About school attendance?

[AutieNOT0tie]

My dd school reward high attendance (98%)
This year they hired a Ice-cream van and all the children who got 98 or higher got to leave the classroom 30 min before end of lesson and have a Ice cream in full view of the other kids who had to continue with their work. (But could see the playground) this is primary age. Is it just me or is this mean?
Baring in mind some kids are disabled and have time off for hospital appointments/treatments. My child had a sickness bug and covid - we followed school policy.

Yanbu

YANBU.

YADNBU

Is it mean - yes. However do I blame the school - no. Blame the machine and Ofsted. Schools are told to incentivise attendance and refer those below a % to the EWO. If they don’t - special measures for them.

I'm a teacher and I hate attendance awards. Especially at primary age. As you say, children may have additional needs/medical needs. Also, it's not the child's fault if a parent chooses not to take their child to school

I think its mean and schools can tackle attendance in other ways. Ive sat in two good ofsted feedback meeting this year, both were praised for how they supported attendance. Neither school does a treat for those with high attendance. They wirk really closely with families to tackle the cause of poor attendance.

My school used to give a certificate to the class with the best attendance each week. One year my class won it nearly every week. The next year I had a child awaiting a transplant, another with a long term condition and one whose mother couldnt get out of bed in the morning. None of it was their fault.

Never agreed with this sort of thing, my children have had 100% attendance some years but two of my children’s friends have health problems which require hospital appointments so they alway miss out on these events. It reminds me of the PTA mother and father’s Day craft morning at one of my children’s schools - children had to pay to make a card for their parent , if they couldn’t pay £5.00 they’d have to sit and watch the others participate in the session.

I can't believe this is still a thing. I can remember my dad saying he'd been sent to school with various illness and diseases so he wouldn't "Break his attendance" and be rewarded with a book - this was in the 1930s.

Thank goodness it never existed at any schools I taught at or my children went to.

Very mean. Very.

This is horrendous. My DC would be so upset if this happened to them

This sort of thing incenses me. My child would be devastated to have to watch healthy non disabled children get a treat, for the luck of good health.
He did not choose to be born with a serious disability. I do not control when his various specialist appointments are.
A certificate is bad enough a bloody ice cream is awful treatment.
I would complain to the governors.

This is ridiculous. I don’t even like certificates but it's just a bit of paper at the end of the day. But this is a genuine treat being paraded in front of the kids who almost certainly had no choice in whether they attended school or not. So stupid.

It is so ableist it's unreal. It happens in most schools. We need to change it as a society.

Awful my eldest DC has two life limiting different conditions and he never got the attendance certificate but a bloody ice cream at primary is just cruel.
I like that at my DDs high school they Dont do the attendance certificates but they put all the names in a hat and a handful get a Amazon voucher
what I like better is that they do a praise auction every half term they can bid on things such as iPads bikes etc down to sweets it’s seems fairer as it’s the child’s hard work that gets the points to bid

No YANBU, how they think that works is ridiculous. Teaches primary age children to feel shit about themselves.

For context my little one has just had an excellent school report but marked her down in attendance. (Requires improvement)
Shes had 2 days for sickness and about 6 days when her daddy died (shes 7)
I was told to point out why she was off school and have it amended. Ive got more important things to do but if theyd had her sit in a classroom and watch others get a treat Id have been livid.
Sometimes there is NO common sence

YANBU. Mean is far too nice a word for this. Horrid, nasty thing to do. The word I'm actually thinking of begins with c. They are punishing kids for being vulnerable or sick really, whilst also indirectly encouraging others to make people sick. Wtf does this incentivise? There is something seriously wrong with whoever devised this sort of policy - and they should be nowhere near kids. On what planet is this good for kids?

I’d be tempted to hire an ice cream van to give ice creams to all the children who were left out in such a mean way!

Life's not fair

So that makes it OK?

Rewarding those with good immune systems . People that didn't pick up a cold or tummy bug. Unfair

It's a ridiculous award and I strongly suggest you bring it up with the school and governors. We did and the award was removed.

One child missed 7 days of a school due having chicken pox which became infected - no choice but to stay at home despite desperately wanting to attend.

Not fair to penalise further.

The irony is most of the illnesses are caught of school (off kids whose parents send them in regardless to spread their gerns)

YANBU. Pisses me off that schools seem to spend more time praising attendance and giving out punishments for uniform infringements than actually teaching.

Extremely mean. It’s rarely ever the fault of the child if they are not in school. And often it’s due to the child having serious health problems. I would complain.