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.

Rewarding kids because they are lucky enough to not have grandparents etc die during term time. Sorry Chloe you can’t be in this 100% attendance club are your wee gran selfishly died of cancer and you had to attend the funeral.

I would be tempted to take the badge from her and tell her it doesn't apply to her. Then return it to the head with a stiff letter saying this sounds like a discriminatory policy and ask for their comments.

I wonder if they call you to pick up DC with a cough you can refuse due to aiming high for the 100% attendance club.

Surely by imposing this high standard, everyone should have the opportunity to achieve this standard without being held back by the school.

My DC never achieved 100%, mostly due to norovirus and all the other idiots (parents and/or pupils) who felt D&V should be no obstacle to their achievement of the high standard of 100% achievement.

I can't imagine many teenagers wanting to wear/display the pin badge with much pride ...

My son would have been eligible for this all 5 years he went to school (he just left). I can guarantee he wouldn't have worn it and I would have backed him 100%. To the point I would have kept him off one day a year at the start of term.

@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

If you complain, OP, I make this very good point!

Our school had something similar until my DD arrived.
She has a long term health condition that requires regular medical appointments. Sometimes her condition is too bad for her to manage and she needs time off.
Following several “discussions” with the head teacher their internal awards no longer consider sick days or medical appointments as an absence, providing a much more level playing field.
Unfortunately this does nothing to help those kept off school by parents for various other reasons.
I wish they would scrap these “awards” altogether. A reward for not being sick still infuriates me.

This is massively fucked up.
Good health is not about excellent attitudes and resilience. It's luck. That's it

I once sent a child home who had gone grey and looked like he was about to keel over - he didn’t want to go home because the head had given a massive assembly about attendance blah blah blah (they also did attendance awards) anyway it turned out he had pneumonia!

Btw do the teachers have a similar scheme?

Blame the inspectors. Schools can’t get a decent inspection grade if the attendance is poor. Really unfair as someone kids can’t attend 100% such as your daughter. I would put a case forward for her

This is really awful. Not only does it discriminate against children with disabilities but potentially those with chaotic home lives . I'd definitely be complaining.

@user78231 I once worked somewhere where we got an 100% attendance letter 😂 tbf teachers come under a lot of pressure to come into work when ill “for the kids”

Ok have a reward well done but to be able to jump the lunch queue 😳 I’m in shock

My eldest suffered through last year of primary and first year of secondary with terrible period pain, throwing up it got so bad. I always thought that they should make some allowance for this with girls.

I was a school Governor until recently and if they had tried to shovel this through I would have resigned.
Jumping the lunch queue indeed, fuck that, these people are bonkers!

All these attendance rewards are idiotic at the best of times, but during a global pandemic they’re f**king lunacy! They’re nasty, discriminatory and ultimately counter-productive: child is ill but doesn’t want to mess up their attendance so comes in and spreads their germs to many more children. How’s that helping attendance?!

I've always found attendance rewards to be somewhat discriminatory, there will always be children who have genuine reasons for not having 100% attendance.

If it's about encouraging kids to stop skipping school perhaps if it was 0 unauthorized absences it would work better...

Even then though, when I was in secondary school my attendance always sat around 70% because I just refused to go in and a badge/treat wouldn't have interested me at all so I doubt would have changed my attendance. If anything it would have turned me against it more!

@CurzonDax

I can't imagine many teenagers wanting to wear/display the pin badge with much pride ...

Well quite.

Didn't get a badge? You want to be more resilient, lad, and decide not to be ill ever again. Mark of weakness, that is.

Got a badge but lost it? Wtf happened to you, you shiftless twit, you started out as an acceptable pupil and then lazily let yourself get pneumonia.

Got a badge? Excellent, now all your peers will think you're a complete spod and the only validation worth having is OURS.

I had really poor attendance at secondary school because I was being bullied so much. Perhaps if there was a shiny badge on offer, I'd have put up with the constant threats, insults and undermining.

Can you grab a number of like minded parents and just keep a large number of the kids off school for the day. That should derail the thing. OP.

My children's previous school used to hold discos for children who had 100% Attendence.
My child who has sen never got to go as he had paediatrician appointments.
He already felt different and that made it worse!

If this secondary then no kid is going to want that badge that HAS to be displayed on them
What a load of bollocks and they must hand it back if they dare have a day off
I imagine the complaints the school will get they will drop that real quick!

Oh I feel your RAGE! Dickheads.

Just a note though: in my last school we had a similar scheme (but nowhere near as bad) where 100% kids got a £5 amazon/xbox voucher every half term... BUT BUT BUT it was based on their personal timetable/attendance record- so genuine medical absences (supported by evidence) wouldn't count, neither would a medical appointment i.e CAMHS therapy (why do they always do it in school hours!) etc. As long as the absence was justified in a fair way, the child still got their 100%.

DS's school have a pizza party at the end of term for those with 100% attendance. Well they did the first term last year- I assume they had lots of complaints because it didn't happen after that. So many children missed out due to having to isolate! Plus they were essentially encouraging them to go to school when they should be isolating. Total bollocks. Attendance awards are a joke. As if the child has any control over it!

OP - ask them if they're insisting that any child with covid should attend school this term so they qualify for the award?