100% Attendance Certificates

[fandjango]

My son has come home from school today with a pin badge (Gold style with 100 on it) and a certificate saying well done on 100% attendance all term.

He has only started reception this year. He is absolutely thrilled with the certificate and the fact it has been laminated! and is also so proud of his badge.

I am obviously pleased he is happy but I feel that rewarding children in this way is detrimental to the children who for whatever reason cannot help not having 100% attendance.

He is in a friendship group of three and one of the other boys also had a badge and certificate but the other boy in their group has been off so much recently and also hospitalised (we don’t know with what) and he hasn’t had one.

I am disabled myself and maybe that is skewing my feelings on this but I just feel sorry for his friend who has watched his other friends be rewarded for something he cannot help.

I do understand clamping down on unnecessary absences and the need to have incentives too.

I loathe attendance awards.

As everyone else has said, it is just a recognition of who is lucky enough to be healthy and not have any other difficulties affecting attendance.

I have 3 DC. One was on a very low attendance for a good while, and now cannot attend at all. The other two have never had 100% attendance either but attned well overall and are near the top of their classes across the board (Y9 now). If one hits 90% attendance this year it'll be his best attendance in 5 years and he is doing very well in a pushy grammar school and even they haven't mentioned he wasn't at 90% attendance in Y7 and Y8.

I'd say your instincts as a disabled parent yourself are spot on.

Last year, all the year 5 and 6 kids that got the attendance certificates deliberately tore them up in front of the head in protest...he laughed. Teachers hate them too...they are beholden to the LEA, and have to be seen to promote and reward good attendance even though it's discrimination. Please don't blame the schools for this war on attendance, blame the parents who take kids on holiday in term time and the teenagers who skip school, that's who this policy is aimed at...though it doesn't work.

My child’s school did an after school lessons for selected pupils called “Gifted and talented” . I suggested another class for “Stupid and useless”. Needless to say this was taken up. 😁

Don't take it personally.

It's not a reflection on you or the DC who cant achieve 100% attendance, it's just acknowledging the ones who can.

It takes away nothing from anyone else.

Where school attendance is concerned disabled children and ill childrens parents are easy targets to fine and harass. These fines haven't affected the children who don't want to attend school for whatever reason it just hits the parents pockets. It's a nice little money maker but isn't solving the real problems. Like why children are refusing school and what they can do to fix those issues. Celebrating 100% attendance is a rubbish thing for schools to do especially when contagious bugs go through the schools. If they focused more on education and making schools a place children wanted to attend maybe they'd solve persistent truanting.

Its all nonsense! If your child is unwell keep them off and don't overthink it all. It continues all through secondary school and sixth form too! The only certificates worth celebrating for me were my daughters gcse certs. They have to push attendance but do teachers really want a sick child in school? Of course not and they soon phone parents to collect them too.

If schools are so obsessed by 100% attendance, put it in the children's yearly report. How dare they shame other children by excluding them. I would be asking for them not to give it to my child as they are making some children feel rubbish through no fault of their own. I personally did not give 2 hoots if mine didn't achieve 100% .

It's a recognition for those who have achieved something, not a penalty for those thar haven't!
I wasn't athletic enough to be awarded sports 'colours' at school, or musical enough to pass grade 8 violin, bit i didnt whine that they shouldnt exist because thsy were out of my grasp!

In youngest DC’s primary school, the class with the highest attendance are rewarded each week which is a bit fairer than singling individuals out. In older DC’s they have rewards at the end of each term for those with 97%+ attendance and those with 100% do get a certificate at the end of the school year. My DS has had 100% 4/5 years at secondary but he has honestly just been fortunate. He caught a stomach bug in the school holidays for example.

I think it’s unfair on kids with medical problems, those who catch stomach bugs or the flu and literally can’t come in or kids with chaotic home lives.

Rewards for a whole class with 100% attendance, or rewarding those classes with the highest attendance is wrong because there will be some classes with seriously ill kids or kids whose parents are abusive/ just don't bother sending them in and losing a whole class reward because of that risks making such disadvantaged kids targets of resentment.

However, do kids who don't get an individual attendance certificate really stand out or care that much? I'm a TA and in my class of 30, last year probably only 3 children got 100% attendance certificates. Nobody was shamed or punished for not getting one, and the 27 who didn't clapped when the 3 walked up to the front of the class. The teacher also regularly hands out certificates for learning a certain number of high frequency words or reaching the top of the behaviour ladder (regularly checks the list, making sure those who haven't had one for a while get recognised for things she might otherwise miss). Children are used to individuals being singled out for praise at particular times. They won't always get every reward and it's a parent's job to help them deal with that. If your child is generally a bit demotivated with school, talk to the teacher but don't demand that they change the reward system.

There are some children out there, who will only ever recieve attendance awards as they aren't the most intelligent or talented. My son being one of them! Let him have this 1 award please.

It is in my sons yearly report.

My son will never achieve a sports award or a music reward. I demand they be removed so my son isn't excluded!

i hate these. My boy has an immune disorder. In fairness the school have changed their ways since he started: I complained a lot.

Our school don’t give out certificates due to the children who have medical conditions or whose home lives are a bit rubbish but they award house points and send an email home thanking parents for their support which I think is a nice touch, still a reward but a bit less public and obvious for everyone else.

A badge is harmless. The stories about schools organising outings snd excluding children are harmful.

That’s a nice approach.