School trip based on attendance

[OneCoolMintMember]

Is it right that a school can stop children going on a school trip because of low attendance? Each time medical evidence has been provided. Had 5 days off since September but now not allowed on trip.

Not at my school but it is primary. Secondary I guess could be different. I’d have a conversation with the school.

Educational trip - no.
Reward trip - yes.

Absolutely disgusting and discriminatory behaviour from the school - excluding students with unexplained or unauthorised absences is fair enough but punishing kids for being genuinely ill is horrible and plain wrong. Are children with chronic conditions not worthy of a school trip?!

I would be pushing back on this.

This is discrimination, it's going to be disabled and SEN children who are off school more than other children for medical appointments.

But even if it's 'healthy' children missing school for medical appointments they really saying if your child had been knocked down by a car and in intensive care, or chemo etc etc they won't be allowed on the 'reward' trip.
So parents have to use private medical care because they can't use NHS appointments because they are in school time?
What about children who are carers?
Or have parents who don't care about school attendance?

I don't believe in punishing children for things that are out of their control and never will.

Go back to the school and keep going back would be my approach.

Schools have their own rules so yes

Well, they aren't "stopping them going on a school trip", they are "only rewarding the few that meet the criteria for that reward".

And having criteria that discriminates against children with health issues simply isn’t acceptable in 2024

Discrimination is illegal whether you paint it as a rule or not.

Have they given a reason OP.?
Is it about time to play catch up with missed work.?
Will the kids not going on the trip still be required to be in school for lessons ?

If it's medical then that is really shitty of them

Lots of schools do this. I hate it.

ofsted will penalise the school if they don't see something like this

Absolutely disgusting behaviour from the school, my school would never do this. In primary, if children are off school they are almost certainly one of two things: genuinely unwell or being neglected by parents who don’t value their child’s education. I cannot see the justification for punishing a child for either of these two things.

Reward trips work like this at our school. Need 97% attendance and a certain amount of positive points

If it's a reward trip then fair enough

Our secondary do reward trips for 100% attendance

Yeah they can, DDs trip requires over a certain percentage to attend. Its purely a fun trip though, not sure they can do that for educational ones.

Horrible. Completely disagree with the school doing this. A child should not be penalised for health issues.

Yes they can, yes it's legal.
No it's not morally right.
Take your kid out for the day and do something even more fun

They can do it, yes.

This is subjective. The school I work at have a fun trip specifically for students with over 95% attendance. Reward systems work and it is good to celebrate people who managed this attendance. We also have other trips and rewards with different criteria as we should.

I couldn't get het up over this and I have children who have and have not been allowed on trips for various reasons.

It's against "unauthorised " attendance though, not "authorised "- so medical appointments/ health issues shouldn't make a difference?

So being ill is now being penalised? Perhaps parents should send their DC’s to school with infectious illnesses to ensure they keep up their attendance record.

I imagine it will be clarified when you talk to the school OP.

These things are automatically put in place as a result of the overwhelming poor attendance in many schools.

Then clarified on an individual basis.

It's odd that only 5 days has triggered it tbh.

I have worked in schools where children went on a reward trip for 100% attendance and punctuality for the year. Not many got on it. There were usually around 15 in a school of about 1200 pupils. Children also got science and engineering trips or creative writing trips if they were considered gifted and talented. Children got sports trips If they were good at a particular sport. One school did a trip for children with behavioural problems. Those ones were for particular groups. Apart from those ones schools ran art trips, drama trips, science trips, D of E, language trips, outdoor adventure trips and year group bonding trips. Most children got the opportunity to do those.

So long as there are a range of opportunities, most children can cope with not being included in everything.

IMHO it's a stupid criteria.

Some kids will attend school every day but it is their social life, they spend the day disrupting classes and then are rewarded by a trip.

The kid who is in and out of hospital and manages to keep up with the work doesn't get to go.