To disagree with attendance awards

[LittleMissUpset]

DS2 came home from school with some chocolate and a certificate DS1 didn't because he had a CAMHS appointment and is now awaiting assessment for ASD, therefore didn't get the attendance award.

I explained to DS1 that school are measured on attendance and they are just trying to encourage the children, but it's not his fault and it's unfair so I will buy him some chocolate too.

It really is unfair, as even if children are off ill it's not their fault.

AIBU to disagree with attendance awards?

A lot of schools do awards assemblies for things these days, for working hard, doing well in a spelling test, doing a good deed. Are people saying there should be no rewards at all, for anything? If a child gets an award, why do some parents always have to drag other children down if for some reason their's don't get it?

Most of the kids who got an attendance 'prize' in DSDs school are the very same who have been sent home 10 mins after registration because they puked or something. I find it hard to believe that these kids just miraculously became ill as soon as school started tbh...more the parents sent them in already ill.

All I have to go on on this are the words of DSD though..however I can well believe it. Our nursery gives out these awards and only one kid got one this year, this same kid has been sent in ill at least 3 times in the past few months, and consequently the rest of the class came down with a bug right after...so it seems...these are partly awards for irresponsible lazy parents who try to palm their ill child off on someone else for convenience.

"Actually, these certificates are trying to create MORE of a level playing field, by trying to give the children who have a raw start in life, because their parents keep them away from school, a bigger incentive to be at school and a chance to break the cycle of poverty"

What a load of fucking crap! Or i could be nicer and say........not a very effective smokescreen.

While schools are restricting parents to buying expensive logoed uniform from restricted suppliers and asking parents for money for things every 5 mins and at short notice (been a couple of threads on this recently) saying that attendance breaks the cycle of poverty makes you look incredibly foolish.

What WOULD break the cycle is to stop asking parents for money they dont have and bullying them into buying expensive uniform from certain suppliers.

We do rewards (and will do next week) for 100% attendance but also for achievement and merits. Attendance isn't the only way to win prizes.

Livelove You cant compare the awards you have mentioned with receiving an award for good health.

Its like comparing apples with oranges.

Livelovebehappy No one is saying that. They're saying rewards should be given for things within the child's control that every child can work towards not for things that are down to luck. Would you be in favour of having an award for the tallest student or the best looking? No because it's just down to genetics and luck.

livelovebehappy because those kinds of things the children can work at and improve.

Rewarding children who are lucky enough not to have a disability, feckless parents or a shitty immune system? You might as well reward all the children with blue eyes, or all the ones taller than 120cm.

working hard an award achievable to all assuming teacher has realistic views of what each child's "working hard" is

spelling test should be differentiated so all children are capable of doing well within their own ability

good deeds again anyone can achieve this

Different to attendance which a child, especially primary age, can't control.

But it is the same Helena. It all depends on a parents view of what's bad enough to keep a child off school. For example, I never kept mine off for having colds ( unless it had developed into more than a cold). Yet I know parents who would keep their child off at the first sign of a sniffle. i would say that unless a child has a chronic or obvious ongoing illness, or is vomiting, that most children kept off school are not ill enough to be kept at home.

How the fuck can an award for good health be the same as one for a spelling test

Ooh ds could achieve an award for being slim -just have to ignore the fact that the slimness is responsible for one of the medical appointments as he is under the dieticians

most children kept off school are not ill enough to be kept at home. How on earth could you know that. My child has had a fever, vomiting and an ear infection so far this term. If he was kept off with a sniffle he wouldn't have been in school at all this year.

I really dislike attendance awards. Last year both dd and ds (separate schools) had 100% attendance until a close relative sadly passed away. We took them out of school to attend the funeral and ds therefore missed out on a free day trip to a theme park because he no longer had 100% attendance. His friend moved to that school a month before the trip took place and was able to go on the trip because he had 100% attendance at that point, which is technically correct but still somewhat unfair imo. Thankfully dd's school doesn't do these awards!

DC3 was off nursery this week for a day. He was perfectly well as far as anyone could have told but still within the 48h d&v exclusion period so he was at home bouncing on the sofa watching Paw Patrol while I WFH.

I'm usually the one going "ARE YOU ACTUALLY BLEEDING? NO? THEN GET YOUR SHOES ON: YOU'RE GOING TO SCHOOL" but contagion is no joke.

Example of why this attendence policy is bollocks

Lets pretend ds has a 8.40 dr apt...only one i can get as early as i can get because i want him to miss as little of school as i possibly can

He is 10 mins late to his first lesson and the school marks him down as missing FOR THE ENTIRE MORNING

Now lets pretend its a 9.30 apt...he registers for the morning. I pick him up, drive the 20 mins to the drs, wait around, have the apt, 20 minutes back. He has missed the best part of two lessons

AND BECAUSE HE REGISTERED IT COUNTS AS NO TIME LOST AND FULL ATTENDANCE

Fucking stupid

And no this may not happen at every school, but it certainly does at mine

So much so that ds and dd have a dentist apt at 8.40 next week and there is literally no point me knocking myself out to get them back before 1pm. May as well take them out to lunch

YANBU They go against The Equality Act 2010 for a start.

I've told this story before on here. DS2 is a severe asthmatic and during Yr11 he, also, dislocated and fractured his shoulder in 3 places playing sport for the school. The resulting hospital appointments and his asthma, and appointments meant his attendance fell below the magic figure for him to attend the prom. I was fuming. He was a model student, worked hard and was never in trouble.

I contacted the Equality and Human Rights Commission who told me that schools should be making a reasonable adjustment for chronically sick and disabled children to put them on a level playing field with all the other children. They should be keeping one register of their absences due to their chronic illness/disability and another for everything else, and the first one shoiuld be disregarded when it comes to awards etc. They helped me write a letter to the HT to this effect.

The HT didn't take kindly to it at first and refused to budge. She even sent me a copy of the register where they had made up reasons why DS2 was off. Fortunately for me I had always emailed in, and kept the emails, so she had to change all that.

I contacted the EHRC again who helped me write another letter saying if DS2 wasn't allowed to go to the Prom due to being chronically sick then I would take legal action. Within 48 hours, I had received amended attendance figures and DS2 was allowed to attend the prom.

And i know that is attendance policy and not an award

But you can see why i am cheesed off

And no this may not happen at every school, but it certainly does at mine

Here too.

DC missed no school for SIL's wedding, because we took him out at 1.06pm, one minute after registration.

mrshathaway

Its ridiculous

I have no patience with people who say its for the childrens good, its fucking not. Its so the school looks good

Oh and our school wanted a doctors note for an absence of 3 days

Fuck off you twats...it takes 6 fucking weeks to get a dr apt here

A

DS1 is allergic to all but 2 antibiotics and was prone to tonsillitis, laryngitis and chest infections. He missed a lot of school but managed not to fall behind.
I was the only one to give him any credit for that.

I'm very supportive of attendance as a general principle, and we've only taken the DC out of school (total of three sessions between them over about six years) for genuinely once-in-a-lifetime stuff.-But the stupid box ticking that declares that being in school 9.00-1.06 is a full day but being in school 9.06-1.04 (ie eight minutes less) doesn't count as being in at all is just ... baffling.

Fairy i remember you posting that experience before Their behaviour was appalling.