PARENTS have been urged to medicate their sick children before sending them to school by a head teacher battling to keep up attendance levels.

The advice issued by Sylvan Infants, based on Livingstone Road in Poole, in its January newsletter has been described as “foolhardy” by a Dorset GP.

Darryl Walsh, the school’s head teacher, wrote: “A lot of parents are phoning in to say that their child has a bad cough or a temperature.

“Our advice would be please medicate your child first thing in the morning and send them into school.

“If your child continues to be poorly at school we will send them home.”

Mr Walsh made the comments after revealing whole school attendance levels are currently at 95.5 per cent, half a per cent lower than the target set by the Department for Education.

He said an attendance schools worker will also be visiting some parents because attendance has not improved over time.

Mr Walsh added: “We all suffer from coughs and colds and our children need to build up their resistance to these illnesses.

“At home they are missing out on precious learning time.

“We would only expect you to keep your child off for sickness, diarrhoea or if they have an exceptionally high temperature.”

Dr Tom McKinstry, former chairman of the British Medical Association’s East Dorset division, said: “I think if a child has a proven temperature then it would be foolhardy to take them to school.”

The long-serving GP added that coughs and sore throats can be a sign of a developing infection and that it “isn’t worth the risk” of a child attending school, only for them to then spread it to their peers.

And NHS guidelines state: “If your child has a raised temperature, they shouldn’t attend school. They can return 24 hours after they start to feel better.”

Mr Walsh issued a statement to the Echo, which said: “We believe it is vitally important that children attend school whenever possible and that absence is kept to an absolute minimum. Any time away from school can have a significant impact on a child’s progress and we work with parents to avoid this where possible.

“The newsletter was written to alert parents to an attendance issue that had come to the school's attention, and we used the opportunity to reiterate the school’s policy on illness-related absence.

"We hoped this advice would help support parents when making the decision to either send or not send their child into school.

“We rely on our good relationship with parents to ensure successful running of the school and would always encourage those with any concerns to contact or visit the school directly to resolve these.”