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.

In DDs school, being invited on residential and fun trips (Harry Potter World for example) is based on attendance and it sucks.

They are appalling
I really wish they would go.
I don't think they are effective in achieving their aim of dealing with poor attendance.
They encourage children to be sent in when they should be at home rather than spreading infection.
They are out of kilter with schools being inclusive environments for children with complex needs and health issues.
I think if the only award a school can give a child is one for turning up every day - then I don't think the school is thinking hard enough about what to celebrate about children's achievements.

I'm not sure I agree that recognising some people for something is equal to punishing others. My dd had 100% attendance this year, my son was around 70% due to medical issues. He wasn't bothered and doesn't feel punished. Dd was happy to have been recognised but she knows she was just lucky this term, as usually there's something that keeps her off. I can't get too excited either way about them.

YANBU! Punishing children for absence that is completely out of their control is so wrong imo.

Our school marked down attendance when we had the beast from the East and school was shut for 10 days. Utterly bizarre

One would have thought that this of all years would have finally woken schools up to the absolute absurdity of rewarding students for good health or coming to school and infecting everyone else.

At my high school they had a 100 percent attendance award but then a raffle, you got a ticket if you have 95 percent attendance. Prize was a bike!

Agree. 2 years ago DS got an attendance reward for 100 percent all year but the next year I was getting letters as his attendance went too low (he had a bad run of illnesses last winter, makes you wonder if it was covid).

More so than ever this year they shouldn’t worry about attendance. I get children should be in when they can be but children get ill!!

My twos attendance has dropped this year. DS got ill in September. It took days to get him a covid test and wait for the result all whilst Dd was off too. So couldn’t be avoided.

They’ve had one day off this week as DS needed a test (he had a coughing fit during the night and morning). Test results come back within 24 hours and cough gone so back to school..

Roll on summer!

also, how did anyone get one? No-one went to school for 6 months!

These and Pen Licences are really unnecessary.

My autistic hypermobile daughter still struggles with the fact that she never received a pen licence in school. These awards set disabled children up to fail and to be shamed in front of their peers.

Everyone knows which child hasn't achieved their pen licence yet.

@TheRogueApostrophe

I'm not sure I agree that recognising some people for something is equal to punishing others. My dd had 100% attendance this year, my son was around 70% due to medical issues. He wasn't bothered and doesn't feel punished. Dd was happy to have been recognised but she knows she was just lucky this term, as usually there's something that keeps her off. I can't get too excited either way about them.

Children should be recognised for effort or hard work. Something they’ve achieved. Not recognised because they’ve got good health, decent parents and luck.

A decent SLT that uses reward certs rewards kids for their own actual achievements.

I agree with you. My daughter had sepsis and was hospitalised- so she missed out on an award because she was dangerously ill 🤔

Sorry, to add, those in DD's school with 100% attendance get a "treat" day

@cantdothisnow1

These and Pen Licences are really unnecessary.

My autistic hypermobile daughter still struggles with the fact that she never received a pen licence in school. These awards set disabled children up to fail and to be shamed in front of their peers.

Everyone knows which child hasn't achieved their pen licence yet.

This! I agree. DS has autism and doesn’t have a pen license. Can never remember being such a thing when I was a child. Yes we were allowed to move from pencil to pen but no one made a deal out of it!

They should do away with reading rewards as well because it just discriminates against those children whose parents perhaps work long hours, shifts etc which is something the children have absolutely no control over. Children should be recognised and rewarded individually for the reading progress they have made and not purely on the basis of how many times during the week their parent has been able to sit down and listen to them read/remember to write in their book.

Many years ago the school I worked in made a big deal of an award from the Mayor for a girls who at 16 had never had a day off since she started at 4/5, the local rag was there to take pictures and a crew from the local TV news. Sadly, she tripped in the bathroom that morning and broke her leg. Obviously we were sorry she was injured but could see the funny side of it, as she and her family did too!

I agree with you certainly when kids are little. They can hardly take themselves to school, can they. And this thread is coming from someone whose child received an award so straight from the horses mouth.

The most ridiculous things ever!!!

This is really unfair on disabled children and those with illnesses as they have unavoidable time off for appointments etc. Also those children who get sent in with coughs and colds which whilst innocent to them can cause severe issues for children with illnesses that they pass it on to. It’s a really ableist award to give!

YANBU totally agree with this

I agree. Scrap them. Some parents send their children in regardless of whether they are ill.

Does anyone even care about them? My Dad didn't miss a day of school frontage start of Y1- nearly the very end of Y6 when I took her out of school for the day when she had a different moving up to secondary school day from everyone else (so would have been the only child in her year in school) So, she didn't receive a certificate that year. If I hadn't taken her out would anyone have noticed she hadn't missed a day in 6 years? Nope. Does DD care? Not at all.

Completely agree. My son's school had attendance challenges this half-term where sweets got handed out in class to all students with 100% attendance for the week before. In most classes that I teach, there were the odd one or two students who had been absent. So not only had they been unwell, they then had to sit there whilst all their peers were given sweets. I think it's absolutely appalling tbh.

I wonder whether this feeds into the ridiculous presenteeism which is rife in a lot of UK companies/organisations.

I received one of these at the end of my GCSEs for never having a day off, I was one of two people in my year.

I'm the kind of person who hates the idea of letting people down or getting behind on stuff so means I have never taken a sick day from work either when perhaps I should have, I don't think it's particularly an attitude to be celebrated.

Although I think in my case as a classic 'average' student they couldn't think what other kind of award to give me