Am I being unreasonable

[Yeahwhatever]

Am I being unreasonable to disagree with school giving reward certificates to children for 100% attendance while making no allowance for periods of sickness absence?

YANBU ...this annoys me too.

sickness should not count but unavoidable hospital appointments should be allowed - DD had half a day off and missed her certificate (which she was keen to have as she had had a healthy term despite having a serious condition)

if you are off sick from work, you do not have 100% attendance record do you!

Um, but it's for 100% attendance for whatever reason... Are people really taking kids out of school that much for other reasons? And would they be dissuaded from a cheap holiday by their child saying 'no I want my certificate'? Can't see the point of them myself.

What is the point of these things?

I wonder if it's just to remind the parents that they're keeping tabs porto!

My ds's school give out certificates for above 95% attendance and letters telling you off for anything less.

Supposedly to discourage parents from taking children out of school-but seems very unfair on the children who happen to have had a sickness bug that week or half term and then get left out of this reward system on top!

One of my patients had a perfect attendance record till the last day of the school year when we had to admit him with appendicitis. He was gutted (literally).

Seriously, how on earth would the school arbitrate about whether every day's absence by every child was legit? The only practical thing is to set a target and stick to it, though I must say 95% or 98% seems more reasonable than 100%.

Are you seriously saying there should be rewards for 95% attendance???? You want to reward those who were off school?

Are you the same people who argue it's wrong to play sports where one team or person has to lose?

YABU

YANBU What is the point for rewarding someone for something that is beyond their control.

Silly nonsence!

Children have to have illnesses in order to build their immune systems. To encourage them to be at school whilst ill is ruddy irresponsible (IMO)

What a stupid thing to do! Especially when it is often well beyond their control. Useless piece of paper that does what? Encourages smuggery among the very young (and their parents)?

DDs (upper) school rewards pupils who have 100% attendance by taking them off school for a day out . DD never goes as she has missed various half days for hospital appointments. I actually know one parent who delayed her Dds treatment so that she would qualify for the reward.

Sorry, OP YANBU to be peed off with them but you can't give 100% attendance certs to people who don't have 100% attendance.
They should just be banned immediately.

And there is NO comparison with the sports "no loser" thing - that is all about striving to achieve, not about being punished for being ill.

I don't think it's that bad, just a bit of healthy competition, pretty sure it wont affect their lives longterm if they don't get the certificate.

I disagree with parents who try and sheild their children from every aspect of dissapointment in life!

Astrid - where's the competitive aspect of attendance certs? 'I'm healthier than you so ner' is surely not an attitude we should be encouraging?

Wow I didn't know schools do this - YANBU

You would at least think with a drs certificate it would be ok to not include those sick days as part of the 100%.

PerArdua - exactly.

Of course its silly.
Does the child choose to be sick or healthy , does the child decide to go on holiday in term time ?
A child shouldn't be rewarded for something that is beyond his control

This is all part of a wider and frankly more sinister trend which affects adult workers, and has a particular impact on working mothers.

Taking more than an average amount of sick leave is increasingly treated as a disciplinary issue at work.

My BF is a senior Civil Servant with a large number of staff working for her. She has been obliged to issue formal warnings to staff who are undergoing cancer treatment or who have been seriously injured in car accidents.

My BF had a hip replacement operation recently (due to hip disease as a child) and has been signed off work for 10 weeks. She knows that in spite of her near-perfect sick record over the last 20 years, she will be subject to a disciplinary hearing when she returns to work.

The school attandance certficates, and those scary and insulting letters many posters seem to have received when their DC's have been kept home from school on medical advice are all part of preparing children to be wage slaves for the "realities" of the workplace.

bloody hpochondriacs

do you really care?

I get abit annoyed by it - we have never been close to 100%. - but thats not the bit that bothers me.
I have mixed feelings - I do think its wrong somehow for a child to go to school when they are clearly unwell - then they get a certificate...

YANBU

There is this continually naughty child in DS's class last year who was always doing something, so to encourage good behavior he got certificates galore if he did and inch of something right.

Fair enough. Up to a point.

DS1 then said to me he was going to be bad then he would get a certificate. So I mentioned this to the teacher, she was a bit narked by this, but I pointed out does good behavior get nothing?

A week later DS got a kindness certificate for helping a girl who'd cut her lip at playtime.

And about fucking time I wanted to yell!

Said annoying child has moved schools now HOORAAAY.

I also think star of the week is a blardy joke but that is another story.

cross post sorry