To think that attendance awards in primary are mean?

[schooltripwoes]

DCs were distraught (no exaggeration) earlier this term to catch chickenpox, because it meant they had to stay off school and wouldn't be able to get an attendance award. They're 5 & 7.

Their school makes a BIG thing about achieving 100% attendance for the whole year. The 'winners' get an award in the end of year assembly and then go to a special tea party with senior staff on the last day of term. Only 5% of kids achieved 100% this year.

AIBU to think that it's wrong to reward attendance at primary level because generally, kids aren't absent due to anything they control. It's either genuine sickness (which is more prevalent in younger children), or family holidays, which the parents have decided to take. Fair enough to encourage a truant 14-year old, bit not little ones. The kids are so upset when they can't go to school.

I once worked in a school that rewarded for 95% and above attendance. (A more reasonable benchmark) The school was constantly trying to improve it’s attendance figures. They even employed a member of staff who would go and collect children from their homes. Schools have to be seen to be doing something about attendance or they have to answer to OFSTED. As with many things in education it’s a game that has to be played. How many of you would be prepared to send your child to a school in special measures because the headteacher was brave enough not to play the game?

Tomorrowillbeachicken

It's just a certificate FGS. Not like they're getting a good medal.

Having said that a friend who actually got a gold watch for not having a day off secondary school in 5 years.
Back in the days it was 5th year. seniors. Wouldn't happen with in the current financial climate though.

At one place I worked staff got a thank you letter if they had not been sick for a year. There was a discussion around some payment...bit it was decided that was rewarding them for doing what they were already being paid for.

Perhaps schools are just trying to prepare the pupils for real life. What the schools are trying to do is improve attendance/performance . They realise kids will be sick. Staff get sick... we all get sick it's unavoidable ....but there's a link between attendance and performance at school.

That's not meaning the couple of days off.

I accept people with a disability will have a higher absence rate... but working in HR ...in my organisation most sickness absence is not disability related.... and I suspect that's the same in schools.

DDs school has 300 pupils in each year. I know the percentage that have disclosed a disability or SN (I'm a governor) and they arent the ones with very poor attendance.

There's a lot more to be getting worked up about in life than this.

As I said before, if they could do it based on 100% with no UNauthorised absences it would be fine, then no one is penalised for being ill.
If they could also put it alongside awards for hard work, kindness, perseverance etc then more kids would have something to reach for.

The problem with them is that they're so specific and just unobtainable for many. It's not a holds fault if they have a parent that can't manage to get the to school on time, but they still get to miss out because of it, but what if we tackled that another way, behind the scenes and rewarded that child for something else and built them up a bit?

I'm a teacher and I think it's appalling. But there is a lot of hoop-jumping that Ofsted forces schools to do and which does not benefit kids at all.

The kind of kids whose attendance these awards are trying to improve (i.e. the ones who don't give a crap about missing school for no good reason, or the ones who have chaotic lives due to parents with substance abuse etc) - do you really imagine the promise of a certificate is going to have any effect on them? Whereas the rule-abiding, keen kids (well, the few of them who actually care about the certificate, anyway) are going to be wanting to drag themselves into school when they are ill! What a stupid idea.

Our school don't do this, sounds ineffective as a measure, like you say OP the 5- 11 year olds don't get to choose whether to attend/be highly contagious.

It's ridiculous. DD is in pre-school (part of outstanding primary). She's not been ill (amazingly) but has had hospital appointments so her attendance is not 100%.

However, the school does awards but this is a general award, which includes attendance as a part. So even if a child's attendance is not 100% but they've got great results/behaviour otherwise, they're still eligible for a reward.

From the school's website: "We also believe that high standards of work and behaviour should be encouraged through a system of rewards for our children. We look for every opportunity to celebrate success and achievement, rewarding good behaviour, high attendance, effort, progress, academic achievement and many other areas of attainment. Children receive “Happy Certificates” and “Gold Certificates” (which they bring home) and are entered in the roll of honour book throughout the week. This is celebrated as a whole school, during community Friday school worship. We have “house teams”, which encourage the children to develop a team identity through a collaborative approach. "

This seems like a much better approach IMO. As mentioned above, this school is outstanding and Ofsted was particularly impressed by pupils' behaviour in general.

Are these only in the UK? I have never heard of them anywhere else.

These aren't a new thing I got an award for never having a day off through the whole of secondary school. It was the only award I ever got and it was just down to luck. Being at school every day didn't really do much for me educationally though as I didn't do great at my GCSEs and wasn't accepted into 6th form. So I guess I'm prof they are a load of rubbish.

Dd refused to go to her grandfathers funeral because she didn’t want to miss out on her attendance certificate again. She missed the autumn term certificate and the spring term certificate because she was attending close family funerals and didn’t want to miss her final chance that year. Bit of a competition at the school, the class with the most certificates gets a prize and she didn’t want to let her class down. I was furious. Loosing three members of the family in a year is shit and horrid to deal with, but having your child worried she is letting her friends down because she is going to a funeral? I wonder (and have asked) where the head teacher gets their ideas from. Unfortunately I got a very wish washy response, about raising standards,ofsted and the system not wanting to penalise families like ours with legitimate reasons for absence, but having to penalise us to get to the families who don’t care. But let’s face it if a parent tells a child they aren’t going to school today, there isn’t a fat lot the child can do about it, so the system isn’t working at all!
Gosh, that was a bit ranty wasn’t it!! Calm down now Maryann.

It's such an odd thing to receive a prize for.

Little Jimmy has 100% attendance so he gets praise and a certificate.
Never mind the fact that he is a little shit all day, every day.
His parents got him to school and he was fortunate enough to not catch any illness, be chronically ill or have other circumstances which meant he needed a day off.

It should really be called the luck award.
The child who's got a chronic illness? Tough.
The child who had to be relocated to a refuge because his mum suffered DV? Oh well.

I think attendance awards can be fine, if they're given at the end of term as just another award. Yes I think it's a bit ridiculous because obviously people can't help getting sick and yes for kids with disabilities/young carers it's probably not an achievable award. That by itself, isn't a huge issue, because the same could be said for sports awards or academic awards, some kids are never going to get those awards.

It becomes an issue because a lot of schools make such a big deal out of attendance awards and don't for other awards. Like the tea parties/trips/prizes, the kids who get awards for academic work or sports aren't getting the extra stuff. There's often a whole spiel before the attendance awards about how these people are so diligent and determined and come in even on days they don't feel like it and all kids can aim for that if they try hard enough. That is unnecessary and to the kids with chronic illnesses/severe illnesses/SN/MH issues/disabilities, yes it is cruel. Because for them it isn't a case of 'try harder' and they often do come in when they're not feeling 100% and that is never going to get recognised. While the kids who are lucky enough not to have been ill or had any other legitimate reason to be off school are penalised.

Being at school every day didn't really do much for me educationally though as I didn't do great at my GCSEs and wasn't accepted into 6th form. So I guess I'm proof they are a load of rubbish.

Not everyone has the same academic ability. It's not just about being bodily present.

If you didn't do great without missing a day..It could have been worse if you had poor attendance.

It's disability discrimination.

schooltripwoes I agree you are not BU. I think attendance awards are pointless at any age but especially primary when a child has little control over attendance. Why not punish the habitual truants and not penalise the good children? What if some children are suffering from bad flu or glandular fever and have to miss weeks of school? how does them not getting an award benefit them? And if i healthy child gets 100 per cent attendance or pretty close to it, how does them getting an award benefit them aside from a nice certificate?

Joe66 Yes, it could be disability dicrimination. I had ME when i was in secondary school and a simple cold or chest infection could knock me for six. i would hate to have been penalised for missing weeks off school

I also expect some children could end up going into school with diarrhoea and vomiting bugs which could affect other children badly simply so they could get an award. i am not one of these "all must win prizes, let's ban competition" types, but good attendance is a luck lottery, nothing to do with skill or good character.

but good attendance is a luck lottery, nothing to do with skill or good character. which is why it's discriminatory. Children with a disability like cancer, or asthma, are being set up to never attain and so to fail.

For the schools that only give rewards for 100% attendance, don't they become counter-productive once a child has had even half a day off? Surely once the child has lost the chance of the reward there is no incentive to try to attend regularly the rest of the year?

ANy award is the same. The kid who can't do sport, can't socialise, can't do handwriting; the child who will never have his artwork on the wall or his poem read out in class or be selected for the school council.

The only thing my child ever got after years in school was an attendance award - and he was so proud.

So yeah, get rid - but get rid of everything else too

100% attendance and attainment are not really connected, being bodily present doesn't imply learning, the latter takes some effort too. There are always those who one wishes had a 0% attendance record, give the majority a chance to learn.
I recall a girl who was getting a 100% attendance award at 16, never had a day off since starting Infant school, she missed it as she broke her arm on the way to school on the last day!

If you follow the rules for a d and v bug at our school you miss out on both the 98% and 100% awards.

I remember teaching a child who received an award for never having had a day off during primary school. However, I remember teaching that child in Y2 and she would come in with a fever, or stomach ache etc and once fell asleep in class because she was poorly. The mother was quite an influential governer of the school so that probably explained why she wasn't sent home.

Agreed. My DC were sad because those with 100% attendance got an ice cream. Their attendance was something like 98.9% this year, they had a day off each for one reason or another but I never take keeping them off lightly. Last year in their reports I got a bollocking for the attendance from all three teachers, they were off for chicken pox...

Rock and hard place springs to mind. Are we supposed to send them in and risk other children’s health just so they can make the school look good? Or are we supposed to be responsible parents and do what is right.

It is hilarious they endlessly reward the kids with McDonald’s, pizza, ice cream and sweets after harking on about healthy eating all year.

ANy award is the same. The kid who can't do sport, can't socialise, can't do handwriting; the child who will never have his artwork on the wall or his poem read out in class or be selected for the school council.

Not necessarily. Some schools give progress awards for dome of these things (as well as or instead of awards for the highest achievement), to give recognition to those who have worked really hard at improving in something they find very hard.

Your child’s attendance isn’t the problem. Obviously you care.
Many parents do not. Without a push on attendance many children will just be languishing.
This isn’t about a few MC parents with sick kids or going on holiday.
It is about parents who do not consider education to be important, for various reasons: poverty, aspiration or culture.