Is Grandson's School being unreasonable?

Sorry Nannan, predictive text changed your name.

I don’t think, many schools have attendance officers now, things have changed considerable over the last few years. My daughter and three other people I know work in four local schools, they only require lft tests, not PCR.
hybrid1000 your GS’s Mum could ask to see his records via a subject access request, SAR, to see what medical information they do hold, to at least see if it’s correct.
I wish you luck in resolving this difficult situation with your family.

Nannarose wrote a super concise summary about child education at age 5.

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.

I thought school children did lateral flow tests not PCR tests? With LFT you get the result within half and hour.

Nannan2

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??

If the child already has symptoms, LFTs aren't appropriate. If the school is demanding he has PCR tests, it must accept the consequences.

Gwyneth

I thought school children did lateral flow tests not PCR tests? With LFT you get the result within half and hour.

LFTs aren't appropriate if the child already has symptoms.

The school can't have it both ways. If they put these rules in place, which are sensible, given the amount of Covid in schools, then they can't complain if a pupil misses some school time because they are complying with the schools rules.

Sarnia

The school can't have it both ways. If they put these rules in place, which are sensible, given the amount of Covid in schools, then they can't complain if a pupil misses some school time because they are complying with the schools rules.

The school are not trying to "have it both ways" they are asking for a child to be tested when he is coughing. A test can be done within 24 hours. An attendance of 66% means this child is missing almost 50% of school. That's about 2 days each week. Even if he had to do a Covid test once a week and stay off 24hours until he had the all clear he still wouldn't have such low attendance.

We have had multiple PCR tests done at the drive through centres. Only one came back within 24 hours. More recently they have been closer to the 72 hour mark.

Dd3 has had a snotty email from the head of her children's school. Since the start of this term there has been noro virus in the school and covid. The children have been sent home twice each (with a cough) and had to do a test which, as others have said, took 3 or 4 days to come back.

They both had brilliant reviews with their class teachers.

For goodness sake!
If their school asked one of my great grandchildren’s parents to have these tests done so regularly on their children, I think they would be told to supply transport and escort for him or her to a testing place!!!

trisher

Sarnia

The school can't have it both ways. If they put these rules in place, which are sensible, given the amount of Covid in schools, then they can't complain if a pupil misses some school time because they are complying with the schools rules.

The school are not trying to "have it both ways" they are asking for a child to be tested when he is coughing. A test can be done within 24 hours. An attendance of 66% means this child is missing almost 50% of school. That's about 2 days each week. Even if he had to do a Covid test once a week and stay off 24hours until he had the all clear he still wouldn't have such low attendance.

It's about 12 days since the beginning of term. If he's had four incidents (OP didn't say how many) and each one is three days, they soon add up at the beginning of the year.

The home testing method is much much longer than drive though. They are turning round Drive through pcr tests in under 24 hours here although obviously it may vary area to area.

Maybe due to his Suspected Autism mum needs to do it at home. I'm sure she's not purposely trying to take the longer option

Doing it in the car with strangers could be very traumatic and overstimulating for him.

My 2 year old covers her mouth and nose and screams at the sight of a swab now. Any swab. You don't even need to be moving towards her.

My autistic daughter used to cough as a stim

I've never done a PCR test, but my partner has. He was tested on a Wednesday morning at a drive-in place and the results came back at about midday on Friday. The turn round time was only just over 48 hours, but it affected three working days.

My 2 year old covers her mouth and nose and screams at the sight of a swab now. Any swab. You don't even need to be moving towards her.

Me too, *Bibbity^, in fact I start gagging before it gets anywhere near my tonsils.

Poor little girl, it's horrible.

Bibbity

Maybe due to his Suspected Autism mum needs to do it at home. I'm sure she's not purposely trying to take the longer option

Doing it in the car with strangers could be very traumatic and overstimulating for him.

My 2 year old covers her mouth and nose and screams at the sight of a swab now. Any swab. You don't even need to be moving towards her.

My GC is a preschooler and has asthma. DD has had to take her for multiple PCR tests as she always has a cough when she gets a cold. When they go to the test centre here it is the parent who carries out the test on the child in the car. DD makes as much of a game out of it as possible and says it's a tickle and that seems to have worked so far.

And? His autism may mean that the car or strange environment do not make him comfortable and so mum has to do it at home.

As I said his mother will no doubt be aware of the drive through options. It's right next to the home delivery option.

The issue here is the school being ridiculous.

Could you change the test centre, the PCR test I had in Manchester was taken at 11am and the result came through by text 9.20 pm on the same day?

It would appear that , if the child is coughing , then a trip to the GP would be in order?
If the child is ill, then surely finding out why he coughs (Asthma or an allergy maybe) is the priority here?

She may be aware but she might not be aware of the difference in wait between the two methods. I wasnt the first time I did it, I could have been at work the next day rather than missing almost a week. As far as I can see nobody is criticising anyone.

we had the same last academic year (different school) and we had a letter off the attendance officer but nothing ever came of it

Can I just point out that in the actions they take and the reasons for those actions schools have very little "wiggle" room. Their attendance figures and the actions they have taken to pursue poor attenders are scrutinised by Ofsted and a school will be criticised and may find its rating slips down if the figures are high and due diligence in pursuing the absentee hasn't been applied. The school may be sympathetic to the family, Ofsted is never sympathetic.

Someone needs to educate the teachers(there's a suprise) coughs and sniffles are not symptoms of covid in youngsters! A lateral flow jobbie would do the trick, they're being a bunch of know alls -as usual- when they actually are getting t so wrong, poor lad must be fed up!