To hate "perfect attendance" awards

[EllieRosesMammy]

Surely after going through a pandemic perfect attendance awards should be scrapped? I refuse to believe any child can go an entire year without being ill atleast once, so essentially schools are rewarding the ones who have been sent in to school to spread their germs around.

And then articles like this:
lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulldailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Feducation%2Fhull-boy-not-missed-day-7300887&h=AT15pbp4zAEVNauE8SDiHV7nuGzjlB9PVwvxfhka2nSCw-fUJHOIxI50ErMwsi96rnXaVdNlk-5HQsPc1agljITptxr5RX-ZjnYAfri6FdNPKn8NIxmThMtnLPlpKaQ1u7hR_L29GLjDoZuRVqbvtw

7 years and he hasn't been ill once? Give over 🙄

hate them discriminate against children who have disabilities/health conditions.

I believe so! And those children who may have missed a few days of school due to being bullied and the school refusing to help eg. Me in school.

Until I picked up a joint injury late last year, I hadn't been off work sick for the past 8 years.

It's not unreasonable to have some kids not off sick once in a school year.

I can't see the difference between attendance awards and, say, sports awards. There will be naturally sporty kids who mop up the prizes year after year and those who break into a sweat if they key stuff on thier phones too fast. Sports awards also discriminate against disabled / health conditions.

Relax. Some children get prizes for being clever. Others for being good at sport etc etc It’s all swings and roundabouts.
Use it as a great way teach your child resilience.
Attendance rates are assessed by Ofsted. It’s obviously important children attend. Schools are bound to encourage and reward good attendance.

Plenty of kids are never off

How many more posts will we have about this before the end of term?

I really couldn't give a shiny shit about any awards. Is it really that important?

Absolutely this!
At our school I think some of us deserve prizes for coming up with ingenious ways to offer incentives and rewards to as many kids as possible.
We do little pin-badges for class reps, helping in the library, wrangling the canteen queue, helping with IT stuff, environmental goings-on, you name it.
Certificates are given weekly for all sorts from sporting success, academic success, being kind, trying hard, improving behaviour...
They all go in newsletters, prospectuses, even the local rag.

For one of my children, attendance certificates were the only ones they ever got! Literally never got sick. But quite uncoordinated, not musical and quite dreamy so never picked out for being good at anything else at primary school. We used to really big up how great his attendance certificates were!

Exactly, I don't have strong feelings about attendance awards but my DC are never off school and I'm sure they aren't the only ones, it's not unusual

I know it's been about 7 years since I was off work and only then because I couldn't drive to get there

Even if by some miracle be wasn’t ill during a term his appointments mean he can’t get 100% attendance.

I can just about stomach certificates but presents and trips like some schools do is awful.

Given that attendance is monitored at government level, I don't think it's fair to blame the school.

Honestly, it’s just another category. Some kids are smart, some are good at sports, musical, or chess champions.

Some kids don’t get sick and regularly turn up. It’s not punishing those that are off, it’s a light hearted way to reward those that do.

Also, I don’t think it’s a lie that some kids are never sick. the only time I was off in secondary school was for orthodontist appointments. So I guess in theory, I could be bitter about not getting the award, but I don’t really care.

in the real word, turning up to work everyday is generally a desirable attribute, so in someways, the awards are more relevant to the ‘real world’ as no one really cares who got grade 8 bassoon.

Every illness, except for one, my children have missed school for was caught at school. Including from children sent to school while obviously ill. (The exception was Scarlet Fever which was likely caught on a plane or in the airport)

But not all kids catch the bugs going around at school

I don't mind kids not getting awards for stuff they aren't good at, but not getting awards because they are sick is just kicking them when they're down.

Shitty ableist crap.

That article. 😬 Seths mum sounds like one to avoid. I bet she’s secretly fuming that her child is ‘only’ deputy head boy. I mean what more does he have to do? He never gets ill, eats his cauliflower, has friends, is sporty and he’s academic. 😂

Attendance awards are a joke but I don’t think they’ll get rid of them so just don’t worry about them. Children get ill, it’s normal.

Sports and attendance awards should be cancelled at once obviously. And while we're at, there should be no academic awards either because they discriminate against the academically challenged.

Are you all agreed that no child who succeeds in any aspect of school should be recognised in any way whatsoever because all achievements are discriminatory?

I hate these awards. Thank God our Primary no longer does them. It is just rewarding good luck. This is from someone who dd1 received loads whrn she was at school.
Dd2 wasn't invited Prom due to attendance issue related to EBSA, anxiety and late diagnosed SEN. It wasn't an issue as she wasn't well enough to attend but horrible for kids who,want to.

Work is different as it depends what environment you work in. For example, someone who works in a private office where they're not near other people could easily go in to work with a cold or an injury (depending on what it is)

People who work serving food to the general public could not go in with a cold, as that's disgusting :|

That's fair, but then maybe an award for attendance above 90-95% (not sure what the minimum requirement is), 100% with no absecenses just seems a bit much.

I don't agree with it even it was not for Covid. If you are ill, that often cannot be helped. Worse in my book which cannot be measured is someone who has an illness which cannot be transmitted to others and has three or four days off when they could be back at school after a day or two.

I hate it, my child has disabilities and epilepsy clinic is once a month on a Monday morning. There will never be another time he can go so he will never be able to achieve this 100% standard.

His class one week a month can't get the 100% class attendance award because of him.

That's stupid they should only count actual
Sickness not vital clinic appointments l.

Of course.

It's all down to luck for the most part. Luck that you haven't fallen ill, or are fortunate not to be suffering from a long term illness or disability.

Mine does that class attendance award too! I really hope they don't name the ones who are the reason they're not getting it, cause surely that's straight up bullying :|