It's that time again, congratulations on your immune system

[takeitonthegin]

It boils my blood every end of school term. 100% attendance awards. Congratulations on not being poorly, congratulations on being sent to school with a stinking cold!

AIBU to be so grumpy about this? Anyone else feeling annoyed?

My daughter has been really poorly this year and even when tried to attend has been sent home clearly unwell. She only goes if she is well I should add but tries so hard to attend. She has a very poor immune system. However her attendance would be so much better if it were not for the selfish bloody parents who send their kids in ill and k ow they are doing so but mask the symptoms severity by dosing their sodding kids with calpol. By the time that wears off and the school detects how poorly these children are and send then home the damage has been done and others infected. It really boils my blood especially when one mum at the gates openly admitted to send her very sick child i. Because she was going up to town for a show and christmas shopping! Almost the whole class went dow with norovirus as a result.

I’d rather she got a printed certificate for 100% attendance than for smiling to be honest….

As per my original post, my issue isn't with attendance letters. My issue is with a reward (a significant reward at my DC's school) for a child getting 100% attendance. I totally agree that nobody is concerned about a few days being missed but being off for a day is the difference between being rewarded and not. That, in my opinion, is very unfair.

I'm so glad our school doesn't do this. It's absolute sh&te

I did once have an employer that did this. You were expected and pressurised to come into work even if full of flu and it was grim. 🤢

I don't understand the aggression either. Do you complain at other things: not being chosen for nativity, not being the cleverest in class, not being sporty, not being good at piano, debating, anything else.

And the insistence that parents send them in ill? Major assumption. I didn't.

Both mine got them regularly. Never ill. Dh and I aren't luck either. May we'll be luck. So? Life is unfair. And?

I think the issue is when the reward is something big like a trip to a theme park.
If it is just a certificate the kids who have been ill feel less disappointed so the parents don't mind so much.

"I don't understand why parents get so worked up about it -

Because it's bullshit. Humans have no control over whether or not they get sick and therefore rewarding those who are lucky enough to not get sick is a load of bollocks and completely unfair."

Er, so is being bright. Or being the fastest. What makes one kid the fastest and one shit at all sports?

Good grief!!!

Schools are under so.much pressure re attendance. It annoys me when pupils svd staff come in coughing and sputtering. In coming in people unwittingly spread it around attendance is affected

"There would be uproar if employees only received a bonus if they had 100% attendance at work. Totally daft."

As an alternative, you do get punished if sick a lot. Can be a disciplinary matter. If you're sick all the time with minor issues and not a recognised condition. (That means you can't be discriminated against.) Imagine if you owned a company but someone was off sick all the time with tiffles. It would damage your business.

An award which a disabled child can't win is discriminatory @Oblomov22, it's pretty much the very definition of discrimination in fact. That's why some parents get so cross.

True. So lets not have awards for sports teams either or celebrate pen licenses (dyspraxia).

What about sports awards @thing47 ?

Does it encourage resilience to not reward a child because their mother died the second to last week of term?

'' Oh, shame about your Mum, Jessica, but you can't have the special treat because you took a couple of days off. Yes, we know why you weren't in, but James B was in the school the morning after and didn't go to the funeral because he really wanted his class to win the Attendance prize and get to go to Thorpe Park and wouldn't let them down. Anyhow, it's character-forming, or what we now term 'Resilience' ''

There are loads of awards a disabled child won't win. 100m sprint. Cross country. Does that mean we'd shouldn't have sports prizes?

They do have whole sports categories for disabled people and any school organising sports day in a way that wasnt inclusive isnt very good.

Well that's a fair question. As per my earlier post, I think if schools feel awards are a necessary part of their motivational tools then they should be given for things such as attitude, effort, improvement, hard work rather than achievement per se. That way all children have a chance at getting them – maybe still not an equal chance, but a much better one. Schools can nearly always find something to reward if they're so inclined.

@TeenDivided I'm sorry I don't know what a pen license is, but I would agree that awards which automatically preclude those who are dyslexic or dyspraxic should also be banned.

I quite agree. Our school are quite inclusive where sports are concerned and the rewards for winning something at sports day isn't on the same level as being told you are going to miss your prom or the end of year class trip. Just imagine the outrage (quite rightly so) if only the children who bagged a 1st place at sports day were allowed on the class trip. Its the same thing for me.

In year 11, prom is about the only thing that schools have in their toolbox to help motivate less motivated pupils. Just because they say you need to reach a certain attendance level, doesn't mean they won't make exceptions for illness.

The big issue is rewards bigger than a certificate.

Agreed and I appreciate that if you see off school a lot then questions need to be asked by school. I agree with what you are sayinf but that isnt what the post is about. Its about not getting 100%. Wouldnt you be upset to be penalised for being there 98% of the time. If you only had a reward at work if you were there 100% of the time and you'd had half a day off with a headache but otherwise worked as hard as everyone else, surely it would be frustrating and laughable as an adult to not get the same reward?

It's bollocks. My DD loves school and is very conscientious. She has had 4 days off this term due to illness and is stressing about her attendance. She's bloody 12!

I do think awards for full attendance are a load of shit, however, tbf, I have worked somewhere where you got a bonus if you had 100% attendance over the year. It was an organisation which regulates solicitors so obviously they knew the law. This wasn't in England though.

Because of low attendance raising issues I’ve de registered two of my dc to home educate. We felt we had no choice as no matter how we explained the absences , the underlying health conditions, the fact our dc are unlucky and catch everything and get really unwell from each bug meant nothing. Schools won’t budge on their targets they don’t make reasonable adjustments to have a lower expected level for children with pre existing conditions it’s a one size fits all system.
we even got referred to ss as it was alleged I was making things up and keeping the dc at home for my own needs but the sw investigated and said in the report it was clearly beyond our control .

Again we have dc now with low attendance and I’m considering home Ed for them rather than go through the process again of meetings and ss and being told
to prove when my children are Ill etc