100% Attendance Certificates

That’s a nice approach.

A badge is harmless. The stories about schools organising outings snd excluding children are harmful.

Our school don’t give out certificates due to the children who have medical conditions or whose home lives are a bit rubbish but they award house points and send an email home thanking parents for their support which I think is a nice touch, still a reward but a bit less public and obvious for everyone else.

i hate these. My boy has an immune disorder. In fairness the school have changed their ways since he started: I complained a lot.

It is in my sons yearly report.

My son will never achieve a sports award or a music reward. I demand they be removed so my son isn't excluded!

There are some children out there, who will only ever recieve attendance awards as they aren't the most intelligent or talented. My son being one of them! Let him have this 1 award please.

Rewards for a whole class with 100% attendance, or rewarding those classes with the highest attendance is wrong because there will be some classes with seriously ill kids or kids whose parents are abusive/ just don't bother sending them in and losing a whole class reward because of that risks making such disadvantaged kids targets of resentment.

However, do kids who don't get an individual attendance certificate really stand out or care that much? I'm a TA and in my class of 30, last year probably only 3 children got 100% attendance certificates. Nobody was shamed or punished for not getting one, and the 27 who didn't clapped when the 3 walked up to the front of the class. The teacher also regularly hands out certificates for learning a certain number of high frequency words or reaching the top of the behaviour ladder (regularly checks the list, making sure those who haven't had one for a while get recognised for things she might otherwise miss). Children are used to individuals being singled out for praise at particular times. They won't always get every reward and it's a parent's job to help them deal with that. If your child is generally a bit demotivated with school, talk to the teacher but don't demand that they change the reward system.

In youngest DC’s primary school, the class with the highest attendance are rewarded each week which is a bit fairer than singling individuals out. In older DC’s they have rewards at the end of each term for those with 97%+ attendance and those with 100% do get a certificate at the end of the school year. My DS has had 100% 4/5 years at secondary but he has honestly just been fortunate. He caught a stomach bug in the school holidays for example.

I think it’s unfair on kids with medical problems, those who catch stomach bugs or the flu and literally can’t come in or kids with chaotic home lives.

It's a recognition for those who have achieved something, not a penalty for those thar haven't!
I wasn't athletic enough to be awarded sports 'colours' at school, or musical enough to pass grade 8 violin, bit i didnt whine that they shouldnt exist because thsy were out of my grasp!

If schools are so obsessed by 100% attendance, put it in the children's yearly report. How dare they shame other children by excluding them. I would be asking for them not to give it to my child as they are making some children feel rubbish through no fault of their own. I personally did not give 2 hoots if mine didn't achieve 100% .

Its all nonsense! If your child is unwell keep them off and don't overthink it all. It continues all through secondary school and sixth form too! The only certificates worth celebrating for me were my daughters gcse certs. They have to push attendance but do teachers really want a sick child in school? Of course not and they soon phone parents to collect them too.

Where school attendance is concerned disabled children and ill childrens parents are easy targets to fine and harass. These fines haven't affected the children who don't want to attend school for whatever reason it just hits the parents pockets. It's a nice little money maker but isn't solving the real problems. Like why children are refusing school and what they can do to fix those issues. Celebrating 100% attendance is a rubbish thing for schools to do especially when contagious bugs go through the schools. If they focused more on education and making schools a place children wanted to attend maybe they'd solve persistent truanting.

Don't take it personally.

It's not a reflection on you or the DC who cant achieve 100% attendance, it's just acknowledging the ones who can.

It takes away nothing from anyone else.

My child’s school did an after school lessons for selected pupils called “Gifted and talented” . I suggested another class for “Stupid and useless”. Needless to say this was taken up. 😁

Last year, all the year 5 and 6 kids that got the attendance certificates deliberately tore them up in front of the head in protest...he laughed. Teachers hate them too...they are beholden to the LEA, and have to be seen to promote and reward good attendance even though it's discrimination. Please don't blame the schools for this war on attendance, blame the parents who take kids on holiday in term time and the teenagers who skip school, that's who this policy is aimed at...though it doesn't work.

I loathe attendance awards.

As everyone else has said, it is just a recognition of who is lucky enough to be healthy and not have any other difficulties affecting attendance.

I have 3 DC. One was on a very low attendance for a good while, and now cannot attend at all. The other two have never had 100% attendance either but attned well overall and are near the top of their classes across the board (Y9 now). If one hits 90% attendance this year it'll be his best attendance in 5 years and he is doing very well in a pushy grammar school and even they haven't mentioned he wasn't at 90% attendance in Y7 and Y8.

I'd say your instincts as a disabled parent yourself are spot on.

And it surely won't harm to send a message that you need to take care of your health to reduce number of sick days.

How is that message being sent?

Well, all the rewards are kind of unfair, we limit access to devices so my kids don't practise ttrockstars every day , other kids spend hours there and win every week. Some kids are sporty and win sport awards, other are good in art, some just get up every day and go to school. Overall its a good message to send that consistency is a key factor in achieving success, it may not matter so much in primary school but it would be more difficult to change attitude that attendance is optional once the kid is teenager.And it surely won't harm to send a message that you need to take care of your health to reduce number of sick days. So congratulations to your child on making effort , being on time and going to school while some go to all-inclusive in Turkey while claiming to be sick:)

That is awful! No doubt the 100% attenders are responsible for many of the illnesses that are keeping others out! Shocking stuff!

My old school did this. I slipped them into book bags without telling the children in Reception.

What was really unfair, was the class awards each week. Alphabetically, my class name (think Reception Apples, Reception Watermelon etc) was last. One week I had full attendance and had slightly fudged the punctuality (just waited for the kid that was late to arrive before sending down the register!) in an effort to get the class a certificate, as they had noticed the other class had loads and we had 0. We STILL didn’t get it as another reception class also had full punctuality and attendance but the office had a system where it defaulted to the first class alphabetically! At that point I made them one myself and they all took a copy home!

My new school doesn’t do certificates but they also count attendance differently. So they have authorised and unauthorised absences. So if a child has vomiting and we don’t want them to school so they can’t spread it, they have 2-3 days authorised. Family wedding/funeral abroad? Authorised. Hospital stay? Authorised! At the end of the year they read out everyone without unauthorised absences in an assembly. It’s much fairer!

But that’s appalling! I don’t care what your sone felt he hadn’t done anything deserving of that fanfare. 100% does not warrant anybody being held up as a hero particularly when it’s down to luck and shouldn’t be something that is desired anyway.

The human body and life circumstances differ- fact. Having the good luck to have your attendance impacted by neither does not warrant money being spent on it or glorified.

I think it’s so stupid. Essentially being praised for having a better immune system or just simply getting lucky?! 😅

My son’s attendance is less than 60% this term and I couldn’t care less about ridiculous outdated attendance certificates.

No you’re right.

this full attendance bs grates me.

I never understand the massive weight the Department for Education puts on attendance when contrasted with its attitude to the use of isolation rooms and suspensions for several days at a time, with no effort made to provide children realistically with education during such periods. If attendance is so important, how can that be OK?

Congratulations to your son. But how would he have felt if he had "spoilt" that record by catching something infectious, or getting something like appendicitis or worse? Would he deserve to feel bad about losing his chance of a certificate? I'm sure that, proud as he is, he is well aware that this is down to sheer luck.