Fucking BIKES for 100% attendance?? Has the world gone mad??

[FizzyCherry]

I know this is the whole 100% attendance thing again, but I have literally seen it all now.
Not one but TWO people on my FB time line have posted pics of their kids with brand new bikes awarded for 100% attendance. AIBU to think that's taking the piss now?

The weird thing is, it's not the same school, not even the same county - they don't know each other, one parent is an old school friend in the South West, the other a former colleague in the north.

In each case, every child with 100% attendance was given a raffle ticket, the prize was a new bike. Only one prize, apparently, so none of this whole class goes to the zoo thing.
Both are primary school age, one Yr 2, the other Y4.
So these are two that I know of, how many other children are being given something that some of their peers is can only dream of, just for turning up?

My school dropped attendance certificates this year as they were felt to be divisive. How divisive is spending £100 on just one kid?

Am I missing something here, or what?

Keepserving, I agree with most of what you say but this
But that awards system isn't to penalize them, it's the others.
CANNOT be explained fairly to a primary age child who misses out on an experience or certificate. They will just feel like they have failed. I have seen my child's shoulders slump when he couldn't get a certificate as he'd had too many trips to the hospital plaster room. Try telling him that the certificates weren't meant to penalise him.

He was 5 when that happened and I haven't forgotten it.

Ds2 had 100% attendance all through school until Yr 10 when he was given 2 fixed term exclusions within a few months of each other. I must admit I was rather annoyed that this counts as absence!

You really don't think that the fact your child was excluded (which presumably means they were extremely badly behaved) should exempt them from an award for attendance? I despair.

I would far rather my child had a few days off for illness but no fixed term exclusions. Attendance isn't everything, it's what they do when they are in school that's the crucial thing.

Fruitcorner123 I was bemused at that comment too. Yes if your child is excluded or suspended they should not be given an award for coming to school

Lol at the badly behaved kid being excluded and mum thinking he should get his "special award". Poor diddums.

What's your role, keepserving? Are you an attendance officer/ewo?

toosexyforyahshirt: well as long as your kid is happy, who gives a fuck about anyone else's, hey?

Again, why should other people's children and life concern me? I have my own children and life to look out for? I can be empathetic to others but their life should not impact on my child's life!

It doesn't matter if the 100% attendance award thing isn't designed to penalise children who are ill/disabled/in need of appts in school time - that's still how they FEEL about it. But perhaps they should just learn to be robotic about their feelings; as has been said, they've already developed a huge amount of resilience just to get past their illness/disability/requirement for extra appts - why should their feelings be totally discounted as well?

It's very "othering" to suggest that they shouldn't care because it's not designed "for them" - they are children in the school, they shouldn't be "othered" by a fucking award system, ffs!

Penalise the persistent offenders who take the piss if it has to be done. Do not penalise those who are sick/ill/disabled/in need of extra care; and do not continue to penalise the children directly by refusing them a "reward" that is completely outwith their ability to achieve.

My DD got a box of maltesers in yr 5 for this. Bikes!! Blimey, never heard the like!

100% agree with ThumbWitchesAbroad. Do you know how much shit our kids have to handle anyway, eg being shit at running and knowing for sure they will be last for every running race? Why should they be penalised by an archaic form of reward system that I still doubt actually influences the parents that take their kids out for random days out or stay home at the sign of a sniffle. This makes me so angry!

Ive been through this all through my sons schooling.

He has never had a chance to get 100% attendance as he has been through 2 x Bone Marrow Transplants and loads of other issues which means he has loads of appointments. Even his dental is at the hospital as every part of his growth has been affected. He used to get really upset at Primary missing out on trips and certificates.

I gave up years ago arguing he should not be penalised. He has not been able to join in sport for 6 years due to the after effects of drugs he has had...well done schools on making him feel more excluded than he already feels.

He leaves next year, probably missed 1/3 of his schooling years enduring things you cannot imagine.

He is head boy, top of his year in all subjects and parents evening consists of the teachers saying how hard he works. I said to him years ago to grab every opportunity with both hands and he does.

This 100% attendance crap makes children like my son feel excluded but we gave up worrying a long time ago.

keep serving, so because OFSTED decree it and schools need to do what they can, is it acceptable to completely ignore the equality act 2010 and apply direct discrimination to children with SEND or long term illness?

You only need to take a look as some of the other boards to see what kind of discrimination goes on in schools.

Most of the parents on here whose children have SEND or long term illnesses are well aware of the requirement (under the terms of the equality act) for reasonable adjustments to be made. Trying to get schools to agree to making reasonable adjustments is often like banging your head on a desk (painful and counterproductive) and if the child has an ehcp or a statement that isn't being adhered to then the parents have that to contend with as well.

Also if a child has an ehcp it isn't easy to just change schools (can't remember who made that suggestion)

Regardless of which children these awards are aimed at they contravene the equality act 2010 when applied to children with the protected characteristics contained within it.

I don't know what the solution is.

The solution is for teachers to have time with parents who are consistently late as I'm sure those are the ones who don't value school enough, and to tell them head to head how important it is that they're on time and that their children come to school unless they ate genuinely poorly. The frustrating thing is they are all 5-10 minutes late, I don't know how you can be consistently late by such a small margin without considering some small changes to make to your routine to make you not late. I know lateness is slightly different from absences but it comes from a place of not valuing time spent in school.

I think the schools would do better to focus on lateness - that is something that will really help in later years. It's always the same parents I see walking or driving up to school as I've almost finished the walk home. I overheard a conversation in the school office once where one parent said that if they were to be on time then they wouldn't get a decent parking space and would have to park so far away they might as well walk!!!

I see I agree with @MrsJamin!!

In my DC school they have an award system. The way this award system works is the DC earn merits for different things such as achievement, effort, support etc. When they earn 20 merits for a category they get a certificate and a badge. There are 7 categories. Once all 7 have been earned the child becomes a school representative. This has been pushed on the children as a huge honour, one that all the children are keen chomping at the bit to earn. As you may have guessed, one of the categories is attendance. 100% no less. So although they have years to earn this one badge, children such as my DC3 will never come close due to ongoing health issues. Despite having letters from relevant consultants every time, it still counts. And she's old enough to know this When it was just a certificate she could shrug her shoulders and get on with it, but now.....well her disappointment gives me the rage Just another kick in the teeth for her. So no, if schools aren't able to use any discretion then I can't agree with silly and hurtful ideas like this one.

Sorry for the rant, I went off at a tangent there.

At my school the children get to watch a film in the hall at the end of term. It's for over 96% attendance though not 100%. Seems much fairer as the school is obviously not expected to get 100% as it's unrealistic so why should the children only be rewarded for 100%?

My son got 92% Attendance this year as there were a lot of hospital appointments and he also had a few sick bugs. 96% is still not lenient enough for those with ongoing health problems. If something is happiness your school like this you should talk to the governors, that sounds like a horrible system @GeorgiesBoat.

I think 96% is fair as this is the national target. There will always be people who fall outside of the parameters.

Yes the disabled and long term sick tend to "fall outside the parameters" why change that?

My daughter has type 1 diabetes and thus is considered disabled. Those type of conditions are covered by the DDA and cannot be included. Don't accuse me of disabled bashing!

Again, why should other people's children and life concern me? I have my own children and life to look out for?

It's just general "not being a complete asshole" stuff. A basic level of fairness and caring about your community.
Try it sometime.

Those type of conditions are covered by the DDA and cannot be included. Don't accuse me of disabled bashing!

Lots of conditions are not covered though, and don't forget this is an international community anyway.