To think that this jobsworth of a headteacher is a spiteful idiot?

[GlitteryRollers]

I know it's in the Daily Mail, and these school bashing stories are usually rubbish. But I'm pretty shocked by this one.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3363790/Boy-5-banned-attending-end-term-cinema-trip-classmates-poor-attendance-run-spend-two-weeks-off.html

What a nasty, spiteful cow! I'd be pulling my child out of that school ASAP. "Exceptions can't be made"? He was run over by a car you cruel bitch. Was he supposed to attend school when he was in hospital?

Why is it that so many headteachers seem to lack basic empathy and common sense these days? Even my very strict andy terrifying old primary school head wouldnt have done something so bloody mean.

Ze

Blimey. I wasn't expecting such insight at this hour; you've really made me think differently about all the complex issues involved!

I wonder how many other children missed out?
Maybe straw clutching they wanted 1:1 time with him because he missed two weeks of school???

As a child I sufferered with school refusal. It didn't matter what the school threatened to do, the thought of attending terrified me. It's not always black and white.

True. And that can be a genuine anxiety and even a mental illness. And with some kids just disengagement and truancy.

I wonder though, if we're mistaking who is targeted with these incentives. There seems to be an unspoken assumptions it's to encourage ragamuffin children with feckless parents who don't care and have Lots of absence. It seems to me that in most schools This would be a minority of absence (and you can argue such families would be unlikely to change on the basis of such an incentive)
It makes me wonder therefore if it's targeting those who tag on a days holiday to the end of term, or keep their child off for minor illnesses they could reasonably be expected to attend for, or book routine dentist/ optican appointments that could be done after school in school time.

Amongst my entirely normal circle I know loads of people who would be minded to do the above. And I think they are probably the ones easiest to engage for whom this incentive would have the most impact.

It has no impact at all, 90s, trust me. Apart from irate posts on forums. Think about it - how could it?

It's not aimed at families. It's aimed, impotently, at statistics.

I hate 100% attendance awards. And tomorrow I have to help present them.

So I know the kid with the chronic illness won't get one
The kid who caught impetigo won't get one
The kid who went to a funeral today won't get one.
The kid whose sister died in November won't get one.
The kid who had their tonsils out won't get one.
The kid who was taken from school in an ambulance won't get one.

But the kid who disrupts the class every single day WILL get one.
The kid who has done a runner from school 3 times since Sep will get one.
The kid who had been picked up straight after PM registration on a Friday at least 7 times will get one.
and the kid that is 'educated off site' (goes home and plays X box) twice a week will get one.

It's a fucking load of horse shit and I hate it.

I can only speak for myself but i attended school every day 1 year to get a 100% attendance certificate (and that was the only reason why) prior years and afterwards I used to reward myself with a few days off a year by telling mum I was sick then spending all day in bed reading books god I was a lazy sod.

YANBU IMHO. Its a very worrying trend that I noticed when my son was at school, to punish the innocent so they have no incentive to do what they are supposed to.
It also shows a complete lack of empathy and caring for the children. So they are all tarred with the same brush in their permanent records, no matter what the reason?
Imagine if the criminal justice system worked like that.

We get references through from potential employers of ex pupils asking how many days off they had in their final academic year. And I guess when they receive 29 days of absence they might decide they would prefer someone who was there more often. If there were 2 candidates for the job and one had 29 days off and the other had 3 days off, you might just pick the second one.

Well their permenant records don't "go" anywhere do they? I thought that was just a. Scare tactic used on characters in judt Blume novels. The school attendance register will just show a few absences. It won't be marked in red when his potential uni open it with a huge scrawl saying "didn't make cinema day"

Yes true but they do still ask. They don't ask why. I've had a few ask about punctuality as well.

I'm assuming you are up to date with your duty of care regarding students and references, IT.

I also utterly fail to see what this has to do with 100% attendance rewards, especially for five year olds.

Yes all up to date thanks, m. Why?

This is not totally linked because the thread has moved on slightly since the first post. It's related to the potential knock-on effects of attendance tracking.

That's just the way jobs are though aren't they? You might not get a job if you had loads of absence from your previous job. Even if it was for a medical reason, it still indicates you'll have more absence in the new job. Life just isn't fair like that.

These attendance policies are complete shite. It's one thing to encourage secondary age pupils who may be tempted to bunk off school but to impose these incentives onto primary age children is perverse. How on earth does a 5 year old have any control over his attendance? Whether genuine illness or through bad parenting they have no control over getting themselves to school. I get the ofsted threats and downgrading due to attendance but why don't school governers/head teachers/teachers/unions just say NO! Intelligent educated people all towing the line when they surely see how warped and unfair this system is. Authorised verses unauthorised absence needs to be recognised and treated accordingly in the first instance, otherwise why not just have one category.

There won't be a knock-on effect though, will, there, with your students? Because you know that "References are intended to provide an accurate and objective assessment of an individual. When providing a reference the referee has a duty of care to both the subject of the reference and the employer to whom they are providing the reference and must provide an accurate and fair reference"

So, arbitrary attendence statistics are irrelevant.

I don't have kids and I found about all the attendance reward stuff because of my friends' kids.

I was practically purple with rage! They just shrug it off because they have to deal with it but it really annoys me that children are excluded from things like this just because they were ill. It also makes no sense and it's bad enough being ill anyway. And as a pp said, parents send their kids to school sick. Ridiculous.

exLT bloody disgraceful .

Down to sheer luck really if you don't get ill or have some mitigating circumstance.

"I've been very healthy and I don't seem to catch things"

GIVE HER A MEDAL!