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?

At the last school I worked at, I once sat in on leavers assembly and they had a raffle like this, but the prize was smaller, I think it was a set of summery outdoor toys. The child who won it had indeed been there every single day. And almost every single day he was rude, ignored rules, caused disruption, and was certainly not deserving of a prize. I was disgusted. He also came to school with a sickness bug, and his parents refused to collect him. Attendance should be rewarded with a certificate, but singling one child out for a big prize is annoying.

I think they should award 'behaved all year certificates'

I don't get this "it's the only award my kid will get"

It's the only award my son got. I still think he shouldn't have got it. He didn't work hard for it (well, I guess his immune system did, but that's not under his control!) It was just luck that he didn't get any of the bugs his brothers did.

It's really horrible to have to explain to a young sibling why he doesn't get to go on a cinema trip when his brothers do only because he'd been sent home ill numerous times from school.

At least his school didn't count hospital appointments in their attendance.

We've had a wedding and two funerals this year. That probably looks suspicious, but my kids have lost 2 grandparents within 6 months this year. I'd kind of got fed up by then by having to ask for permission to take them out for a funeral so I refused and phoned on the day and told the school. Like fuck do I need their approval for a funeral.

I just remembered that my DTs friend got an attendance award this year. This is in the big end of year awards ceremony, name on a trophy type thing. He's only been at the school since just after May half term! How does that work?

MyWhat. That's ridiculous. My dd didn't need approval to go to 2 funerals this year. I just told the school.

I also hate 100% attendance awards. Always unfair on the majority of children.. it's the PARENTS who determine attendance in primary aged children .. very unfair to reward / penalise a child for something they have v limited control over.

ffs.

At dd's school they get nothing for 100% attendance and I agree with that. Maybe a "well done litte Martha for coming in every day" is in order but I can't think there should be prizes for it.

This really drives me insane - as does people going on about a 'strong work ethic'

Yep, that helps my DS who as a result of being a preemie has lung problems that will never go away. Each winter = hello chest infections galore. Also thank you to those kids & parents with that 'strong work ethic' who go in when infectious so he catches it.

Mrs Gabor.. I feel for you.. I reckon 'strong work ethic' really translates to 'no childcare backup so you're going in regardless little snotty Johnny'

MrsGabor we are the same, DS1 born extremely prematurely and has rubbish lungs and a compelling mix of assorted quirks as a result.

He now attends a special school, where pretty much every pupil needs time off sick/time for medical appointments/whatever. They reward 100% attendance by giving 100 House points per 100%-attending-pupil to their House. I think that's quite a good way of doing it actually.

Fate to be fair 100% attendance is just luck at the end of the day. Any child could be ill at any time. My children have great immune systems and are rarely off but they have both been off this year. One child was sick once in the night so kept her off next day other child had a kidney infection so was off for the majority of 3 weeks. Like I say, it's just luck of the draw, not quite sure why they award for it tbh.

I could see the point of a prize draw for a bike if it was open to all children not just those with 100% attendance. But if you started off with say 32 "tickets" for the prize draw and every time you were late, you lost one ticket and every time you had an unauthorised absence you lost 8 tickets. AND if the prize draw was announced at the start of the year and bigged-up throughout the year so that every kid - and every parent - knows that there is a real reward for putting in extra effort to get to school and there is still a reward available for doing your absolute best even if you don't have a chance of reaching 100%

100% attendance awards are horribly exclusionary of kids with poor health, and they don't motivate the kids or parents of the ones who most need motivation because if you are in a chaotic household where the default attendance without extra effort might be less than 90% - then it's unlikely that you would reach 100% no matter how hard you try, and once you have your first absence in a year there is no point trying any more, but reaching 98% could be achieved and would have a genuine benefit to the child's education.

Those of you with kids with 100% attendance: have your kids never puked or had the runs? Do they schedule this for Friday evening's or holidays only? Do you abide by the 48 hour rule? Are you just incredibly lucky

My son hasn't had 100% attendance but he's only missed 2 days since he started at secondary school (now coming to the end of year 9).

He was ill last year but it was in the middle of the summer holidays. So he's very healthy generally but the one time he was unwell and probably would have had several days off school, he was on holiday anyway. That said, we think he got something from the water in the lake he was kayaking in, and that was a holiday activity so he would not have been in the lake in term-time anyway.

I worked FT when he was little and he went to nursery, I think he had all the bugs then.

Attendance isn't just about sickness either, you can have time off for other things eg my son went to a non-school athletics event and needed a day off school for that. That would still count as absence, so any 100% attendance record would be gone.

I am also assuming that if you are excluded for any reason, that also messes up any 100% attendance award even if you behaved impeccably for the rest of the school year.

Kids with hundred percent attendance are usually the reason the ones with immune suppression, lower immune systems or other illnesses DON'T go in as much so Yay for presenteeism!!!

If a child is well and healthy then 100% attendance should be expected. There shouldn't be a prize for it!
Competitive kids are going to insist on going in if they are ill when they should be staying at home. Other kids will get stressed out about it.
It's a bloody stupid idea to reward someone for being fortunate enough to have good health and no family problems.

A bike is ridiculous, what a waste of money. I thought schools were meant to be cash-strapped!

I can see the value of a small reward for attendance, but ultimately it does come down to luck in large part - luck that your immune system works, luck that you didn't injure yourself, luck that no one in your family died etc), unlike an award for achievement in a subject, or improved results, or anything else that takes meaningful effort. To prioritise attendance over that (was there a similar raffle for the children whose grades improved the most, say, or those who maintained excellent results for the whole year, or anything like that?) is just silly. Just turning up will not get you far in the world, you have to actually achieve something when you get there too.

Dd1s school do this. Bikes/small flat screen tv/tablets.

Each time they get past x amount of merits they are entered and 100% attendance are entered x amount of times.

The problem is teachers in certain subjects give out merits like sweets and others give none. If you are unlucky enough not to get one of those teachers you are stuffed.

One year Dd1 watched a kid who had spent half of the year in repeated isolation and who had made her life hell with bullying all year walk away with a Samsung tablet...

They should not be allowed to do this under the Equality Act 2010 - it discriminates against disabilities. Though I note the advice for schools on this Act on the gov.uk website doesn't say anything about attendance awards. Employers have been prosecuted under the Equality act for similar:

Bonus scheme linked to attendance was discriminatory

My daughter has 100% attendance (reception so a long way to go until the end of school) by pure luck because one day she wasn't feeling so well after lunch, but as I collected her at 2pm they counted her as being in (I was surprised to get the notice for the certificate that term) and another time when she fell in the playground and got a big egg in her head and I collected her to take to A&E to get checked, they also counted her as being in...

But it was luck, as she has a younger sister who we needed to keep home for a couple of days + a grommets surgery, but private nursery doesn't care about attendance...

non-school athletics event and needed a day off school for that. That would still count as absence, so any 100% attendance record would be gone.

That doesn't sound right, though it would depend on the type of event and importance etc I suppose. One of my children (and her friends from other schools) used to regularly miss school for dance associates. It was not marked as absent in the register.

That's obscene. 100% attendance awards for children do nothing but reward the children who's parents send them in the morning after vomiting all night, with contagious tonsillitis and dosed up on calpol with stinkin' colds. A primary school aged child who hasn't been poorly with something contagious is very few and far between.

If this was my child's school, next time they had something like chicken pox, I'd give the head teacher a call and say that I don't want them out of the running for a bike so will be sending them in regardless.
Dickhead schools only obsessed with attendance for their school stats....

Headteachers used to be allowed to authorise a set amount of time off each year (10 - 15 days from memory), so if there was a 'one-off' thing (think extended family abroad, so a 'big' holiday that lasted longer than a school holiday, or an amazing 'thing' like being selected for a sport or performing in a play or something). But a decree went out a few years ago, and headteachers aren't allowed to authorise this any more. Don't know if this was national or just in our local authority,but I seem to think it was national.
They are still allowed to do this.

Thinking about this further - what message do these outsize rewards give out? That school is so pointless and has so little inherent value that we have to hand out a massive bribe just for showing up? Is that how little we value education now?

I need to stop thinking about this now, because it's really annoying me.

I'm sure this has been said already but hey-ho.

DD isn't in compulsory school yet, just nursery. She's under two different consultants and an occupational therapist. (Also, this year, she's had chicken pox, norovirus, and time off for a hearing test)

Unless her health dramatically improves she's not ever likely to get 100% attendance.

Prizes for 100% attendance are not a carrot, just a stick to beat the poorly children with.