A mum was left annoyed by a teacher's 'utterly ridiculous' comment after her daughter caught chickenpox and had to spend a few days off school. Taking to Mumsnet, the anonymous parent explained that after contracting the highly contagious disease, her child was off school for a week to give her time to recover.
She claims she was called by the school to pick up her daughter after spots started appearing on her skin and followed the guidance on how long to keep her home for. However, the girl's teacher was left unimpressed by her absence and voiced her concerns at parent's evening.
As reported by the Mirror, the mum wrote: "My daughter is never off school. Couple of months ago chicken pox going round the class and school phoned and asked I collect her and she had come out in spots and it was going around.
"She had chicken pox and was off a week, as per the guidance.
"Anyway, parents evening today and teacher says at the end she needs to improve attendance. I said she has only had a week off when the school called for me to collect and she had chicken pox. Teacher agrees and then says again she needs to improve attendance. I repeated that was the only time she had off which couldn’t be avoided.
"Am I being unreasonable to come away annoyed?"
Dozens of people responded to the mum's post with many agreeing the attendance policy sounded "daft" and "unrealistic" and that it was unlikely the teacher's fault. "It's an unrealistic political policy foisted on schools and the buck gets passed down the chain, no matter how daft it is," one person wrote.
Another said: "God, that must have been frustrating." A third posted: "Utterly ridiculous situation. I expect it wasn't the teacher's fault and they just have to say it. That or are you sure she's not bunking off class?"
Someone else added: "The teacher would have been given a list of children and told to tell their parents their attendance needs improving. Please don't be annoyed at the teacher. And don't think they're an idiot! Attendance and punctuality has nothing to do with class teachers apart from taking the register."
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