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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Do all schools do this?

65 replies

Kit2015 · 08/03/2018 18:11

I was running an event in a primary school today and as I was setting up I had a look at the display boards around the room.

One board was attendance. With 100%, 80%, 60%, 20% in rows. The kids photos were then stuck on which ever row I assume their attendance was at.
I had quite alot of health issues when younger and my attendance wasn't great, and this would have really upset me.
So aibu to think this is quite off? Or is this current practice.
My DD is not yet school age so I've got nothing to compare it to.

OP posts:

AssassinatedBeauty · 08/03/2018 21:11

Is it possible it was a weekly attendance chart? So 20% would be one day, and the children's photos get moved up each day? Maybe to demonstrate the concept of percentages?

Schools don't normally use those categories, and very very few children would have less than 80% attendance in one class.

admission · 08/03/2018 21:12

Whilst they maybe there on the wall now, I wonder whether they would be there when Ofsted come visiting.
Teachers knowing who are the poor attenders are is a good thing but in this particular case are we saying that the teachers need the photos to recognise who their pupils are, which would say an awful lot about the school?

maggie222 · 08/03/2018 21:25

This makes me so angry.

My son went through years of Chemo and is still dealing with the after effects at age 16. He missed most of nursery and came back to school towards the end of year 1.

Due to how complicated he is he attends many hospital appointments. The hell we went through which was attendance reviews was horrendous. Letters from school, the class being told they will never win the prize for 100% attendance in front of my son. Never being able to attend the fun things at the end of year. The amount of times he cried over those little things.

I flipped at one point and got an advocate from the charity who dealt with his issues. She threw the book at them with regards to threats of disability discrimination etc and they apologised.

The next year it started again. I was too exhausted to fight it again and he was leaving for secondary shortly afterwards so I left them to it.

He did his SATs and guess what..he got the highest results in the schools history whilst missing nearly half of his nursery/school years so it's all bullshit in my eyes.

His secondary school have dealt with things better as we still spend a great deal of time at the hospital but he is on track for grade 8s & 9s so I don't think it has affected him overall. I hate all the OFSTED are licking though

maggie222 · 08/03/2018 21:27

arse licking

Original poster

Kit2015 · 09/03/2018 08:27

Just to add I don't know if it was weekly or term or even over all.
As I said I didn't ask, as I it wasn't why I was there and I didn't want to get in to a debate.
I'm glad too see that this is not the norm however. My DD is due to start nursery soon and this was worrying me as I think if a child is sick they shouldn't feel pressured to go in and infect everyone else.

OP posts:

Mintylemons · 09/03/2018 08:31

A school I taught in (four years ago now) had a system where I had to write the names each week of the children who had 100% attendance on a laminated chart on the back of my classroom door. Then at the end of each term there was an attendance assembly where 100% attendance was rewarded. Such bollocks. I never wrote the the names down due to a combination of forgetting and thinking it was nonsense.

AssassinatedBeauty · 09/03/2018 10:53

Nursery won't care about attendance. In fact they'll be very strict about attendance when ill, enforcing the 48 hr rule about D&V, and about infectious diseases like chicken pox.

In reception when your child is under 5 attendance is not compulsory, so you don't need to worry about it then.

user789653241 · 09/03/2018 12:21

At nursery, attendance doesn't matter. My ds took 2 months off while he had surgery and recovering.

Ironfloor · 09/03/2018 12:49

My DD keeps coming home and telling me that so and so won an award for highest attendance and how she never gets any etc. and each time, I explain to her why awarding attendance is ridiculous because it's nit something within the child's control (most of the time and all of the time in my DD's case).

Her attendance is not 100% but is always above 95% because she catches bugs easily and can get really poorly.

I understand that the schools need to maintain a healthy level of attendance and my DD's school is doing the best they can. Nevertheless, it's not entirely fair on the kids. All I can do is, talk to her about how it's not her fault she doesn't always have 100% attendance.

bonbonours · 12/03/2018 08:56

All these initiatives about attendance in primary schools are totally wrong in my opinion. The cast majority of absence is due to genuine illness. Children who are ill should not be criticised and ones who are lucky enough to be well all year shouldn't be praised or rewarded - they are the lucky ones. I do not believe that any of these initiatives actually address the tiny proportion of parents who are genuinely letting their kids bunk off.

However as I understand it the schools are under pressure to show they have systems to reward and encourage high attendance. This is totally wrong.

Clutterbugsmum · 12/03/2018 09:45

Ours does it be class. The classes with 98.5% attendance get a £10 voucher that can only be spent on something for the whole class use. It can be wet play games and books or some of the yr 5/6 classes have saved theirs up and had a pizza party the last day of summer term. But everyone is included whether they have had 98.5% attendance or not.

DaisyInTheChain · 12/03/2018 09:49

I don't think it's common place, I know there's a minimum attendance which I think is 95% or 85% then school get twitchy.

But I'd imagine they make exceptions for DC's that are ill. Although you're right the DC being low on the chart might be demotivating.

flumpybear · 12/03/2018 09:52

That's awful, it's pressurising some parents/kids who really are unwell with perhaps ongoing health problems

I wouldn't be pleased and I'd be asking questions and responding with my thoughts about it being the wrong way to deal with poor attendance as it tars everyone with the same Brush - people in authority need to grow a backbone and actually confront persistent abusers, not just take the cowards / passive aggressive way out

field10 · 12/03/2018 11:32

This is disgusting. These head teachers are no better than bullies for doing something like this. Way to make the poor kids feel bad. This could also encourage bullying from other children and have snotty parents pointing fingers at other parents. There are plenty of ways of dealing with bad attendance this is not one of them.

Forgottencoffee · 12/03/2018 12:10

I've recently started working for a school academy and unfortunately it seems that in some cases schools try to embarrass the children/parents to try and increase their attendance stats. The thought behind it is probably if they embarrass the kid by putting them on a 'name and shame' board they will encourage their parents to send them to school on a day they may not have. It's awful.
One school piles the work pupil's have missed during their time off on the child's chair so when they return they can see how much work they have missed and have to catch up. I personally think there are better ways of going about it.

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