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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To disagree with 100% attendance awards

120 replies

user1498912461 · 20/01/2018 10:34

I completely disagree with 100% attendance awards. They reward the kids who are lucky enough not to get sick and punish the ones that are unfortunate enough to get ill. This year DS has had a nasty bout of flu, a vomiting bug and he banged his head very badly on the concrete in school so we had to keep him off. None of this is his fault but he will never get one of these certificates. What about kids who have to go to hospital or have a condition? It just seems unfair. I have also overhead many mums talking in the yard about how their child was crying all night with a ear infection or was up with D and V and they still send them in! So aibu to hate the things?

OP posts:

Julie8008 · 20/01/2018 20:23

Its a bit of paper my DC doesn't give a crap about getting them or not.

The point is that they are not aimed at the children who have 99% attendance and go off sick. They are for the children who have bad attendance for no good reasons. For who they do raise attendance and consequently raise attainment.

So they are a good incentive and work. If a few perfect icicles cant cope without 100% attendance then tough.

seagreengirl · 20/01/2018 21:07

Mine have never got them and couldn't care less. Maybe it would be a good idea to stress the unimportance of things like this.

duckdarlington · 20/01/2018 21:33

Is there any evidence they work? do kids or parents really care that much about a piece of paper that they take there ill kids to school

MaisyPops · 20/01/2018 21:39

I hate 100% attendance awards.

I'd be happy with a 96% attendance award aka 'good attendance but sometimes people get ill'.

I look at my chronic poor attenders and no certificate is going to change the fact that their parents keep them off for hilarious reasons such as:
Concussion from someone flicking at pen at them accidently the day before
Being tired from visiting grandparents so better safe than sorry
You'd have only told her to take her false nails off and it's her aunty's present to her and ahe wanted to wear them to her aunty's party on Monday night.
Sir gave them a detention and I don't agree with it so I kept them.off. He isn't allowed to reissue it if it's not their fault they couldn't attend.
I needed them to keep me company because the weekend was rubbish.

Promote good attendance all the way, accept people get poorly and support people with real reasons (e.g. i teach 2 students this year with long standing medical conditions) and instead of silly certificates go after the piss takers more forcefully.

foxyloxy78 · 20/01/2018 21:40

Yanbu. The whole idea is absolutely stupid and makes me so cross.

Severide08 · 20/01/2018 23:35

Funny enough my youngest daughter was talking about this yesterday .Like she said you cant help being ill and if you have a bug and have to stay off for 48hrs ,school rules then it is unfair ,she said you are 9 times out 10 not going to get a 100% attendence award. So YANBU..

darcyballerina · 20/01/2018 23:48

My high school did these awards and I used to go in for morning and afternoon registration then pop back out of school in between home bunking quite often. I got called up for 100% attendance one day in assembly and I was really embarrassed as I hadn’t been going to classes, just turning up for form registration. Phone call to parents later to find out why the subject teachers in assembly wondered why I got the reward and I was truly stitched up.
I don’t even know if dd primary has these but I think if I didn’t care about it my dd wouldn’t. If I said who cares, she’d probably not care. Do people really care about these things?! As a child I didn’t care. My mum handed me all my ‘achievements’ from school one day from school when I was 20 something and I looked at my 5th place medals and can’t even remember being that shit at sport ahaha.
I’m probably a dodgy parent though. My dd wasn’t even ill for her 99% attendance, I took her out for the day to come back from a holiday late as was a few hundred bob cheaper...
to be fair though as pp have said if school inspections continue to record attendance I suppose they have to have an incentive. Some dc probably think this unrealistic shit is great. I’ll be teaching my dd otherwise. Although try calling in sick at some places I’ve worked, literally needed to apply for a death certificate before I got paid leave for a day off... maybe the certificate might be getting them ready for some of the shit working conditions that go on. Just a thought.

WestEndVBroadway · 21/01/2018 10:25

I totally understand that it is unfair for pupils who cannot control being off sick. However surely it is equally as unfair to NOT show sone recognition to those who have been fortunate enough to make it all term/year.

MummySparkle · 21/01/2018 10:26

YANBU

Allthewaves · 21/01/2018 10:27

They are just another certificate. dc school gives them out for lots of things. Some kids will only ever get 100% attendance

Imbluedabadee · 21/01/2018 10:43

Yanbu! Mine usually get the certificate because they are fit and healthy and don't have to miss school for hospital appointments like some others do - pure luck obviously! This time neither got it because they both had this awful d and v bug which meant they missed 2 days each (school have a 24 hour rule which we followed) and they were both upset about missing out, it seems extra harsh because they love school and were upset to miss going anyway. I get that not everyone can win everything but usually they know that there is something they can do to improve so that they can have a shot at winning next time and we tend to focus on this for example if they don't get an award for spellings or maths we can help them to work on it but what can you do about attendance? Parents who are keeping well kids off school will do so regardless and yet the children are the ones who get penalised.

Evelynismyformerspyname · 21/01/2018 10:55

Like uniforms, certificates and prizes are something that my kids schools just don't do. They don't have attendance problems. Nobody gets certificates presented in assembly for anything. They also rarely have assembly - only when there's a special announcement or a performance or something.

When I was at school, mainly in the '80s, I don't remember certificates in assembly. There was a prize giving once a year but only a small percentage got prizes, so no stigma to not getting one (I don't think I ever got one).

Evelynismyformerspyname · 21/01/2018 11:00

I suppose given there is this feeling that it's essential to constantly give out certificates the attendance one doesn't matter if it's one of many. The strangest one is star of the week in primary which appears to be simply done on rotation in some schools and therefore means precisely nothing.

I used to teach in England and we took children with 100% attendance to Alton Towers at the end of the year (ironically rewarding them for not missing any school by letting them have a day off school ) - now that was rubbing salt in the wounds of kids who'd been genuinely ill or missed school for other reasons outside their control!

Rumbaintheraindrops · 21/01/2018 11:03

It's been taken to another level when you get kids with medical issues and disabilities told they can't attend a school party or treat because their medical appointments mean they have fallen below the "acceptable" level of attendance.

JassyRadlett · 21/01/2018 11:10

However surely it is equally as unfair to NOT show sone recognition to those who have been fortunate enough to make it all term/year.

Why? Why do they need recognition for what is largely pure luck?

Evelynismyformerspyname · 21/01/2018 11:15

If you're healthy and at school every school day then school is easier - you're not playing catch up and it's easier to reach your potential. Some would say that is the reward for good attendance

Obviously schools are just trying anything to get their attendance statistics looking good, it's not really about individuals.

Argeles · 21/01/2018 12:55

I’ve always disagreed with these awards too, especially the wording that senior staff usually use when awarding these. They are so competitive with attendance awards, and really run it in the face of those who often through no fault of their own, could possibly achieve one.

One of my friends always used to win this award. She used to get ill and drag herself to school, and then people like me who have weak immune systems would catch it, get really ill and have no choice but to be absent.

Julie8008 · 21/01/2018 18:37

Its not luck though is it. Children miss school for lots of avoidable reasons and getting 100% attendance requires a bit more than luck. Increased attendance increases attainment, something to be celebrated. That is why so many schools do it now.

Madonnasmum · 21/01/2018 18:43

I can't see what the fuss is.
Don't get one - so what!
Get one - well done, stick on the fridge. Forget forever.
It's always the parents that get their knickers in a twist. The kids don't give a shit.

WestEndVBroadway · 21/01/2018 18:43

@JassyRadlett One could argue that it is pure luck that some children are more academic, or more sporty than their peers, but we don't stop rewarding them for their achievements.

Onlyoldontheoutside · 21/01/2018 18:46

I have no problem,my DD started not getting them as she had a brace,she only got the awards because she was not ill before not for any effort.Since she gets marked down for her unavoidable dental appointments we used to have fun, appointment,late lunch,shopping.So thank you school for pointing out that I can take advantage of the situation.
Our school also used to sent them by post,what a Hugh waste of money.

aronbeer · 21/01/2018 18:47

"YANBU. Children should be rewarded over things they actually have control over."
This.
It is absolute shite. I hate it.
I have moved to Wales. A local primary here has a big board outside the nursery stating the weekly attendance for the NURSERY! Thereby pressurising parents to send their kids every day to NURSERY!
So different from the local authority nursery my sons went to in Scotland where the Manager there wrote in her newsletter that of course if was ok for parents to keep their kids off to spend a day together. She said this time when they are young is so brief and precious and of course we should value and celebrate time spent as a family. I really wish we had stayed there!

aronbeer · 21/01/2018 18:49

'The kids don't give a shit.'

I think it is pretty obvious from reading upthread that there are kids who give a shit.

Kids are keenly aware when things are unfair.

ForalltheSaints · 21/01/2018 18:52

I used to get them, so declare this out of transparency. They were part of the year end report that went to parents, not handed out in a school assembly. Not that I got them every year.

To me, it is not whether you are ill at all but whether you are not swinging the lead that is more important. Having three days off when you could come in after one. Perhaps coming in for the afternoon session if something you had eaten had caused a stomach upset, not having the whole day off. Having a reasonable time for bed (no X box or tvs in room though when I was a child). Not being late into lessons during the day.

This kind of conscientious approach to attendance is more important I think, which is not something a certificate or reward for 100% attendance can give. Too many awards also can diminish their value- we had over 80 awards in our sixth form for 120 children.

JassyRadlett · 21/01/2018 18:55

@JassyRadlett One could argue that it is pure luck that some children are more academic, or more sporty than their peers, but we don't stop rewarding them for their achievements.

Absolutely, they are lucky to be more able. But their achievement isn’t ‘pure luck’. There is an element of luck but to achieve in the areas where they have natural talent, they still have to apply themselves and make an effort. They have to do something.

Which is why, as I’ve said, I’m more in favour of rewarding children for a broad range of things that they have control over.

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