AIBU to ask school if being late just this one time could be changed on the register?

[Kimmykimkim36]

My son (7) has always had 100% attendance and punctuality at school. He also knows that at the end of term he gets a gold 100% badge and a certificate. He loves this!
I've been sick for the past 2 days and a lovely parent from school offered to bring him in, except on one of those days they got in around 5-10 mins late due to being stuck in traffic. AIBU to ask if this one episode of lateness could be changed on the register? He was so excited to be nearing the end of term, knowing he had been in on time everyday, but this one day of being late changes everything.

This happened last week. I called the school and they removed the lateness from my daughter s record. I was on recovery leave from surgery. The school said due to her never being late/having time off they understood completely. Just ask

ChinaTeaPot sorry to hear about your daughter.
I hope you are well supported? I’ve made some amazing connections amongst other parents on my daughter’s ward - we have a Facebook group. It’s the best club in the world that no one wants to join.

Attendance is not something that should be awarded! Being ill is not a sign of weakness, it’s biology. And very bad traffic happens sometimes.

DD’s school used to do it but it was scrapped by a more sensible head. If they still did it I would tell my kids it’s not something to worry about.

God I hate these attendance award things. I used to get kept in probably half of my break times at primary school because my Mum couldn't be bothered to drop us off on time. I'm now about an hour early for everything.

YABU for two reasons 1) it is a legal document
2) you haven't complained before about this awful "reward" - what about children with health conditions who cannot have 100% attendance? And at 7 Punctuality is not a child's responsibility its the parent's - and the parents who aren't bothered will not change their behaviour over a certificate.

Good lesson in life for him that attendance awards are shit and reward things out of your control!

I imagine the majority of lateness is down to unavoidable circumstances, but sadly it's the same for everyone.
Granted it's not the child's fault (and in most cases not the parents fault either. Thing happen!) but unfortunately rules are rules.

It's good for him to know that being less than perfect is ok!!

If you move heaven and earth to make sure he's 100% the he learns that nothing less than that is acceptable which is very very dangerous.

Thanks for all your comments. For those who answered politely and gave their opinion as to whether I am being reasonable or not, thank you more so :)

My son didn't get his 100% attendance badge because he was taken from school by ambulance for an emergency operation. He was 6 yrs old. Could understand that he needed the operation and there was no choice, could not understand why he was being punished.

I think the whole 100% attendance award at that age is pointless. It doesn't reward good behaviours, only healthy children and those with perfect parents.

I'm disabled and have to literally drag myself through the street to get my boy in on time some days. But other days take me so much longer to physically move that we might miss the bell. I'm doing my best. He's late maybe once a month.

@DoesntLeftoverTurkeySoupDragOn your comment made me laugh (misses point) That would be me! He had a few days off in Reception but apart from that, no he hasn't. We have a ginger, lemon, garlic, pepper and tumeric tea that I make and we drink once/twice a week, so I know that helps.

Elbeagle - you just quoted a sentence with the word "luck" in it, then selectively asked about commitment - making you question somewhat weird, unless you were trying to say your children were not unlucky to get scarlet fever?

Don't raise a snowflake. Time to teach him a life lesson that you can't win at everything, even if it's not your fault.

Attendance rewards are ridiculous anyway.

These attendance nonsense and ridiculous rewards for something that are completely out of the child's control really make me angry.

OP, did you genuinely think your child should have a special treatment? That cannot be real, no one can be so entitled, can they?

If the school does scrape it, I would raise bloody murder and insist they delete it for all the other kids who
-have been sick
-have been injured
-have been late (because baby did a poonamy on the way out and mummy had to clean him, because daddy's car broke down, because daddy was late to come back from his shift because of traffic or public transport, because they had a GP appointment first thing)

He was late no matter what the circumstances.
Another snowflake in the making. That's life.. I'm. Sure he'll get over it.

Of course not, don’t be silly. The 100% attendance thing is absolute bollocks anyway, well done to your child for not being sick enough to miss school .

DumondeB thank you - we are doing more or less ok at the moment though in Germany for treatment which feels pretty isolated and rubbish. Can't wait to come home!
I hope you guys are doing ok too.

We have a ginger, lemon, garlic, pepper and tumeric tea that I make and we drink once/twice a week, so I know that helps

ah ha. that's where all the kids who got Scarlet Fever, a vomiting bug or Cancer went wrong. Insufficient ginger, lemon, garlic, pepper and tumeric tea. Not luck at all.

My DS had 1 year where he had a d and v bug that lasted nearly 3 weeks, had a week back at school and then got tonsillitis. It was bad luck. He is generally really healthy and has had 100% attendance in a few years since then. Luckily his school dont make a song and dance about attendance certificates

Maybe you dunk them in the tea to repel the germs?

Aw, bless him. I’d be sad for him too - it’s surely worth asking? They can only say no?

ChinaTeaPot Proton beam therapy? My friend’s daughter went to Germany for that last summer - she’s doing brilliantly now.

My daughter has been in remission since February, thankfully. She’s had a few cautious hospital admissions since and I’m now struggling with my own mental health (our MacMillan nurse says it’s normal for mums to have a mental wobble after their kids start to get better - we hold it together during active treatment for the sake of our children and then it all bubbles up when our children need us less) and there is always the worry about the future but generally, we are blessed, not least because of our marvellous NHS. My daughter is currently enjoying learning to swim after missing out for ages due to her Hickman line.

I mostly post on the feminism and women’s rights board, so feel free to come find me/send a PM if you ever need an unmumsnetty hug.
Thankfully childhood cancer is rare (less than 2 children per million have my daughter’s particular illness) but that can make it a lonely world to navigate.

Hope the days in Germany pass rapidly and you are home safe soon.

Yabu OP but you probably figured that out by now.

I don't know yet if there have been any actions but I raised attendance awards this with Head at parents forum last summer.
I have one child who's never sick who loses out on the class award - Mufti day, because of other people's term time holidays & dd2 who's just started reception who has hordes of hospital appointments so will always be a "burden" on her class attendance, but who won't care.
Stupid system!

I agree that 100% attendance awards at primary school are rubbish because so much about 100% attendance is out of the child’s control.

I wouldn’t ask them to change the register. I might ask how late they have to be for it to count as absent - I know there’s sometimes a gap between the school doors being locked and the official registration time.

My DC missed out on a 100% attendance award last year. They changed schools partway through the year. They both had 100% attendance for all the sessions since joining the school.
But they didn’t get an award because they didn’t have 100% attendance at that school for the whole school year.

Fortunately our last school didn’t do those awards, so my DC didn’t seem to realise they’d missed out!

God i wish they had attendance awards for the teachers. They're always off