100% Attendance Certificates

I’m always a lone voice on here but I don’t think anything is wrong with them. It is helpful for kids when they’ve had good attendance and then it’s the end of the term and they are getting a bit tired / run down and wanting a day off.

It is frustrating though; my own ds has had 100% attendance this term but because he was late in one morning due to my car suddenly breaking down its down as 99% attendance. It’s a shame as I think that’s the only time off he’ll have this year and he wasn’t even off!

Hate them!
Honestly I am usually a " don't be that parent" but in this case I would be asking whether the school wants a lot of bugs to spread?

Schools do have a lot of pressure on them about attendance from Ofsted etc but this is not the way!

It's annoying and unfair. My DD was out of catchment until Y5 and missed out on 100% attendance because of one day when the snow was so deep even the trams didn't run. Without a word of complaint, she had arrived at school on every other day during this prolonged snowfall after a 45 minute walk in a snowsuit. DH made her a certificate applauding her resilience.

They do have a choice.

The last school i worked in had a 100% effort award for attendance - which meant the kid with a 42% attendance due to being a hospital inpatient for multiple periods was rewarded for the fact she actually put in as much effort, if not more, than her classmate who had 100%

There are plenty of ways of encouraging attendance without discriminating against small children - who actually have zero power in their attendance anyway.

One of mine had a few. They still didn't achieve that well either. I look back and think that maybe a holiday or three during term time over the years would have done more good.

Many aspects of school life are outside a child's control. Never chosen for sports teams awards/ school plays because they aren't sporty/not talented.. Not good academically and on the special help table or set (everyone knows which it is even if it isn't labelled).
For my DC with an EHCP, their good attendance was the only thing that could be rewarded. They were incredibly proud of that achievement in the way their peers were proud of being in a sports team, high academic achiever....

Oh and wanted to say I am glad I listened to them when they felt sick and didn’t force them into school with their germs but wrapped them up warm. In my son’s primary class there was also a little girl who had cancer and never got a certificate!!

I hate them with a passion. One of my sons has a health condition that means he missed a LOT of school. He literally never got one. His primary school changed to whole class targets for attendance when he was in Y3, which was supposed to make it less awful, but all it meant in reality was that he cried in hospital after a major surgery because he thought he was letting his classmates down

His brother has 100% attendance more often than not, but he would just put the certificates straight in the bin because he knew it wasn't fair.

It’s such bollocks I really question the how these people are in charge of children. I am
a mother of children who never got attendance certificates and at times had fairly low attendance, but have all gone on to achieve top grades at school and university and straight into great jobs.

YANBU. At that age it is nothing to do with the child. It’s not an achievement on their part in any way. And the school making them seem like it is makes other children feel bad, and also risks making your child feel bad when next term he has a bug and doesn’t get one.

At that age they are off because a) they have a long term health condition/disability that affects attendance, b) they get a short lived standard virus, c) their parent chooses not to take them for whatever reason. None of that is down to the child.

It’s awful and I work in primary. We don’t do it. My chn were rarely off but once one had her appendix out so she felt crap when she didn’t get a certificate! Pointless and not in the control of the child

I really hate this.
My daughter has 98% attendance (had a sickness bug the first two days of term) and they basically said must do better...
There's a difference between genuinely sick kids and kids not being sent to school.

Must admit, attendance certificates were the only things my children ever achieved!

My DD has a long term health condition which means she never has 100% attendance and misses out on rewards like this
It’s rubbish

Most schools do it. They don't have a choice really. They have to be seen to be pushing attendance

Yeah it's bollocks, if a child has poor attendance it's for a reason outside the child's control. It's not fair to make a thing out of it like this.