School attendance class scores

[DtPeabodysLoosePants]

Does anyone else think this is unfair to both the absent child/ren and the rest of the class?

DCs' primary school has introduced class attendance scores that are published each week. I'm all for encouraging good attendance but there is one class that has a child with school refusal/anxiety/ASD. This child is frequently off and when in is brought in late and in tears. They are obviously really struggling.

It seems grossly unfair on the rest of the class that they will never get 100% and grossly unfair that the child will know they are the reason as they are old enough to understand. They might also be blamed by other children.

I really disagree with it.

My own children have had a few episodes of illness this year and my dd feels really guilty for being off and "letting her class down" even though she's off because she is struggling to breathe with asthma and an infection or tonsillitis. Neither child is ever off for a minor complaint and I hate that dd feels that pressure to be there when she simply isn't well enough. I dread to think what impact this is having on children struggling to attend daily.

An ex teacher and I entirely agree. My form class had a child with a life limiting disease, a school refuser due to sever anxiety and a child in hospital on the top of the transplant list. I refused to mentioned their collective attendance.

And every time we had a pastoral meeting I would mention that they we were discriminating against children who had conditions recognised by the disability discrimination act.

Ugh yes i agree with you. My daughters school do this, and rewards for children every term.... my daughter has not been off ill once, but missed a lunch time registration for a gp appt (brought back in straight after might I add.) Because of this, at the end of last term she didn't get the 'reward' of a bag of chocolates and certificate. She couldn't understand why, as she hadn't been off ill. She was bawling the whole way home about it. Shes 4!!

Why they think these things offer any benefit I do not know.

That's awful

When the boys were in primary they had this, but if any child had a chronic illness, lots of appointments, school refuser etc they were not counted as part of the class score which I thought was fair.

I hate attendance awards full stop. Why are kids awarded for not being sick? And half of those who get the award will have flouted the school rules of 48 hours clear of sickness/diarrhoea this passing it on to those children who's parents actually stick to the rules

I hate this and I had kids who had 100% attendance throughout school.
It was just ridiculous that some kids got took to Nandos for a meal. I remember asking Ds2 when he was in year 9 what he thought of it and he thought it was daft that he was getting rewarded for something he was supposed to do. I agree with him but it's not fair on kids who are off for reasons beyond their control eg their health for one.

YANBU bloody ridiculous system. No one should feel guilty about staying off school when they're too ill to attend. The only people who should feel guilty are the ones who bring in kids who have thrown up in the morning.