Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

100% attendance

107 replies

OinkBalloon · 05/05/2015 21:44

AIBU to think that school has got this 100% attendance thing 100% right?

Received a 2-line letter today congratulating dd for her 100% attendance last term and thanking us for supporting her attendance.

I had no idea she had had 100% attendance, for various legitimate reasons none of my dc ever achieve 100% attendance. Despite this, ds's tutor group regularly receive the year group prize for overall best attendance.

So the school manages to reward good attendance without penalising those who have no hope of ever attaining it.

OP posts:
hippoinamudhole · 06/05/2015 20:19

It's 2% across the whole school not 2% of the children.

It encourages the children who feel a bit grotty to come to school instead of saying I want to stay at home. Let's face it even as adults we sometimes feel like this when we get up but still go to work. Employers expect more than 85% attendance from their employees, which is the level at which parents will be prosecuted.

If a child stays home each time they feel like this it will become a habit and we all know how hard habits are to break.

If these stickers mean a child will have 10 days off over the year rather than 12 then we will continue to give them.

Sirzy · 06/05/2015 20:21

Even if coming in those 2 days will make a vulnerable child need an extra 5 days off?

Even if those stickers make a child dread going in on a Friday because they know they will be the odd one out again?

But hey as long as school get better figures sod thinking about the actual children!

Lucyccfc · 06/05/2015 20:21

It's an award for attendance, not for not being ill.

Good attendance is not to appease Ofsted, but for the benefit of the child, as there is a direct link between attainment/achievement and attendance.

Schools should do it fairly though. My DS has 2 hospital appointments each year, so they are planned and expected, so school don't count them towards any attendance award.

When our school first introduced the award (a certificate each term, presented in assembley) attendance improved by 6% in the space of a school year. That may sound a small number, but when you think that is as a result of about 10 children's absence levels, it's huge.

Idefix · 06/05/2015 20:22

This really annoys me :( I don't think there is a reasonable way to officially recognise a child's 100% attendance. Our school prints the attendance percentage at the bottom of each terms report. most of us aim to have our children attend their school each day, but this is not always possible.

My dd has a chronic health condition this requires weekly physio and regular appointments with other specialists throughout the year. We take the earliest physio apt at 8:30 and dd is in school by 9:20ish, the school marks it an an absence from the morning register.

Dd really dislikes this percentage being on her otherwise very positive reports, she feels that as it is printed in a larger, bolder, underlined font that this something people see first.

I think schools should pursue and work with families where there is persistent absenteeism without valid reasons. But should show consideration to children who clearly have no choice in there attendance for health reasons.

madreloco · 06/05/2015 20:28

It's an award for attendance, not for not being ill.

It;s the same thing. If you are ill, you don't have full attendance.

Don't you about the children who will frequently fail at your aim of 100% attendance, through no fault of their own? You don't think that a child with a chronic health condition has enough problems without this kind of casual discrimination?

hippoinamudhole · 06/05/2015 20:28

So why don't you have a 10am appointment, she can register first and then go

Sirzy · 06/05/2015 20:30

So miss more school just to make school happy attendance wise?

Why can't the system reflect that all children don't have perfect health?

cardibach · 06/05/2015 20:34

shewept they have to shut unless there is a self contained building (completely separate entrance from the rest if school, no connection to the rest if the building) because of the rules about people in the Polling Station. If a school has shut, it will be because it cannot satisfy this requirement. Schools who can, do- like, presumably, yours.

madreloco · 06/05/2015 20:34

the more I read on here the happier I am my children don't have to go to school in the UK. Seems to me the entire system is about box ticking and stupid ideas, and not at all about the actual children.

I'm just picturing the kids lining up for their stickers and pat on the head and kids like mine getting told, not for you kid, those uncomfortable tests you had to go for, or the painful episode you had this week means you're not good enough for us, yet again.
Lovely.

singlikethepianoMargot · 06/05/2015 20:35

I have never been able to get my head around rewarding children for managing to avoid being ill. It's bizarre at best, and horribly discriminatory at worst.

cardibach · 06/05/2015 20:36

shewept again - didn't notice both comments were from you! If your daughter was injured due to negligence, that is a completely separate issue from attendance, and you should address it through proper proces.

Husbanddoestheironing · 06/05/2015 20:38

It should be fair and take into account long-term health conditions etc. and for those who really can't manage to meet specific targets (not necessarily 100%) then there should be alternative awards recognising what those individuals achieve. Our school successfully does that already. However I guess as we already effectively reward children for intelligence and/or for having wealthy parents through our current education system, it is all a bit of a shambles when you think about it. I have no answers though.

cardibach · 06/05/2015 20:39

Add an extra s to process...
I appreciate how difficult and soul destroying it must be for children with chronic illnesses/health conditions. However, most classes don't contain a vulnerable child who will be adversely affected by someone coming in with a bad cold, they just don't (27 years' teaching experience) and we do have to help those children who are healthy but a bit lacking in determination to achieve in school by turning up as often as they can.
Like I say, difficult.

Idefix · 06/05/2015 20:40

Wow hippo that is a truly enlightened suggestion that she should miss more of her actual lessons simply to improve her attendance. Clearly emphasising the fact that this is about tick boxes and not what is best for my dad and the many others with health issues.

Idefix · 06/05/2015 20:42

Dd best interests not my dads - he is long past his school days Grin

Artfooldodger · 06/05/2015 20:49

I discovered our school awards 100% attendance by chance when I saw a certificate in a friends home. I then discovered they award them in a special assembly.

Our ds has around 6 hospital appointments a year, so no hope of any award. I asked the head teacher about it and the response was that they could always take those in to consideration. Well - if I'd known about it at the beginning of joining the school I would have tackled it then. Now just feel angry as they have known ds's health challenges from the very beginning, but we knew nothing about these pointless awards. Ds is understandably upset too.

hippoinamudhole · 06/05/2015 20:52

Unfortunately a lot of life is about tick boxes

Sirzy · 06/05/2015 20:56

Great justification for alienating vulnerable children hippo Hmm

madreloco · 06/05/2015 21:00

Unfortunately a lot of life is about tick boxes

And you're just doing the kids with additional needs a favour by letting them know early in life that they are less valued and its ok to single them out. Two tick boxes at once for you! Good show.

SuburbanRhonda · 06/05/2015 21:05

you're not good enough for us, yet again.

A little melodramatic there, madre. As is pointed out on every thread about school attendance that appears with alarming regularity in MN, it is the government, not schools, who decide how attendance is managed. Schools would love to leave it to parents to do the right thing, but unless we can provide evidence of what we're doing to improve whole school
attendance, we can be judged a failing school.

vestandknickers · 06/05/2015 21:06

It is ridiculous to reward attendance. I have twins. One of them broke her elbow while at school and so missed quite a bit of school. Bit of a kick in the teeth then when her sister came home with 100% attendance award!

Sirzy · 06/05/2015 21:10

So why not make the effort to work with and engage with families rather than go for a one size fits all approach?

No amount of certificates and stickers will help those children who have parents who aren't engaging with the system. All they will do is alienate those who are in whenever they physically can be.

Cherrychocolate · 06/05/2015 21:14

At my sons school mums get a bouquet of Flowers at the end of the year if their child hasn't had a day off school. I didn't get one as my son had a tummy bug at some point during the year....typical of my son, bloody thoughtless.

What a load of bollocks.

madreloco · 06/05/2015 21:15

Melodramatic? 7 year olds do tend to be dramatic, yes, and mine would be crying on a weekly basis if they handed out rewards every single week for those kids who are lucky enough to be able to attend school every day.

IT isn't the government that decide how this crap is implemented. I've seen many posts here about end of year trips to theme parks, special discos, medals and prizes for kids with 100% attendance.
Are you honestly telling me that if you had a child that had a debilitating condition that caused them pain, embarassment and endless hospital attendance, you'd be just fine with them being singled out in school AS WELL?
Bull. Shit.

SuburbanRhonda · 06/05/2015 21:19

If that's to me, sirzy, I do.

I'm a family support worker based in a primary school and supporting children who have poor attendance, for whatever reason, is a whole-family approach. It works. Our attendance has improved year on year - even for our many traveller families - because of this approach.