Attendance prize or punishment

[GoadyTwoShoes]

My DC's primary school have recently announced that at the end of this school year all children who have achieved 97% attendance will be given a fun activity day as a prize.
The school already has excellent attendance so I'm not sure why this incentive is necessary. The majority of kids will get to enjoy the fun day but a small number of kids, who for whatever reason are below this level, will be left out.
Is it me or is this really mean, and probably counterproductive?
What do you think, are they being unreasonable?

I'm really glad almost everyone thinks the school is BU. I feel really quite irked by these arbitrary policies.

One PP said that absence of a reward is t punishment: quite, but there is a difference between a voucher, certificate or small after-school celebration etc and having a big party in school time that small children are excluded from.

My son catches every fucking illness going - I'm with OP - I really hope my son's school doesn't implement any of this divisive shit.

Why the hell should children be penalised through no fault of their own.

It gets them ready for adult life by showing them that absence because of illness can have consequences. Lots of people work in jobs where a day off sick means a day without being paid. State sickness pay does not kick in on the first day of illness, and when it does start to get paid it is much less than what a below-average earner would normally earn. Then you've got the self-employed or those on zero-hours contracts: absence from work means no money coming in.

It's not fair on the children, but it hopefully shows them that life isn't fair.

Yes they are being horrendous. My dd broke her wrist at school and was off for a few days so why should she get penalised. Rediculous.

@luxcodespondent the difference is, as an adult you are responsible for getting yourself to work. You decide if your stomach ache is enough to warrant a day off with no pay. A child being off for illness is completely different. They may feel their tummy ache is ok for them to go to school but mum or dad may decide that they'd be best kept off. Therefore the child has not decided to stay off.part of the problem with sickness in school are those who bring their child in looking awful, and then say "they were vomiting last night but wanted to come in today". There are guidelines about infection control (like stau off until 48 hrs after last episode of v or d) being ignored by some, leading to more illnesses for that child's class.

They whole area of attendance awards seems ridiculous to me. One of my children has clinic appointments every other week - this clinic only runs in the morning and means he misses his morning registration mark. It's not like he's having a lie in because I am too lazy to get up, or he's off having fun somewhere. My give year old would be really upset at missing out when in his eyes he wanted to attend but couldn't due to illness or valid appointments.

Meant to add, at secondary level where children are more likely to get themselves to school an attendance award seems more logical in a way to deter truancy.

I hate this system, my son's school have just introduced certificates and vouchers for those who get 97% or above. He's had the usual odd day off sick but with the addition of attending two funerals in the last few months, he won't meet that percentage. I don't see how that's fair. There's a child in his class whose parents are drug users and don't always get her to school, and another with a chronic illness, neither of those things are in the child's control yet they'll miss out.

This is really unfair.

In primary it is the full responsibility of the parents to ensure that their DCs go to school, if the parents aren't bothered - well it's not very fair that the DC misses out.

Sadly children with chronic health conditions, or who come from chaotic homes are generally more than aware that life isn't fair. They don't need reminding about that in school too.

I hated this when mine were at school it just punishes the child who has poor attendence little primary kids have no control if they are off or not and a fun day isn't going to be an incentive for parents they won't care if their kid gets to go because they can justify the reason the child was off school.

Mine were rarely off so they got stars and stickers and certificates they were quite happy but as sirzy just said kids who are off a lot don't need reminded

It's ridiculous and unfair, obviously!

It's crazy that supposedly intelligent people who manage education and the well-being of children come up with this shite.

I suspect my daughter's school with its very ambitious head will go the same way. I'm actually saving this post as the arguments against are brilliant and I may need to use them one day soon!

Bad idea for all the reasons given above. I also don't like the class rewards for the class with the best attendance which i have heard of some primaries doing, which means the frequently sick child gets lynched by the rest for bringing down the class absence. Absence should be dealt with individually and confidentially.

Geek DS had chicken pox in reception...half the class did. He had a week and two days off. We were all hauled in and had to give an explanation as to how we were going to improve attendence

"I'll try and make sure he doesn't catch CP again" wasn't a good enough reply and we just went round in circles.