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

Say for example a kid was having a play date at your house on 23 December. The mum or dad rings and says their kid has had vomiting and diarrhoea the night before and a bit that morning. Kid feels better now, but would you prefer to leave it for another time?
How about if family all had flu? Or covid? Or chickenpox? Or TB? Or measles? Or whooping cough? In all these cases, kid might be feeling ok in themselves that afternoon, but still be very contagious. Would you be thinking “yay, send them over, it’s great for our/our kid’s immunity” or would you prefer them to stay away that afternoon? I’m always curious how far those who go on about immunity are willing to take it.

Great, no need to pick up my kid when the school say she's got a temp then. That'll certainly save me some time!

What about children who are immunocompromised? Are you so selfish that you’d expose them to your kids illnesses?

Im glad to say our school ditched the 100 awards after Covid.

At primary school, maybe the parents should get the £10.00 reward for their child getting 100%, I reckon that would get the attendance up!

School is more important than play dates.

…but what about their immunity?

How about paying the parents who send kids in whilst contagious a tenner to keep them off? That would boost overall test scores and health.

I hate them, and I have kids who've got them in the past. This year they haven't - because a vomiting bug went round the school - so exactly what moral failure have I instilled in my kids this year when I let them spend the day with their head down the loo puking that I previously had taught resilience and fortitude to because a puke bug had not gone round?

None. Luck of the draw that this year they got ill, in previous years they haven't - but the MN teacher apologists who believe school should be a boot camp, that parents aren't qualified to work out when their kids are unwell, and that those damned SEND kids just simply aren't trying hard enough - would like to believe that.

Also curse whichever parent sent their kid into school with the puking bug cos I ended up spending my bloody birthday with my head down the bog throwing up. Thanks for that - enjoy the 100% attendance Mars Bar or whatever shite it is this year.

And by the way - DD2 has significant SEND, lots of medical stuff going on, struggles massively - and scored in the top 5 in the school for positive behaviour points... so the last thing that kid needs to learn is more fucking resilience by MN collectively trying to make life harder for her - she's bloody tough as nails.

I'm not keen on rewarding attendance at all but at least at my child's school it's for excellent attendance. I don't know what excellent attendance is (I think they purposely keep it vague) but at least there is some leeway. My DC got it and they didn't have 100% attendance.

Also they give our the certificates at an assembly when they are handing out certificates left, right and centre so that also makes it seems like less of a big deal

These were awful for my son. He had very difficult health problems in his early years which were miserable for him, and very stressful for us.

Having him penalised at the end of year assemblies was terribly cruel towards him.

After a few years he learned to get full attendance even when ill of traumatised by medial treatment, and in year 9 he finally had a nervous breakdown and dropped out.

The school system here can be terribly cruel.

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry you, and your son had to endure this. The system is archaic and needs a complete overhaul, especially in primary schools. My dcs' school doesn't even give leeway when they're building immunity at a young age, and were really demanding after covid when they first went back; with high fevers etc; the school woupd send kids home like this!. A condescending letter was sent to all parents. Yes it is important to be punctual, but not at the detriment of wellbeing.

There are genuine circumstances where dcs have to be off, and do not need their health put at risk with unnecessary pressure. My dc is ND, and gets very stressed with attendance certificates. Dc is very literal and tries hard with everything. To dc, it causes a, "Why do I not have a certificate, when I have not been off much." There are dcs who are upset because they haven't been off for nothing, or some have parents that can't be arsed to get out of bed to take them, others have parents who will keep them off if siblings unwell etc. It is out of their control, how fortunate for the able and healthy to get a certificate (because they happened to not catch anything bad enough to stay off).

This year one of my dcs got a certificate for one of the terms at the end of year celebration. They present then infront of all of the parents. 🙄 I feel really uncomfortable with all of the parents clapping after each certificate.

I explained to my child that it wasn't an achievement, but more of a, "you're fortunate you've had good health award."

I hope your son is doing better.

But by your logic, being around ill people will boost their immunity. So you’re really contradicting yourself.

Education is importsnt, but at the expense of making other children and their families with potentially very vulnerable people poorly, you are being very unreasonable and uncaring. Can only think you must be trying to get a reaction.

It is a contradiction.

Kids are going to spread germs. Having kids only going to school when they are categorically free from any kind of germs or communicable disease is not feasible.

I think they are awful. Kids with poor attendance will have various issues going on and won’t be incentivised by this. It’ll probably make the older ones feel like shit. Ridiculous.

And I say that as a parent whose children have always had very good attendance (99%/97% this year). For us it has been down to luck, nothing more. I think it must be nigh on impossible to achieve 100% attendance!

How utterly dreadful, I’m so so sorry

At my kids high school they hold a 100% attendance tea with the headmaster at the end of each term. Honestly my kid makes sure he misses 1 day each term just to make sure he doesn’t have to have tea with the head 😂 so maybe not the goal they were hoping to achieve

teachers are there to teach, not to act as childcare when you can’t be bothered to look after your sick kids

I’d agree with that sentiment, but it loops back round to the not having it both ways argument.

Do the schools want children in 100% of the time, or do they want parents to keep sick children at home?

My DC’s schools, both primary and secondary, have actively praised children for coming in when they don’t feel well when talking about the children who’ve achieved 100% attendance.

And if schools are pressuring parents to achieve 100% attendance, then there’s always going to be some parents who feel obliged to send in sick children who really would be much better off at home.

@cadburyeggI’m so sorry. That is truly awful.

Some really sad posts on here.

That’s a bit of a polar argument. Who on this thread has said kids have to be categorically free of germs?!!

I asked in an earlier post what you would do, if given the choice, whether to reschedule a play date if a child visiting your house was contagious, but felt well in themselves that afternoon. That was in response to you posting about building immunity. My question remains unanswered.

I would reschedule it because play dates are unimportant compared to school.

It's a waste of good learning time. The kids have to sit there and watch a dull procession of other children getting certificates for turning up. For many of them, that 20 minutes sitting quietly means the 20 minutes after that they'll be really fidgety.
That 20 minutes of sitting quietly needs to be used for something that will benefit their learning.
I helped clear up a few classrooms at the end of term this week, and picked up discarded certificates off the floor in all of them. The children don't care abut them, printing them out is a waste of paper.

So building up their immunity is only important at school? If a child visits you ill in the holidays, your child might have some immunity to whatever illness they got leaving them more likely to get their attendance award!