Debra

No I meant that the head is the administrator, coordinator and he's also the final call for the teaching staff and CPE to deal with pupils and parents on any subject.  I thought the CPE was in charge of discipline, which is probably why this one has decided to be a stickler for keeping the attendance records up to date as if the kids don't bring in their late slips or absence slips, they get a disciplinary black mark and it affects their 'vie scolaire' moyen (perhaps everyone is behaving nicely and so she has time to be a stickler for paperwork!).   It's the CPE who gives that mark for the end of trimester bulletin.  Each teacher has their own behaviour mark to add to the test and homework marks to make up the subject moyens but the CPE does the overall behaviour in school and playground and general paperwork (like those excuse slips) and is who the children get sent to by a teacher who can't handle a disciplinary problem, with the head as the last resort.

I've had meetings with the head when I've made a complaint about bullying (CPE was there too) and to discuss redoubling (principal prof there too) and he usually does a speech at the beginning of any meetings.  Isn't he an administrator and coordinator?  If it's the CPE I'm supposed to talk to I'll have to find out if she has a direct number because the only time I get her is when I want to speak to a teacher or the head!

That's good to know, Clair.  We have a post desk in our mairie office but it's only open at certain hours.  We have a post box outside the mairie which the post lady collects from.  As the mairie is only next door but one to me it's not inconvenient but my problem is I always need a stamp.  Even when I get those prepaid envelopes from people, they never seem to cover the weight of what they want me to send!  Do you buy a selection of stamps and weigh your letters at home, then? (For payments I would still do it online though as it's cheaper than an envelope and stamp.)

You may have it already and not realise?  Click on 'virements' and you should see a screen showing a drop down selection of the sending account and the same again for the receiving account and under that, a box to click on which says '+saisir une autre compte beneficiaire' .  Mine has a little message saying 'authentification forte' next to it and when I click on it, I see a button saying 'demande de SMS' next to a message saying what my registered telephone number is - or at least it shows enough to remind me which one it is with a lot of the numbers replaced with Xs.  I click on the button and a box appears for me to put the SMS code in when it arrives.  After that I can add the SWIFT code and IBAN number for whoever I want to pay and then select them to pay to forever afterwards.

You can register to set up online payment details yourself by registering a mobile phone number to which they send an SMS  message with an authorisation code each time you want to set up a new person or organisation to make payments to.  This is a bit of a pain for us as we have to go outside to get a mobile phone signal and hope the bank screen doesn't time out while we're waiting!  It does work though.  I use it for people I need to pay things to more than once but also for those payments which need posting as it's cheaper than paying for a stamp, envelope and petrol to get the post office!  I also have details for other accounts and family set up so I can send money to them if need be.

So here we are and it's now the turn of my eldest to catch the dreaded bug.  So thinking I'd be all efficient, I fired off an email at 7.45 this morning just after the exodus for the college bus and before getting distracted with walking my youngest to his bus stop.  Then, to be safe, at 8.30 when the lessons start and the office opens, my husband phoned the secretary to let her know and got 'yes - I got your wife's email and I know that he is ill'.  Yet still, at around 10am, the phone call - from the CPE!  The secretary didn't pass the email or phone message on to her so now she's noted it, apparently.  Still - at least whilst busy answering my inquisition as to why she was calling she forgot to interrogate me about the doctor! Son says it's probably her who normally calls, rather than the secretary, as she is a new CPE this year and her 'thing' is absences.  The old one didn't bother as long as there had been a call from a parent or a message via a sibling.  So perhaps it's the CPE I'm supposed to call.......

When we planted fruit trees we found that fencing the individual trees was necessary and worked.  This was strange since the deer managed to get over 2m fencing with no trouble but didn't damage the trees that had individual circles of sheep netting around them.  We decided it was probably because it was easier to eat the other shrubs and trees nearby than to make a special effort to get to the fruit trees.

Ah - just remembered Norman's problem with squinting at porn!

Norman banned from somewhere?  I'm shocked!

That red stuff is brilliant though, Idun - heals wounds really well.  Horrible to get off though and of course looks bad for ages - picture a  4 yr old covered in chicken pox with that painted on! The little (orange and purple) tubes of crystals were prescribed to my son who had the nervous stomach - one was to calm him down but I can't remember what the other was for.  I'm not sure whether they weren't just a placebo!

They still sell Kaolin and Morphine in our chemist in the UK - I've got a couple of bottles of that in the cupboard too that I brought over with me!  Wouldn't recommend it then?!

I know coke is a diuretic but any idea why it soothes gripe pains, DD? 15 mins is good to know.  He was throwing it back up again pretty quickly and I was wondering whether he actually absorbed any.  I feel that it's better to drink lots of water because as well as washing out whatever is upsetting them it helps and is less painful if they actually have something to vomit up rather than just doing that dry heaving thing.  If things don't improve quickly I usually move to a home made rehydration solution which has a bit of salt and sugar in it (can't remember off the top of my head - I usually look up the recipe when I need it).   I remembered I have some Smecta sachets in the medicine cupboard from when my other son had a period where he just seemed to have the runs all the time.  It was when he first started college and continued on and off for weeks and I was concerned there was something wrong with either the water or the food there so I took him to see the doctor!  The doctor thought it must be nerves and said to stop him having milk in the mornings because that doesn't agree with some children and to give him Smecta when he had a bout.   The son who was ill this weekend has recovered well and has no stomach upset now but for future reference, is the Smecta better than giving a child loparamide if the diarrhoea is acute?  Not a nice subject I know, but I gave  him it (unusually for me) because it was really bad, like water, and he couldn't hold it and was quite upset about it. 

I don't understand that ban though - everybody already knows her name and the old reports are still all over the 'net so if you google the teacher's name you get her name anyway, so what's the point of a ban at this stage?

:) my husband would be impressed with the pastis medicine! Re coke - that's one I've used for years (since my eldest was a baby) but I have to stress it is flat coke and not straight from the bottle carbonated coke.  You put a little sugar in  and that makes it fizz up and then go flat.  I give that if they have gripe pains and it works really well to stop the pain.  I don't give it when they're vomiting or have the runs (unless it is the latter alone and they have gripe pains).  Sugared water works for babies too. I can't remember who told me about that but I do remember being impressed at the time because I tried it myself and being prone to ulcers, coke wouldn't be the first thing I would think of but it worked!  It's the high potassium in the BRAT diet that's supposed to help stop diarrhoea. 

Could be!  I don't like giving them drugs unless I really have to.  That's the first time I've ever given one of my kids loperamide to stop diarrhoea and that was because it was the worst case I've seen.   I have this idea that they need to wash the system out and taking something to stop that working might just hold the germs in but in this case, I really felt he needed something to help.  He's gone to school bright and cheery today and is off the BRAT diet so my treatment seems to have worked! 

Just had a thought - maybe she phoned me because the boys are in different classes this year and its not so easy to check.  I think what I'll do from now on is send them an email at the point when I make the decision they're not going in - then there is no worry about phone lines or one child remembering to tell the other's principal teacher that they're sick. Still don't fancy sending them in when they've been ill all the day before - or dragging them out to see a doctor to prove it or agree with me that they shouldn't go in, either!

They're ok with us not phoning as I've said.  A child wouldn't go missing without their siblings noticing.  We phone if the line is working and if they were all off we'd go over the road and phone from a mobile phone if it wasn't, as there wouldn't be anyone to tell them or for them to check with.  It was whether I'm obliged to see a doctor that I wasn't sure of and now Norman has pointed out that it isn't obligatory, I feel better. Maybe it's just that the secretary has a list of questions she's supposed to ask when a child is off sick.

My husband did try to call but we can't always get a line out.  We asked whether it was necessary for this reason and were told no - what is necessary is to fill in the absence slip.  I could send them an email as our internet connection is often working when the phone line isn't (we have Alsatis and it isn't very reliable sometimes).  It's not calling that's a problem - if they mentioned that then we'd call but it's the doctor thing.  I'd wonder if it was because it's a gastro thing and it might fall under one of those contagious diseases listed and so they expect you to see a doctor just in case, but the secretary asked the same when my other son was bad with a cold/flu last time.  It's not that we don't have the money for a consultation but that I don't believe in seeing a doctor for something that I can treat at home and for which the doctor will only tell me to do what I'm doing anyway.  It's also that it's more comfortable for the child to stay home.  If it was our UK doctor he'd make it clear we didn't really need to see him and would be quite annoyed if we called him out!  

That's always been my attitude, Idun, but because they always ask the question I wondered if it was a requirement. The procedure isn't supposed to be that we phone but that we fill in an authorised absence slip which they hand into the CPE upon their return but maybe I'll start phoning instead!  Norman that link says no medical certificate is necessary but that we should let them know so perhaps that's the answer.  I expect I'll still get asked if we've seen a doctor but at least I now know it's not a requirement!

Right - but it's a bit odd for it to end up in the news.  How did that happen? If his daughter got it there to embarrass him then I think she only embarrassed herself! 

My son was ill yesterday.  He was throwing up from around 7am until midday and then was weak and had diarrhoea until the early evening.  He really wasn't up to going to school today but will probably be fine tomorrow. I did what I usually do in these situations and gave him plenty of fluids, even though he kept being sick, to help flush out whatever had upset his stomach and keep him hydrated.  Once he stopped being sick and started feeling a little hungry, I introduced BRAT diet foods to help combat the diarrhoea and also gave him loparamide as directed on the instructions that come with it.  This morning he's had toast so we still haven't strayed from the BRAT diet foods but I'm sure he'll be able to manage more for lunch and eat a normal dinner with us, albeit a smaller portion than normal. The school rang, as they do, to ask where he is and I said he was ill.  The secretary told me that in France they don't keep them off for 24 hours after been sick or having diarrhoea (no wonder so many bugs get around!) and I told her even though he hasn't been sick through the night, he wouldn't have been up to school today so I'd left him in bed.  She asked if he's coming in tomorrow and I said yes, assuming he looks ok today.  She asked if I've taken him to see the doctor and I said no, there wasn't any need.  This latter is my problem.  Any time I keep a child off sick they want to know if I've taken them to the doctor and I get the impression I'm supposed to drag them out in any weather to see a doctor as somehow they're not really ill if I don't do that!  I really don't see the point of seeing a doctor for something like this (or a cold or flu) unless it doesn't clear up at what I consider to be a normal rate.  Is this just a culture difference, a result of the whole 'I have coverage and a top-up so I'll get my money's worth and see the doctor at every opportunity' thing (even on a Sunday) or is there some rule that says you have to see a doctor if you keep a child off school?

Probably because it looks like the ones the kids call 'stink bugs' - didn't realise they'd been imported from America!

......or public chemin or whatever - basically every time they leave their own land, if their vehicles aren't immatriculated or even  if the adults' is, if the little one is outside their own land on one.

I'd have a quiet word with the maire and explain that if he/she doesn't use his/her police powers to stop it you're going to have to start calling the gendarmerie every time they're out on the public road.

Yes that's true whether it's taxable in the UK or not.  The governments reserve the right to tax their own pensions and social charges are defined as a tax under the double taxation treaty.