School attendance

Ive seen the stats at our school.

It is depressing how high the percentage of absence is due to term time holidays.

4 x more is term time holiday than everything else put together.

I'd say poor attendance is 100% parents fault at primary level. But it is fair for them to miss out in this situation as only those with 98.5% and above get the reward so it's a very small group. The majority of the pupils miss out on it. Yet the only parents to complain it's unfair are the ones with chronically absent children.

Seriously has covid taught us nothing! I object to this is for the spreading of bugs, kids don’t want to miss the award so go in with all sorts, my son is vulnerable and a cold puts him in hospital, kids should not be going in when sick!

But sometimes it's not fair. 99% of the time poor attendance isn't the fault of the child

This is the problem with collective reward and punishment - it's unfair and pits the group against the individual.

It can create team working/ a sense of shared achievement or equally resentment and blame.

And who is likely to be the kids getting the blame? Those with chronic illnesses, coming from difficult backgrounds etc. - just what they need is another reason for people to dislike them.

My problem with the way schools address attendance is that instead of dealing with long term truanting - which is difficult to deal with and often caused by the above issues, they pressure children who already have 'good' attendance to never have a day off sick to 'buffer' the figures.

I've been the teacher of a class like this. Attendance and punctuality was great for 90% of the kids to but like 2 kids were dire and dragged the whole class down. They literally never had a chance of winning and it was disheartening for me let alone the pupils. I raised it with head an we now award individuals for excellent attendance. Of course we then get the poor attendees complain it's not fair for their kids to miss out.

I would talk to the teacher and tell him how he's feeling and she should raise it with head.

I don't understand what this has to do with this thread.

I persistently raised this with my school and got a change of practice.

YANBU, it's a bullshit policy/approach and should be called out.

This is a ridiculous policy and children shouldn't be punished for what is essentially bad luck. My son has a chronic condition which means even when he's well, he has to have time off every 4 weeks to attend appointments. Add to that his autism assessment, and general check ups for his condition, he only managed 2 full weeks last half term which no doubt brought down the school average

This.

One of the nastiest things about British schools in the 21st century is the way children who have been ill are publicly humiliated, and even punished, by the adults who are supposed to be caring for them. Meanwhile children whose parents send them in sick to infect everyone get celebrated.

Attendance fines and prizes/certificates are a relatively new thing that didn’t exist when I was at school. It’s a nasty policy introduced by fools with zero empathy.

My son has medical issues and so I well remember the pain of cuddling a sobbing four year old at the school gate while all his classmates walked off with attendance prizes and he was the only child not to get one. It happens hundreds of times all over the country, every term, because a couple of idiots in Westminster went on a power trip. As I cuddled that shaking four year old, I was blunt with him. This is about your headteacher caring more about getting a pay rise than she cares about children, I explained to him. This is about her career. She is trying to impress Ofsted (and avoid getting fired for her appalling mismanagement of the school).

He lost all respect for his headteacher that day.

Then I bought him a cake. Those other children don’t have a cake, I told him, just bits of paper from a selfish woman. And every time school sends home attendance information I buy him another cake.

Now he’s older, school seems puzzled that he doesn’t give a shit about awards or certificates 🤷‍♀️ as far as I’m concerned that is entirely their fault.

The point of going to school is because education is a basic human right. Would he prefer to leave school at 16 without qualifications and go into manual labour? Just because other parents are failing their children doesn't mean you should.

I complained when our school introduced attendance rewards. It is ableist and encourages bullying and othering instead of inclusivity. You need to encourage your child to put himself in the position of the kids that don't get 100%. Unfortunate enough to have health problems, catch a bug or have parents that don't get them to school for whatever reason. A real opportunity to foster empathy and inclusion here. And offer firm but ultra polite feedback to the school.

Really wish schools wouldn’t use attendance as a reward or punishment.

You're being soft imo.

I'd just say son, that's the way the cookie crumbles and you've got tons of books at home anyway"

Precisely. And the ones who aren't bothered about getting their child to school are hardly going to care if the class gets a new book.

All attendance policies are ridiculous and extremely unfair to children with medical issues and SEND. Not to mention those who happen to catch a sickness bug or a nasty cold.

I think you're taking an odd perspective on this. Instead of thinking it's a stupid policy and unfair on the children who are ill or can't attend for whatever reason that they're even put in this position, you're feeling bad that your son has PERFECT attendance but is brought down by the other kids. Well lucky for your sun that he's healthy

What's really not fair is the medical treatments some of our children miss school for, the neglect some children experience and low attendance at school being part & parcel of that.
School attendance awards & certificates should be abolished, especially if they are now being used as a reason for kids to pick on their already less fortunate peers 😡
Please teach your children 100% attendance is down to luck, nothing else!

Yet another reason why any child with a disability or health issue might get picked on by classmates as they are seen to be stopping the class getting a book. Attendance should be personal not class based, I have a child with health concerns, they will never attain 100%, it’s not realistic for them, so in your situation the whole class misses out. Dreadful policy

Speak to the school, but ultimately the school has attendance used as a measure by government when in reality there is little the school can actually do to deal with parents who just don't care

Speak to the school.

Ableist presenteeism that's all it is.

Worth speaking to the school about the unkind things aka bullying or harassment which are resulting. Whilst a useful lesson for children to learn that life is not always fair, not the best way to start.

Unfortunately schools are under a lot of pressure from local authorities to raise attendance.

So they try and have incentives to encourage high attendance.

They’re stuck between a rock and hard place but I too feel it’s unfair to children who have medical conditions.

Yes I'd be taking it to the school and then the governors.