100% Attendance Certificates

... And it's tbe kids who are never off that make everyone else ill.

I think attendance needs to be encouraged but should be rewarded on maybe a sliding scale. Dd missed one day due to illness and is upset she’s not going to the 100% attendance museum trip in January. My nieces and nephew don’t go to school some days as their mum can’t be bothered taking them. Some kids are hospitalised beyond their control. It’s not fair.

Also it means sick kids come in and spread sickness taking down other kids and teachers.

As a teacher, I don't like them either because the result of the attendance push is that children are coming in seriously unwell. Not only is it horrible to see them like that and have to make a call on whether to send them to the office, but it means in a bad year for illness like now I've been ill lots and the disruption is not good for them with cover teachers.

Exactly. It's just another form of recognition.

That’s because it is wrong and unfair. You’re right OP.

They do have a choice and choosing to do this is not good enough. It’s a rubbish thing to do to children who have been genuinely unwell or who may have chronic medical conditions.

I completely agree with you. It also encourages children to go into school when they shouldn't (norovirus etc). We had upset as one of our kids got it this year and the other didn't because she had a few days off really ill. It would have been wrong to send her in but now she's being penilised for following the rules of being off for 2 days.

My son achieved 100% attendance all the way through school (yes, both primary and secondary).
When he was 11, his grandmother passed away and as much as he wanted to attend her funeral, he was undecided because he really valued his 100% attendance certificates.
So I spoke to the school's head who said that if he was only going to have the afternoon off, if he were to be present for the afternoon register after lunch, then he would receive his 'present mark' and as such, on paper, wouldn't have lost any time from school.
At the end of year 6, the head was retiring, and went through her private records of pupils who'd actually got 100% attendance certificates throughout her whole tenure of over 20yrs at the school, and there had only ever been one other child (about 15yrs previously) who'd achieved 100% for their whole time at the school!
She told me that she wanted to mark this extremely rare occurrence and not only gave my son 3 certificates (one for the final term, one for that year and a really special one for his full 7 years at the school) but she made a big fuss of him in the final assembly and presented him with a lovely set of books that he'd expressed an interest in, tickets for a family show and a £50 gift voucher.
He achieved 100% attendance throughout secondary school too and received certificates at the end of every term and at the end of each year, with another special one as he was leaving school at 16 for achieving 100% for his full 5 years there.
I did ask the head how often this occurred and he got back to me saying that since the school opened in the 80s, my son was only the this student to achieve it.
So yes, some kids actually WANT to receive these attendance awards and are proud of them. I know my son certainly is because he's almost 30 now and still has at least the 2 special ones that say he achieved 100% attendance for the whole 12yrs of his schooling.

As a teacher I agree. Especially as we usually know if a child has health issues which makes them unable to reach that 100 I do like rewarding kindness and resilience Also effort based on an individuals abilities I d rather they helped families who find it hard to attend. .

Not wishing to take away the delight your son felt….. this makes my blood boil. Next term he maybe -odds on poorly and unable to get his 100% badge. He may feel disheartened.
As others have said. What about other children who are more susceptible to infection and who will never achieve 100%.
My biggest gripe ,this is actually a target which the school are measured against.
This is totally wrong. Sick children go to school and spread their germs to all. Parents are afraid to keep poorly kids off school for fear of snotty admin ringing up questioning why child is off sick. ( she got a polite grilling my daughter is RGN)
The duty of care should extend to creating a healthy environment. Never going to happen until this ridiculous circus ceases.

I work in a school and do attendance.
I think it’s silly and borderline dangerous when we’ve got flu and noro flying about. Also I hate laminating things, it’s terrible for the environment.

The problem is attendance has gone off a cliff since covid and we have to show that we’re doing something about it to the powers that be.

For families who support their children and their education, certificates are frustrating and pointless. For families who genuinely struggle to get their children to school for whatever reason, they are frustrating and pointless. For the minority of families who can and really should pull their socks up on attendance, they mean nothing. I just can’t see anyone being motivated to go to school or get their child to school by a certificate. There will be much bigger, more complex issues at play. What I can imagine is people sending in ill children and spreading germs for the sake of a certificate.

I completely agree with you. My son falls asleep during the day and at school and he is currently sent home from school or off school more than he is in school and he is in reception as well . We are currently investigating why he is so lethargic , the doctor thinks it’s because of his autism but I’ve worked with autism in schools for years and never run into one that falls a sleep in classes and can’t be woken up . He’s just had blood tests done and I’m hoping to have him referred for sleep investigation incase he has a sleeping disorder like sleep apnea . I’m just grateful that his understanding of society around him isn’t great at the moment or he might get upset. He’s literally got only 45% attendance this term and I’m so worried about him. I don’t think these certificates do anything good for the ones who are in school either . Just last year I kept pushing myself to work despite being ill only to be taken from work in an ambulance and find out I had serious sepsis and would have died that day if someone didn’t notice . I had no idea I just thought it was a cold but then I got disorientated and staid weird things and someone picked up on the signs which I’m so grateful for . We don’t want children who work themselves to death for rewards when they should be looking after themselves . There is a balance to everything and these sort of rewards make them strive for perfection and anything below that isn’t good enough.

I hated it as if they sick they need to stay off

My son got one today. I told him that it’s nice and said ‘aren’t you lucky you’ve not been ill this year so far?’

I detest attendance awards.

The award is meaningless anyway given that it really isn't within the child's control. Why is one child inherently more worthy of a reward than the child who had a day off because he broke his leg, or the one who had chicken pox, or the one who has a long term condition requiring regular monitoring appointments during school hours?

I'm amazed that schools don't see that these can become counter=productive very easily. If you have an illness early in the term, you know you've lost your chance of getting a certificate so you have no incentive for trying for good attendance for the rest of the term.

I will never understand people getting upset about this. It's an award for 100% attendance. Kids who have a day off don't get one. There's clear parameters and it shouldn't be hard to explain to kids why they didn't win this time. Kids need to learn at a young age, that not everyone can win every award, because if they do, it makes the award meaningless.

But do you want them to be proud of something that is just down to luck, especially when it means they'll feel bad if they miss out because of something that they can't control like catching an infection or having appendicitis?

My DS had 100 percent attendance throughout the whole of secondary school. He was unwell once but during Easter holidays. He got a certificate given to him by the Mayor and given a football. He hates football but kindly donated it to school raffle. He has been working for years and has hardly had a day off then either. He's just very fortunate he is so healthy and not sickly. That is in itself his reward.

No, they don't - or not without having specific provision for pupils who are off due to illnesses and disability. To do anything else is a blatant breach of the Equality Act.

Absolutely right that it's correlated. However schools around here state that attendance is the direct causation of academic achievement.

It's usually on a weekly basis so I think it's good they are rewarding children for their attendance as most are there anyway and it may be the only accomplishment some can achieve.

It's not defamation for someone not to receive one if they've been ill.

I can only talk from my own experience but with our own DC they go to school every day unless poorly or have appointments. We have to go to work. DD is ND and in mainstream school she had to have scheduled parts of the day so when we managed to get her into a specialist school jer attendance was 100%, which she was so proud of, having previously being able to attend full time.

To pour salt into the wounds, SIL, living at home with her parents (who basically looked after them) had 2 young kids but didn't get out of bed to get them to school. Their attendance was below 32%.

Yes, attendance officers, court, even teachers coming to the door to offer to take them in. No, they're ill, they have anxiety etc. Mostly just a 'fuck off they're my kids'.

Sorry, I've transgressed...

Is there any evidence of causation, rather than just correlation? Particularly for the difference between 96% vs 100% attendance, not just really low attendance vs really high.

I can imagine various links between attendance and academic achievement that aren't necessarily attendance causing higher achievement. Things like low achievement creating a less pleasant educational experience, resulting in a lower desire to attend school. Or more academic families valuing attendance more.

I'd like to think there were some sort of studies that backed up the use of 100% attendance certificates, rather than a kinder, more nuanced approach.