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.

No worse than 'Here's a prize for being born brainy', or 'here's a prize for having the correct physical attributes to excel at sport'.

Do the rest of the kids really 'sit in the hall for the day'? I find that hard to believe..

I think the only thing I don't like about it is some kids come to school poorly, spreading their nasty bugs though the whole class. It might be better to have an award for attendance above average percentage.

YANBU, whether a child was poorly or his parents take him out (does not matter actually the reason) it is usually not the child's fault/responsibility.

My dc has received a 100% attendance certificate for the last three terms.

I do not feel smug. I know this is due to them having had chicken pox/measles/flu etc etc when they attended nursery from the age of 11 months!

I recall using a lot of my a/l to look after my dc when unwell at nursery.

I got a letter about bad attendance.. 87.5%

My child has asthma so not too bad however everytime he so much as gets the sniffles it goes straight to giving him a chest infection requiring then an asthma review as well.

Oh and 4 days off total two separate times for d&v.

So we will never get 100% due to how many sick children are sent to school, we even had someone send in there child with chicken pox! Then a parent bringing in a younger sibling with chicken pox. Parents coming in streaming with colds.

The teacher has said she considers it a good week if she gets 80% of the class in on one week. The amount of children they have to send home clearly ill after first registration is stupid but those parents only care about the %

"In my friends DD's school, all those with 100% attendance go on a trip to the local petting farm on the last day of term paid for by the PTA fund"

That's outrageous. It would prevent me from supporting the PTA - and I am an ex PTA secretary.

a 100% attendance award is more a sign of a kid that does nothing

No, actually it's a sign of a kid that's lucky to be healthy.

My own DS does 3 sports outside of school but he has never had a day off school in the 6 years he's been there.

There has been no recognition of this as he goes to a school where 100% attendance certificate are not given out. Am i bothered? No. I'm just glad that he's healthy and i certainly wouldn't want those that aren't to be penalised.

Those were the days when you had to 'earn' an award or badge of position. We had 'Deportment' badges but I didn't get one. These were just a bit of blue material on a pin but we all knew what award it was and could see how the girl carried herself. Form Captain and Vice Form Captain. These had been voted for by the form and wore metal badges with the position on them. Prefect, Head Girl, Games Captain. Are these signs of merit still around?

Attendance Certificates are a waste of paper, ink, time and effort by the person who produces them. If they must notify the world, what's wrong with a list of 100 percenters in Reception available to anyone who asks to see it. That would save money because no one would be interested.

Totally agree about the 100% attendance awards and letters about less than X% attendance... I spend ages swearing at the letters going "my child was ILL!!!!!!!!!!!" I have one child who is very rarely ill and regularly gets 100% certificates! I have another who is usually ill at least once in the school year - this year he has had 3 separate incidents of v&d - what am I supposed to do? He has to have 48hrs if he has v or d and in the 3 incidents this school year he was home between 3 and 5 days. I'm not a "keep them home for the slightest thing" mum and will talk to the school (like the slapped cheek incident when school said send him in and GP said keep him home) but I cannot send a genuinely ill child to school!

I understand WHY they do it and I get it honestly but it is unfair on by those kids who either have a genuine condition requiring care/treatment and it's unfair on kids who have a genuine few days off due to illness and are not not attending school just for the sake of it!

YANBU at all. It's rewarding children for having the sheer luck of being super healthy or coming in when they are too ill to be in school. It's ridiculous and I can't understand why schools do it

I'd agree with them if late counted against attendance and medical didn't.

But it's clearly discriminatory to count potentially life saving hospital appointments as BAD and nipping in three minutes every pissing day as FINE.

My DC worked really hard at school, never got a detention in all of the time they attended, weren't rude to the teachers, wore their school uniforms properly, represented the school at sport, in science and maths competitions and DS1 was the young writer of the year in the county and region, 2 years running.

So, for the HT to turn round at the end of Yr11 and say DS2 wouldn't be able to go to the Prom due to his attendance was a massive kick in the teeth! I was not going to take it lying down and am glad I didn't.

All the days any child has off for a chronic condition or disability, or an appointment related to that condition has to be disregarded when it comes to these awards, otherwise it breaches the Equality Act. Start writing to your schools. It is the only way it will change.

Setting up an achievement that the child has no control over, then providing a reward which the non-achievers will then be denied sounds like something from a Saki short story.

What happened to setting personal targets and rewarding reaching them?

Our school used to do stickers each term, gold for 100% attendance and silver for 98% attendance. Then at the end of term the children with 100% attendance got a pin badge. They stopped that, then halfway through the autumn term they had a visit from a local play centre offering a free voucher for every child who gets 100% attendance for the year (obviously out of the goodness of their hearts, nothing to do with the fact that to use the voucher parents will need to pay for other non voucher owning children). Mine had had a sickness bug by then so no voucher for them. They were disappointed and put out that I had kept them off of school, so I told them I had no problem treating them and not to be fussed by a voucher.
Good job we had had the discussion as through March they both got cp and each missed a week of school. Illness is not something they can help so not sure it should be rewarded or punished.

at kids not being allowed to go to Prom because of their attendance. sure stop the ones that take the mickey and truant (the heads and teachers always know exactly who these kids are ) But ones that are genuinely sick, really? and giving out vouchers for 100% attendance even if they have been donated is just dreadful for chronically ill children. I like seeing awards for progress made, or over coming a challenge - things that all kids whatever their abilities can work towards and achieve. This total obsession with "must be in school 100%" is just so damaging.

Agree 100%, Mummymeister - at DD1's secondary you can only miss the prom for documented truanting or very poor behaviour (again, documented and properly escalated). It happens to only a tiny handful of kids each year and it's a very large school.

The school also send letters to parents when their DC has done something particularly well, which is lovely - so far we've had one for DD's last reading assessment and one for her attitude in helping a friend who was being bullied.

YANBU - last year my DS just missed out on his 100% award. Why? Because he has a dairy allergy and the school had a picnic and did not watch what he was eating. He had a bite of pizza and ending up missing sports day. Wrong on all counts!

I can see why it annoys you, but some children don't achieve academically and having a reward for 100% attendance might be the only reward they get.

Cumber but it's an award for not getting ill on a school day. It's pointless and encourages sick children going into school.

At preschool my child was not off half as much as parents kept sick children away, since starting school there has not been a single month apart from September he has not had to have time off due to his chest from catching another child's sickness or the two lots of d&v he got weeks apart.

Sick children should be at home tucked up under a duvet not out and about infecting other people.

In one case as I said a parent sent their child into school with chicken pox, there are newborns and pregnant women in the playground at pick up and drop off and pregnant teachers in school.

My daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia while in nursery. Her treatment finished in September last year (the beginning of year 2). During treatment she maintained a 70% attendance which was good considering the treatment she was enduring. Her school, however, only rewarded 100% attendance, awarding not only certificates but tickets to see our local Premiership football team play. I always felt this was grossly unfair and my daughter's attendance should have also been rewarded as being good given the circumstances but her headmistress disagreed. To make matters worse there was also a class award each term for the class with the best attendance which my daughters class had no hope of winning. Even now 8 months off treatment she will never achieve 100% due to the amount of follow up checks she has.

I hate these awards with a passion. DS1 has epilepsy was was never ever going to win one of these shitty awards. I home ed now, thankfully, but it would have killed me to think about him sitting there watching other children being awarded certificate for, essentially, not having a disabilty. Grr!

I don't believe any amount of hand washing or organic fruit and veg would have prevented my daughter contracting leukaemia.

spot on labtest7. this idea that your kids stay well because of something that you do is right but only up to a point. MY DC eat healthily, exercise etc, one of them just happens to have congenital heart disease. taking this into account DC is exceptionally well but not in comparison to her siblings or others without the disease. no amount of fresh organic produce is going to improve her condition.

to me, it just rubs the noses of the children with an illness or disability into it. so what about these children? are they likely to win sports awards either? no probably not. academic achievement -well isn't that what school is supposed to be about, achieving your academic potential. I just don't like this emphasis on the you have to be there culture I really, really don't. its what drives the school holiday rules as well.