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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

100% attendance rewards at school.

120 replies

TravellingSpoon · 15/12/2021 08:24

Dd's secondary school has decided to boost attendance they are running a competition that started on 1st December so that anyone that gets 100% attendance between then and 1st July will be rewarded with a trip to Aston Towers.

AIBU to think that in the current times its absolutely ridiculous? With Covid, the terrible cold we have going round and a norovirus outbreak it's hard enough. But you will have children going to school sick because they want this trip.

Dd is already out as she had a reaction to her covid vaccine ☹

OP posts:
Stompythedinosaur · 15/12/2021 10:32

It is terrible and discriminatory. Particularly stupid at present due to encouraging people not to isolate when appropriate.

HangingOutWithTheSandman · 15/12/2021 10:38

AIBU to think that in the current times its absolutely ridiculous?

The people with healthy kids are now understanding how parents of children with chronic health issues and disabilities have felt for years.

CheesyFootballsAreEvil · 15/12/2021 10:38

If anything they should reward people for not attending with covid symptoms

RampantIvy · 15/12/2021 10:40

I'm disappointed that 16% of posters think that attendance rewards are still OK. Why not send covid positive kids to school instead Hmm

Bookworm20 · 15/12/2021 10:40

FGS even before the pandemic these attendance awards were a fucking stupid idea.

I don't know what the schools are thinking. If its that important, give them an extra star at the end of the week if they had perfect attendance, not a bloody outing.
It discriminates against all sorts of DC for all sorts of reasons, 99% of which are not the childs.

Makes me angry. A good few years ago DD had a day off for a funeral of her Grandmother. So missed the school day out.

ComDummings · 15/12/2021 10:41

Even before covid the attendance awards were an absolute joke.

Hmumoftw0 · 15/12/2021 10:53

Absolutely ridiculous and I would take my child out on the same day choosing what ever they want!

My daughter was fine first term, this term she's had tonsillitis (2 lots of antibiotics) sickness bug, colds and coughs, I kept her of for a full week to fully recover as every time she went back in she caught something else making the tonsillitis flare up again.

should I have sent her in to spread these bugs? NO!

Viviennemary · 15/12/2021 10:56

Then they might as well ban any kind of award. I just don't get the opposition to this. It might be the only award some children will ever get. But if people object to it then they need to complain and make their voices heard.,

Notwithittoday · 15/12/2021 10:59

Tell bloody Ofsted who bully schools over attendance. Schools are just doing as their told

Sirzy · 15/12/2021 11:02

@Notwithittoday

Tell bloody Ofsted who bully schools over attendance. Schools are just doing as their told
Are they?

Or are they going for a sticking plaster approach which may tick some boxes but does nothing to tackle the actual barriers to attendance?

Does the carrot of a trip stop a child being scared to go to school due to bullying?

Does it stop a struggling child avoiding school?

Does it stop the young carer being too tired after having been up looking after relatives all night? Or stop them being worried about leaving them?

Does it stop the disabled child being disabled?

Or does it just reward those lucky enough to not face any of those (and many more) barriers to attendance?

equuscaballus · 15/12/2021 11:03

It's essentially being penalised bad luck/strength of your immune system!

It doesn't help anyone.

The logic behind it is scrambled and its not fit for purpose.

LindaEllen · 15/12/2021 11:05

It's always been bloody ridiculous - but particularly now.

I remember when I was in secondary school and they did this shit, and all it meant was that kids came into school with miserable, contagious illnesses and passed them round to other kids and staff, therefore probably leading to more absences than if they'd just stayed at home.

I agree with attendance based incentives, but not 100%. Perhaps a lower number that would allow for average illness absences, without allowing skivers on the trip.

There should also obviously be allowances made for those with other health issues that mean attendance is less solid - perhaps other targets to meet. I don't know how it could be solved, but it absolutely should be.

Sirzy · 15/12/2021 11:07

Before DS (12) could leave for school this morning not only did he need to do his normal before school physio and medication we also had to do a water change in his feeding tube. This didn’t go quite to plan so we had to do some emergency fixes. Thankfully I managed to sort it at home and not have an a and e trip but it took time.

We start our morning early enough that we have time for the needed and the unexpected but even getting out of the house most mornings is an achievement (even more so on days like today) add onto that the issues with his anxiety and other problems.

I don’t think many people appreciate just how hard things can be for many children because of circumstances beyond their control

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 15/12/2021 11:07

Ludicrous.

I could just about say “ok” if they were just getting a certificate or something.

But an actual big reward like Alton Towers is hugely discriminatory. That’s more than kids get for an actual achievement!

SusieBob · 15/12/2021 11:09

@Viviennemary

Then they might as well ban any kind of award. I just don't get the opposition to this. It might be the only award some children will ever get. But if people object to it then they need to complain and make their voices heard.,
Well, no.

Attendance awards basically reward people for not getting ill, which is not the kid's actual fault, and they encourage kids to go into school when they are ill and spread that illness to other kids who then have to go off. It's stupid.

It's also highly discriminatory to anyone with chronic conditions etc.

Bookworm20 · 15/12/2021 11:09

How about making it an effort award instead.

DC putting in their best effort to their work when they are there, regardless of their grades. Effort. Thats what should be awarded. And something the DC have at least control over to aim towards the achievement.

Notwithittoday · 15/12/2021 11:09

@Sirzy schools are overstretched and underfunded. Much as they’d like to they can’t fix everything

DisappearingGirl · 15/12/2021 11:10

You can’t win everything. I’m sure you’re child(en) will win other awards in their school career.

This comment comes up a lot. If the attendance award was just a certificate and a "well done" or maybe a small prize or something, I'd absolutely agree. It would be consistent with small awards for other things that not everyone will win.

But the point is that something like a trip to Alton Towers is way out of proportion. Imagine if there was a trip to Alton Towers that only the kids who were good at maths or sport got to go on? That would be awful!

And to do it when COVID is rife is absolute madness. "Don't come to school with COVID, unless you want to go on this great trip"

BlueLines81 · 15/12/2021 11:10

I complained about DD’s secondary school doing this the first week she was there. They no longer do it Grin

Rosebel · 15/12/2021 11:10

I'd be fuming. We had to keep DD2 off school after she was bullied to the point where she didn't want to live so if she was further punished by missing a trip I'd go mad.
I would actually consider sending my child somewhere else, preferably somewhere where they'd prefer sick children to stay home. Ask what the staff with 100% attendance are getting.

Sirzy · 15/12/2021 11:11

[quote Notwithittoday]@Sirzy schools are overstretched and underfunded. Much as they’d like to they can’t fix everything[/quote]
But what does a trip to Alton towers (presumably in at least funded from those stretched funds) actually do?

How does it help anyone other than those already not facing the battles?

Notwithittoday · 15/12/2021 11:17

It encourages the kids that would stay off or truant for non legitimate reasons to come to school and behave themselves. That’s quite a large proportion and attendance figures are a numbers game.

VienneseWhirligig · 15/12/2021 11:21

We used to get one at an old workplace - if you hadn't been off sick in that month you were entered into a draw to win high Street vouchers, and if you had a whole 6 month period with no sickness, you got £200 as a bonus. I left there 10 years ago so not sure if it's still happening.

chinateapot · 15/12/2021 11:21

@DeepaBeesKit

My kid misses out on the attendance award because she had cancer.

She’s had 6 months chemo, radiotherapy in another country, too many other procedures to count and now has multiple hospital appointments each month, facial differences she has to learn to live with and she’s supposed to build her resilience by watching her friends go to an attendance party she’ll never get to go to? Seriously? She’s already learned she won’t win everything and that life is unfair. But that’s different to further unfairness being imposed on her in a setting that should be supporting her.

She feels different enough already. Her confidence has taken a massive knock. This is not the same as losing at sports day because she’s not a fast runner! (she also loses at sports day incidentally and always has done and we do plenty of encouraging her to celebrate friends successes then). Where attendance rewards are concerned I tell her I think they are a load of rubbish and just try to console her. But they still upset her and make her feel more different from her friends again.

Notwithittoday · 15/12/2021 11:25

@chinateapot I’ve worked I’m several schools and there’s been children with cancer. I have NEVER known them to be excluded from trips like this. Have you complained ?