100% Attendance Award

[NewYorkPleasecake]

I have always been vehemently against attendance awards anyway as I have a very strong view that children should not be rewarded/praised for the luck of good health...and there are plenty of cases when parents have not kept their little darlings off school when they should have done (E.g. for 48 hours after D&V).

My DD just told me that her school (early secondary) is giving out 100% attendance awards and her friend has got one.

I am GOBSMACKED at this - in a year where isolation was mandatory for positive Covid cases?!?! The friend in question was 'lucky' that she got Covid over the summer holidays. My DD missed some school because she wasn't lucky enough to catch it in the school hols.

How the feck can this be allowed to still be a thing?!

Attendance is important, ofsted judges schools on it, but more importantly poor attendance really reduces a kids chance of success. Might as well complain about kids winning things at sports day as they're lucky enough to be able to run fast.

It’s just a bit of paper. It’s not that deep. I can guarantee it wasn’t mentioned in my uni entry exams 😂

That is meant to be due! Mumsnet's success would be considerably enhanced if they had an edit button!

Yes, sports day is another problem tbh, not an issue with people winning but the compulsory nature of it. There have been recent threads about this!

Not sure why you would object to it or even bother the school with it. Whinging to the school about an unimportant certificate in the grand scheme of things is such a petty thing to do. My child always got the academic awards. She was always looking forward to sharing the limelight with her friends for whatever awards. More happy children on awards day.

I honestly don't give a shit about attendance, my children go to school when they are well. If they are not, they stay at home. I always get a bit miffed by the awards as it's not like the child has done anything outstanding. They've literally just either been lucky or been sent to school whilst poorly.

They were lucky, I get that. For my children to have their attendance recognised I felt pride in their assembly when they received their certificate. Of course there are days they tried to have time off but I knew they weren’t really poorly. They were given the secondary school certificates at prom and when they brought them home both of them, DS not knowing DD had done the same 2 years previously, when I picked them up handed me the certificate and said, it’s got my name on it but this is for you not me. They still joke about how I never let them have days off. My mum was the same with me and my brothers so it would appear I turned into my mother.

@Meatshake it is bonkers and I would be beyond embarrassed if my children school felt they needed to wake me up with a phone call. However the longer I've been teaching (and probably generally living) there is a sizeable minority of the population (probably globally) that do struggle to function with life whether it be mental health or physical health or learning disabilities etc.

Although I agree with previous posts that the school shouldn't be responsible for everything, I do think schools are more than just educators. Most schools do an amazing job with pastoral care and really do try hard to give the children the best outcomes possible. I think the fact that community services have been cut so much that so much more falls to the schools than ever before. There's going to be so many preventable problems because of budget cuts across the communities.

Well if the school system was better and not full of stuff you’ll never use, rules and friendship issues you wouldn’t have to incentivise attendance.
This is not a slur or teachers, more the system.

Every bad illness my children have had, except one, was contracted at school. D&V viruses, colds, Impetigo, Covid...
Its just the Scarlet Fever that wasn't knowingly contracted at school. Its a good job they had chicken pox before starting school, ot that would have been another 10 says off each.

*on

'No-one would send their sick child to school just to get an award'

A child was sent into my DC's class with diarrhoea because the parent didn't want to miss their first sports day...

My DS's attendance is 93% which I am bloody proud of, considering how much he's struggled with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed on a daily basis. It's a shame those kids who have personal struggles and still show up are never celebrated regardless of what % they achieve.

My kids would rather have time off when they’re sick or if they don’t fancy sports day or when they don’t want to be part of some random shit day the school have organised instead of a certificate. It’s the award none of the kids want at my kids school.

When my kids were at primary school, I saw kids be sick on their way to school and their parents tell them not to tell anyone.

One child spread impetigo to to about 10 other kids because his mum wouldn’t keep him off school for a couple of days. Her child then got an attendance award a few weeks later at the end of the year. 😬

If they were sick then mine wouldn’t go to school but if they don’t fancy sports day or when they don’t want to be part of some random shit day then they’re going in.

I agree that they shouldn’t be a ‘thing’, not good for disabled children who have a lot of hospital appointments.
These days though, even if you’re ill, you can attend virtually so that may have counted towards 100% attendance?

Attendance figures are right up there with oxygen according to the schools, God help you or your child though should they dare to be inflicted by a mental health issue. l saw a really ugly and damaging side of the school system, schools have copied the workforce mentality they just want us all to behave like robots.

I agree . They are extremely discriminatory. Its pure luck. And frankly it's embarrassing amd insulting. Imagine going to school every day for years . Imagine working hard and behaving well etc only to discover that the only thing anyone can say about you is that you showed up. Way to show you don't know your pupils and you couldn't think of 1 thing that could be rewarded besides the fact they managed mot to catch the class lurgy.

But same issue if you're actually unluckily enough to feel too unwell due to illness.

I've always been irritated by these attendance awards. When my Dc were in primary school they were never ill and got 100% awards every year. One teacher commented on how robust my children were.

Two years ago my DD became unwell very suddenly and ended up in hospital seriously ill. Diagnosed with IBD and had lots of time off while she underwent treatment. Even now she's in remission she has to have lots of hospital appointments for blood tests , drug infusions , bone scans , MRI scans to check she is okay. And this week she's got Covid just to add to number of days missed.

She will never get high attendance but there is absolutely nothing I or she can do to improve it.

Some schools ban kids from attending their prom if their attendance is below a certain level. That's just so unfair if the missed days are genuine illness.

Children can miss school for a number of reasons out of their control and must be so disheartening to be sat their knowing you are never going to get one of those awards because your next hospital appointment is tomorrow!

Our school doesn't do attendance awards, although I think they used to. The problem I have with them is not only the discrimination against those with higher medical needs, but also that there are times kids are told to stay away even with well enough because they are infectious. DC1 is very rarely ill, he's had 2 days off this year because I kept him off for 48 hours as you are supposed to after diarrhoea. He was absolutely fine on both days to go in. A system that incentives people to send in under those circumstances feels perverse!

The whole thing is always a poor idea. I ruled out schools on the basis of it because it’s so clearly ridiculous and discriminates again disabled or chronically ill children (should my child in hospital due to severe asthma be in school?!). Now there is the added thing of encouraging parents to send in children who are unwell with covid.

Madness.

Ultimately ofsted are to blame but some schools avoid silliness like this.

My DS went through the whole of senior school working towards 100% attendance. He almost got it for the whole 5 years, was looking forward to getting his glass trophy at the awards evening, then bloody COVID hit which not only ruined his year 11 leaving dos and GCSEs, but also meant he never got his trophy. He was a little bit gutted, bless his heart.