Is Grandson's School being unreasonable?

There must be something causing him to get a lot of coughs and colds. Take him to see the doctor, and make sure he gets enough exercise, rest, nutrition, fresh air in the house, warm enough clothing.
Check others in the household who may be carrying some infection or allergen such as cigarette smoke.

I think he can go to school with a cough as long as he has a negative lft test each morning?

Our school asked siblings of positive cases to do daily lft tests and they could then come in. Many had coughs and colds and were coming in with negative lfts

That turned out to be a bad idea and covid spread across the school but the school and parents were only following the rules so...

I can empathise with both sides, as a teacher and the mother of a chronic asthmatic child, who had to carry an epipen.

As a teacher, I understand why tests are being requested to keep everyone safe. Furthermore, in my own LA, after so many absences, the system triggered letters automatically, which obviously caused upset to parent.
However, absences will be recorded as authorised or non authorised. I would hope the absences are recorded as authorised. It does make a difference.

I assume that you have had discussions with the school and arranged for course work to be done at home, if the child is well enough.
My five year old DGD had to shield and although back at school, the school are very understanding about her poor health, requiring absences on occasions. Fortunately, I am there to help keep on top of school work. Others don't have that luxury.

You don't say if he has underlying medical conditions, but as a parent, I would be contacting my GP and informing him/her about my worries about the constant coughs, colds and pressure from the school.
Most GPs are very understanding, Fortunately my son was monitored by the children's health doctor, who visited schools.

Please try not to worry, there is usually a solution, it's just about finding the way in.

Excellent post by Marydoll. We are lucky to have such experts on GN.

Unfortunately, as he is only 5 years old, the School isn't giving him any work to do at home, so he is now falling behind.

As for Health Conditions, a few years ago the Doctor said she thought he might be Asthmatic because Asthma runs in the Family on his Father's side, but his Mum says that he was tested for Asthma last year and they said he doesn't have Asthma after all.
However, he does have a Genetic Condition, which he inherited from his Mum, which has resulted in part of one of his Genes being missing, and in the Literature given to us by the Geneticist, it does say that people who have this Gene Deletion tend to be quite susceptible to Infections.

hybrid1000 - with this information, I think it would be useful for the family to see the school nurse. They can liaise with the GP, make sense of the genetic information and work with the school.

A lot of routine work for school nurses and health visitors has been disrupted - normally they would have been made aware of children with such a condition, but I can see how it may have slipped through.

BTW, at 5, I think all he needs to do is to be reading, drawing, doing activities he likes, with people talking to him about numbers etc.

If it was me, hybrid I would be back at the doctor, expressing my concerns.

If his condition is noted on his personal information, the school should be aware of it and taking it into account. If not, time to let the school know and request a meeting with the headteacher.

As for undiagnosed asthma, as usual, I have a tale to tell.
In my last year at university, I became very ill had a persistent, barking cough, breathlessness and was generally unwell.

I had all sorts of tests and was eventually told I didn't have asthma, that it was just nerves and told to pull myself together.
By the time I was six stone and newly married, I was too ill to work. My mother made such a fuss that my GP decided to refer me to another hospital, a teaching one in Glasgow. I went and had all sorts of investigations and returned the following week for results to be immediately admitted to intensive care. I was in there for six weeks, got out on Christmas Eve, only because I cried so much, they were afraid I would make myself worse.

I was diagnosed with brittle asthma, which is a killer. My wonderful consultant told me that I would have died if I hadn't been admitted. The scary thing was my mum and husband were sent for and told to prepare for the worst.
Yet here am am, still getting on with my life, because my mum made a fuss.

Please don't think I mean your grandon will die of asthma, but something has to be done to give him a better quality of life. He can't do it, so others have to fight his corner.

I will now get off my soapbox! I really hope you can all get support.

With regards to the school I would write an email to the head stating how ridiculous it is that they are challenging his absences when they are the ones demanding he be absent. That going forward they make the decision to either leg your Grandson return to school with negative LFTs or they accept the absence as a result of their policies.

Regarding his school work my daughter is 5 and at this age the parents can focus on reading and number counting and sums etc. if the class are focusing on a topic eg space they can do some Googling around that.

Nannarose - Thanks for that advice, I will pass it on to his Mum, and hopefully they can work something out.
I know that the School are aware that he has a Genetic Deletion, and that it can also cause Autism, and that he is on the waiting list for an Autism Assessment, but I don't think the Information given by the Geneticist has been passed on to them, so they are not fully aware of how this Genetic Deletion affects him.

My advice is not an email, but speaking personally, if possible. Speaking from experience, sometimes the tone of an email, can be misinterpreted and sometimes we as parents misunderstand.
The best way forward, in my opinion, (others have the right to disagree) is for everyone to work together, the child is the most important person in all of this.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to radio 4 to one of the health programmes. There was a paediatrician talking about the huge increase in coughs, colds and other viral infections. She was sure that this increase was due to most people being shut away for a year and a half and many of these infectious are worse than before because the immune system is out of practice. She was expecting more children would be admitted suffering with more severe infection.

Earlier this week on Gransnet there were a number complaining about having a super cold. It’s reasonable to assume that there will be far more viral illnesses this year due to compromised immune systems and more mixing between people.

Surely, if anyone has had a negative PCR/LFT test, surely this should be accepted and children should continue to go to school, providing they are well enough. If a child is ill it should not be noted as an unauthorised absence.

It seems that some school administrations have little common sense when it comes to health questions.

Marydoll - Thanks for that advice, I will pass it on, every time he gets a Cough it is a Wheezy, Barking type of Cough, and he gets very tired and lethargic, won't eat much, and it sometimes causes him to Vomit, but the Doctor's just keep saying it is Croup and therefore nothing to worry about.
But having Asthma myself, and having brought up 2 Sons with Asthma, as well as having 2 Sisters with Asthma, I have always said that it sounds to me more like an Asthma type Cough.

In view of your grandsons genetic condition and autism assessment, I suggest you ask for a meeting with the schools SEN coordinator and provide the information from the geneticist so that it can be shared with his teacher. Write it all down as well so the school have a copy.

As regards school work, I used to help my children by buying fun workbooks appropriate to their ability or year at school which we did at home. I’m not sure if such books are still published but there will be lots of material online which could be printed off. Also try the library for age appropriate reading books.

If he is accepted to have some SEN needs, could be health related not just learning, the school are required to provide work to do at home linked to what is being covered in the classroom. Or at least that was the case before I retired three years ago.

However, it can be hard to get support when only five years old as many schools do not assess children that young so you might need to be persistent.

I guess that if the school is requesting these tests, then they cannot grumble when it causes him to be off school!

But schools are between a rock and a hard place: they are under pressure to follow covid rules and under pressure to reach attendance targets - they can be downgraded on their OfSted if the attendance falls below a certain level.

I wouldn't be too sure that the school know anything with regard to your grandsons health.
They have managed to avoid knowing anything about my grandson, despite being emailed, phoned, spoken to in person, and having it written on his school file when he began senior school.
It may be worth checking how much info is being filtered to the people who should have it to hand.

Why is he missing 3-5 days each time? PCR tests are turned around in less than 24hrs in most cases now.

DC sent home for test last Tuesday, test slot at 5pm, results in (negative) at 8:45am the next morning.. barely missed a few hours school

hybrid, same thing happened with my wee granddaughter.
A year old, persistent cough, being sick and screaming, but my DIL had been dismissed as a new mum, who was overreacting.

On one of our childminding days, she was very ill, but I couldn't get an appointment for her, so marched up to the health centre, not my own, so knew no-one and asked to see someone.
The receptionist took one look and got a very shirty GP, who was most annoyed at me for walking in off the street..

After examining her he agreed that she was very unwell and I had been right to insist. Once I explained about the family history and my concern, he totally changed his attitude and said she was too young to diagnose, but he too was sure she was asthmatic. My youngest son was diagnosed as a toddler.
She was referred right away to the children's hospital, where she has been receiving excellent care ever since.

I am a bit of a wimp about some things, but when it comes to my family I will fight tooth and nail for them.

Backedintoacorner

Why is he missing 3-5 days each time? PCR tests are turned around in less than 24hrs in most cases now.

DC sent home for test last Tuesday, test slot at 5pm, results in (negative) at 8:45am the next morning.. barely missed a few hours school

Ours are very much the 72hour side. They've said demand for them is through the roof here.

I've had this problem all my youngest sons life(he's now 18) he was born very early with lung disease, on oxygen 18mths- and chronic asthma all his life- he was always off school in winter mostly, often 2- 3 wks at a time if he got really ill, and he's now having to re-do his previous college year, so he can do his course- it does NOT make a difference either,Marydoll, even if its been AUTHORISED due to illness- it still goes down and down against attendance- at one point my sons was down to 23% - even though they knew he was truly ill- he isn't as bad this year so far (?) but largely i think as he had pneumonia jab last year, and has flu jab every year, and still wears a mask etc. But his asthma was regarded as severe and uncontrolled by his neurologist who put him on the shielding list last year also.College make them all do LFT tests regularly and don't need the PCR tests unless LFT shows positive.Its same in schools as far as I've learned from my Grand kids.

Backedintoacorner - It's because each time that the School says he needs a PCR, she goes online to request a Home Test Kit, which according to her, takes 2 days to arrive, then has to be posted back to them, and then takes 2-3 days to get the result.

But from what you just said, it sounds like she would be better off taking him to an actual testing site which would reduce the amount of time he is Absent for.
I am sure there must be a PCR Testing Site near her that she could take him to.
I will look into that and let her know.

And i agree with Bibbity- the school can't have it both ways, and surely they must have other kids in school with asthma, who often have coughs-They can't keep them all out if they've had negative LFT tests, surely??

You could always stock in a couple of PCR test kits as they have a good shelf life.and then if they request it from school you already have it, can do it immediately then child can return straight away if its negative.

My GS was diagnosed aged 2 as having a "paediatric wheeze" doctors today don't usually use the term asthma until 6+. He has had around a dozen PCR tests all of which have proved negative and has missed very little school and then only as a result of other symptoms such as a high temperature. So actually it is perfectly possible to test and maintain attendance. The school are simply doing their job and protecting other children and staff. His low attendance is the result of the chosen method of testing.

Nanban, we can agree to differ and I respect your opinion. However, in my school, there was a difference and our experiences have been different. That is to be expected. Where are you posting from?

I spoke both a teacher and a parent.
We had an attendance officer who chased up the unauthorised absences.

By everyone working together, a better outcome can be achieved.