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

[schmoopoo]

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

"showing up everyday speaks volumes about a person!" Yes, it's called presenteeism. And making yourself look good and to hell with everyone else who catches your germs. It is also no guarantee that they are doing anything at all useful. Sorry, but these attitudes really piss me off. I made myself very ill because I felt too guilty to take time off work when I needed it - I would never ever inflict the same attitude on my son.

But no-one wants children to go to school if they are really ill twinkle. That isn't the issue. Do you really not have any children at your school that don't come to school because they don't fancy it and their parents can't be arsed to make them? We do. Those are the pupils they are trying to encourage.

And there is a virtue in making an effort. I've never been to work when I'm seriously ill - I work from home if that happens - but I clearly remember in the dim and distant past calling in sick because I had a hangover or a very late night.

There was a long thread once from a mnetter who used to keep the kids off school on their birthdays

You can always recognise the ones who can't be bothered - all the siblings are off too. Who's that lucky - when mine got ill when they were small it was always one after the other - never all on the same day.

I think the certificates are a good idea, but not a class one, it should be an individual award. I would've got a certificate every year for more than 10 years, shame they didn't do them at my school! I do think they should be per-term, that's very achievable. My last work used to give £100 to every person with a 100% record, I never managed it, skived way too much!

But it's the same old thing. By trying to catch the skivers/malingerers they end up tarring the genuinely sick with the same brush. It's a very crude and crass way of dealing with the problem IMO.

Of course there's virtue in making an effort - I couldn't agree more. But making children (or adults for that matter) feel guilty because they are actually quite ill (something that they cannot help) is a poor show.

OrmIrian - if you've got full blown 'flu (ie not just a filthy cold), do you really think your employer's getting much value out of you "working from home"? If you're really ill surely it's better that your're just off sick, full stop.

I feel very strongly about this, by the way, because what I ended up with a few years back was a post-viral syndrome which left me completely wiped out and very poorly indeed for more than two years.

Even before that happened, I found through bitter experience that if I tried to continue working through a viral illness like real flu, then it would take me many days, probably weeks, to get back to normal. But if I'd just taken two or three days off to recover I'd be back fighting fit after that. If I was an employer, I know which I'd prefer.