To think it's time to scrap 100% attendance awards

[ParadiseLaundry]

DS came home from school today with a certificate for 100% attendance this term.

This surprised me as his school is not one that uses reward/punishment charts or has 'star of the week' etc.

What does it actually achieve? You can't help it if you are ill, and if you are you should make sure you stay away from others. It isn't really an 'achievement' to not get ill and it's definitely not an achievement to get ill and then go into work/school and spread it around. Surely COVID has highlighted this?

Aibu to think it's time they scrapped this, particularly in schools.

Yanbu - dc1 attendance was about 80% which was amazing for dc as they have many medical issues over the years he missed out on many a treat. The thing was like many chronically ill children he often would have been up all night and still attend school on time but this perseverance was never awarded. Yet children lucky enough to be healthy and making no extra effort were awarded. It definitely sends out the wrong message especially this year.

I hate these awards. I missed 1 day of school every 6 weeks when I had braces for appointments as we didn't have a car and my orthodontist was 2 cities away. I couldn't help this but was always in otherwise.
My son can't get a cold without developing a chest infection and has many appointments with specialists every few months. This can't be helped but my son will never win this award simply because he was born 7 weeks early

I really hope I (and my Head teacher/academy chain) have misunderstood but I don’t know how else to interpret the quotation you have highlighted, @sunstreaming.
Maybe we are all too cynical for our own good but I don’t see how publishing attendance data doesn’t constitute a league table or something that could be put into a league table very easily.

YANBU my DD has a medical condition that means she misses about one day/half day a term for appointments that we bring the letter in for. She is always so disappointed with her bronze or silver attendance certificate. They make her go to the front in assembly to collect it while the ones with full attendance get gold ones with vouchers attached for free swimming or ice skating. It's when she first started saying she hates her medical condition rather than just seeing it as part of who she is like she did before.

I'm a school attendance officer and agree these are stupid. Students can't help it if they're ill or have medical appointments. I'll always try and help students if I can, so if they want 100% attendance but one morning medical appointment will ruin that then I'm inclined to just give them the morning mark even if they're in a couple of hours later.

@Veterinari, my DD was fortunate enough to have 100% attendance most years at secondary school and received a badge each year. She also only had 1 day off sick during her whole time at primary school, but they did not do the attendance recognition there. Now, for my child who was not particularly academic or sporty she was never ever going to receive any other award be it for athletic ability or success in exams etc. For someone like her to actually attain recognition for something was a wonderful boost for her self esteem. I realise that it must be massively unfair for children with chronic illness etc, but it was only ever a poxy badge or certificate, never a reward such as day out/ treat/party. I used to feel awful for her at end of term prize giving as she left empty handed due to being bottom of class in tests and being crap at sport - her flat footedness did not help.

They’re always a bad idea but this term, exceptionally bad idea. Only about 20% of people are isolating when they should be, we want to punish kids whose parents do follow the rules???

I think they were brought in in the hope that parents would be prevented from taking their kids out for holidays/shopping days/just being too lazy to get them to school, and reduce sick days for really minor things. If the kids want the reward (disco/extra play/whatever) maybe they’ll badger the parents and attendance will improve. Might work in secondary but I imagine the parents who take their kids out for holidays aren’t the slightest bit bothered that this causes their child to miss an award (plus let’s be honest, a week in the sun is way more fun than a disco...) Penalising kids for long term ill health is beyond crazy.

blueemeraldagain: I got the info from here schoolsweek.co.uk/league-tables-scrapped-and-primary-tests-scaled-back-but-year-6-sats-will-go-ahead/

My eldest was absent one day this term because they sent her home for a cold sore they thought was impetigo and yeah there was a 100% virtual assembly for the kids all yeah.

Cant stand it.

My 13 year old has come home today really cheesed off about this. She had a few days off in September due to a cough and a temperature. Um....was she meant to go in so she could be eligible for a £50 Amazon voucher????
Utter madness. She works hard and said the child who got the voucher really messes about.

The irony is that it's the kids with medical conditions who often put the most effort into getting into school when they can.

I hate this too. I feel especially bad for children with chronic poor health. Surely it's discrimination. Also school have sent my child home when they've actually been fine, just complained of a slightly sore tummy but totally fine to be at school.

They’re a stupid idea because the punish children for things outwith their control.

Even if all children were physically and mentally capable to attend every single school session every single day, it’s not children who get the house up and out to school in the morning. It’s not a 6yo or 8yo who keeps enough control over a chaotic household to not miss the last day of term, or a Friday when their parent is hungover.

Last time I checked there were also very few school age children responsible for the dates of family holidays, weddings or funerals.

In one school I worked in years ago two children who missed out on a class trip to Hollywood bowl were the child of an alcoholic and a kid who’d been knocked down by a speeding driver and spent time in hospital. I’m sure being singled out really inspired them to work harder at school the next year

It never stops those kids that are off every Friday to go to the caravan (or similar) and the rest of the class are in an unfortunate position if they have a few persistent absentees but schools are really struggling with ideas on how to meet ofsted expectations on attendance.

Agreed, especially given Covid 19 and isolation requirements.

In a way the worst thing is not having the odd illness, but missing two or three days when you are only really ill for one, or ending up with time off and illness because your child has not got boundaries for things such as phone use or gaming, and overworks themselves becoming ill.

I asked if my DC could get attendance awards as they attended 100% except for when at counselling sessions. It was putting dd off going to counselling, as she'd always had 100% before. Couldn't be done.

Thing is schools are heavily pressured to keep attendance up- statistically children's performance being linked to their attendance. I'm not convinced though. I think it's probably correlation, not causation.

I completely agree. Particularly in primary school most children don't really have a lot of input on whether they are in school or not and it has always been unfair to children with medical problems. At one point my youngest child was seeing 4 different Consultants regularly, 2 of which were at our "local" specialist Children's Hospital which is over a hundred miles away so every appointment meant a whole day off school. Particularly at the moment the last thing we need is children in school when they are unwell, but continuing to reward 100% attendance encourages that.
It isn't just schools mind you. My last workplace had posters up all over the place warning of the risks of coming in when you were unwell, the need to be symptom free for 48 hours before returning after D&V and so on, but the sickness absence management policy was brutal so most people ignored the posters.

I remember when I was at school being sneered at by a teacher because I had to miss some of her class. I had a consultant appointment at the hospital because I had cancer! Thankfully my DD's school don't 'celebrate' attendance.

Weirdly we had children who had to self isolate after being on holiday over half terM getting 100% while one who had a day off for a medical appointment didn't!

I hate them too. Thankfully our head (who is also an Ofsted inspector) doesn't use them in the school. He's not obsessed with getting an Outstanding rating though!

Absolutely- the school I work at no longer issues rewards for things the children have no control over, such as parents recording that they have heard their child read.

Attendance certificates are bloody stupid things - you've been off with chicken pox this year, tut tut, you must do better next term..... you've been vomiting all night and need to stay at home for 48 hours, tut tut, you must do better next term. Ridiculous!

I have no idea if my son's school does this, but I guess I wouldn't. He's missed three days this term, after getting called in to pick him up twice. Once for a poorly tummy (he was fine at home, just hit suddenly at school) and once because he had a nasty fall that resulted in a head injury. So each absent day was mandated by the school, not exactly his fault (or would have been anyway, people get sick ffs). I dont agree with punishment for missing school, especially on very small children.

Agree completely they are ridiculous and discriminatory. Wish wholeheartedly that Mumsnet would take up a campaign to end them as another poster suggested!

My DD is disabled and always missed at least a day every half term with physio/consultant appointments while in primary. She never got an award and often said she was upset as her friends always got one.

I wish now that I'd kicked up more of a stink about it as it was a small primary where her disability stood out enough without them constantly reminding her of her differences

Yanbu. I notice our school has finally scrapped them!