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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think book vouchers for 100% attendance is an issue?

342 replies

DancesWithWoolsEnPointe · 20/07/2012 17:17

DD2 had 100% attendance at school this year. DD1 had a tummy bug and stayed at home 1 day.

DD2 got a certificate in assembly. Fine with that.
But she also got a £5 book voucher. Not fine with that.

DD1 is jealous and cross with me that I made her stay at home for 24 hours after vomiting, as per school policy. She says that next time she is sick, she is going to school anyway. So what lesson are they trying to teach here?

OP posts:
GetDownNesbitt · 21/07/2012 08:04

All awards are discriminatory.

OP, if I were a cynic I might suggest that those awards get £5 because there aren't that many of them and budgets are tight.

We give £5(maybe £10) to everyone who gets an award - costs a fortune!

EdithWeston · 21/07/2012 08:04

Has anyone tested this against DDA?

Prizes which break discrimination law would indeed be wrong and a terrible message to champion in schools. There are no "rewards" in later life set up unlawfully (ie breaking DDA). Diligence and hard work are the best thinks to be rewarded, and achievement which is the result of those things.

Being "lucky" enough to have been born with eg a normal immune system will never be a fair thing for a school to reward. Nor is success/failure in avoiding microbes, nor whether one of your parents dies.

orangeandlemons · 21/07/2012 08:05

I love Georgeclooney, I'm a teacher too, and yes it does have significant impact on grades, but I still don't agree with it.

Let's face it, at secondary school, not as many get it, and none of them seem to care either way. Most lose them, or give them to me to "look after"

JumpingThroughHoops · 21/07/2012 08:08

Oh dear. Well that puts a lot of work places in the frame as well. Companies I've worked for, your annual bonus also has attendance as a contributory factor.

TheBolter · 21/07/2012 08:15

SummerRain - ut that is beyond ridiculous - it's political correctness gawn maahd.

I think it's a naff idea and I'm pleased my dds' school doesn't do it. They have attendance scores on their report, that is all.

These reward things somehow insinuate that all parents are potentially sitting around at home in their pyjamas, watching Jeremy Kyle and letting littly Jayden bugger about in the local shopping mall all day. That's why there is no common sense in them. Most parents are actually very busy people who rarely let their children off school unless they are poorly.

If I was going to let my children stay off school for a holiday (something I plan to do for a few days next term while we visit family, and while the dds are still primary age), no £5 book voucher is going to persuade the dds to go into school rather than go on holiday for those few days!

EdithWeston · 21/07/2012 08:17

"Having attendance as a contributory factor" can be fine - it's not 100% or nothing. They perhaps take the time/effort to look at the actual attendance record and the reasons behind it. If they were employing someone who required, as part of managing a known medical condition - especially one covered by DDA, frequent hospitalisations, then they would have to score these out or risk prosecution. It needs proper attention so it is applied in a non-discriminatory way, or to be removed.

OP - I didn't address the £5 point as I think the whole system is discriminatory, potentially illegal and also just plain wrong.

LindyHemming · 21/07/2012 08:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

orangeandlemons · 21/07/2012 08:19

But companies have to discount any days used for disbaility medical attendace. So they sort of cover themselves in a way, which schools don't

I also think they do it to stop people pulling a sickie. Still don't agree with it at work, and particularly hate when peole get smug about it

JumpingThroughHoops · 21/07/2012 08:20

And don't start me off on sports day. Decades of non competitive sports yawn events. Just because your child doesn't excel at sports, that is no reason why mine, should have to faff around with bean bags and hoops in the name of inclusion.

When I see the 100 metre, three legged, egg and spoon wheelbarrow race televised as mainstream sports, you can then start putting all that crap in the curriculum.

And don't give me all that 'my little Johnny is asthmatic/disabled' crap either - I see plenty of para sports televised, with big followings.

Here's a list of asthmatic atheletes. www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20306639,00.html

namby pamby bloody society we live in.

ooh that was another cathartic rant.

TheBolter · 21/07/2012 08:32

Agree jumping I think mediocrity is encouraged too much - partic in state sector. Pisses me off too.

Sirzy · 21/07/2012 08:35

Jumping through hoops - you do realise that things like asthma are different for everyone don't you? What those athletes have achieved is fantastic but that doesn't change the fact that for some asthmatics simple things like a school PE lesson are a problem. Now I'm not for a second saying that means schools shouldn't do things but a "they can so so can you" attitude really doesn't help.

GhostShip · 21/07/2012 08:36

This is where the United States differs from us so much.

We just hold ourselves back because we're too scared of 'discrimination'.

Having 100% attendance is an achievemnt and must be seen as so. If your child can't get that, then that's a real shame but it's not like they lose anything by not getting it.
But the person who does gains a nice treat. Stop trying to deny someone something and trying to say its discrimination to cover up your selfishness.

YouOldSlag · 21/07/2012 08:43

Having 100% attendance is an achievemnt and must be seen as so

Stop trying to deny someone something and trying to say its discrimination to cover up your selfishness.

I am speechless.

GhostShip · 21/07/2012 08:44

Good :)

The only people discriminating are those that don't want to allow 100 percent attendees a reward.

libelulle · 21/07/2012 08:46

It isn't an achievement though - it's luck! And to the person who suggested schooltime appointments were down to parental disorganisation - how lucky you are apparently not ever to have had any dealings with the Nhs. You try telling the asthma consultant or physio or child development clinic that your child needs an appointment outside school hours. They'd laugh you out if the door.

YouOldSlag · 21/07/2012 08:48

But Ghostship- a reward for not being ill is ridiculous. it's not something the children have any control over at all.

libelulle is right- you are GIVEN medical appointments, you can't choose them, it's like a hair salon. If your child has a chronic illness, how can you praise and reward someone who hasn't?

YouOldSlag · 21/07/2012 08:48

sorry it's NOT like a hair salon

GhostShip · 21/07/2012 08:49

It's an achievemnt to get yourself out of bed, make your own breakfast and walk to school when your alcoholic mother is lied in bed away with the faries.

Why are people so bitter about others being rewarded? If we stopped all rewards on the basis of what people are saying in here then there would be none left at all.

Sirzy · 21/07/2012 08:51

I think people are confusing things like dentist check ups which should be arranged for out of school time with consultant appointments which you get no say in when they happen.

YouOldSlag · 21/07/2012 08:52

Nobody is bitter about others being rewarded, Some parents, like myself, don't like children being left out because they have been ill or have a chronic illness. On those grounds, I find it wrong.

Other rewards are fine by me.

It's an achievemnt to get yourself out of bed, make your own breakfast and walk to school when your alcoholic mother is lied in bed away with the faries-

um, I'm not sure this is the right thread, I am talking about primary school children getting denied a certificate and gift because they have asthma ( for example).

libelulle · 21/07/2012 08:54

But that isn't what this certificate rewards!! A child could do that daily, then oh whoops, be lazy and inconsiderate enough to catch a vomiting bug. Bang, no certificate. 'I know you've hauled yourself to school every day while your mum is in an alcoholic stupor, but you silly girl, you were foolish enough to catch a vomiting bug. What were you thinking? No certificate for you, sorry, them's the breaks.'

Sirzy · 21/07/2012 08:55

Why can't schools just discount absences which are related to on going illnesses? Or set the children who have the illnesses an achievable personalised target?

GhostShip · 21/07/2012 08:56

There's many instances where children are left out because they all have different abilities. Are these discrimatory too?

No it isn't the wrong thread. It's exactly the right one. Examples like that are why these attendance rewards are good. They reward kids who have had to struggle to get into school but do it day in day out.
If your child's been poorly, then like I said that's a real shame but don't deny someone else a reward.
Your child isn't loosing anything by not getting the attendance reward so why is it an issue.

iknowwho · 21/07/2012 08:56

Ds2 got took out to Frankie and Bennies with 85 other children and got a £20 voucher (which his teacher swopped him for the cash as she was going into the Mall shopping and he said a voucher was no use to him!)

All because he got 100% attendance and behaved himself!! Shock

I told him that I expect him to behave himself and go to school anyway!

GhostShip · 21/07/2012 08:57

In that case why don't we ban
Sports day - my dd's in a wheelchair she can't compete WHAT DISCRIMINATION.
Spelling competitions - my ds has dyslexia he won't win WHAT DISCRIMINATION.

Etc etc.

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