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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

142 replies

SteadyEddie · 02/06/2014 08:02

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.

OP posts:
Deverethemuzzler · 02/06/2014 17:10

If these awards discriminate against little girls with cancer how can anyone think they are ok?

The mind boggles.

Bunbaker · 02/06/2014 17:15

I agree Devere. DD missed a lot of school a couple of years ago because she had every test under the sun to determine whether she had bone cancer. Fortunately it wasn't, but I really feel for those whose children aren't so lucky.

Being healthy isn't an achievement, it is just luck pure and simple.

Deverethemuzzler · 02/06/2014 17:16

Oh Bun I remember that! I used to think about your DD often but I sort of lost track of what was going on.
Flowers

CharmQuark · 02/06/2014 17:21

My DC will never get one because of endless disability related appointments, and is meanwhile put at risk by the type of competitive parent who sent her DS to school obviously in the early stages of swine flu a few years ago, rather than miss the certificate.

"tickets to see our local Premiership football team play." I the sort of prize people will take risks for Angry

It is obviously discriminatory to count absences wholly related to permanent disability against a child's chance of winning such a prize.

But I do understand why schools want to take a stick and carrot approach to attendance that is not illness related.

cardamomginger · 02/06/2014 17:24

YANBU.

It sends out the message that those who are ill are undeserving. And where classes are awarded a prize for overall best attendance it sends out the clear message that those who are ill or are otherwise compelled to take an absence through no fault of their own (grandparent's funeral eg?) are an inconvenience and a problem.

I look forward to going ABSOLUTELY BALLISTIC if the school DD (currently 3.8) ends up going to has this policy. Bring it on!!

cardamomginger · 02/06/2014 17:27

If it was a prize for least unauthorised absence, that would be a different matter. But, as has been pointed out on MN many times, for primary school children unauthorised absence will be as much, if not more, to do with their parents, so rewarding/penalising on the basis of this is, again, rewarding/penalising the child for something that may very well be beyond their control. So, again, unfair.

hellymelly · 02/06/2014 17:31

YADNBU op. I hate this with a passion too. Show me a child with attendance in the high 90s and I will show you a child that has been in school rabidly snotty or coughing or still able to pass on some Godawful bug. I have a Mum in an old folk's home, vulnerable to infections, and a friend who I visit regularly going through chemo. I imagine many others are in the same boat. I try and avoid my dds getting ill, and I do not let them go to school if they have something they might pass on. This was normal when I was small in the 60s, when people worried a bit more about infections. Children can't help getting ill, needing the dentist, optician, physio appointments etc. There shouldn't be some bloody award for being lucky enough to be incredibly robust, or having parents who send you to school unwell.

Permanentlyexhausted · 02/06/2014 18:01

Going against the majority here but I just don't get all the angst about 100% attendance awards. I get that they aren't exactly fair, but what is? Tbf, I think it should be a certificate and not include prizes as well, but I really don't see the issue with awarding a certificate for attendance any more than rewarding a child for raising the most sponsorship money or having the best costume on World Book Day or for reading to their parent x number of times.

I have one child who repeatedly got 100% attendance certificates in infant school. I have a second child who has spent too much time in hospital and attended too many appointments and medical tests to get 100% attendance, so I can genuinely see both sides.

TheFairyCaravan · 02/06/2014 18:05

If these awards discriminate against little girls with cancer how can anyone think they are ok?.

Devere is spot on!

Gileswithachainsaw · 02/06/2014 18:23

permanant

The point is that it's something that can't be helped. Parents are responsible for getting kids to school. Lack of illness is just luck. At least with the academic awards the child worked( or bloody should have worked hard and had appropriately differentiated work so that it wasn't an easy, no effort award) hard for it and hopefully learnt a lot at the same time. Talents, academic, arty, or sporty should always be celebrated .

Plus in all fairness it's a cop out!! Saves having To actually get to know a child's capabilities, strengths and general personality traits that could be the focus of an award. How about recognising a child who is consistently kind and helpful or behaves well (for them).

Plus it makes it look like they have addressed an issue that they actually haven't.

A certificate doesn't stop the bullying that's making a child want to skip school in the first place.

Darkesteyes · 02/06/2014 18:50

cardamomginger Mon 02-Jun-14 17:24:53

YANBU.

It sends out the message that those who are ill are undeserving

I don't have DC and I am appalled at this So the schools as well as the Gov are sending out the message that ill/disabled people are undeserving. Disgusting!

Bunbaker · 02/06/2014 20:03

Thank you Deverethemuzzler. DD has a rare but not life limiting bone condition. The last MRI scan showed that most of the inflammation has disappeared, and hopefully she will grow out of it.

TiggyD · 02/06/2014 20:17

It's discrimination. You don't need to have a conversation with the Headteacher. You need to inform them it stops or you'll tell ofsted. Or better yet, post the name of the school on this thread.

Icimoi · 02/06/2014 21:31

YANBU. DS got an award for punctuality at his secondary school. I felt like going in to demand it for myself, given that the sole reason he is punctual is that I hound him out of bed, make sure he's got everything organised the night before, and drive him there.

On the other hand, I was not happy that none of my dc got cycling proficiency awards at primary school, despite the fact that all three passed the test at the end. For different and entirely valid reasons, each of them missed one session, and you couldn't get the award unless you'd been to all of the sessions. I wanted to ask what on earth was the point of testing them if they weren't prepared to acknowledge the fact that they'd passed.

ShakesBootyFlabWobbles · 02/06/2014 21:38

yanbu

ICanSeeTheSun · 02/06/2014 22:00

As a child I knew how to get an award, I clocked on that if you are a difficult child to begin with then improved after Christmas by the time the awards came around I would get the most improved pupil award. Which resulted in £5 note and a certificate.

Randomnessesses · 02/06/2014 22:12

The kids that get the award in our school are the ones who are calpoled within an inch of their lives to try and cover the fact they so obviously should be tucked up at home in bed. Poor mites.

Randomnessesses · 02/06/2014 22:15

Schools should be promoting the idea of looking after general well being and this means positively taking time off when ill.

stillenacht1 · 02/06/2014 22:27

As a teacher I hate them. Ditto as a parent. All the pupils think they are pointless too.

cardamomginger · 02/06/2014 22:58

Didn't someone on another thread (possibly with a chronically ill child?) challenge this on the grounds of discrimination a few months back?

What happened? Can't for the life of me remember.

ThornOfCamorr · 02/06/2014 23:59

I hate them too. Dd2 got her first one this year after four years at school we both laughed about it and she herself said it means nothing. Her reason was- there are poorly children in her class who have to be off for appointments,so how can they ever have a certificate. Dd was only ever off for the occasional tummy bug, high temp or very bad cold which I could do nothing about and had to keep her off according to school guidelines.

DogCalledRudis · 03/06/2014 06:30

In my primary one year i got an award of "healthy lifestyle" as i missed the least classes.

Twunk · 12/06/2014 22:14

Glad I'm not in the UK. Another "leukaemia mum" here. Alex missed half the year, and has hospital appointments to go to.

DS1 is in immense good health and has missed 2 half days (one as we'd all been up with a very poorly Alex and had so little sleep we all stayed in bed) and one for Alex's Make-A-Wish.

I do, and have done, nothing different with either of them. But one got cancer.

Quite frankly I'm gobsmacked at labtest's story. The school's behaviour is almost cruel.

duchesse · 14/06/2014 00:52

DD3 had a less than 80% attendance record in her first term of school.

She has inherited asthma and eczema from DH which means that a cold turns nasty at an alarming rate. But she has also inherited his intelligence and good looks. Grin And her health has improved a lot since Christmas, after 2.5 years of being ill practically all the time.

Luckily her school is not stupid about such things and there are no certificates for being there every day.

MsVenus · 14/06/2014 07:37

Totally unfair, my ds has had 20 hospital apts for various things in the middle of the day and in a hospital that is not local to us. He will never get 100% attendance ever.

If there are Any teachers on this thread, please show this to your heads as some of them are a bit disconnected about the issues pupils face to get to school.