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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think school attendance parties and certificates are a good idea?

164 replies

Liketochat1 · 11/12/2012 08:53

I've been having a discussion about school attendance initiatives such as parties at the end of term for 100% attendance or bronze, silver and gold certificates for varying levels of attendance.
What do you think about these initiatives? Are they a good idea? Do you support schools' decisions to implement them or do you think they are unfair as sometimes children are absent for sickness and can't help that? Does that possibility mean those children who have made it in everyday should not get recognition and a scheme which stresses the value of school attendance and aims to support parents in getting their children to school should be scrapped?
What do you think? AIBU?

OP posts:
Chandon · 11/12/2012 20:12

I think it sucks to punish sick children and reward those parents who sen their kids to school even though they are poorly! madness.

Nowhere else in the world, nowhere!

Makes me cross

ballstoit · 11/12/2012 20:18

YABU.

As I pointed out at the DCs school, having soap in the toilets and regularly reminding children to wash their hands would have a much greater impact on levels of illness and attendance than awards which discriminate against children with long term health problems.

HSMM · 11/12/2012 20:28

DD's best friend regularly got her 100% attendance certificates at primary school. She went in whether she was ill or not!

FairyChristmas · 11/12/2012 20:31

Think I'm going to be the lone voice here but I think good attendance should be rewarded. It's not about punishing those who don't get in every day, it's highlighting that some children do (and no, I'm not criticising those who are ill).

I work in a school and had a letter last year from my HT thanking me for my work and saying that she was aware I had 100% attendance.

A gold certificate would have been nice! Grin

Goldmandra · 11/12/2012 20:51

I work in a school and had a letter last year from my HT thanking me for my work and saying that she was aware I had 100% attendance.

Did the HT pull out everyone who had 100% attendance and lead a round of applause in a staff meeting or just write you a nice private letter of appreciation?

How would you have felt if illness had kept only you off work and your HT had paid for the rest of the staff to go out for nice meal to celebrate their good luck in remaining healthy?

Did the HT treat the children with the same respect and write them them individually to congratulate them? If not why were the children treated differently?

RiaUnderTheMistletoe · 11/12/2012 20:51

Why does having a good immune system or parents who disregard the 48 hour rule need rewarding?

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 11/12/2012 21:31

Are the parents who take little Johnnie or Janetta out of school to visit Great Uncle Horace's ingrowing toenail going to be dissuaded from doing so by the promise of a certificate or end of term party?

ToffeeCaramel · 11/12/2012 22:10

Yes they are a great idea because they encourage children who have a sickness bug to go to school and spread the bug around to other children.

manicinsomniac · 11/12/2012 22:13

I have worked in two totally different types of school where I think awarding attendance (not punishing non attendance - 2 different things imo) is important.

The first is private schools. When freed from official restrictions and fining you would not believe how often kids are out of school. Recently we have had absences for:
illness, medical appts, doctors appts, religious occasions, family parties, family holidays, alton towers, being tired, looking round future schools, christmas shopping, needing some chill out time, going to watch the rugby/football/cricket, competing in sport/drama/music, going to London, going to the theatre.
Obviously some of those reasons are good ones but so many aren't! In the week before have term we had 20 families of children absent because they'd gone on holiday early. 20!! It's ridiculous. Attendance awards might help some of these children.

The second is schools in very deprived areas where there are children who are getting themselves and their younger siblings up, breakfasted and into school every day without the assistance of parents. I knew a 9 year old who did this without fail every day while his single mum worked an early shift at tescos. They were an amazing family and deserved every bit of recognition they got.

CaptainVonTrapp · 11/12/2012 22:22

How would attendance awards help the children you describe in the private school manic?

If their parents have decided to keep them off for a reason they believe is valid (and most of them sound like perfectly reasonable absences) then it is totally out of the control of the chilld.

Blu · 11/12/2012 22:26

During the swine flu outbreak a mother I knew sent her child to school in the last few days of term with a headache, fever etc, beccause she did not want him to lose his 100% Attendance Certificate. RESULT!

RiaUnderTheMistletoe · 11/12/2012 22:28

While the children in your second example manic certainly deserve recognition I don't think putting them in the same category as children who happen not to get sick is helpful or encouraging.

Goldmandra · 11/12/2012 22:58

I knew a 9 year old who did this without fail every day while his single mum worked an early shift at tescos.

Clearly that child should not be lumped in with any general attendance award but should be singled out for individual (and possibly private) recognition. This isn't an argument for general 100% attendance awards.

The fact remains that AFAIK there is no evidence that upsetting children who have long term illnesses and disabilities by rewarding the lucky ones in this way actually has a positive effect on attendance figures.

TuftyFinch · 11/12/2012 23:03

Attendance parties and certificates are an awful idea. They:
Reward children for not getting sick
Reward children who get sick but parents send them in anyway
Punish children who get sick
Punish children who have ongoing health issues and need to attend appointments

I could go on but...

tethersjinglebellend · 11/12/2012 23:35

IME, the child in manic's second example is far more likely to be excluded from any 100% attendance award or party than to receive recognition.

higgyjig · 11/12/2012 23:39

Of course you don't want to punish the genuinely sick but the tiny sniffles some parents keep their darlings off for...

tethersjinglebellend · 12/12/2012 00:04

Then punish the parents, not the children.

TuftyFinch · 12/12/2012 00:15

Exactly.
What tethers said.

whois · 12/12/2012 00:49

IME, the child in manic's second example is far more likely to be excluded from any 100% attendance award or party than to receive recognition.

Yup. Those are the kids that should be getting a bloody great big helping hand and some recognition for their achievements. 100% attendance is almost certainly not going to be of those achievements.

Recently we have had absences for:
illness, medical appts, doctors appts, religious occasions, family parties, family holidays, alton towers, being tired, looking round future schools, christmas shopping, needing some chill out time, going to watch the rugby/football/cricket, competing in sport/drama/music, going to London, going to the theatre

Ha ha they are all good reasons for a primary age kid to have a day off. Well, maybe not the being tired one but depends of its 'tired and a bit illl and manky' or just 'fancied a lie in'.

HollyBerryBush · 12/12/2012 07:01

The culture of 'my child cannot achieve this so no one can be recognised for their achievement' sucks.

One method of awarding bonuses and payrises on attendance - so if you have any hope of your child acquiring and holding down a job, a little bit of real world is beneficial.

Why shouldn't my child be rewarded for going to school eveyday and not making a nuisance of himself?

Chandon · 12/12/2012 07:20

BeCause being sent to school when you are poorly is not much of an achievement

Kytti · 12/12/2012 07:24

I bloody hate these things, they had them at our last school. 'Let's reward parents who send their kids into school sick.' They should reward for hitting the attendance target, or something else.

I also have a friend with a daughter who regularly has to go to hospital for check-ups, so that's her out as well.

"Let's make you all look crap if you look after your children properly." That's what it says to me.

cory · 12/12/2012 07:30

I have two children.

One is ambitious, hardworking, conscientious and struggles against pain every day. She never loses heart and is determined to get an education. When she is ill she works at home to catch up without anyone telling her to. Because of her absences she has to work far harder than her peers to keep up- and she has to do it when she is in pain and on medication which affects her concentration. But because of her chronic condition she will never be eligible for any awards and will not be allowed to attend her own prom party. Even if she was never ill again (which isn't going to happen given her condition), her hospital appointments will see to that.

The other is lazy, uninterested and low level disruptive at school. He only does his homework if you stand over him the whole time. He openly admits to doing the bare minimum in lessons, because he doesn't like having to make an effort. But he has excellent health. And always happy to go into school: with the level of effort he puts in, school is hardly a burden.

So he gets rewarded. Can you explain what for, OP?

cory · 12/12/2012 07:38

I wonder if the OP has ever been in the situation of having to drag an unwilling child to painful and frightening hospital treatment with the added knowledge that this will make him miss out on the school party or (even worse) keep his table from winning their coveted award.

In a situation where the HT holds a weekly assembly stressing that the children who have 100% attendance are GOOD and children who fall under 85% are failing the school, it is not very easy to convince a child that the physio which takes her out of school for an afternoon every week and puts her in pain for hours is a GOOD THING. Children of a certain age tend to believe more in headteachers than in their parents. If the head says they shouldn't be taken out of school, they will believe that, whatever arguments they put up.

Fortunately, dd has now got to an age where she realises that the best chance of ruining her chances in life would be not to go for the physio and not to have the ultra sound scan. Even more fortunately, her present school agrees with her.

Fidget275 · 12/12/2012 07:39

We have this system. It doesn't work... Once a day is missed then children are no longer eligible for the gold (the only certificate that comes with a £5 voucher) so are not particularly bothered.
Parents dont care... those that make the effort are switched off by the scheme the minute they have to take children to a hospital/dentist apt and its amazing how many of those that are targeted for unexplained low absence just hand their child the £5 anyway.
Personally, i think less of the parents whose children have been in 100% but spend a lot of time sleeping off a fever in the book corner or crying because they have tummy ache. One parent actually refused to pick up a sick child at 10am in the morning --because -she didnt want to ruin her plans of shopping and lunch with the girls- she wanted her son to get 100% attendance! Pah!

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