To want schools to drop attendance incentives?

[Sophie632]

So my son has a medical condition and has to attend hospitals appointments - sometimes not locally. Our school give out certificates for 100% attendance and he rarely gets these. There is now talk of starting a scheme where the whole class is rewarded each day everyone is in. I don’t think this is fair to children who have disabilities or medical conditions that may make them need to miss school, totally outside of their control. Also - should we really reward children purely because they don’t catch any nasty bugs? Hardly seems fair!

YANBU

DCs' school doesn't do this.

Makes no sense to penalise children for being ill or unable to come to school, and absences aren't the children's anyway until they're much older. My parents would often bring me late to school as a child, or not take me, and I was punished for it - I was 7 years old, not a lot I could do about it!

in our school the classes get recognition in the school newsletter for best overall weekly attendance. If we are off for more than a couple of days we get letters telling us off and reminding us of the percentages the school expect from us. Last year (post COVID) these letters used to include a threat to escalate to the council, by way of incentive. In addition, the school office would ring you up asking if your child was definitely ill, and couldn’t they come in at lunch time to even up the quota! The whole business has got me so enraged that even when they actually sent me a letter saying well done for finally getting back up to consistently acceptable levels I was snorting with umbrage at being congratulated for the our “efforts”, as if when they are ill it’s because a lack. Grrrrrr!!!! I have never ever taken them out of school for a holiday or a visit, they have only ever been off when they needed to. They are doing well at school abd have a good diet and decent bedtime. We are late quite often, but that is not the same thing and I take full resp for it obviously. Grrrrrr!!!!

They're bonkers. I used to be an attendance officer and the only kids that they incentivise are the ones who care about what school has to say, and as such they're doing their best anyway. Those with chronic levels of absence due to lack of motivation won't care.

But the kids with chronic illnesses are unfairly penalised in the process, so they're all round shit. They don't achieve anything positive in my opinion.

Last term our school started sending out weekly attendance stats per class. There would be an explainer for lower than average/target - e.g. chickenpox / covid / noro / scarlet fever. The stats stopped being sent out when strep A was all over the news. No idea if this was a coincidence or not, but it made me wonder if they thought highlighting the continuing high levels of illness in school might be counterproductive.

Or congratulations on having parents who don't give a shit about spreading germs...

Agree with your first part, but there is a reason for 48 hours... Even if your child seems well, they can still be contagious, thus if they went in, it just perpetuates the cycle of illness spreading at school!

Which is why the awards are so stupid and probably contribute to other children needing to take time off!

This. Our school doesn't do them and I would actually lose respect for their leadership if they did.

I remember when I was at school being sick right next to the teacher, who had to move her feet to avoid it. We got a free book at the end of term for not missing a day, and I was determined I was having it. So I badgered the shit out of my mother, who had just been bereaved and in retrospect didn't have the bandwidth to put her foot down, and was allowed in the next day. Which the teacher understandably wasn't impressed with. People will say that's the fault of the parents yada yada, but this sort of thing is just more shit to navigate and the reality is some won't be able to.

Firstly as an ex teacher we NEVER did 100%attendance awards cos we were well aware that many of those who achieved it, came in when they should have been absent, gjving their germs to others who would then be off as per school rules,
I think I'd message the school , saying uou understand the need/reasons behind good attendance . However a policy such as this assumes that all children sre starting on a level playing field, this immediately stops those who are not starting at this point at EVER being able to achieve what yhe school is aiming for. Those children with long term illness/disabilities/appointments could easily be taken into account with adapted policy.
Also non attendance especially at primary is not about the child but the parents and why should a kid be penalised for something they have no control over.

Exactly.

If only academic and sporty kids get their achievements recognised then the school has a problem waaaay bigger than can be tackled by handing out attendance awards.

Thankfully there are schools who are able to recognise and nurture their pupils development in all sorts of areas, not only academics and sport, and therefore don't have to try and plug a gap with rewarding attendance (which doesn't actually plug the gap of failing to value and recognise a range of skills and behaviours)

My children go in unless they are really ill, however DD has a brace and all the appointments every 6 weeks have really screwed up her attendance figures.

I agree it's a stupid award based on luck, good health, straight teeth and a good immune system.

I definitely agree.

A child is already unfortunate to be saddled with lazy parents though, why should they be punished for that? Even the holiday is hardly the child's fault, what has it got to do with them. It is not acceptable to me to punish a child for the actions of a parent. It is a feature of life in North Korea, it shouldn't be in any civilised society.

A child is already unfortunate to be saddled with lazy parents though, why should they be punished for that?

Bear in mind we're talking about merely not getting a 100% achievement certificate here, it's a "punishment" in name only and not up there with getting a detention or the cane.

I have two daughters in the same school, one has a disability. She gets every bug that goes around so is often off school sick.
My other daughter always gets 100% attendance certs whereas the other gets letters telling her she needs to do better.
Makes my piss boil.

Exactly. As a child I had neglectful parents and was punished for things like not having supplies or being late to school (starting the day with a -1 on my behaviour chart, for example). At 6/7/8 years old how could I have been responsible for that?

Unauthorised absences need to be taken up with the parents, not be tied to rewards or punishments at school.

YANBU, they're massively unfair. Plenty of kids had conditions that mean they will miss school; my kids hate them because they impact some of their friends.

Our secondary school only does rewards/trips or whatever for those with the most positive behaviour points at the end of a given period, which makes sense

The nature of the punishment is irrelevant, there should not be one at all because the child has not done anything wrong!

I work in a school, so I see evidence of how hugely detrimental poor attendance can be to a students learning, attainment and overall wellbeing. I also think awards for 100% attendance are ridiculous, offensive and discriminatory to those with SEND and don't actually do anything to remove the barriers to regular attendance some students face.

I disagree with all those saying "blame the government and ofsted". I am HUGELY critical of both this government and Ofsted for many, many reasons but they are not forcing schools to give out these awards. There are plenty of other, more creative ways to improve attendance in schools but these take time and effort. It's too easy to hand out a certificate ("congratulations on being healthy or having parents who prioritise education"!) to tick a box with something like this than put proper intervention and targeted support in place for kids whose attendance is a concern. And yes, all schools are struggling with time, money, staff I'm very aware, but that's not an excuse for perpetuating ableist nonsense.

In those schools that have pupil attendance awards, perhaps they should also award teachers for 100% attendance. ;)

Agreed

Yeah I agree. Can’t help being ill.

I never understand why people kick off about school awards for attendance, lets be honest 90% of adult life you can get through just by making sure you turn up.

Schools give out awards for loads of things, if there is one thing your kids doesn't get, then is it the end of the world ?

I completely agree with you.
It’s very unfair for children who are susceptible to illnesses.
I agree with a pp who said they should do the same thing for teachers - in a printed newsletter!
It seems there are 1 rule for the teachers and 1 for the children across the board, they don’t lead by example at all.
And don’t even get me started on them shutting for strikes and snow days, when as parents we can’t easily take our child out for a short holiday, and if they have a medical appointment during the school day you have to get them back to school at break neck speed.