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Covid

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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:

Tomthumbsbigbum · 18/12/2021 07:14

Even without covid these awards are just so bloody wrong. Why should a child that's been unfortunate to have been poorly be penalised. I'll just send my puking child in shall I? No? Oh but what about your 100% attendance award......Grrrrr. crazy.

SleepWhenAmDead · 18/12/2021 07:42

Even before COVID they were rubbish. It’s to make the school attendance look good, not benefit kids. My dd had a fortnightly NHS app, I always asked for 8.30am slot so she missed assembly but usually back for lessons. I complained that these appts should be counted when they calculated the attendance award but that wasn’t acceptable. I asked the HT if she would prefer I book a later appt so dd got her attendance mark and was then removed from lessons to attend appt. HT said this would be better. I thought she was being facetious but no.

Figmentofmyimagination · 18/12/2021 08:13

Schools are bound by the equality act not to treat someone with an impairment that impacts on their daily lives unfavourably. In a work setting, bonuses for 100% attendance have been ruled by the employment tribunal to be an unlawful breach of the equality act.

Also, as publicly funded institutions, most schools owe a separate positive legal obligation to have due regard to the need to promote equality in relation to all protected characteristics, including disability. Being susceptible to frequent infections can certainly be a disability. These awards are very dodgy.

3Boysandakitty · 18/12/2021 08:29

Our school also awarded 100% certificates to those with 100% attendance or off for covid reasons. What a joke!

BurnedToast · 18/12/2021 08:39

I hate these awards. My son has SEN which meant he couldn't hold a pencil properly and couldn't read well as he had dyslexia. Lo and behold he would never get the star writing award, he was the last in the class to get his 'pen license' and never won a reading certificate. In fact he never got any awards in the whole time he was at primary school. It's discrimination.

Babyvenusplant · 18/12/2021 08:57

@SleepWhenAmDead

This just fully proves what a complete scam the whole thing is. Nothing to do with children missing lessons or not learning, it's all about the schools overall attendance levels

Abraxan · 18/12/2021 08:58

Please send a message to school to let them know that you disagree with attendance awards. Not a challenging or confrontational letter, but a matter of fact polite one.

They will only stop if enough parents complain/state their disagreement with them.

We stopped doing them years ago. For a long time only staff were the ones saying they were wrong and divisive. It was only when parents were commenting about them the then headteacher listened.

Abraxan · 18/12/2021 09:03

@LillyBugg

Maybe send in a pack of biscuits with a label 'please only help yourself if you've had 100% attendance this year'.

But do take into account that individual teachers don't make the policies regarding this and many teachers won't agree with the policy and awards. Your disagreement is with management.

So instead of silly passive aggressive actions, take decisive action - write or email the school management and governors and tell them what the problem is, in a calm and polite manner. And get other parents to do the same. Parent voice, if enough of them, can work far far better than playing silly games with teachers who have no control over such matters,

Abraxan · 18/12/2021 09:08

The writing as parents works even better if you get parents who's child did get a 100% attendance award involved too. You may be surprised at how many of those parents still don't agree with them, even though their child has the reward/certificate. If they can write in as wel, adding their support, even better.

Teenylittlefella · 18/12/2021 09:19

I wrote to head of year to complain about this. My child has just been diagnosed with Crohn's disease and had two hospital stays this term. Crohn's is debilitating, incurable, chronic and requires monitoring by a specialist team. My child has transitioned to high school while incredibly unwell, been diagnosed with Crohn's, had eight weeks on a nasogastric tube being liquid only fed, but still attended every day that they weren't in hospital and coped ok. Watching kids lucky enough to be healthy being given chocolate reindeers in front of everyone in assembly tipped her over the edge and she had a good cry about it last night. She will never get 100 percent attendance because she is on immunosuppressant medication that increases risk of lymphoma and white blood cell dysfunction so even when "well", she has to have regular blood monitoring visits. It's disability discrimination.