Why are Schools so obsessed with Childrens attendance?

[Darren2134]

Last Month, a parent told me something that really unsettled me: their child had received a letter branding him a “persistent absentee”. The kicker? If his attendance improved by 5%, he’d be invited to a party.
Let that sink in. A 5-year-old—just starting school life—is being incentivised to “try harder” to attend. But this isn’t really about motivating the child, is it? It’s a covert attempt to pressure the parent—using the child’s disappointment as leverage. The message is: Get them in, or they’ll be left out.
But who are these so-called “persistent absentees”? Often, they’re the kids who’ve been sick repeatedly—maybe with covid or other bugs. They’re the ones with unstable home lives, whose families might be struggling with poverty or mental health. Maybe the child is deeply anxious, overwhelmed by the transition to school, or dealing with SEN.
What good is a party to a child who is unwell, exhausted, or afraid? A glittery invitation doesn’t cure illness. It doesn’t magic up a bus fare. It doesn’t suddenly make school a place where a child feels safe.
This isn’t motivation—it’s manipulation. It weaponises disappointment. And it risks making vulnerable children feel ashamed, excluded, and “less than” for things utterly beyond their control.
The way we talk about attendance needs to change. Education should be accessible—but for some children, 100% attendance is simply not realistic. We should be asking why a child is struggling to attend, not punishing them for it.
We need to move away from blame and shame. Instead of pushing attendance as the end goal, how about asking how we can support children who are struggling? What would it look like if schools were funded and resourced to genuinely include all children, even those who can't always make it through the gates?
Curious what others think. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing?

Free education to give your child a chance. And people don’t send them? Madness. Astounding that schools have to incentivise like this, but anyway is a good way to deal with inept/hopeless parents.

Exactly !!! @OnlyMabelInTheBuilding !!
the kickback for incentivising kids being in school says so much !!!!

of course a school isn’t going to penalise a kid for being off school with the chick pox - there will be a bigger picture if poor attendance there !!

It can easy to tot up a bad attendance record in younger years just through bad luck. Mine missed two weeks of preschool through chicken pox... the spots went, the diarrhoea didn't, so she couldn't attend. A year later at school, that would have been trouble!

My younger DD in one year had

• stomach virus (6 school days)
• scarlet fever (2 school days)

-impetigo (4 school days)

• a cold (1 school day)

13 school days missed through illness and exclusion periods. Not to mention the 10 school days she had no school place. Fortunately then Covid hit and attendance targets went out the window

But hey... it was completely fine her sister missed 6 weeks through an admissions error!

Its the one missing school through regular holidays or just nit being bothered that matter.

Chicken pox needs about 5 days off school. Over a school year, a child who has 5 days off will still be on 97% overall, which is not a cause for concern. So if parents are being penalised, it’s because of other factors which are also affecting attendance.

In terms of evidence, schools will often accept a photo of a spotty child. If they’re asking for medical evidence then again, it suggests a family with poor attendance where it might be suspected that there’s more going on than just chicken pox.

Yes, you don't see the same concern when a child and their family wants them to be in school but they have no suitable placement.

I received a letter like that from school, I was warned that I will need to sign a parental contract! My ds is reception age, his attendance finished on 87%. Ds is ND, he has selective mutism. There has been many times when he has come out of school feeling very unwell, he is unable to communicate this at school. Therefore this causes ds to become very anxious about going to school if he feels unwell because he knows he won't be able to come home. I completely agree the best place for kids to be is school, my daughter had 100% attendance, but there isn't a chance that I will be sending ds if he is unwell, and I will not be signing a parental contract!

Oh and the kids at our school with 100% attendance are given an ice cream at the end of each term! I think it's a disgusting policy!

This is what makes me mad. I read about a school in the Isle of White that awarded all 100 percent attenders with a bouncy castle at the end of term while the others watched on getting upset.

So a child who lives in poverty and has social care involvement are punished by not being allowed to go to a party. A five year old in that sort of home isn't responsible for their attendance record.

Poor kids. Talk about kicking someone when they're down.

Breaks my heart.

I am a school governor. Persistent absence is a genuine, worsening issue and it affects kids’ life chances. Our school doesn’t do parties or certificates for 100 percent attendance - I’m pleased about this as it unfairly penalises those who are absent for genuine reasons. However that doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious problem.

How does saying you can't go to a party improve safeguarding,?

I don't think attendance records should be linked to in school prizes and activities. The 5 year old can't get themselves to school, it's not their fault if they don't attend so they shouldn't be punished for it. I get what a PP said about school creating an incentive for parents to use to encourage their child but you shouldn't be bargaining over school.

I think the problem is the lack of trust in professionals. The government wants to look like they are doing something so puts in arbitrary national standards that professionals have to adhere to regardless of their professional judgement. Also teaching is now so much admin and hoop jumping that teachers don't have time to get to know kids and their circumstances as well as they need.

We need to train teachers brilliantly with career long, free professional development. Pay them well to attract the best and brightest. Hire admin staff to do the admin and let teachers teach and then trust them to do the job. They will know if little Johnny has simply caught every bug going this term but is keeping up and doing well, or if he and his family does need more support and intervention.

Then the big problem is there needs to be actual support in place. Little johnny is absent because his homelife is a mess and guardian is really struggling. We need to be able to actually get them help and support from SS and benefits, not just judgement. Or little johnny has anxiety and is really struggling, lets get him to a great physiologist.

Me and one of my siblings - 100% attendance, straight As. Another sibling chronically low attendance, school refusal etc. wasn't because my parents suddenly became shit, it was because she had very real mental health issues that my parents had to fight tooth and nail to get any help for. A party she missed out on would have done nothing except made her feel shit.

I know easy to say, hard to do but that's what we need to do if we want to make a difference.

I find it interesting how differently schools approach attendance. DD’s attendance was 91.7% for last year, pretty awful. She had a week in hospital in the first term and a phased return of half days for a week after, a couple of days in hospital the second term and a couple of days of half days after and a tummy bug which led to 3 days off at one point, my maths is poor but I think that was it.

I was stressing my head off about inevitable grief from the school with the long first absence and expecting a letter from the LEA or pressure to get her back and it not only didn’t happen but I had solely kind support, complete understanding and a very whatever-you-think-as-her-mum attitude. Her teacher put work aside for me to collect with no pressure to do it, the Head checked in with me throughout, they were amazing.

The school has really good attendance rates so it might just be that they don’t go nuts about specific examples like mine but the awful things you hear about - like reward parties and trips, threatening letters etc - I can’t imagine how much that adds to an already difficult situation where a child is ill or school refusing.

Parents need to ‘teach’, you mean. The person sharing the knowledge teaches, the person receiving the knowledge learns!

I suspect we differ from those "other countries" on a number of metrics (which specific other countries are you thinking of and do you have data?)

1. Very high levels of poverty in some parts of the UK (not so associated with attendance in immigrant populations but is in native population); children lack bus money (transport subsidies massively cut back outside London); lack of uniform (my relatively rich London Borough is overwhelmed with those who can't afford it and it's embarrassing for kids); unusual to have uniform internationally
2. Very widespread broadband Internet (relatively cheap for even low income to stay up gaming into the night)
3. Many more parents WFH
4. Downgraded SEN system so increasing numbers of children can't attend as needs not met
5. English curriculum made much more challenging (thank you Gove) so it is now largely unsuitable for bottom 20%, maybe bottom 50% (English and Maths in particular v v hard)
6. Breakdown in trust between parents and schools since 2020
7. It's a national priority and some countries (America for example) run their school systems regionally/by state/by area so no national targets in the same way.
8. Child is miserable.

I am a secondary school teacher.

They had time off school a few weeks prior they dont go by overall attendance they go week by week

To expand on point 8., attendance is generally a sign of other issues rather than being THE issue.

Also I forgot 9. Huge cutbacks in the services that used ro support schools so we have nowhere to refer even serious, distressing cases for health or social support because they won't take our referrals or don't do anything.

10. The government has no real solution for most of the issues driving lack of attendance so it's a case of measuring what they can!

Good schools , who have good (reciprocated) relationships and communication with parents tend to deal with things this way. Even when it’s not necessarily illness (of the child). As long as there’s good communication and the circumstances are out of the parent’s control /they just need some support, they’ll work together rather than use threats or rewards.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.
If you think schools should be able to teach and help students then look at the system that judges schools on attendance, grades and inspections.

Until we have a system that looks at schools, leadership and learning holistically then school leaders and teachers will be able to work with families holistically, until then, attendance targets will remain a malign symptom of a rotten culture.

Picking over attendance awards Vs kids needing to be in school won't work as there will always be a generalisation that is true and an anomaly that is also true.

The culture of targets in this country is a big problem that is used by governments and media to suggest improvements and mask the sheer level of shit we are basically enduring- education falls within this and if you're lucky your kids will go to a school that works well in spite of this bollocks.

It’s nothing to do with Ofsted. The Department for Education set attendance guidance. This is what schools need to follow. The Department for Education requests that Ofsted inspect schools, as part of this attendance is inspected. Schools need to show they are doing ‘all that they reasonably can’ to improve attendance. Stop mistaking DofE guidance for Ofsted guidance, the DofE sets persistent absence figures (currently anything below 90%, Ofsted do not set this). Ofsted do not expect any rewards for ‘good’ attendance nor do they inspect this. Ofsted cannot ignore situations where many pupils are absent and the school’s measures are having no impact. As a parent I want to know that an external body is satisfied, or not, that a school is doing ‘all it reasonably can’ to improve attendance. I’m an ex-HT and have no issue with HT’s getting kids into school.

Well, this.
Why the assumption that a child is absent because they’re exhausted, overwhelmed or afraid, op?
Bit hysterical. Some will be unwell, some definitely won’t be.

I think it is much harder for children under 7 to achieve such good attendance rates as their immune systems are less developed and they do get ill more often. I have wondered if KS1 and KS2 could have slightly different targets to reflect that.

I completely agree. My kids rarely got ill from 6/7 onwards but were constantly ill before then.

Well, ChatGPT OP, it's because a child that isn't in school when they should be isn't learning with their class, isn't playing with their peers and doesn't have the advantage of other eyes on them in case of abuse or neglect, mostly.

I can understand when there are health issues involved but I can’t understand how it is always the same parents late to take their kids or not even bother to take them in some day, or the mom who was on her way home and picked her daughter early so she doesnt have to came back later