and to keep him off. At a pre-sats meeting months ago, the headmaster insisted that the kids would not be pressured and that if a child was ill, then they were ill. Your thoughts would be truly appreciated.

No you are not. Presumably if he was one of the less able children they would not be making such a fuss. Hope he feels better soon.

You are not being overly sensitive at all! You are supposed to keep a child off school for 48 hrs after they have been sick (with a viral infection not too much chocolate cake!) It would serve them right if all the children got it!
I agree with Mad! I bet they'd be begging you to keep him at home if he was expected to get level 3's!

Hope he gets better soon!

You were quite right to keep the poor child at home.
Our DD did not go in for the SATs although she was not ill. Lots of comments from the school of possible adverse consequences but all nonsense. Her lack of SATs results have had no effect whatsoever.

Of course you did the right thing Hermione. It's absolutely ludicrous to drag in a sick child for the sake of results. I think it's just sad that schools are under so much pressure regarding SATS and the accompanying league tables that the Head would behave like this.

http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HP ... 4947358374


HPA advice, quite right not to send him in. GP could quite rightly be p****d off (sorry technical medical term) that they have tried to override his / her advice

completely unreasonable behaviour from the school in my opinion

Just1-2go wrote:I bet they'd be begging you to keep him at home if he was expected to get level 3's!

Not so - this is the madness of league tables. Any child absent is counted as not having achieved any level. Of course there should be a way of recording absent pupils but that could be abused as some schools might 'encourage' certain pupils to be 'ill'.

Of course you were right to keep your child at home, it just shows what a ridiculous system it is to judge schools by. Let's hope this is the last year.

I was joking!