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Original poster

100% Attendance award :-(

86 replies

HamSam · 17/12/2021 16:54

Anyone's school still do 100% attendance award... with the added twist of adjusting it so that the children that had been absent due to covid reasons still got their certificate?

Any child off with 'regular' infectious illnesses were not given this award despite the fact that those with chicken pox or sickness bug cannot attend school.

Ds came home with his 100% attendance and he was only off for 10 days while myself and my husband had covid 🤦‍♀️ Could never stand the award before, but this seems like madness!

OP posts:
Cattitudes · 17/12/2021 20:21

The class with the highest weekly attendance getting a trophy and a mention on Twitter is fine.

I am guessing you don't have a child whose peers moan at them because they had time off due to a disability then. It is very often disability discrimination and in a workplace they would be protected but not in schools. Lockdown was great because even on an off day they could still lay in bed and attend lessons. 100% attendance!

EcoCustard · 17/12/2021 20:50

DC’s school did it last term, but not this term. I think it was dropped as not one of their classes (3 different ones) had a pupil in for the duration since half term. Dc3’s class was down to 6 pupils one week. Always disliked the award as kids can’t help being sick, I really hoped it had been scrapped for good but no.

BananaPant · 17/12/2021 20:52

Ours don't anymore thank fuck.

MrsWombat · 17/12/2021 21:32

I am guessing you don't have a child whose peers moan at them because they had time off due to a disability then. I have children who would never even think to moan about peers who have time off due to disabilities. That sort of behaviour in my own school would be dealt with firmly too. My child's best friend's attendance is currently at 60% and he knows it's just one of those things. Sorry the behaviour at your child's school is so bad. Flowers

Mrsfussypants1 · 17/12/2021 21:40

Granddaughters school are getting the parents of children with 100% attendance to write little helpful notes (their words) on how to achieve perfect attendance to go In the news letter. Needless to say it hasn't gone down well.

Ilikecheeseontoast · 17/12/2021 21:48

My school do this termly. All the kids with 100% attendance get a really fantastic treat like a bouncy castle in the school field or a movie with ice creams etc. It’s absolutely awful. If a child is ill why does this deserve a punishment??

Maryann1975 · 17/12/2021 22:07

I said they were a prize for good luck and we didn't agree with that

I’m not even sure they are Always for good luck tbh. In some cases, I think they are for shit parenting. I know some children (less common now as school send home smallest illness) where children have been sent in clearly unwell, dosed up completely and school accept them. Other times where parent has Admitted they have been cleaning sick during the night and then sends child to school in the morning.

I hate these awards and always have done. Those children who have regular appointments for illness or disabilities don’t stand a chance of getting one and I can’t believe any head teacher thinks they are the right way of doing things.

Proudtocare98542 · 17/12/2021 22:55

Yes a proper assembly just for attendance this week and a lecture about how important it is and how 90 percent attendance means a whole year missed over their school life. If my children have had any covid symptoms - cough temp etc....I've kept them off until negative pcr but I know lots of kids have been going in. This is not the time to have an attendance assembly. A child can hardly help it if they're ill or get covid

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 17/12/2021 23:08

Pre covid in the space of one year DD had

  • 4 days authorised holiday (Forces children can get time off around their parents operational duties)
  • 3 days off for Scarlet Fever
  • 2 days off for a bad cold
  • 7 days off for a stomach bug
  • 3 days off for impetigo.

Apart from the impetigo, that was all in one term as well. (The school also had a weather closure that term!)

We followed proper exclusion times for all illnesses. The impetigo, stomach bug and cold were caught at school (the SF we can't be sure on)

Her attendance stats were rubbish. But it wasn't her fault.

Ironically, she had 100% attendance last academic year (excluding days the school wasnt open to all pupils).

rightsideoftheroad · 17/12/2021 23:11

It's a joke. Kid has time off for genuine doctors appointment = poor attendance. Kid gets time off for coming into contact with someone with cold symptoms = good attendance

bonfireheart · 17/12/2021 23:15

DD has a recurring illness so isn't ever eligible for these awards. In her primary school, behaviour and good work gets you a certificate and 100% got you Amazon vouchers (regardless of behaviour or work)... now at secondary school they get all sorts of prizes like ipads and other ridiculous prizes. DD works hard and behaves herself but doesn't get even a letter. Lucky she thinks it's all nonsense but it annoys me!! I don't want an ipad but it's the principle of it all.

Cantthinkofausername2022 · 17/12/2021 23:17

Our school does this at the end of every school year
Last year I noticed a lot of kids holding their certs on the way out of school on their last day, there’s no way those children or their families did not experience sniffles or should have had to isolate in a whole year?
I followed the guidelines, when my kids had a cough (they have asthma) then they were kept home; our thanks for doing the right thing? We got a letter from their school at the end of the year to say ‘Child missed X amount of days as a result social services need to be notified; however as you have given valid reasons for child’s absence this will not be pursued’?!
We’re not even finished 1st term here and I’ve already received another letter to the same affect as above; however ‘Sandra’ can send her lovely ‘Bob’ into school with his sniffles so he can get his cert of full attendance at the end of the year Hmm
Would schools ever do away with these stupid certs

TBH it’s the same in the workplace staff are ‘dedicated’ when they come to work sick (pre-Covid) and infect everyone else some staff are vulnerable (myself included) staff come in with flu symptoms, spread it and then because of my medical conditions I’m out for weeks but then I am viewed as ‘unreliable’ ‘slacking’

loopyapp · 17/12/2021 23:55

Perhaps try consider it as not so much penalising the poorly ones but acknowledging those that achieved the desired level of attendance.

There are strong, undeniable correlations between significant absence and poor academic achievement and a LOT of LA and Ofsted pressure is placed unfairly on the schools.

I agree, as a parent of a child with epilepsy and Arnold chiari it can feel really unfair but this situation is most definitely a two sided coin and folk might save themselves some energy and time spent on being angry at something they can't change if they step back and consider both those sides.

rrhuth · 17/12/2021 23:59

folk might save themselves some energy and time spent on being angry at something they can't change one school one of mine went to did change it as a result of me being angry!

Cousinit · 18/12/2021 00:01

Always been a pointless and rather unfair award IMO and since last year it has been quietly dropped from our school prizegivings.

loopyapp · 18/12/2021 00:02

@rrhuth

folk might save themselves some energy and time spent on being angry at something they can't change one school one of mine went to did change it as a result of me being angry!
In that instance it wasn't wasted energy at all, but a number of posters have said their schools aren't interested in hearing their complaints.. I was aiming that part of my post toward them.
Cryingbutstilltrying · 18/12/2021 00:05

One year the ‘prize’ was a special lunch with the Head.
The photos of that meal were outstandingly funny, those kids faces 🤣🤣🤣 there were about 7 across the whole primary school.
They haven’t bothered since.
If they ever do start it up again, I have my ammunition ready. Thanks mumsnet xxx

LunaNova · 18/12/2021 02:17

Those saying parents shouldn't be angry are part of the problem.

I'm in my thirties but I firmly remember the day when I was 10 and I was the only kid in the class who couldn't go on the Millennium Dome trip because I didn't have 100% attendance. The real kicker was that I'd been off school for the first time ever because I had rubella. I remember it like it was yesterday because they made this huge show of who could go (giving out golden tickets) and I was the only one excluded.

I was a highly anxious and academic kid so it just resulted in me being hysterical any time afterwards that I had to be off school for any illness. I had to see a dietician for an eating disorder in middle school and I was terrified that the appointments would take away from my attendance record - not really what I should have been focusing on is it?!

The only saving grace was that our day at school was a "fun day" while the others had their trip, but only because it was such a big trip that there weren't any of the main teachers left to teach us anything.

It's ableist and it's targets the wrong students. I'd rather them acknowledge the students that have tried the hardest in spite of their absence record.

rrhuth · 18/12/2021 03:22

@LunaNova that's a moving explanation of why these things do matter so much, thanks for sharing.

exLtEveDallas · 18/12/2021 06:33

DD has always been pretty healthy, so getting 100% wasn’t unusual. However, at her secondary they have an awards day that includes 100%ers and those children get first ‘dibs’ on tickets for the final fun week in the summer (Alton towers type day trips all week). Parent have to give permission for them.

In Y9 I didn’t give permission. School phoned to ask why. DD has asked me not to. Why? Because the previous year she didn’t get 100% for going to her Nan’s funeral. I told the attendance officer she needed to ask DD. Apparently the scathing reply, in front of her head of year was something to behold (especially as DD is the “quiet mousy” kind). I don’t know if it did any good, but DD refused to do the awards for the remainder of her time at the school, as did a number of her friends.

Starlightstarbright1 · 18/12/2021 06:56

My ds's attendence was dire last year because i sent him to keyworker school part time... the days he wasn't there were marked as absent they said there wasn't another way to mark it.. it is a certificate so i have always dismissed them. My son places no value on them.

My ds's primary did stop them when sone one challegnged them on it because of disability

I would also add

VictoriaDessert · 18/12/2021 07:04

Perhaps try consider it as not so much penalising the poorly ones but acknowledging those that achieved the desired level of attendance.

But in this case, children off with covid or for covid reasons were still able to achieve 100% Confused The other kids just got ill with the wrong illness Hmm

Toastmost · 18/12/2021 07:08

@VictoriaDessert

Perhaps try consider it as not so much penalising the poorly ones but acknowledging those that achieved the desired level of attendance.

But in this case, children off with covid or for covid reasons were still able to achieve 100% Confused The other kids just got ill with the wrong illness Hmm

Yeah exactly. Someone in my class at primary had cancer so was understandably off a lot, they used to ger really upset by people being rewarded for being in when she'd have loved nothing more than having endless hospital trips, having to stay home more than others. Thankfully she made a full recovery but still mentions how it made her feel years later when we are on about DCs schools.
Toastmost · 18/12/2021 07:08

Not having to*

stayathomer · 18/12/2021 07:10

Surely someone with 100% attendance has already been rewarded by having so many inspiring lessons and having learnt so much?
They're kids and they have a chance to win something. No I don't agree with them, but from the kid's point of view they're being awarded something. I won 2 attendance awards in school and I treasured the certificates I got. Op don't make a huge deal of it or do a form of protest in front of your child, it will take away from the achievement. (And yes that all this is going on is awful but they still won something)