To hate (with a passion) 100% attendance awards?

[SteadyEddie]

DD's school have an award ceremony where everyone who has had 100% attendance for that academic year gets a certificate, and then get to go and watch a film as a 'reward'.

I know they want to encourage 100% attendance, but AIBU to hate this idea? DD has an eye condition which means attending hospital appointments every 6 weeks, which are run in the daytime, so she has had 5 afternoon sessions missed this year, and another tomorrow, so she wont be allowed to the special event.

I know that we have to teach our children that life isn't fair, but really, at 5, especially when its through no fault of her own? She already hated her eye condition as it is.

My DS2 was not good at sport and not very academic and the only "award" he ever got was 100% attendance. The certificates he had helped to improve his self esteem and give him a reason to go to school when he absolutely hated it

Why were you standing for that? There's a whole host of other things your Ds could have been rewarded for. The attendance award shouldn't have been the only thing he ever got noticed for!!

Examples- being a good friend
-behaving well
-being book monitor
-being helpful
- most improvement in hand writing
-being kind

It's pretty poor IMO that a child comes out of school rewarded for being healthy!!

And nothing else

Primary aged children have no control over their attendance anyway.

Since parental income is a far better indicator of academic achievement, why not reward those children whose parents earn more than, say, £30,000?

They could always nag them to earn more

You would think having good health and functional parents that can get you to school every day would be enough of a win in life's lottery, without getting to watch a film as well.

So all the 'alphas' ponce off to see a film, so the sick, lame, needy and neglected can know their place.

It is sick and offensive - I would complain big style if they did that at our primary.

Of course the other thing is that some kids who attend 100% are actually infectious and pass on their ailments to other kids. DS contracted whopping cough two years ago, from school - some of the older kids had mild doses (it can affect you less as an adult although this is not always the case - I had it too! after him! and I genuinely thought I was going to die). There was an epidemic where we live a couple of years ago and it was helped to spread by kids going into school and passing it on to the younger ones whose immunity had weakened (the jab you get pre school wears off by the time you are 9 or 10) but who were still small or young enough for it to really wreck them - DS was off school for 12 weeks in total. :( Winter vom is another one that some people seem to not care passing on to others. :(

tethersend Amen!

yanbu, DD cried about me making her stay off school when she had chickenpox because it meant she'd miss out on that terms prize (a certificate and a lolly).

My secondary used to do 'most improved attendance' every month because they had a real problem with truancy, which was at least more fair but it was pretty pointless as the kids who regularly bunked off didn't care about a certificate anyway.

This worries me when DS starts school in September. He has brittle asthma and I am worried enough about his attendance without the risk of him being penalised further by missing out on things.

I don't see how now with the DDA this is allowed? Surely its discriminating against those with medical problems meaning they can never possibly get 100% attendance?

It's so ridiculous. For adults or children.

One team at my work did it and it was the most patronising thing ever watching a grown 28 year old woman be called up to the podium "everyone clap for xx she has 100% attendance!"

Can't believe they not only do it but also make the kids miss out on a treat. Complain.

sovery Those are prizes based on merit or achievement though. 100% attendance needs neither (and is often an indication of lack of both). My girls are dyspraxic and will never win anything at sports day (DD1 no longer has to do sports in fact). It was horrible for them having to endure sports day but them's the breaks. The kids who are good at sport deserve to have that recognized. A 100% attendance award is a prize for never getting sick (or coming in when sick and passing it on to others who might suffer more) and for doing nothing whatsoever outside school. Where is the merit or achievement in that?

A prize for zero unauthorized days off might be fairer, because then kids who were sick or did other stuff wouldn't miss out. But it would still be silly.

sovery

As I said in a previous post, there is no need for awards to be for attendance or just academic achievement. There is something every child can be rewarded for. Something that's an achievement to them. Or just showing that they have been recognised for something.

I certainly don't need my child receiving an award for me doing my job and getting them to school!!

Either inform relevant authorities for parents who don't give a shit and let them deal with it, or focus on having a warm welcoming friendly class who make school somewhere bearable to be.

A certificates a cop out.

Such a pity that when children achieve something, for whatever reason, it is immediately followed by a stream of protest from the parents of those who didn't achieve, attempting to devalue it.
100% attendance certificates date back almost as far as state education, and were much prized; there are always children who really don't want to miss school and make an effort to attend.
I bet the school of HercShipwright will celebrate when her daughter leaves;
the music at her primary school is crap;
a stream if (of) mainly useless supply teachers who have singularly failed to address differentiation in the class;
a 100% attendance award is more a sign of a kid that does nothing.
How graceless and uncharitable.

But that's the point it's not an achievement.!!

Congrats you didn't get sick or don't have a condition that requires hospital appointments/assessments that you wait months for and then fall in term time.

Or congrats on having parents who get their arse out of bed to take you to school.

YANBU.

They are unfair and pointless.

My DS was at mainstream and didn't stand a chance in hell of winning a prize because of all his appointments
He switched to special school and his appointments got less as he got older. Now he is about the only child in the school who stand a chance of getting a prize.

Ridiculous.

Goblin how does a five year old have any control over their health or their parent's ability to get them into school?

There will be hundreds of children who would 'prize' a certificate and long for one just as much as the children who get them. Its not their fault they won't get one.

It has got to the point where schools are withholding stupidly excessive rewards.

Its nothing to do with encouraging attendance for the good of the child. Schools are under pressure to have good levels of attendance. That is what its about.

I know parents of children in my DDs class who are so determined that their DCs achieve the 100% attendance certificate that they have sent their ill kids into school, once with a D&V bug. They think it stands them in good stead when applying to the secondary school of their choice. Selfish IMO.

Yup it's great that children can 'achieve' 100% attendance whilst coming into school ill, infecting my child who then ends up in hospital making his attendance even worse!

Sirzy, that is what really annoys me. I would never put my own and other people's kids at risk like that.

They are against the law and the only way they will change is if people stand up to the schools.

DS2 was threatened with not being able to go to his Prom last year due to his attendance. He has severe asthma and had suffered a severe injury at school.

I went to the Equalities and Human Rights Commision who helped me write a letter. The school said they weren't going to back down, so we wrote again saying it goes against the Equalities Act. They have to make "reasonable adjustments" for children with chronic illness and disabilities. They should have 2 registers for those DC so the days they are absent due to those conditions can be disregarded when these awards are given out.

About 2 days before DS2 was due to leave school, we got a letter and his attendance for the whole of his time at secondary school had been changed!

Teacher here. YANBU. I think they are nonsensical and unfair.

I think it's difficult, the schools are under so much pressure to have good attendance figures but young kids can't help being unwell sometimes. For example our DS had pneumonia a couple of years ago, couldn't help it and had to be hospitalised yet his report for that term just showed the poor attendance figure with no explanation.

I hate the assumption that those with 100% attendance "put others at risk".... it bugs me that people think like that....

through genetics/luck/good hygiene practices/good diet/whatever (why do people who manage not to be ill never get any credit for at least partially contributing to it?) - my kids haven't had a day off school through illness... they have never actually had D+V, they haven't had anything but minor colds since pre-school days, had chickenpox before school age...

they have had music exams, and we did take them out of primary once in term time for a holiday (bad, bad parents I know), so no 100% attendance certificates here anyhow.... but it did not matter one jot to any of us that someone else got them...

Why on earth do you think you deserve any credit for you or your children not getting ill?

Absurd.

Unless you mean 'I haven't taken my children into any Typhoid Zones and I haven't been thick enough to take my kids to a chickenpox party'

I will give you some credit for them not getting Typhoid or CP.

But I expect the whole typhoid thing rarely crops up and you have to be seriously stupid to do the CP thing.