To think that attendance recording at school is unfair

[ICompletelyKnowAboutGuineaPigs]

So not actually attendance recording per se. I understand why schools monitor attendance and why this is important.

But at my DS's (aged 6) primary school they reward attendance (100%) at the end of every term with a special assembly, a certificate and extra 'golden time' in the afternoon. Now DS has not missed a full day of school or been late this term BUT he has had some appointments during school time. He is currently being assessed by the ASD team and they requested assessment by Speech and Language therapy and Occupational Therapy. The school know about this and the services have liaised with the school to keep them updated. No complaints so far, the school have been great.

The appointments are made by the services and so on 2-3 occasions he has had to miss an hour or two of school - but I always pick him up as late as possible and drop him off afterwards. He hasn't been awarded his attendance certificate because of these occasions. AIBU to think this is a bit unfair? I can't decide if it is discriminatory and whether I should take it further or whether the school are being perfectly reasonable because he hasn't been IN school 100% of the time (my friend's DD, however, has received her certificate despite leaving school early due to illness so I'm not sure what their exact criteria are).

I have spoken to the school SENCO/attendance monitor and he actually agrees with me but says he has to work within the guidelines. Should I challenge the guidelines or just it go?

[Sirzy]

Great for you hope other parents just wish their child were well enough for that to even be a slight possibility.

[Sirzy]

landof I would threaten to take out legal action against them for discrimination - i bet they would soon change their tune then (and if they didn't I would follow through with it)

[MajaBiene]

hopefloats, what a weird thing to be proud of. So your DD doesn't have any disabilities or chronic conditions that require appointments in school time, and hasn't picked up any contagious illnesses that have exclusion periods this year. Definitely down to your excellent parenting.

[landofsoapandglory]

Sirzy, I have written them a letter saying that. I contacted the Equalities and Human Rights Comission and they are supporting us through it. I will follow it through. I am so annoyed by it. The kids who mess around and are in trouble can go, but the sick/disabled ones can't! How, in anyone's world, is that right?

[Sirzy]

Good luck!

DS isn't at full time school yet but I am already worried about his attendance when he starts, discrimation like you and your son is facing is awful and hopefully enough people like you standing up against the daft ideas will change things so other families don't have to go through the same.

[sanityseeker75]

My son in past used to get 99% plus, dss below 95%. They are a school year different. one year her school awarded those that showed an increase and she won a bike. Try explaining that one to DS when he got golden time instead.

Last year ds had severe asthma attack and was in hospital for 3 days, on oxygen mask and given steriods every 2 hours. The grief I got from school about his drop in attendance that term was mad.

Now I dont care, i work so he does not have time off for a sniffle but a system clearly flawed set the example that you get better rewards and less grief if you have more time off.

[StanleyLambchop]

Hopefloats - aren't you just the lucky one? I will on the other hand be trying to explain to my DD that because she had an epileptic seizure at 7.30am on a school morning in September so could not go to school that day, she has now missed the opportunity for an attendance award for the whole year, as our school are even more strict and go on annual attendance. Utter bastard system, compounding the evils of epilepsy, an utter bastard conditon. But good on you , hey!!

[landofsoapandglory]

Thank you, Sirzy. Schools don't know enough about the Equality Act 2010 IMO. They think they just have to satisfy OFSTED and no one will challenge them, but they need to be challenged.

[mercibucket]

That's very interesting sirzy, thank you

We have not yet mentioned the worse attendance prize - the class attendance prize. Guess how popular that makes the child with complex health problems!

[Goldmandra]

I will be proud to display another 100% attendance award for my DD at the end of this week. And so will she.

What has your DD done to get that certificate which makes you feel proud?

Shall I tell you what my DD has done?

At the end of last term her class teacher called out the attendance figures for all the pupils in her class. They were all in the 90%s and those who had 100% received a round of applause.

Then the teacher got to my DD. Her figure was 65%. The whole class gasped and turned around to stare at her open mouthed.

She was distraught when she got home that day, telling me through her tears that she was too ashamed and embarrassed to go back to school tomorrow.

We talked it through that evening and agreed that nobody had the right to know her attendance figures without her having given permission for it to be shared.

She put on a brave face the next morning and went into school as normal even though she was still very upset. She went to the teacher who runs the Autism unit she attends in the school and asked her to make sure that her personal, private information was not shared with the class again without her permission because she didn't think she should be made to feel ashamed for having been in hospital three times in one term.

That is what my DD did to make me feel proud.

She won't be getting a 100% attendance award when they are doled out for this term on Thursday either. She's told me this evening that she doesn't want to go into that assembly. She is 10. What do you suggest I say to her?

Shall I tell her how proud she should be of all the children who didn't get ill this term?

[Nanny0gg]

hopefloats
Your point?

[Nanny0gg]

Crumbs Goldmandra
What on earth did you say to the school? That's just horrific. Your poor DD.
(I think I'd take her out of school for a treat that day, and tell the bloody stupid daft HT and governors exactly why)

[StanleyLambchop]

That is bloody shit, Gold. Well done to your DD for sticking up for herself. Something unfortunately children with a disability will have to learn to do as they get older. As if living with a disability was not bad enough in itself.

[Goldmandra]

What on earth did you say to the school?

I checked later on that they had listened to her. The Head then apologised to DD in front of me and told her that she'd made sure that the teacher wouldn't do that again.

If it does happen again this term I won't be so understanding.

[landofsoapandglory]

Goldmandra That is shocking , and if anyone still believes in attendance awards after reading that then they are a bloody idiot.

[dyzzidi]

At our school attendance awards are given out for improved attendance and there are certificates for great effort and aspiration all things like that. This is so that recognition can be given for children who overcome obstacles to attend school. They also only give out a couple every week and celebrate in assembly that each child has made a very good effort to be in school.

[jamdonut]

I haven't read the whole thread...

If your child is there in time for registration in the morning and the afternoon,they have attended.

If you take them out after they have registered then that session's attendance will stand. That way you can get 100% attendance even though you've attended appointments.

If you miss the registrations, even if it has been OK'd by school, that session is "missed" even if you turn up to school later.

Schools' have two sessions per day,morning and afternoon, so if you miss morning registration but get in a bit later and are there for second registration and the rest of the day, you will not get 100% because that's one session "missed" ( i.e not there for registration). Hope that helps.

[Goldmandra]

jamdonut do us all a favour and don't post on threads you haven't read.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

jam are u seriously suggesting that these vital long awaited appointments , that r attended in clinics run on certain times and days that are essential for the health and welfare of these children, are cancelled or rearranged for god knows how long for ,given that everyone wants non school time appointments? That progress remains unchecked, medication left at un-tweaked doses etc for a piece of sodding paper???
Seriously???

[Mumsyblouse]

I have never heard of anything so stupid in my life as having a prom for attendance, and then penalising those who can't attend due to illness, disability, or just unlucky enough to get flu or a winter vomiting bug. Attendance monitoring was supposed to tackle the very poor attendance (e.g. missing every Friday, or most mornings) by a small segment of already problematic families, it is now a blunt tool with which to beat (randomly) ordinary parents doing their best.

Goldmandra your daughter is ace, and I would also be teaching mine to think critically about things like why people in authority do things they know are unfair and don't challenge them, why illness is often deemed as a 'moral failure' even in this day and age, and so on.

Landofhope- good on you, again, absolutely ridiculous situation and definitely discriminatory. It's just not good enough. Hope it goes well.

Has the overall standard of maths/english/science gone up internationally in the UK since they started on this bizarre attendance fetish? Has it heck.

[Sallystyle]

I hate attendance awards with a passion.

My children pretty much always get 100% attendance. For my daughter it is a big deal, she loves standing up to get her little certificate and sticker and being clapped.

Last month she had a day off school due to vomiting so she has lost this terms 100% attendance. Basically, they are rewarding those who have the good luck to have good health and the ones who get sick go without. Parents who don't give two shits about their kids going to school aren't suddenly going to send their kids in just so they can get a certificate so it doesn't even make sense to me.

It's not the child's fault if they get sick. It isn't the child's fault if mummy/ daddy don't send them in as they want a lay in or whatever. That is beyond their control (at least until they get to high school)

I haven't read all of the replies yet so this has probably been said many times already but it's my favourite subject to rant about

[mamadoc]

I'm a school governor and our school got hammered for attendance on its last ofsted. We got outstanding for the teaching and pastoral care but the attendance was poor.
There are a lot of reasons. We have high fsm and high eal and it seemed quite a lot of parents didn't put a high priority on their dc attending or being on time. A lot of term time hols to see relatives in other countries or days off when they visited. One family I used to pass every single day half way to school as I was coming back.
My first reaction was to feel it was unfair really to penalise the school for something beyond our control but ofsted made the fair point that there isn't much point providing great education that kids aren't receiving.
We didn't have much choice but to make it a big priority or we will fail our next inspection. Yes, an individual approach is taken of the EWO and family support worker working with repeat offenders but we did need to do something more general to change the school culture as well to make it less acceptable just to not show up.
We sent home a letter with quotes (real but anonymous) from the kids about how it feels to them to be late. I found that very powerful myself. Plus we did institute some of the dreaded attendance awards and I have had direct feedback from other parents that this did make them think twice about keeping their dc off for spurious reasons.
Ours is on a whole class basis, no individual certs but there is definitely no naming and shaming of who pulled the figures down.
I am genuinely sensitive to the inherent problems. You can guess from my unimaginative username what my job is and that I therefore do understand about ill kids and hospital apps (the NHs would not function if everyone insisted on out of school apps). I am going to check with our school that we are making allowances for disability and not breaching confidentiality.
I'm just trying to point out the reasons why these things exist which aren't wholly ridiculous. I think that if sensitively done they do have their place.

[Goldmandra]

I just wish somebody would do some investigations into whether these attendance awards for the children really do work.

I cannot imagine that hearing from their child about having missed out on a certificate is going to have more of an impact on parents' decision making than a letter from the head teacher expressing concern about their child's repeated absences.

The overriding response to policies of rewarding children for attending seems to be that they are inappropriate and unhelpful and wouldn't make a difference to those planning to take term-time holidays. Perhaps I would feel better about my DD being upset at the end of every term if I believed that what is upsetting her is also doing some good. I honestly don't.

I can see that the culture needs to be changed in some schools but that can be done by addressing the matter with the families causing concern. It can be done by talking about it in assembly and putting procedures in place for children who have been off to follow in order to catch up with work they have missed. That would put a few off having duvet days as well as support the learning of all the pupils, including the more unwilling absentees.

With the best will in the world you cannot effectively reward one group of children without making those who cannot achieve the goal feel like rubbish.

Attendance awards and rewards for individuals are still in my opinion used because they are easy and don't take much planning or admin time, not because they actually make a significant difference. To use them is lazy and unethical.