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.

As the parent of a child with medical needs I’ve always hated attendance recognition too. Our primary did a day trip for those with 100%. I marked myself out as ‘that parent’ on the induction day when I quizzed the head about it, and he made me speak to the Senco (because this is a niche issue obviously). He attempted in front of the hall of parents to minimise it by saying that of course all absences relating to disability would be considered ‘authorised’. Big deal. What makes me as cross is that the kids without medical conditions but already leading shitty chaotic lives where their needs are never our first also lose out again.

At our previous, far better, primary they had weekly awards given out in assembly, personalised for each child, and they would be for academic achievement sometimes, but also kindness, helpfulness, cheerfulness, friendliness etc. And they were all equal. Every child got something over the term. And they did do attendance certificates (Ofsted outstanding don’t you know) but they were just one of other things, with no reward attached.

Also pen licenses can get in the sea too. As others have said, a lovely bit of discrimination against those who struggle with neat handwriting. We’ve had many tears over it in our house and still no licence in year 5 for a child who is desperate for one.

NewYearPlumbing absolutely one of my diseases has condition that means they will never achieve 100 % and it totally out of their control.

Dc not diseases

In the first two weeks of next term DS has two hospital appointments and a procedure in hospital that will take all day. So out of the 20 possible sessions in that two weeks he will lose 4 before we have even started!

Completely agree, I've always thought they were ridiculous but especially this year. I'd also get behind a MN campaign to change this.

I am on the fence on this one. Schools that have high attendance tend to be better performing in terms of results generally. Poor attendance affects the learning of children who do attend all the time as well as those who don’t. It doesn’t take into consideration health conditions etc. I know ofsted won’t give an outstanding grading to a school with less than stellar attendance irrespective of kids with health conditions. I remember an incoming head in a local state primary was tasked with improving attendance as one of her top priorities so I think it’s one of the key benchmarks used by the government to monitor the success/effectiveness of the school. Sounds that that needs to change first of all.

Improving attendance would be far better achieved through targeted Educational Welfare intervention. God forbid that it might even be better funded. Penalising children for it is a blunt instrument of the uninspired and smacks of the worst of Goveism.

@TikTokFinger

I am on the fence on this one. Schools that have high attendance tend to be better performing in terms of results generally. Poor attendance affects the learning of children who do attend all the time as well as those who don’t. It doesn’t take into consideration health conditions etc. I know ofsted won’t give an outstanding grading to a school with less than stellar attendance irrespective of kids with health conditions. I remember an incoming head in a local state primary was tasked with improving attendance as one of her top priorities so I think it’s one of the key benchmarks used by the government to monitor the success/effectiveness of the school. Sounds that that needs to change first of all.

There are far, far better ways of improving attendance than certificates.

Especially as that is not something that will help the children with the most chaotic lives, or those with long-term health conditions.

And let’s not forget that attendance awards encourage people to go to school when ill and spread their germs around those children who the illness could easily mean a hospital stay and needing to miss yet more school

Do they, though? Are children (and parents) really that bothered about getting a 100% attendance award? I find it surprising if so.

There are many opportunities to be recognised at (our) school - academic achievements, sporting achievements, extra curricular activities, voluntary work, raising money for charity. Attendance is just one thing among all of this and I genuinely don't understand why it's so controversial. And no, it's not one my children get every year. My ds only ever got it in reception (now year 11) and my dd in year 8. If they were ill or had hospital appointments, the fact that they would no longer be eligible for the attendance award genuinely never crossed my mind.

There have been many threads on attendance awards. The majority of people will agree with you and think they should be scrapped.
I can’t believe schools are still doing this term! That’s beyond ridiculous. Well done on not catching a really contagious virus/living with someone who caught it and having to isolate for 2 weeks. And also, how clever of your family that no one died meaning you need a day off for the funeral (My dc had 3 close family funerals in 6 months- by the time we got to the third, dc3 was refusing to go to the funeral as she didn’t want to let her class down again in the class attendance award. Luckily the funeral was in the holidays, so she willingly came with us. But how awful is that, a child worrying about bloody school attendance for her GGF funeral). And that any hospital/medical appointments were able to be arranged after school or not over a registration period.

These awards are amongst the most ridiculous things in schools!

My child got genuinely upset on the day when the attendance awards party happened and she couldn’t go.

Because it was another reminder that she’d had a super crap year and was different to her friends. Maybe surprising to some but true. It’s another reminder of poor health / chaotic home lives for some kids.

My ds's school didn't used to have attendance awards- this was when it was an outstanding school.

They introduced them, and they separate them from the other awards that are made - with a special assembly. I find it really sad that ds's class (a complex needs resource base) sit in this assembly and listen to the children who get the awards praised for being in every day, when they know they will not have a chance to win one.
Ds also has learning disabilities, and mobility issues, but he has had awards for the effort and progress he has put into maths, or pe. His friend, who has very poor fine motor skills, received an award for the hard work he put into handwriting exercises.....awards don't have to equal top of the class, children do should be rewarded for the effort they put in.
I do think if the only thing a school can find to say about a child is, 'they turned up every day' - then the school is not putting much effort into recognising a child's qualities.
There are also the 2 elements to them that I think really need addressing ...

• They encourage childten to be sent in when ill
• whether they actually work in improving the attendance of the children who are persistently late or absent (where there are no medical reasons)

Schools and LEAs can encourage or punish as much as they like, but I cannot change my son's needs - every single absence is illness, operation hospitalisation or appointment - and every time he is in school it requires a huge amount of effort.

@TheRogueApostrophe

And let’s not forget that attendance awards encourage people to go to school when ill and spread their germs around those children who the illness could easily mean a hospital stay and needing to miss yet more school

Do they, though? Are children (and parents) really that bothered about getting a 100% attendance award? I find it surprising if so.

There are many opportunities to be recognised at (our) school - academic achievements, sporting achievements, extra curricular activities, voluntary work, raising money for charity. Attendance is just one thing among all of this and I genuinely don't understand why it's so controversial. And no, it's not one my children get every year. My ds only ever got it in reception (now year 11) and my dd in year 8. If they were ill or had hospital appointments, the fact that they would no longer be eligible for the attendance award genuinely never crossed my mind.

Yes, in schools where the award is more than a certificate children really are bothered about it.

Can you imagine children not being bothered about an afternoon of golden time, or Dominos pizza with the Head, or a trip to the cinema, or in one particularly shit school (shit in terms of management) a trip to the theme park?

@TheRogueApostrophe

Well the entire point of attendance awards is that they encourage attendance. Lots of people have said that their children are upset by not getting the award due to medical issues or bad luck from catching a cold. If you're saying that attendance awards don't even encourage attendance because no one who wins them cares then they're even more pointless as not only do they upset children who can't win them they mean nothing to those who can.

Completely agree, I've always thought they were ridiculous but especially this year. I'd also get behind a MN campaign to change this.

Yes, I would have thought that in this of all years they would have been abandoned. I would also be worried about teachers who didn’t realise the folly of encouraging parents to send in children who aren’t really well enough to attend. As that can really be the only purpose of it . The children who are kept off on a whim, or for the slightest thing or for social reasons are never going to get a certificate anyway. It can only be the generally healthy children with overall good attendance that it can motivate to want to attend when they really shouldn’t be there.

These things pre-date Ofsted and Gove. DS won one, just one, once and he’s over 30 and we’re in Scotland. The school was in a deprived area with very poor attendance, so they obviously weren’t very effective.

Totally agree with you. When DS was at school there was a girl who ended up in the local news for never having a day off in 5 years. They didn’t mention that she was regularly turning up to school ill.

Then on the other hand, kids like my DS come down with bad tonsillitis and can barely lift their head due to the pain ... what are you meant to do? Wheel them in in a bloody wheelchair to make sure they get their attendance? Batshit

Do they, though? Are children (and parents) really that bothered about getting a 100% attendance award? I find it surprising if so.

In my dds school, there was a child who achieved the highest attendance year after year, they were even in the local paper, with the parents exclaiming 'xxx even went into school with flu'....!

DS didn’t get one of these ‘certificates’ 3 years ago because of a single day absence. We were at my nephew’s funeral.
At the age of 10, he recognised how ludicrous these attendance rewards are.

The awards are absolutely ridiculous.

DS has had two colds this term. The first within minutes of going back to school. Both times, I kept him home an extra day than I normally would (2 days per cold). It just felt responsible because colds make him cough. Sending him in seemed antisocial. Then I got a letter telling me his attendance was below expected %. This term, this seemed a bit shit.

Appalling concept. In any educational setting - whether primary, secondary, college or beyond!

I'm a mature student, studying at a local further education college who made a big song and dance in-class presentation last year when they gave out 2 attendance certificates in class.

I'm 55 ffs!

I handed it back to them and politely said "no thankyou".

I’ve always hated these. Having epilepsy myself, I literally couldn’t get out of bed and go to school after a seizure so I never once got one of those awards. Hardly fair to kids with long term illnesses.

And what do they do to help those children who have poor attendance.

Does the certificate help the child who is a carer for their parent?

Does it help the child who has medical conditions?

Does it help the child from a chaotic house who has nobody to wake them up?

It’s a sticking plaster approach which does absolutely nothing for the young people who actually need proper support to access education

Not worth the paper they’re printed on.
My dc tended to leave certificates scrunched up in the bottom of their bags to be honest, unless it was one they were especially proud of and couldn’t wait to show me. I can’t think of a single child who gives a shit and celebrates the fact that they haven’t had a day off in the school year. I work in a school, most of my colleagues have had a day off sick in the last year, I’m not sure an A5 bit of card would really incentivise any of them to get out of bed with a sickness bug, migraine or diarrhoea and plough through, why the hell should we expect it of children?
We don’t want anyone poorly spreading those sorts of germs, they should be off if they’re unwell. Stupid idea, totally agree they should go.

Any system that thinks my disabled child is getting a better education missing 3 hrs 9:30-12:30 rather than 1hr 8:45-9:45 depending on appointment time must be fundamentally flawed.
Our school is just about to introduce a 4 tier attendance system - goodness only knows what the criteria will be. Am waiting to see before I complain 😄 but they did nothing about hospital apps last time so I'm not expecting broader thinking this time round....
My child who is rarely ill & has practically 100% attendance can't influence parents of other children in her class not taking term time holidays anymore than my child with regular daytime hospital appointments can help affecting the attendance of the rest of her class.
Utter madness - although underlying principle of helping low attendance children because it improves their educational outcomes is of course important.

They are ridiculous but I suspect they are popular because I believe that attendance is an OFSTED criteria.