To think this is fucked up (school 100% attendance)

[cricketmum84]

Recieved this letter from school before the start of term tomorrow.

I have a lovely, well behaved and studious year 8 girl who would love to attend 100%. However she had a bowel condition that causes extreme pain 2-3 days per month, enough so that she is unable to attend school.

Unfortunately she doesn't have the "resilience" needed to get these rewards.

Utter twats.

I was particularly pissed when we did the right thing and all stated home when my son had a slight temperature (until he had a test) about 6 months or so ago as that was the rules. Both my sons therefore didn't get the 100% attendance certificate. They should scrap these pointless awards.

It's awful but not the school's fault.
Schools are put under huge pressure over attendance. You can fail an ofsted for it.
They have to be seen to be doing something.

@Cannes12

It's awful but not the school's fault. Schools are put under huge pressure over attendance. You can fail an ofsted for it. They have to be seen to be doing something.

It aboslutely is the school;s fault they chose do that specific thing - in particular jumping the lunch queue is disgraceful.

This is bullshit - kids get tummy bugs and colds when other children are sent to school poorly because of bullshit like this!

Ask them to point you at their Equalities Impact Assessment for the policy,

That aside, what sort of idiot incentivises going to school with Covid symptoms when we have delta variant at current levels

This is absolutely shocking. Encourage as many others to complain as you can OP. If you don't receive an appropriate response I'd even consider taking it to social media.

@Cannes12

It's awful but not the school's fault. Schools are put under huge pressure over attendance. You can fail an ofsted for it. They have to be seen to be doing something.

But all they are doing is a sticking plaster “look we care” without doing anything to look at the deeper issues.

If a young person has poor attendance there will likely be a deeper issue at hand be it illness, bullying, home life whatever. It’s highly unlikely going to the front of the line at dinner will sort that!

The whole 100% attendance thing is absolute shite! It's neither fair nor realistically achievable for most kids.

Most kids catch viruses at some point that makes them ill, and as for kids with health problems that means they may be absent with sickness or appointment, well it's just bloody unfair to make these kids feel like they have failed.

Of all the school rewards that get dished out, this really is the worst.

@Getawaywithit

Given that any COVID related absense is also going to count against schools this year in their absence figures - there is going to be a whole lot of batshit happening around attended this year I expect!!

This is the issue and this is what we need to be discussing with our MPs.

My child had 100% attendance last year despite isolations. I thought it was odd, Should they have had? Has it changed this year? I agree this is absolutely bonkers this year even more than most, in fact I’d say more than bonkers, irresponsible. Maybe they could just reward the kids with no unauthorised absences

Everything about this is wrong and the 100% attendance club kids that get to skip the lunch queue will end up very unpopular. Who the fuck encourages this sort of divisiveness on this day and age ?

I’m a teacher and this really annoys me! I’ve had so many pupils in my form groups over the years who miss out because they have a medical condition or something else that isn’t their own fault despite them being model pupils in every aspect.

You have Ofsted to blame as attendance below a certain % for the whole school can be a trigger reason for an inspection. Totally ridiculous when you look at the bigger picture and what some of these kids are going through and realise that 50% is a huge bloody achievement for them, never mind the 95% school is aiming for. Just another exemple of organisations who are supposed to make schools better but are actually failing them.

Simple email.

Dear HT,

Thankyou for the letter about how students with 100% attendance will get regards and a badge to wear with pride.

Please inform me how the students with long term health problems and disabilities who won't be able to achieve this will earn the same privileges as their peers.

You've forgotten to outline the reasonable adjustment for these students as you must by law to ensure equality under the equality act 2010.

Im sure all these students are parents will be grateful to see this policy set out as clearly.

Regards

Xxxx

Quite simply they cannot deny a student a reward because a disability prevents them from achieving the same targets.

And I bloody hope they also outlined this doesn't mean attending with covid (pretending tests are negative) just to get a reward.

In addition to my above comment…these things have existed for years but it seems ludicrous to launch one this year! I’m not expecting most of the staff to make 100% in the current climate, never mind the kids!!!

totally agree its shite, discriminatory and encourages kids and parents to ignore illnesses. my dd dragged herself in when our school had this (they've stopped now tg), minimised how ill she was feeling. but...sometimes part of learning is how to cope with unfair fuckwits....I guess...?

Lunch queue jumps?! So if you are unwell, you have to stand back and letothers jump ahead of you. That’s disgusting.

Tell them you assume there is a similar scheme for staff as you'd like to be able to reward your child's teacher for not being ill/on maternity or bereavement leave/called away to deal with their own DC/etc.

Hello, I am an education welfare officer employed by the local authority to enforce school attendance and we advise schools on this sort of measure. I do not support this letter your school has sent out and am surprised they thought it wise or appropriate. If you want to PM me, feel
Free

@cricketmum84 sorry forgot to tag you!

Speak to the Sendco. State why it is discrimination. Then escalate it up and up if needed. This crap needs to stop!

Love if they got an email from a parent like “oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise attendance was THE most important thing, little Johnny had Covid and was off today but he’ll be in at 9 tomorrow!”

What a laughing stock they appear to be.
I totally disagree with this type of shite anyway , but the pompous tone of the letter would make me give even less of a shit about it .
I really think you should send the responses in this thread to the school to highlight what the majority of parents think of this unfair discrimination , shame on the school doing this .

@Clymene

And at a time when Covid cases are going through the roof, it seems particularly unwise to encourage children to come to school when they're unwell

Yep. I hate these awards with a passion at the best of times. But now? really?

And they do this during a pandemic…

I don't think a lot of the kids will want to wear a 100% attendance club badge 🤣 it pisses me off so much. I remember my daughters school sent a letter home and it said that any pupil with below 95% attendance have more chance at failing in life! I was gobsmacked!

@MumW

Tell them you assume there is a similar scheme for staff as you'd like to be able to reward your child's teacher for not being ill/on maternity or bereavement leave/called away to deal with their own DC/etc.

My school had one of those too. It was the most awkward, embarrassing and infuriating part of the last day assembly. Particularly as the Headteacher awarded it to herself every year, as well as to colleagues who'd not been off.

One of my colleagues threw her straight in the bin.