100% Attendance Award

[user1489094655]

Hi
Today, the school my dd goes to rewarded the children with 100% attendance with a trip to the cinema. In a school of about 90, there was 7 from various years.

My dd didn't get 100% because we took a two week holiday in June. My husband has holidays allocated by his work which this year was the first fortnight of June. Total lucky dip and not negotiable. She had NO other time off.

It also doesn't seem fair on children who are poorly, why penalise a child because they had, for example, chicken pox.

What about religious festivals, bereavement, family weddings etc.

All of these situations are out of a child's control.

If it's an incentive to come to school, for some families they don't care about the cinema trip or school so the incentive doesn't work yet for some children like my dd, it is a disappointment.

Any thoughts?

Ds missed three sessions - a quick trip to the dentist but he was back within 30 minutes of lunch ending plus a trip to A&E for a suspected fracture and being advised to keep him home until his xray had been double checked by a consulant.
This year school have introduced attendance certificates...

In what way is a four-year-old being at school an 'achievement' for that four-year-old?

My friend's child's primary school is offering free ice cream for all 100% attendance kids on the last day of school, from an ice cream van, complete with tinkly tune. Now that is taking the idiocy to new heights...

Yeah but what achievement is getting a sports award for a four year old?

Maybe awards are pretty arbitrary in lower primary school?

Years ago ds had to have an emergency fasting blood test, unfortunately for him it was on the first day of the academic year and we had to be at the hospital by 8:45am so after a 45 minute drive through rush hour traffic I phoned the school and explained that it was an emergency fasting blood test and that we would be in late and the receptionist said " why couldn't you have made the appointment for after school" I replied "because its a fasting blood test" she then said "well you have just ruined his chance of 100% attendance" the blood test was for a potentially life limiting condition. At that point I couldn't have cared less but it did open my eyes to the fact that 100% attendance awards can actually contravene the equality act.

DS never got a 100% attendance award in mainstream education the highest he managed was 99.4% he only required 1 medical appointment due to his disability that year during school hours we were lucky that the rest of them fell during the holidays or after school.

I struggle to believe that poorly children going into school is to 'achieve' 100% attendance, more than parents are working and can't have time off.

Those kids who get 100% attendance, why should they have this taken away? It might be their only achievement at prize giving. And, actually, it is a pretty good achievement. I know one who has never, ever missed school during all his Primary years.

The problem is the rewards. Cinema and soft play etc make it all into a massive deal. It's great to acknowledge that the class has had 100% for a week, but 10 minutes of extra play would do the job. And it shouldn't be a big deal when they don't get it.

But you know what? Kids needs to learn to cope when things don't go their way. And they need to be told 'well done' when they do.

Halfshellhero Germany

I do chuckle when I read outraged posts on here or FB about the right to a term time holiday, pleas to sign petitions etc [evil]

There are no authorised term time holidays here. Occasionally a non health related absence will be authorised for a Friday, or more often to be picked up after first break on a Friday or similar, to travel to a family member's wedding or a similar very significant family event abroad/ on the other side of the country, or if the family is moving away during term time. I have never, ever heard of anyone ever taking a term time holiday though - people are as likely to suggest it or think it is a reasonable option as they are to suggest holidaying on the moon.

On the other hand if the kid's ill, they are ill - you have to phone in before the start of school and send a form in with the child when they return, and longer absences require a doctor's note (which people would get indignant about in the UK because one must not use the NHS or disturb the important doctors unless one's head has fallen off, but is no big deal here, especially because if your practice know you the assistant will actually write it :o ) but no fuss is made.

There most certainly aren't any attendance certificates or attendance prizes or attendance figures on school reports - its just assumed that if you are not ill you go to school, and that does appear to be exactly what happens...

I totall agree it's out of order for kids to be penalised for being poorly. One child in my dd class came in even though she'd been sick the night before (obviously parents responsibility not the child's) and proceeded to spread it to 16 of the 30 kids! If that one child had stayed at home that could have been prevented. It's nuts.
However, if i take my kids out of school for a term time holiday I explain to them that means they won't get a certificate or whatever they do and my kids are fine with that. Holidays and illness are two separate issues.

Being off sick as a skive is also highly unattractive here because a classmate will turn up on your doorstep with every last scrap of work that you have missed and homework to be done at home immediately after school each day, unless you are actually in hospital in a very bad way!

And, actually, it is a pretty good achievement. I know one who has never, ever missed school during all his Primary years.

So, never had D&V. Erm... well done?

It is unfair my dd due to various health issues never gets 100% and is always miffed at those who do getting praised when she puts in more effort when she is there

Foxy
So it's ok that kids go in spreading d&v if it's not for 100% attendance them? ok will tell my ds that after he was extremely ill for a week with noro virus after a kid in class had it but was still sent into school as parents couldn't see the problem as 'everyone gets it sometime'.

I don't care about someone elses childcare I care that my son nearly ended up in hospital cos of someone else's selfish ignorance.

Taking the rewards away isn't going to stop parents sending their kids to school ill.

With a lot it does. Parents are odd creatures. My fb is full of parents who are "proud" of their children's 100% certificates- at least 2 of whom I know have been sent into school ill.

If parents do that just for certificates mind boggles the lengths some would go to when schools are offering trips and things based purely on being healthy and having a home life which doesn't make attendance tough.

The whole reason schools have these daft awards and rewards for 100% attendance, is because attendance is a key accountability measure, and they think Ofsted sees them as evidence that a school is 'doing something about attendance'.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with 'recognising achievement', or 'rewarding effort' - it's about ticking boxes. The fact that it is a) discriminatory and b) utterly useless as a motivational tool (given that once you've had half a day off, the 'incentive' instantly disappears for the rest of the year' doesn't matter.

Good schools know that there are much, much better ways of incentivising attendance. Starting with making school a place where children want to be.

Yes 100% attendance is luck, lucky you don't get ill, or have health issues that impact your attendance.

I agree with the OP (apart from her attitude that a holiday abroad is a necessity) but by the same logic, it wasn't fair for me to get academic awards in school. It was luck that I was born with an excellent memory and could memorise and regurgitate information with hardly any effort. That's just as much down to genes as my awful health is - I spent half of Year 9 in hospital.

Same for sports day - it's not realistically in a child's control how fast they can run or how high they can jump.

So if you want to do away with attendance awards because it's out of the child's control, you also have to want to do away with achievement awards. Effort is the only thing within a child's control, and that doesn't always correlate with achievement. Kids in my class worked 10x as hard as me to get a C grade when I got an A* being a lazy shit.

Yes but Daily Mail when teachers give out awards for sport or maths etc they don't stand at the front of the hall telling all the DC they should be achieving this award.

Exactly, Mad. Nor do they punish all the kids who didn't win the relay race by holding a party only for the ones who did.

Do many schools do trips (non academic ones) for pupils based simply on their Maths achievement then?

If they are off sick that shouldn't count, only if off for holiday or something.
DS is at the end of reception and missed 7 sessions so 3.5 days, they were all because of illness and 4 were because school sent him home- been sick/ ran into a wall at playtime/ sick the day before so 48 hr rule.
If he missed out on some award because of that I would be really cross. Fortunately his school are sensible and reward actual achievements.
Next year he's missing a week because we're going to Florida, I have already had the go ahead from the school.
Maybe it's because it's an independent school.

I would far prefer those who turn up on time when they are going to school to be rewarded, even though a certificate should be the most they get. Being off sick cannot usually be helped, being late is almost always avoidable.

My DS's attendance is down this year as he ended up in hospital having emergency surgery... Really something beyond his or my DS's control... However our school aren't stupid enough to give big rewards we get a certificate.

My DS today year 5..Got an award today for completing his homework this week, an award for a lunchtime play scheme he participates in to help Infants play at lunchtime, an award for most improved in busy fingers and a sweet ( might of been packet but I saw only one) for house points.. These are achievable by anyone in his year...There was an award for fasted busy fingers. May well of been others my DS did not share as they weren't about him.. I see these are far more positive than an attendance certificate. Because coming to school in primary school is not a decision the children make, what they do with the time in school is.

being late is almost always avoidable

Not if you were a child of my mother.

For a school to get an Ofsted outstanding award, kids have to be in school for 95% attendance. That's why schools do this.

The '100% Attenders' were all called up for a special round of applause and a book token.
DS would never have got it-totally his fault for being deaf and needing hearing aids that sometimes need servicing and all.