A GROUP of parents were left fuming after they rushed to pick up their children from school having been told they had a temperature – only to find it was the “faulty” class thermometer to blame.
The incident allegedly happened yesterday at a primary school in the East Midlands, but the mistake wasn’t realised until after the children had left.
A teaching assistant realised the error was down to a dodgy thermometer rather than an actual health issue with any of the children.
However, parents were less than impressed after downing tools to collect their offspring, with one parent sharing their story in a post.
The anonymous parent took to social media to rant about the gaffe yesterday, claiming: “Had a phone call at 3pm to pick up my ‘poorly’ child from school.
“His school finishes at 3:30pm but I’ve just had a call at 3pm to collect him as he has a high temperature, came out of work and went to pick him up.
“Why couldn’t they just wait till 3:30 but whatever, got to school reception and found 15 other parents were there picking their kids up from the same class.
“All had high temperatures but otherwise fine.
“Just found out from the TA that the class thermometer was faulty, oh boy the WhatsApp group chat is kicking off.”
The post received over 5,000 likes with hundreds of comments from supportive parents who shared their own tales of their children trying to get a sick day.
One said: “I’d be concerned that after 15 measurements out of the norm, no one thought to check the measuring device until it was too late. Go check their science homework.”
Another added: “I’m so glad my child is 35 and we didn’t have WhatsApp groups when he was at school. Nightmare.”
A third replied: “One kid played the system but forgot to recalibrate the thermometer after scamming the teacher.”
Another confessed: “I used to fake being sick in primary when I fancied going home early. But the school would only call home if you were vomiting.
“So, I’d chew up two or three digestives (which of course I conveniently had on me) and spit it into the sick bucket.
“Managed to do this a fair few times until I was caught chewing the biscuit. That brought an end to my streak.”
A fifth commented: “Confuddled – why are they randomly checking kids’ temperatures in the middle of the afternoon anyway?”
Another revealed: “Around this time last year, I had a phone call that my lad (6 at the time) was having ‘severe chest pain’.
“He was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition a few months prior so of course I picked him up and took him to A&E.
“As I got to the school, he was brought out with a grin on his face, this should have been my sign.
“The hospital took it very seriously because of his diagnosis, hooked him up to an ECG and checked everything.
“The staff were brilliant and got everything done very quick. The problem…f***ing heart burn from the spicy curry we had the night before.”
Schools are very stringent in their rules when it comes to sickness and ill health with children, especially after Covid – a high temperature will usually send a child home for the day.
