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 🙄

Well yes obviously 😂

I’m so so sorry @TriptotheBog i didn’t read it properly.

Also giving awards for somethings that's out of the children's control is ridiculous...!

I am amazed (and amused) that anyone can defend attendance awards when they seem so clearly indefensible. One of my kids would routinely have 100% attendance, the younger wouldn't - she is a sickly child and now a sickly adult, poor wee toot. Their school never did attendance awards, but I certainly would have complained if they did - it is so clearly discriminatory. You might as well give out awards for the nicest legs or best eyesight - absolute pathetic gubbins.

I remember in my first teaching job the biggest disruptive bully in the school won a mountain bike in a raffle for those who'd had perfect attendance.
I don't agree with rewarding perfect attendance. It's a basic expectation that children attend school unless they are ill. Dental appointments are almost impossible to arrange out of school time where we live.
When I think about it that school also used to reward children for have a pen and bringing their books to school...

Maybe if more people complained and pointed out the discrimination they’d be removed.

As a former teacher, the 100% attendance kids were either those with two FT working parents or the 'difficult' kids 😂

Now that I've been blessed with 2 sn kids of my own I have a lot more understanding of the latter!

"The end of my post wasn't quoted, that there would be other awards that would pay to those kids strengths.* because the end bit wasn't the bit you needed picking up in @Florenz . Children with disabilities or acute medical issues aren't one homogenous lump to be dumped into "can't move very fast" category, or frankly ANY such ignorant category.

@Marvellousmadness 'That's like saying some kids can't win first prize in a running race because they're is a kid in a wheelchair in their Class* except a decent school will ensure equality and make sure there's a race that has a chance to compete equally in. Not everything about sports day is using your legs to run at speed. People have such limiting imagination.

This is my children sadly.... they have to have medical treatment every 2 weeks and that affects attendance

Really? Not the case for mine, but maybe we're just different 🙄

Attendance awards are ableist tosh. All those with the useful defences - ah, my child only ever gets these, ah, well other certificates shouldn't be given then - are hard of thinking.

My child rarely got certificates because she struggled with dyspraxia and dyslexia. But she also didn't get attendance certificates - ever - due to multiple disabilities. And, in fact, she was bullied because of this - her school had the idiotic practice.of handing out prizes to classes with the best attendance, like getting to play on consoles at breaks etc. Her class knew it was her stopping them from getting the perks, and they told her this to her face (one boy beat her up for it, in fact.)

So no. The whole 'only certificate they can get' doesn't float. Schools should employ more imagination and give certificates out for all children, not difficult to find something they actually make effort at, unlike attendance awards which however much the apologists argue are down to sheer luck. Why are schools giving kids awards for being lucky? For not getting sick? For not having feckless parents?

As for the poster saying those who don't get attendance awards due to disability don't get sports awards either, this is also ableist tosh. Disabilities come in all different shapes. My dd did get running awards despite her multiple disabilities and dyspraxia. Because the school recognised her effort.

Those who defend these obviously have no idea what life with a disabled child is like and how the playing field is already unfair for them without them being excluded from something because of their disability. What it's saying to them is, 'you are not enough and never will be, and the people who are enough are the healthy ones.'

Hate the things and relieved my kids aren't at that stage now. I've said this before on here, but I was never more proud of ds when he came home with a 100% attendance award and proceeded to tear it up in front of dd, he was only about 7 and he understood the hurt it caused her.

Yes totally to this!

Mine have 100% attendance but it’s nothing to do with being nightmares or my work, it’s just the luck of the draw really. If they were ill enough to need a day off they’d get it but some of the reasons people keep kids off for are pretty weak

They’re discriminatory and, IMO, it says a lot about the leadership of a school if they still have them.

There are plenty of ways schools can reward effort and achievement that doesn’t discriminate against disabled, unwell, abused and neglected children.

I have particular disdain for schools who still do class/year group awards for attendance. It’s a prime way to set up a child to be bullied if it’s always their “fault” in the eyes of the other kids that they’ve missed out on the prize (especially when the prize is something big - kids might not mind missing a certificate, but in one school I worked in a child with multiple hospital appointments got the blame for his classmates missing a trip to a theme park).

A friend of mine works in a “challenging” school, attendance awards have worked wonders for some of the children and families who didn’t really care about getting them in

As a teacher I've never got it. On the one hand we moan about parents sending in sick kids. Then we have to give out these ridiculous attendance certificates. Maybe at secondary where students have a bit more control over their attendance but seems a contradictory waste of time at primary.

Why not add more categories but leave the attendance one? Just add more ways to reward kids so maybe they could earn a prize for helping a friend/teacher, a great drawing, suggesting a new idea for the school.

Attendance is a silly thing to reward for primary, but I can see the benefit in secondary school where teens get themselves in, on time. Erasing attendance by itself isn't solving anything.

Because they are outright discriminatory.

Ok I'm not sure about that. A better option is more categories. Everyone knows the award is pointless, I knew that as a child. Just wondering what good removing it by itself is- there still aren't enough categories, hats why more should be added.

Removing it doesn't include. Adding more categories does, so

Removing it and adding more categories that don’t directly discriminate against sick, disabled, abused and neglected children is a much better option.

Not all children think they award is pointless. Especially in the numerous previous posts about children being targeted because their classmates miss out on rewards because of them.

Attendance is is not 100% outside the child's control, speaking as a parent

Until much older teenagers it’s absolutely in the parents control

You are speaking for yourself, I know plenty of kids who play up attendance wise

But even then the question needs to be asked why? 9 times out of 10 there will be a deeper reason. One that won’t be solved by a certificate

Stroppy teenage phase? Pushing boundaries? Nothing terribly deep just winging it.