100% attendance

[OinkBalloon]

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.

None taken, idefix.

We do what we can to support families but in the end we can only do what's possible in our role as educators, not doctors. The fact that it's not enough doesn't stop us from offering that support.

Not sure my DCs have ever aspired to 100% attendance. 90% would be a 'stretch target' and they are quite happy muddling along at maybe 80%.

falgelednl totally agree, MN is another universe sometimes.

I think they have them at the DCs primary, but they have never won one in all 12 years of them both going. They have never expressed any distress about people getting them in assembly, it's just not an issue.

Why do parents make such a massive fuss over these things, some kids get them, some don't. mine never did.

Dd's junior school were obsessed with this. It really stressed her out to start with because there was a huge fuss made of the class with best attendance each week. It's such a bloody nonsense!

Most parents I know (I teach too) are very keen to make sure their kids are in school every day. They only keep them off if they are genuinely ill, same for me.

In my school the parents who did take the mickey (keeping kids off for all sorts of reasons other than them being ill) still do so but they are a tiny minority. I really don't place any value at all on rewards for attendance. Even for adults, I have some amazing colleagues who have chronic health problems so have to have time off occasionally. It's not their fault and they still manage to do a great job when they are at work (most of the time).

SuburbanRhonda - you asked how I'd rejig the system.

I find authorised/unauthorised too blunt a measure. My "ideal world" multiple codes system would recognise a difference between "ill (documented)" eg hospital admissions and "ill (parent-certified)" and "ill (48h rule)".

It would also measure time out of school - I recognise the administrative burden, but at schools where children touch in, eg by near-field or fingerprint, the system would know exactly what time they'd arrived and left. That would mean that it would always be worth hurrying if you're late (because being half an hour late or four hours late would not count as the same).

And more, but must take children to toddler group. Will cogitate and return.

Why do parents make such a massive fuss over these things, some kids get them, some don't.

We don't like state sponsered disability discrimination against our children. I call this being an adequate parent and a decent human being, you can call it what you like.

mrsh, schools in our LA already code hospital and other medical appointments differently from "parent-certified" illness.

Obviously, the child still has to be marked as absent because they aren't in school. But for those who feel the attendance awards should recognise where medical absence can't be avoided, it should be possible to ask the school not to count those absences in the same way.

I'm sure schools would at least consider such a request, especially as an alternative to being accused of state-sponsored disability discrimination