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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

100% attendance certificates at DS's school, aibu?

362 replies

BoobleBeep · 02/12/2011 10:57

DS's school has just announced they will be giving out certificates to children with 100% attendance in an assembly at the end of term..... This basically excludes any child who has been ill at any point throught the year, needed dental treatment or has parents who can't afford to take them away during expensive term time. Aibu to be a bit pissed off about this?

OP posts:
rockinhippy · 02/12/2011 15:01

Yes, but its not just the sick ones, the kids who don't get to School on time, stay home for no reason also don't get these certificates - when in most cases it's actually the parents to blame, NOT the DCs - those same DCs are quite probably the ones who don't get parental support in other areas too - so its just something else they fail at :(

TheFeministsWife · 02/12/2011 15:03

YANBU! My dd1 has regular Speech Therapy appointments, she would never get one. Thankfully her school don't do them. They do, do a 100% attendance cup for each class weekly. So every class has a chance to win at some point through out the year. I think this is a good way of going about it as the kids aren't singled out.

tethersjinglebellend · 02/12/2011 15:06

Cartoonjane, the point is that you may as well reward children for having blue eyes. Where's the 'lesson to learn' in that?

I am an advisory teacher for children in care. Quite often, when children are living in abusive or neglectful home, their attendance is very poor. When they go into care, attendance improves. Please, please explain to me how they are in control of this and should be rewarded for it. Or perhaps what lesson they should be learning by being denied a reward/rewarded for situations completely outside their control.

Megatron · 02/12/2011 15:07

I think they are a ridiculous idea.

Not being ill is not an achievement, it's luck. Our school do them every term and one little girl was left in tears as she was the only child in her class not to get one. She had been off because she had a bloody burst appendix.

Haziedoll · 02/12/2011 15:08

I have a bee in my bonnet about this. You should not be rewarding children for attending school. Prizes should be awarded when pupils have gone beyond expectations. Attending school when you are fit and healthy is a minimum requirement not something to be celebrated.

Ds (7) told his teacher that it was silly to reward people for being lucky enough not to get ill and I agree with him.

soandsosmummy · 02/12/2011 15:37

I think they could think of better things to reward - things within the child's control. Why can't they have certificates for things like

  • helpfulness
  • politeness
  • kindness to others
  • consistent good effort

its so unfair to award for attendance when some children simply can not help it you might as well give prizes for being blond with blue eyes

Perriwinkle · 02/12/2011 15:39

YABU. It's a harmless way of trying to offer an incentive and encourage children to attend school as much as possible and kids like to be rewarded.

Plenty of parents fuss far too much about petty coughs and colds and keep kids off school at the drop of a hat for the merest sniffle. Coughs and colds are a constant feature of life it seems to me and people have them wherever you go. They're never a reason to stay off work/school in our house. People have perpetually got colds so staying home when you have one makes no difference it seems. Dental appointments can be made outside of school hours too. Our school don't penalise if you come and take them out of school for an appointment and bring them back. They'd still get their 100% attendance certificate.

Jinsel · 02/12/2011 15:40

Why do people care so much about these certificates?

chinax · 02/12/2011 15:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sevenfold · 02/12/2011 15:49

yanbu
hate these things as they are rewarding a child for something out of their control, and don't even get me started about them being bas for inclusion

sarahtigh · 02/12/2011 15:50

orthodontists patients are at least 75% children they all can not go after 3.30 regualr check ups with foresight can be booked in holidays but some dentists keep appointments before 9am and after 4,30 for adult working patients or private patients

personally though it may not be fair every child has to realise they can not achieve everything, if she has to go to hospital regualry she can't get 100% attendance cert, some kids however hard they try are never ever going to win a race, some however hard they try are never going to get the music, geography prize or whatever, i am sure there is some prize/certificate/ reward that your DD can achieve, for some less gifted academically or on sports field 100% attendance is the only cert they are going to get why deprive them

though I think excluding hospital/dental appointments could b a way forward, but attendance is sometimes within parental control, sometimes people send kids to school when they clearly ought not to be there, but there are some parents and some pupils who take a day or two off for duvet day a bit of a sniffle not feeling like it. I am not saying OP is this far from it but it is naive to suggst that attendance is totally uncontrollable

tethersjinglebellend · 02/12/2011 15:50

It's not harmless- and I am not just talking about children upset when they don't receive one. I am actually very concerned about the message given to children who do receive one. They have done nothing to earn it- would it not be better to reward them for something they have done? Teaching them that they are rewarded for luck is not a message we should be communicating in schools, and it is a harmful one, IMO.

rockinhippy · 02/12/2011 15:50

chinax I think I love you :)

tethersjinglebellend · 02/12/2011 15:52

This is a reward for parenting.

GrimmaTheNome · 02/12/2011 15:54

Attendance awards are a good idea but being off sick or attending a medical appointment (with appropriate letter from parent/doctors note) should be counted as authorised absence.

WorraLiberty · 02/12/2011 15:57

soandsomummy they reward for all of those things and more at my child's school.

WestYorkshirePudding · 02/12/2011 15:58

FGS get a grip. It's a bit of paper that the kid's like to get and it's a bit of praise for being able to get into school every day. That's all.

There are 420 children at DS's primary school, last year 18 of them got a certificate. It's not like there will be the odd child without them. Some kids need to toughen up and accept that not everyone's always a winner.

JugglingWithGoldandMyrhh · 02/12/2011 15:58

Also don't schools want to be giving the message that of course you go to school when you can ie. when you're not ill. So, why the certificate ?
I think the certificates are very lacking in imagination too - there are much more interesting things to celebrate !

tethersjinglebellend · 02/12/2011 16:02

That's the odd thing, Grimma- those absences are recorded by the school as authorised; yet they count towards the attendance %.

So a child's attendance figures could be: 98% present, 2% authorised, 0% unauthorised and they will still not receive a certificate.

Worra, if all those things are being rewarded, it makes a mockery of the other awards to reward attendance in such a way.

soandsosmummy · 02/12/2011 16:04

Glad to hear it Worraliberty so they should. They do at DDs school too - she got a certificate in reception for being a good friend and she's so proud of it

tethersjinglebellend · 02/12/2011 16:05

WestYorkshirePudding, children with parents who neglect them and don't bring them to school are already quite aware that they are not 'winners' Hmm

How on earth is a child whose parents bring them to school every day a 'winner', other than by having prudent parents?

SenseofEntitlement · 02/12/2011 16:06

Me and my sisters all always got the academic certificates and awards from school, performed in the recitals, etc. We, and the other kids who were regular prize winners, looked down on the 100% attendance certificates, as they just reward presenteeism - just being somewhere does not mean you are learning. Some of us would even fake illness near the end of term just to not get the certificate.

Yes, we were terrible academic snobs, and looked down on PE awards too. We didn't mind the improvement ones though - they were at least rewarding learning. We did also take care to look like we didn't care about the certificate.

They should reward achievement, improvement and effort, not how often you came into school to spread your germs about.

Blu · 02/12/2011 16:07

Ah, what marvellous things these certificates are - competitve Mum at DCs school sent a child to school at the height of Swine Flu with a temperature, cough, headaches and vomiting, in the last week of term, rather than lose the 100% Attendance Certificate.

JugglingWithGoldandMyrhh · 02/12/2011 16:10

Yes, if you just look at it properly for a few minutes you can easily see the idea of attendance certificates is deeply flawed for many reasons.
Not so bad if they were given out equally with a whole raft of other awards and celebrations. But I've seen them given out as the main prize and I wasn't impressed Xmas Hmm

Sixyearoldwoes · 02/12/2011 16:16

Tethers - I like the way you see attendance and good health as luck and the ability to achieve academically as credit to the person. Actually, both require a bit of effort from someone, often parents in the early days and both have elements of genetics and background that are as much in the luck of the draw as anything. Only lots of us are well used to being rewarded and seen as in some way more worthy (take my exams and degree for example) for the things we are good at and it comes as a shock when there's an area you can't achieve in.

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