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.

Am going to get really flamed......

Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of 'he was run over he should be allowed the exception'

It doesn't say he was in hospital for the 2 week duration and he has a 'horrific' scar on his hand. The whole article seems to be missing the back story.

I think without the whole story I'm likely to side with the school on this one. They won't be able to give out more of the details on what happened so are likely to know more of the story.

Dd's school has a disco for 98% or above. So that's 2 days.

What was wrong was the girl who was stopped because of her mums funeral.

When anyone in my dd's school was seriously ill or had been hit by a car, the entire school prayed for them (it was a Catholic school) and were just so happy to see them back and well. A school should have more of an ethos than just attendance lists. And I fucking hate this idea that that if we make an exception for one, we'll have to make it for everyone, more injustices have been done under that mentality than under any other.

Why should an exception be made for this child made for this child and not for one who has been off ill with something else? Was the mother bothered about this policy until it affected her child? I suspect not since she is not saying it is wrong which it is but that her son is a special case.

100% attendance incentives are complete bollocks and unfairly discriminatory. There are children with chronic health conditions who will never be able to have 100% attendance. Quite apart from that, it is not the child's fault that they are kept home.

Haven't read the whole thread, but this struck a chord with me:

"An 80% attendance means a child misses the equivalent of a day every week. 90% means half a day every week. If that was what happened at work, we would be sacked."

An adult employee can be signed off with stress but their GP, medicated (if necessary) for MH issues by their GP.
A child cannot. A child must be referred to CAMHS and wait the few months (7 months round here) before they are accepted for an initial assessment, if the referral is accepted at all.
If the child then doesn't engage, you're stuffed.
If the child does engage, you still have to wait a long time before any practical support is offered.
My oldest has undiagnosed ASD, OCD and anxiety (undiagnosed as he refuses to engage with drs and CAMHS), so he is left unsupported. We've been trying to get support for ten years now.
His attendance levels are low as he often refuses to go to school as he is so anxious about holding it all together whilst being shouted at by teachers and bullied by his "friends".
The school's idea of support is sending a fierce letter threatening us with a social worker and with a court summons.
To the dc like ds1, school is a horrendous, unsupported place to be.

Schools reward children for being lucky. No physical or mental health problems, no disability, let's give them a prize. Let's assume the parents are unsupportive and making stuff up which impacts on their dc education.
It's shit.

And having read more, from the outside, we look like a dysfunctional chaotic family.
What we are though is a family whose dc are fully unsupported.
1 with diagnosed HFA/PDA, zero support in school, not even bog standard ASD strategies.
At home we're constantly having to manage difficult behaviour that impacts on the rest of the family. We have a feeling that appropriate support in school would help this which in turn would reduce anxiety for my other dc, give dh and I more time with our other dc etc, but school won't support him.
They can have it both ways.

*can't.

Although with past experience, apparently they can, as they can blame the feckless, crap parents

Sorry i haven't read the whole thread

My daughters attendence has dropped to under 92%

She has missed two days off sick, and has been late to school by 15 minutes 6 times for physio appointments (i think i may have pulled her out at lunchtime for one)

The system they use means that they are saying that because she was 15 (maximum) minutes late that she has missed the whole session

At most she has missed 2/3 hours but their records now show that she has missed 3.5 days

Apparently i should have registered her, pulled her out, drove for 1.5 hours there and back had a half hour appointments and got her to school 2 hours later, which would mean that she missed 6 mornings but their attendence stats would look better

However people on here try to justify the headteachers actions, it is wrong on so many levels. Not only that, her reply was impersonal and lacking any empathy or feeling. I would have thought that she would be very sad at a pupil at her school being run over, and would demonstrate this, not punish a little boy for it, he might nearly have been killed and she is doing this. Absolutely shameful and disgusting. I am glad the parents are taking this further.

My younger sisters schools prevented a girl from taking a few days off to visit her dying nan in Ireland, since it was published they let her go of course. A lot of schools care about their reputation above all else, sad but true. Maybe this particular boy was off before the two weeks as well? I don't really understand the scheme either and it makes me laugh when they say exceptions can't be made because I guarantee if a kid with 99% attendance phones in sick they think nothing of it, whereas if the child had 85% it would be a different story.

I think the idea of a 100% attendance award is flawed for the many reasons given on this thread. However, I agree that it might work eg with parents who would take their child out of school on the last day of term etc.

Also, it might conceivably motivate the kids themselves. I remember being about 14 and skiving school because I had a Maths test. I said to my mum I didn't feel well. I did it twice in one week! I'm surprised in hindsight that my mum went along with it, but I generally had very little time off so she probably thought I was genuinely under the weather. Had there been the prospect of an award at the end of term, I might have decided that the Maths test was worth it even though I knew I would get a rubbish mark for it (not long afterwards I changed teachers) ;)

100% attendance rewards are just bollocks, kids cant help being ill and that's without kids with health issues.

I just got ds2's "autumn tracking sheet" in the post, it tells me his levels, predicted grades and gives a score for effort for homework, classwork and 'behaviour for learning'... Such a load of shit. It also has his attendance... 58.3%. Currently he only attends three days a week. His asc, hypermobility and other health issues (being investigated by hospital) mean he can't cope with full time school. I have had to fight to get appropriate support for the asc and health issues and quire frankly it's bloody exhausting as a parent. Luckily he is bright and despite his shit attendance and health issues he still does well 'academically' which is a double edged sword as he is then even less likely to get additional support.

Btw those families with sometime 'chaotic' home lives or when kids end up staying home to help parents... It's often because the parent is ill, disabled etc these children, 'young carers' and their families need help and support. It's a bit shit to say thst their parents are failing them etc when actually it's the bloody system thar is letting down huge chunks of society, our most vulnerable fgs. And shit like 100% attendance rewards just discriminates against those that need support the most.

Back in DH's and my day those children just got a certificate, with a shake of the headmaster/mistress' hand and a pat on the head. Sort of, well done for never being ill, congratulations on having a cast iron immune system.

It was meaningless then and it's meaningless now.

My daughter has had 10 days off alone this Autumn term. She is never going to get that an award and the prize.

This sort of thing is supposed to incentives the parents who keep their kids off for 3 days for a little sniffle, or because their other kid is I'll and they can't he bothered traipsing to school for one kid etc etc.

However, it only.takes one incidence of.genuine illness, and any 'attendance award' is out of reach anyway, so its back to a.couple of.days.off.every.couple.of weeks.

I understand the attendance pressures.on heads, but I think attendance awards are a bit pointless really.

I know of a child whose parent often can't get out of bed because they are an alcoholic (all the relevant agencies are in the loop). This child would miss out on a warm, fun, comfortable treat because their life is the exact opposite.

These schemes aren't thought through properly.

My girl regularly faints and has seizures related to low blood sugar, and has had time off for operations. The idea that she would be punished for this is deeply discriminatory. As the moment her school don't have this system but I'm guessing it is a matter of time.

So where do you draw the line? At primary age and even to a large extent at secondary, a child's attendance is out of their control, and in fact often dictated by school policy

I am amazed that a Daily Mai article is being accepted by nearly everyone on here as being completely and fully factual.