I can't believe...

[di marco]

oh ok, maybe if youre in fulltime education and 18 or under you can get them for free. i just assumed everyone had to pay for them cos i know of people who have had to pay for their doctors notes (and i think its quite expensive too!). though i wouldnt have thought doctors write notes for just anytime you were sick, if you always needed a doctors note for when you were off school youre not just gonna go down there if youre just off for the day with a migraine or something, i think the doctors would get fed up of having to do it lol! (i dont think i explained that very well but oh well i know what i meant! ). and i wasnt saying every parent would pretend their kids were sick when they were skiving (cos mine wouldnt either) but can you honestly say that no parent would do that? i was just saying that how is it proof you were actually sick just cos your parents have written a note?

A doctor's note is different from a sick note. The pink sick notes are free. Asking a doctor to write a letter on headed paper is what you have to pay for.

so whats the difference then? why would you bother paying for one if you can get them for free?

[Abigail]

oh ok, maybe if youre in fulltime education and 18 or under you can get them for free. i just assumed everyone had to pay for them cos i know of people who have had to pay for their doctors notes (and i think its quite expensive too!). though i wouldnt have thought doctors write notes for just anytime you were sick, if you always needed a doctors note for when you were off school youre not just gonna go down there if youre just off for the day with a migraine or something, i think the doctors would get fed up of having to do it lol! (i dont think i explained that very well but oh well i know what i meant! ). and i wasnt saying every parent would pretend their kids were sick when they were skiving (cos mine wouldnt either) but can you honestly say that no parent would do that? i was just saying that how is it proof you were actually sick just cos your parents have written a note?

A doctor's note is different from a sick note. The pink sick notes are free. Asking a doctor to write a letter on headed paper is what you have to pay for.

so whats the difference then? why would you bother paying for one if you can get them for free?

You need a pink sick note to give to an employer when you are ill so that you can claim sick pay if you are off for more than three days (I think).

I got a doctors' letter to give to my school about my medical details as they required an official version. I think it cost £14 but I know people who have paid up to £40 for a letter. I also got a letter to take on holiday with me because America are really strict about controlled drugs. Nobody ever asked for it though. My sister walked through with 400 morphine tablets in her bag and they didn't even ask why.

I need to get another doctors letter this week to take with me when I register at a new GP on Saturday. Short notice will probably bump up the price

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

I think the whole system is silly too. It's not our fault how much our parents earn. Even if they do have a load of money then there's no saying they have to hand it over in order to help with their child's education.

I am not qualified for the EMA but my parents are not going to give me money! Fair enough I haven't got far to travel (1 min walk from the school LOL).. But they make a big deal about how they pay to learn but then you find out there's a catch. I think people without EMA should get a small bonus if they work hard to, just to motivate them to keep on learning as well IMO.
I am not going to get any bonuses or anything from my parents. Yeah they will provide me with clothes and food or whatever needed but nothing I can treat myself for. I never got pocket money when I was little so I doubt they will do that now either lol! x

[di marco]

But they make a big deal about how they pay to learn but then you find out there's a catch. I think people without EMA should get a small bonus if they work hard to, just to motivate them to keep on learning as well IMO.
I am not going to get any bonuses or anything from my parents. Yeah they will provide me with clothes and food or whatever needed but nothing I can treat myself for. I never got pocket money when I was little so I doubt they will do that now either lol! x

i think thats a good idea about the bonuses. keep the weekly ema how it is but giving everyone the chance to the bonuses if they work hard, even only a £20 bonus for achieveing your best

[di marco]

oh ok, maybe if youre in fulltime education and 18 or under you can get them for free. i just assumed everyone had to pay for them cos i know of people who have had to pay for their doctors notes (and i think its quite expensive too!). though i wouldnt have thought doctors write notes for just anytime you were sick, if you always needed a doctors note for when you were off school youre not just gonna go down there if youre just off for the day with a migraine or something, i think the doctors would get fed up of having to do it lol! (i dont think i explained that very well but oh well i know what i meant! ). and i wasnt saying every parent would pretend their kids were sick when they were skiving (cos mine wouldnt either) but can you honestly say that no parent would do that? i was just saying that how is it proof you were actually sick just cos your parents have written a note?

A doctor's note is different from a sick note. The pink sick notes are free. Asking a doctor to write a letter on headed paper is what you have to pay for.

so whats the difference then? why would you bother paying for one if you can get them for free?

You need a pink sick note to give to an employer when you are ill so that you can claim sick pay if you are off for more than three days (I think).

I got a doctors' letter to give to my school about my medical details as they required an official version. I think it cost £14 but I know people who have paid up to £40 for a letter. I also got a letter to take on holiday with me because America are really strict about controlled drugs. Nobody ever asked for it though. My sister walked through with 400 morphine tablets in her bag and they didn't even ask why.

i didnt realise you could get sick notes for free, as 2 people my mum worked with had to pay for theirs to get sick pay, the school must have wanted an official one or something instead. yours would have cost less cos children and oaps etc get them cheaper. i think my sis said when she last went to the doctors there was a sign saying the price was going up to about £60!

[Abigail]

i didnt realise you could get sick notes for free, as 2 people my mum worked with had to pay for theirs to get sick pay, the school must have wanted an official one or something instead. yours would have cost less cos children and oaps etc get them cheaper. i think my sis said when she last went to the doctors there was a sign saying the price was going up to about £60!

My parents have never paid for a pink sick note. Each practice might have a different policy on them.

Mum has got my letter sorted, it's going to cost me £14 for the doctor to list my medical conditions and medications I suppose it's going to be all medical jargon because it's to a doctor at another practice.

[di marco]

i didnt realise you could get sick notes for free, as 2 people my mum worked with had to pay for theirs to get sick pay, the school must have wanted an official one or something instead. yours would have cost less cos children and oaps etc get them cheaper. i think my sis said when she last went to the doctors there was a sign saying the price was going up to about £60!

My parents have never paid for a pink sick note. Each practice might have a different policy on them.

Mum has got my letter sorted, it's going to cost me £14 for the doctor to list my medical conditions and medications I suppose it's going to be all medical jargon because it's to a doctor at another practice.

has the new doctor asked for a note from your current doctor? cos wont all your medical history and notes and stuff be transfered anyway so everything will be in there that he/she needs to know? i really cant believe theyre so expensive though, at least you probably got to pay the student price for it

[Abigail]

Apparantly it can take a while for notes to be transferred to another practice, I also have neurology and cardiology notes floating around different hospitals too. If I become ill before they get my notes it could be a problem because of all the meds I take. I have a big problem with my memory and I can't remember the majority of my medical history so its important that the doctor knows about it when I get there.

[Kim]

And with the bonuses, you would only get them if you acheived or bettered your predicted grades in all your subjects.

I thought it depended on whether your teachers thought you had worked hard enough for the bonus or not. Predicted grades is another silly system, mine changed so much during GCSE. I don't think it's fair to do it on those if that's what they do; I underachieved in 2 subjects at GCSE and they were the ones I did the most work for. I'm sure a lot of people have some modules worse than others, it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't been putting enough work and effort in.

Our bonuses were assessed on different things like attendance, punctuality, quality of work, on target, making an effort etc.

Attendance is the only criteria that should count for getting the bonus or not, if you don't get on with a teacher and he/she says that you have not worked hard enough, you could be out of pocket, although you might have worked as hard as you can. Everybody can just do their best which the teacher might not see the same

im not sure what the official guidelines are for people to receive bonuses but obviously each school seems to decide differently. again though, i think it would be very hard to determine what criteria should be used. if, say, it only went by attendance then surely people could just turn up for school and not do any work or distract the class, but they would still get the bonus cos they turned up yet they didnt do any work. or if it goes by predicted grades, if you work your hardest, turn up to every lesson, do all the work, yet for some reason get lower than your predicted grade how is it fair that you wouldnt get the bonus? or if it was judged by effort, then one teacher could be more strict than another or favour different students. so im not sure how the bonuses could be decided on fairly but i do think that every school should have to decide using the same criteria

I agree. It is very hard to get a fair system to do it with though - our grades for homework were supposed to be set in accordance to how much of the homework we completed and whether it was handed in on time. I did all the homework on time but my Maths teacher gave me a B for homework because I got quite a bit of it wrong. (The grades were A - Very good, B - Acceptable and C - Cause for Concern.) It's usually the case that the teachers like whoever are good at their subjects, so it'll be hard for those achieving their potential at lower grades to get a bonus if the teachers influence who gets it.