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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

School attendance certificates

77 replies

Purplebunny95 · 24/10/2019 15:55

DD is 5 and started school in September, so far relatively happy.
Today theyve handed out attendance awards for this half term in assembly, and despite never missing a day of school DD didnt get one. I questioned her teacher at pick up and she said it's because she missed 1 afternoon. Scratching my head I remembered they had sent her home at lunchtime one day as she "looked a bit peaky", when I picked her up she was fine, chatting away to the receptionist and running around but they insisted I take her home "just in case".

AIBU to be a bit peeved? She doesnt understand why some of her friends have certificates and a sweet when she doesnt. I do know it's not the end of the world but it has annoyed me!

OP posts:

Sirzy · 24/10/2019 17:42

Even if Ds is lucky enough to not be off ill he certainly wouldn’t get through without an appontment.

He is in school whenever possible, he was back within 5 days of having a feeding tube surgically inserted. Yet he will never get one of these awards.

They differ greatly from the normal effort style awards because it isn’t in control of the child ever and often not in the control of the parents.

Babysharkisanearworm · 24/10/2019 17:43

I have, in the past, attended a sick child call assessed them myself and left them there to continue their day. One recovered quickly after having a poo and the other was them feeling meh but recovering before I got there.
School do this to encourage good attendance. Just wait until high school where you will battle with unfair sanctions!

Reba0706 · 24/10/2019 17:51

This really really pisses me off! Last term as DS' school the 'most improved' attenders were rewarded with a pizza party at lunchtime! These were the children who have a lot of time off but are 'improving' - the criteria for this wasn't transparent and up for parental scrutiny.
The 100% attendance children (DS) got a sticker!!!

IceAndASlice123 · 24/10/2019 18:21

My friends DD missed loads of school last year as kept being sick. However, it would usually happen after PM registration so despite missing a lot of school and going home early, they actually had really high attendance 😕

Original poster

Purplebunny95 · 24/10/2019 18:52

But she wasn’t given one as she didn’t have 100% attendance- that’s obvious?

Through no fault of hers or mine.
I'm not disputing that she had time off, or that they were caring enough to send her home. But she was sent home because she was pale for a short while, but she was evidently well enough to be running around the office 20 minutes later. She's a red head and whiter than white at the best of times. I've never seen her go any paler, even when shes been seriously ill.
Had they sent her home and she had been ill, I wouldnt have any issue.

Have since found out children with "approved absences" have been given these certificates. If being sent home by your teacher isnt approved, wtf is?

OP posts:

dootball · 24/10/2019 19:43

Out of almost all awards in school attendance is probably the fairest I think. It's 100% clear what it's for. It's almost impossible to judge an award for who is making the most effort fairly and objectively. (And measuring progress is not much more accurate.)
What I really dislike as awards which students don't deserve, e.g. worker of the week when they clearly don't deserve it, but they are the only kid left who hasn't won it yet.

cauliflowersqueeze · 24/10/2019 19:56

My friend’s primary school phoned her to say her daughter felt ill and could she collect her.
She did, and asked her daughter if she fancied some tea and cake at a local tea shop. Daughter said yes. They enjoyed a piece of cake and my friend told her there’s no way she would have had that if she had really been ill and drove her back to school.

She never tried that again.

MonChatEstMagnifique · 24/10/2019 19:57

Out of almost all awards in school attendance is probably the fairest I think.

It's accurate but not fair.

Sirzy · 24/10/2019 20:00

It is actually the unfairest as it expects all pupils to achieve exactly the same level with no looking at the starting point for them.

Some children can never come close to achieving 100% but their 75% may take a lot more determination and effort than another pupils 100%

dootball · 24/10/2019 20:04

It just depends on how you look at it.
It's probably also the award the most students have a chance of winning. Compared to say 'highest achiever in maths' which is unachievable to about 95% of kids it seems quite open.

NearlyGranny · 24/10/2019 20:05

Attendance certificates are pointless and fraught! Since they are for 100% attendance, she can't have one. End of story. She missed an afternoon. The reasons absolutely don't matter. She was either in school or out and she was out. If school bent the rules for her, every dental appointment, car breakdown and visit to a sick relative would have to be discounted and the whole process would implode. They'd probably need to employ someone full time to handle the arguments!

OP's DD will no doubt earn plenty of 'sterstificates', as my DD2 used to call them, for real achievements.

Schools are under the pump to improve attendance, but there are better way than bits of paper doomed to create conflict.

shrunkenhead · 24/10/2019 20:18

I understand why they do them but feel the wrong families lose out.

GroggyLegs · 24/10/2019 20:37

It's neither fair, nor the award that all kids have the most chance of winning!!

As PP said:
It’s essentially an award for being healthy, neuro-typical, and not physically disabled
and being born to a parent who can and does take you to school.

Sorry your thread has moved on OP, but while I agree attendance awards are nonsense, if the child doesn't attend 100%, they don't get one, irrespective of who made that call.

As I said... nonsense.

Amanduh · 24/10/2019 22:20

Yes, they don’t count for much. But people
Saying they’re ‘pointless’ and ‘don’t do anything’ are wrong as well. They (usually) aren’t just made up by the school for the fun of it either. They’re pushed on schools by attendance officers, OFSTED and LEA’s who come down on schools like a tonne of bricks over attendance. Schools have to be showing to be doing things to encourage attendance. Yes, not always practical, but schools are forced to do these things. Also, in a lot of schools, they DO make a big difference. In my last school, in a very poor, deprived area, kids who will never win certificates in attainment or likely ever collect GCSE results had certificates for something. They did also actually make a BIG difference to attendance. A I understand the reasons they’re a bit crap for some, but it’s not just a case of schools implementing useless stuff because they feel like it or want your sick kids in school.

Aside from that, she didn’t have 100% attendance so no award obviously...

chomalungma · 24/10/2019 22:26

The annoying thing about 'attendance and performance' is that there isn't data to show that having time off because you are occasionally ill affects your results.

There is data that links being off to results. But that data doesn't differentiate between children who don't attend because they play truant, children who have time off because they are ill and children who go off on holidays.

Yet schools are told to crack down on all 3 groups - and it causes resentment.

And when should the 95% attendance kick in? If you have a few days off after the first 2 weeks, should you get a letter then? Should it be a continuous check on the percentage?

ChicCauldron · 24/10/2019 22:29

Hate them, and have complained about them in the school's parent forum in the past.

My DD's secondary school have had a big push on attendance, 'send them in and we'll send them home if they are unwell'. No, I'll make the decision thanks. It is sheer luck IMO that she's not had any time off this term so far.

Pinkblueberry · 24/10/2019 22:33

It’s also almost punishing children for being sick. I’ve never understood the purpose of them.

Because OFSTED make a fuss about it - so although many schools have shit attendance and they know that really it’s mostly out of their hands (anyone with a brain understands that, but that’s OFSTED for you) schools need to at least be able to show that they’re trying to do something about it - that’s what the certificates are for. It is ridiculous, but I don’t think schools can be blamed.

formerbabe · 24/10/2019 22:41

My dd had a big breakfast at home and had pe as her first lesson. They were jumping and she regurgitated a tiny amount...not actual vomiting. She was sent home for 48 hours. She wasn't ill but wasn't allowed back.

Willyoujustbequiet · 24/10/2019 22:42

Lots of schools dont do them now, they are ridiculous and ripe for a challenge under equalities legislation I suspect. I would wonder about the intelligence of any head who supported them tbh.

PekkaNek · 24/10/2019 22:54

Yes. This is very annoying.
You can email the head to let them know that 100%!attendance awards are very unfair and also explain your situation.

Twofurrycatsagain · 24/10/2019 23:21

I was a teacher and I think attendance awards are a blunt tool.
The government set an attendance target (based on you can only be educating children if they turn up) ofsted and the LA 'enforce' it.
I worked in an inner city deprived area. Low attendance wasn't due to illness. It was due to: gone shopping on giro day, no one getting up , chaotic lives due to drug and alcohol, keeping one child at home for company and so on......
Attendance certificates weren't going to solve most of these problems. A shared between us and another school attendance officer did. She was supportive and practical (and probably long gone due to budget cuts).
Threatening fines didnt work either as most families were deep in debt and another fine was neither here nor there.

LimeTreeGrove · 25/10/2019 16:51

Our primary school used to only count the attendance up til May half term as ofsted counted it til then too. When they gave out the certificates, sometimes kids weren't there to collect them as they'd gone on a term time holiday.

KipperTheFrog · 25/10/2019 19:47

I'm so glad my DD's school dont do attendance certificates. The top 3 classes for attendance get a mention on the weekly newsletter, but thats it. I dont get the point of rewarding children for not getting ill. You cant equate it to sports teams winning matches (as 1 pp did) because there's a skill/talent in sport, not in attendance. DD1 has only ever missed school for illness, DD2 when she gets to school will have time off for hospital appointments. That's not their fault.
OP, try not to make this a big deal for your DD.

Mycatwontstopstaring · 25/10/2019 22:39

They are cruel and it’s a bit scary for the kids when they realise that the adults in charge of them see nothing wrong with humiliating children for falling ill. We always have many children in tears in the playground when the school hand them out.

I think it’s completely ridiculous to say “it teaches them that life isn’t fair”. School is supposed teach them English, Maths, history etc. It is supposed to teach them that good behaviour and hard work are rewarded. It is not supposed to teach them that the sick will be punished for being sick. (And being the only kid in class not to get a certificate IS a punishment.)

I have had to sit my child down and explain that his headteacher cares more about her targets (and pay) than she does about his feelings or fairness. He doesn’t like her much now.

Mycatwontstopstaring · 25/10/2019 22:42

Ps OP I made my son a huge homemade glittery certificate for being 100% awesome and he loved it, perhaps that might help your daughter.

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