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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think they shouldn't give out 100% attendance certificates in school

106 replies

schmoopoo · 05/03/2008 19:12

THis in a private primary school FFS you can't help being ill

OP posts:

PSCMUM · 06/03/2008 21:03

i totally agree ruby. or possibly a relxing massage before being allowed to work from bed all day.

pelafina · 06/03/2008 21:05

Message withdrawn

Blandmum · 06/03/2008 21:08

People would moan about their kids not getting certificates for being kind.

'my little Eric is much kinder than Enid, but she always gets the kindness certificate, I think it is because her mother is on the PTA. and she was Mary in the last Nativity and Eric was only a rock'

PSCMUM · 06/03/2008 21:09

people moan all day long whatever the hell happens. i think a bit of encouragment never did any one any harm and that is all these certs are. i think the OP is bonkers for even letting this bother her for one second.

roisin · 06/03/2008 21:10

Our school had appalling attendance rates. (On govt blacklist for the percentage of students with below 80% attendance.)

This sort of situation has a big impact on progress, achievement and results - on an individual and school level.

As a result we now have loads of incentives/strategies in place to reward attendance, and I can assure you they really do work.

southeastastra · 06/03/2008 21:10

it's nice to be rewarded for being on time and reliable.

Wilkie · 06/03/2008 21:13

Why worry?? They used to give them out at my school and I certainly didn't feel hard done! If I had been absent it was for a genuine reason but I didn't worry that I never got a certificate for attendance.

I got results in other areas.

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:14

I've no time for people moaning, I agree. I've little time for certificates. I think attendance is a daft reason for reward and Kindness is a fab reason, if Reward by Certificate is the route taken.

southeastastra · 06/03/2008 21:16

my ds(6) got a sticker last week that said 'good listening face'.

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:19

lol was it like this

ELR · 06/03/2008 21:20

so it upsets a few kids they will get over it , it will toughen em up for future under achievements
. Kids need to learn that you cant win everything and its fine to lose

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:21

But there is nothing to win or lose about attendance. That is the irony. Teaches nowt.

MrsSchadenfreude · 06/03/2008 21:22

DD's school has class awards for full attendance. She was nearly beside herself when she was in hospital last month as she would have let her class down and they wouldn't get the full attendance award for that month. FFS, she couldn't help being ill!

eekamoose · 06/03/2008 21:24

YANBU. My children are pretty robust but I have kept both of them at home at least twice since September. Surely this is normal in primary/pre-school children. Last year when it was chicken pox they had at least 5 days off each. That is NHS guidelines, no? Don't we already have enough competitiveness at school without having to add in this extra factor?

southeastastra · 06/03/2008 21:26

we have a giraffe class attendance toy

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:30

I would be sorely tempted to give that giraffe a big red nose, circles under its eyes and put a mug of lemsip in its hoof one morning.

And then have the whole day's lessons based around this dramatic change.

Monkeybird · 06/03/2008 21:31

it's a bollox idea and DS1 was really pissed off cos he didn't get one. Illness is a legitimate excuse and I resent the implication that me or my child are malingerers. FFS they get all the fucking bugs from school anyway.

PSCMUM · 06/03/2008 21:35

o dear - its not that big a deal! its not like THOSE OF YOU WITHOUT 100% ATTENDANCE ARE DOOMED FOR LIFE AND WE WILL NEVER LET YOU FORGET IT YOU LAZT DUNCES. Its just a bit of encouragement, and as Roisin says above, for kids who have low attendance rates, it really works. So what is the harm? encoragement for those who need it, and some over protective MNers getting pissed off as their little dahlings missed out. get over it people.

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:36

does it really work?

pointydog · 06/03/2008 21:37

Give me more of those silky discussion skills.

PSCMUM · 06/03/2008 21:38

Our school had appalling attendance rates. (On govt blacklist for the percentage of students with below 80% attendance.)

This sort of situation has a big impact on progress, achievement and results - on an individual and school level.

As a result we now have loads of incentives/strategies in place to reward attendance, and I can assure you they really do work.

that is from roisin, who i presume is a teacher. i have also seen it work in my kids old school. and even if it only has a CHANCE of working, its not doing any harm is it?

southeastastra · 06/03/2008 21:39

my mum used to let me take lots of days off sick, in the long run she should have been stricter

cory · 06/03/2008 21:53

PSCMUM on Thu 06-Mar-08 21:35:10
"o dear - its not that big a deal! its not like THOSE OF YOU WITHOUT 100% ATTENDANCE ARE DOOMED FOR LIFE AND WE WILL NEVER LET YOU FORGET IT YOU LAZT DUNCES. "

Gosh, sounds like dd's old headteacher in the flesh! We have certainly not been allowed to forget dd's attendance record at any point during her time at junior school, nor has she.

PSCMUM on Thu 06-Mar-08 21:09:43
"people moan all day long whatever the hell happens. i think a bit of encouragment never did any one any harm and that is all these certs are. ."

Sadly, that is not all they are in dd's school. My point (as I pointed out in a previous post) is that it is not just my little darling who misses out when she is in hospital. Her whole group misses out, other children lose out on their certificate because of her and this is rubbed in by the headteacher during the weekly assembly. So naturally the other children resent her. This is as far from encouraging inclusiveness as you can imagine- punishing a whole group of children because one of them has a disability!

Several other posters have described a similar system. It is not at all uncommon. We are not being precious because our own little darlings miss out on a certificate. We just don't want the other children to be encouraged to blame our child. Is this totally unreasonable?

The system may well be better managed elsewhere. But as it is managed at our school, it is divisive.

potoftea · 06/03/2008 21:57

In our city the mayor goes once a year on a visit to each school, and presents certificates to all those who haven't missed a day the previous year, and special 5 year or 10 year ones (you get your picture in the newspaper for those ones).
My dc have occasionally gotton them, but I still hate them, because the poor kids who have to live with a chronic condition are already fed up having to miss fun stuff at school while they spend days sitting around hospital waiting rooms for check-ups, and I had a friend myself in school who used come in ill, and go home after attendance was taken.
Of course good attendance is important, but so is looking after your health, and that of those around you.

PSCMUM · 06/03/2008 21:57

no, thats not good at all actually - I didn't realise in some places it is a group thing, I have only ever seen it be an individual thing, and that it is good, and i cannot fathom the moaning, though i'd moan to if it was a group thing and kids were getting worried about it, peer pressure etc.

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