100% attendance

[AgainstTheOddsNo2]

My daughter has just been sick and is currently devastated and not talking to me because I said she will have to stay home from school and lose her 100% attendance.

Fuck that prize!

Trifle I think there are arguments on both sides. But overall, yes, I think it is okay. If prizes are handed out for athletics, a physically disabled child isn't going to get that prize. I don't think we should ban prizes for athletics. If prizes are handed out for top performance in Maths, a child who is, sadly, as thick as a brickie's lunchbox isn't going to get that. It isn't the child's fault he/she isn't clever, so should we ban prizes for Maths? For some children, 100% attendance feels like a big achievement and helps them feel good about themselves. It is up to us as parents to manage any fall-out from that.

I've never heard of kids getting to go and watch films because they passed the maths exam and the ones who failed got left in the classroom, or got to go on a trip, nor have I heard a Head giving a speech about how children who aren't getting the 100m certificate have let the school down and worse have let themselves down and they aren't going to cope in life unless they win the 100m next term.

Apart from all that I don't think prizes for being good at maths or running or whatever is particularly useful. I tried to teach my children that they should get satisfaction from being able to do long division rather than learning how to do long division so that they get a bit of paper or a lollipop or something. Giving stars, stickers or certificates isn't something home schoolers tend to do, it is a different philosophy on learning or at least it was with the home schoolers I knew.

By the way trifle I don't think referring to children as being as "thick as a brickies lunchbox" is appropriate.

grannytomine:

I'm sorry you feel that way. This is an Internet forum. Not everything people say is going to be 'appropriate'. Would you prefer the euphemistic 'not academic' or should I go the whole hog and say 'lower prior attaining pupil'?

Ok trifle think of it this way.

How do you think these "lower attaining " kids will feel when not only can they not Get any awards for sports or academic stuff bit they caught a bug and ergo are so useless they Cant even get a prize for showing up?

They even the most pointless unimaginative award is still out of their reach?

Or how about people actually award then for something they can do?

Gileswithachainsaw:

I don't know how many times I have to say it. I think there are better systems. I just don't think this one - where lower attaining students often do have a chance to win something - is the spawn of Satan or anything. The opposition to it on this thread seems to me to be a gross overreaction, when a lot of the potential upset over this could be managed better by parents. There will always be something to get upset about when some children are selected for something and some aren't. I just can't get that worked up about it.

But as I say kids can be and are often happy for their class mates when they win stuff.

If awards are going to be given they should be given for someymg that shows you know and recognise the child.

Not rewarding the invisible kids by making them feel even more invisible. I mean the work experience kid can do that. Write an certificate for attendance. You don't even have to have net the child. You just look in a book.

Gileswithachainsaw:

I didn't say anything to argue with you. I just don't think it is the end of the world and I think allowing your child to believe it is, isn't great parenting. I accept that some children will be upset no matter what parents do, but I don't get the sense that many of the dramatic comments on here are coming from parents who do much to help their children get things in proportion.

Are we reading the same thread?. Everyone here feels that strongly i expect they have done plenty of things to help their children tryband not take things so badly

But kids are actually getting bullied for letting the class down ffs how on earth can people make that any better?

Fwiw my school sends out emails for attendance and I haven't shown my kids a single one.

DS1 is heartbroken because he had to have 3 days off school (therefore missing the award) because of an injury sustained at school through lack of supervision of another pupil! He has ASD and cannot understand why he is being punished for a situation that is in no way his fault.

I would also suspect that large portion of the pupils who don't stand a chance with the academic or sports awards are the kids who also dont stand a chance woth the attendance either giveb its their absenses health conditions or multiple appointments that mean they are behind or unable to do alot of sport in the first place.

Exactly Giles, I love this idea that kids who aren't likely to win academic or sporting prizes are somehow magically immune to illness (or indeed disabilities, accidents and death of close relatives).

And I don't see parents on this thread catastrophising and being end of the world. The only person I see talking in extremes is Trifle

This isn't about kids being upset - everyone realises you can't win anything. It's about being upset over something that has no rational or reasonable justification.

And what about the poor kids who's parents don't give a shit?

Invisible at home and then at school.way to crush the last shred of inclination to even try and get to school.

How hard would it be to give then a certificate for being the class helper or something.

It does nothing but punish children who are poorly and reward the children who's parents send them in dosed up on calpol or right after d&v.
I don't know how many times I've been at the school gates and heard a parent say to the teacher, '[child] has been sick in the night but managed to keep down a cracker this morning so sent them in/[child] is really poorly but I've given him calpol so ring me if his temp comes back etc. These parents don't seem to care that their child is feeling lousy in school thus don't doing any productive learning anyway and spreading it around to the other children and teachers...

Turns out half the school are out with this sickness bug so I feel 100 attendance for this term will be very thin on the ground.

Fwiw I was thinking about punctuality or no unauthorised absence awards and I thought they were a better idea. But again these things aren't realistically within a primary child's control. Dd cant get to school unless I take her. Which I do! But it's not all about my kid.

Also aren't these 100 % things counter productive. 1st week of term she has been ill. What is the incentive this scheme provides for the rest of term? It's bullshit.

How about penalties for parents who don't bring their kids on time. There is a kid in dd's class who is at least 5 mins late every. Single. Day

Gileswithachainsaw:

I didn't say they shouldn't get a certificate for that.

Then why do attendance ones?

If there are sufficient rewards for everyone why do you need attendance ones on top?

Unless of course you are looking to cover up the fact you know nothing about the kids and panicking on praise assembly day?

EduCated:

Extreme? How do?

Trifle, I think you could just say they aren't good at maths. Doesn't mean they are thick, they could have dyscalculia.

Hate these awards - ours does a bronze certificate for 100% in 1st term, silver for 2 terms and gold plus a book token for 3 terms. It's not cumulative across years though, so if you're there summer term, winter term and spring you're still only on silver. Nothing if you don't get 100%.

100% means being at registration morning and afternoon. If you have an appointment at 8.45 and arrive at 9 (after registration), you've technically missed all morning. If you have an appointment at 9.15 and spend the rest of the morning bumming around town but made it into registration then you're marked as present. I think this shows they're not really interested whether you're in school and learning for the maximum amount of time - just whether you're in for the ofsted statistics.

Recently DD missed a certificate because she was out for the morning at an exam. I had to point out to her the fact that she actually did get a certificate that she'd earned by working hard at something, rather than one that you just get because you haven't been off ill.

I asked for some more time off for the next exam and the receptionist said that if I took her slightly later in the afternoon then she'd have her attendance mark. She wasn't pleased when I said that was pointless because she'd already lost her 100% with the previous exam (I did pick her up after registration though).

If the aim is to encourage you to go in even if you're not feeling great then I'm not sure how motivating it is to show up through the year if you know you're not going to get anything because of the day you were ill in September.

You can improve at something, learn a new skill, be helpful, be kind, meet your targets in addition to the ones who are academic or sporty, but it's not like you can "try harder" at not being ill and if the only certificate you've "earned" is the attendance one then perhaps it's showing that despite turning up every day you haven't improved at anything so it's not doing you any good.

Apparently, we should focus on the ones who can "achieve" this, rather than the ones who can't

100% means being at registration morning and afternoon. If you have an appointment at 8.45 and arrive at 9 (after registration), you've technically missed all morning. If you have an appointment at 9.15 and spend the rest of the morning bumming around town but made it into registration then you're marked as present. I think this shows they're not really interested whether you're in school and learning for the maximum amount of time - just whether you're in for the ofsted statistics

Exactly

Dd2 is attending three monthly appointments at the hospital (eye appointments)

I always book the first appointment so she can go back and only misses half an hour of school but obviously misses morning registration. So what incentive is there for her to want to go back. Given she's got no hope anyway merely for having eyes that need correcting.

Trifleorbust Tue 25-Apr-17 06:35:56
Gileswithachainsaw:

"I don't know how many times I have to say it. I think there are better systems. I just don't think this one - where lower attaining students often do have a chance to win something - is the spawn of Satan or anything."

As I have already pointed out, it was the only certificate my low-attaining son was ever likely to be awarded.

And the only effect on him was that when he was later diagnosed with a medical condition, he was hit doubly hard because he felt he had failed at yet another test.

Good health should not be a test. It is not an achievement.

As for your comments on parents not teaching their children resilience, I can assure you that parents who bring up children with SN or chronic illnesses tend to work quite hard on their resilience.

What I would have liked would have been for there to be, somewhere in the system, a means for recognising that a child who manages to get to school on most days and work hard at her lessons despite chronic severe pain is already displaying far, far more resilience than most other people. Sneering at their lack of resilience shows an astounding lack of imagination.

Gileswithachainsaw Tue 25-Apr-17 07:30:15
"I would also suspect that large portion of the pupils who don't stand a chance with the academic or sports awards are the kids who also dont stand a chance woth the attendance either giveb its their absenses health conditions or multiple appointments that mean they are behind or unable to do alot of sport in the first place."

This 100%. It's the same kids.

grannytomine:

I could say many things. I didn't. If you want to take my comment seriously it's up to you.

During primary school my DS rarely had above 80% attendance.
Even when he did go to school he was dragging himself in and found it very tiring.
His school work suffered because of his low attendance.

There was no hope of him getting an award for attendance, maths or sports.
He did put in 120% effort to make the best of a bad situation.

That however was never recognised..