To ask what you think to attendance assemblies

[Sunshine193]

DD school did certificates in assembly for those with 100 % attendance. And they all got a £10 voucher too. What do you think to this? Heard some parents complaining about it to each other

Attendance is almost entirely outside of a primary school child's control. It is the parents who decide to send them in sick or keep them at home, or keep them off school for fun days out, take them on holidays during term time or just not bother to send them in at all. And many parents may not have any control over attendance either if a child has chronic medical conditions, frequent appointments or deaths in the family.

Therefore rewarding 100% attendance is total bollocks. Where there are genuine issues with attendance outside of sickness, schools should have a strategy to work with parents to educate encourage better attendance.

Giving rewards to kids who are either lucky enough to not have been sick, or who came into school while sick, passing on illness to other kids and staff who then had to take time off is absolutely nonsensical and discriminatory.

'Resilience' oft quoted just means bringing your germs to school to make everyone else sick. Everyone in school and workplaces should be encouraged to take time off when ill to avoid spreading germs.

Those kids are the worse off of all in these situations. And benefit the most from recognition of their genuine achievements.

If these prizes were run through any sort of workplace DEI filter they’d be thrown out in an instant.

You do that if that makes you feel better. Why is your child off school? We have pupils with really debilitating conditions and they try their best. What made you choose your school because you obviously don’t like it?

Does your school recognise, in the awards, that some of the children with 69% or 73% may actually have made more effort in attendance than some who have 100%?

Those kids are the worse off of all in these situations. And benefit the most from recognition of their genuine achievements.

If these prizes were run through any sort of workplace DEI filter they’d be thrown out in an instant.

Exactly.

Thankfully most schools I know of have management teams who've recognised that and actually give meaningful awards.

The ones that still do awards based simply on attendance all, coincidentally, have poor HT's and a poor attitude to pupils with SEN or disabilities.

This stuff really annoys me i spent a lot of time in hospital as a kid had to have a lot of operations which including travel as it was at gosh I missed a fair bit of school and it always seemed a bit unfair. I felt like I was punished for being a sick kid

I love my school and one of the reasons I chose it was because it didn’t do any of this shit.

The child I’m talking about was at a different school. Given that you feel the need to ask, she was off school because she had a serious degenerative condition and was frequently hospitalised. Today would be her birthday.

The things you're describing aren't rewards or recognition - they are accommodations. They allow those children to access education in a somewhat level playing field to their peers.

I've no doubt you work really hard for these children and they value the support, but that doesn't make a difference to the fact that children are being rewarded for something that is a matter of luck, and that these awards are impossible to achieve for children with certain disabilities or for reasons beyond their control (eg poor parenting).

Is it the only time school gives anyone an award? There no other awards to win? Ever?
If your child is so upset about that £10 voucher, can't you just give them a tenner at home?

Is it the only time school gives anyone an award?There no other awards to win? Ever?
If your child is so upset about that £10 voucher, can't you just give them a tenner at home?

Yeah, because a tenner from Mum is exactly the same as a public reward at a school assembly from the HT...

You don't have to agree with people who don't like them, but there's no need to be disingenuous and pretend you think it's about the tenner for kids with disabilities and medical conditions that mean they have no chance of ever 'achieving' the award that some schools still make a huge deal of.

One school I worked in rewarded children with a day at a theme park. Can you at least see why that would be incredibly upsetting for children who have no chance of ever achieving 100%?

What is that you were actually upset about? Missing out on learning, or not getting a certificate? Or did they put you in detention for it?
Prizes are nice, but not getting one isn't a punishment.

I was typing the same. A day at a theme park for a local school here. An expensive one that quite a few kids probably can’t afford to go to with their families too.

Don’t you see that for some children it is? Is it really beyond you to imagine how upset some kids are to miss out on something because of factors beyond their control? That actually being a poorly kid totally sucks and this feels like a kick in the teeth?

I genuinely think they’re terrible.

In primary school, if a child misses school it is not their fault. They are either ill (either a short term standard bug, or a long term illness or disability that requires lot of time off school), or their parents have taken them out, or their parents couldn’t be arsed to take them to school. My DD has 100% attendance because she’s lucky. The other children are unlucky. Attendance awards/rewards are ridiculous.

Im slightly less strongly against them in secondary school, where some children will be missing school through choice but I still don’t like it as so many children won’t have a choice.

Even effort and achievement are subjective though, and also not always in the control of the child.

it continues into adult life: someone will get an “employee of the month” or some such award for delivering a project successfully or something when everyone knows it was the team that held the project together not the useless PM.

This doesn't make any sense though. There's a big difference between earning bonuses or receiving recognition for working hard, and just being lucky enough to not get ill.

Anyway, dd's school doesn't do them but funnily enough she's got 100% two years in a row now

I’m not a fan of attendance awards.

Especially not in primary school, where attendance is completely out of the child’s control, whether because of illness or parents not getting them to school.

Ironically one of my DC missed out on the 100% attendance award this year because of an injury received during a lesson at school and subsequent medical treatment for the injury 🙄

How do you reward those with medical conditions who through no fault of their own, will never have good attendance records.

The children have no part to play in good attendance, it’s up to parents not children to get them to school.

Do you encourage those who are unwell to come to school?

Not in many schools.

We just got shitty, threatening letters about fines, and DS got to watch his classmates on a bouncy castle out of the window. There wasn't even any warning about the change of policy to brace him about that. He was understandably upset.

It's not his fault about the asthma that had him leaving school in an ambulance and unable to leave the house for a week before the additional steroids kicked in and he was able to breathe safely outdoors again.

It's also not his fault about the unconnected emergency surgery a few weeks later, or the post-op infection, or the side effects of the anti-biotics affecting his health for about 6 weeks.

Certificates and a mention in assembly I can cope with- maybe strong attendance was something that the school could acknowledge as a positive in a child that bumbles along and gets little other celebration. But actually penalising children for being ill (sometimes seriously) is cruel.

They were also frequently rather unhelpful about his and his sibling's additional needs too.

The whole thing is bollocks.

Attendance isn't an achievement.

Those with good attendance have good attendance for a reason an those with poor attendance have poor attendance for a reason and aren't motivated by an assembly.

Noone goes home happy from them. If my kid got one I'd be in the awkward position of having to piss on her parade explaining that it's nothing to be proud of because people cant help XYZ barriers for not getting one and not being ill isn't prizeworthy, nor does it praise her capability

My daughter got a "most improved attendance" certificate, her attendance is 72% i think. Her lowest was 46% when she was very poorly. She put in a lot of effort and I really love how they acknowledged it.

I think there should be a bit of wiggle room. So that medical appointments are dis regarded. And SEND. Maybe attendance targets put in place. So that children who have difficult circumstances for whatever reason, have their own goal, taken into account their circumstances.

I'm in 2 minds.

On the one hand, it is unfair on DC who can't ever reach 100% due to medical issues, or chaotic parents, or even parents who take them out for holidays (though in the latter case they've at least had a holiday).

On the other hand, pretty much the only recognition my youngest ever got was attendance awards. She wasn't academic, or sporty, or musical, or arty. Yes once a year she got a pupil of the week thing for her class, though in fact we had at least 2 years where she didn't even get that. One year she was one of only 2 pupils with 100% for the whole year.

A £10 voucher is too much though, wonder who funded it.

Hate it.
For kids where attendance is actually an issue in a truancy sense they aren't likely to care about a certificate, or even a tenner, if they've had several days off instead.

The ones who have been ill, attended funerals, had appointments etc might be gutted though... where's the benefit?

I was actually glad when my son was sick in September, because how awful would it be for them to make it to summer term and then have to be off!

Other DS missed out by 1 hour one year!

He injured his wrist in class, and by the time we were seen in minor injuries, x-ray was closing for the evening so we had to go back next morning. I "stupidly" tried to minimise time missed in school and took him back for 8am and he missed the 9am register and signed in about 10am.

After that, where possible I used the "revolving door" method of signing out after registering and signing back in by 1pm. Or just signing out after 1pm. More time out of school, but no attendance marks missed.

These examples are't rewards, that's just basic reasonable adjustments.

I chuck attendance certificates straight in the bin and just feel grateful my child is healthy.