Attendance reward fail!

[QuickTraybake]

My son has ASD and recently got taken out of a rewards opportunity. The key was all students over 97% attendance got an ice cream cone. My son had 96.9% and guess what? He didn’t get one!!!
The other students were supposedly sympathetic like “damm that’s bad (you deserve one but don’t get it)!”
He was absent because of an operation!
Why are we rewarding those who don’t have health problems? Why do we punish those who physically can’t be in?

i agree with you

I always loathed them and I had kids who often qualified for the “100% all year” award. Still fucking stupid.

Either:-

(i) You are lucky enough to be a naturally healthy person who has not had anything unpleasant happen to them all year.
Or
(ii) You have parents who ignore all the rules of contagious illness and happily spread vomiting bugs to everyone.

Either way it isn’t something to celebrate.

Some parents I know send children to school ill it’s ridiculous!
Because it’s secondary everything is blamed for GCSEs - I’m sorry but how a few sickness bugs going to affect their results??

I loathe these things. DS is autistic and he would be devastated by something like this. Utterly unfair and unhelpful.

I agree with you. He couldn't not have his operation. The school are wrong.

Absolutely agree. My friends son had low attendance but he was in hospital! It penalises the kids who are actually ill and can’t attend school through no fault of their own.

My son is autistic too, his classmates felt sorry for him like they should be!
The teachers say “take some paracetamol and come to school” yeah for minor pain! Not projectile vomiting!

I’d write a letter to the head and governors. Not for him to have the reward, but to explain to them how awful these awards are.

Totally agree op. I have 3 kids. One complex one who's spent two years in and out of hospital but even before that, consultant appointments at the big hospital up to his eyeballs. He's trending average in year 6 so I'd say that's pretty bloody fantastic.
Then twins who are generally healthy. Odd apt is always local hospotal or dentist etc. Last year 100% attendance. Year before one missed half a day cos school send him home at lunch time. Ones had a day off last week cos he was poorly.

So I see both sides and from the side of the kids with near perfect attendance, I'm happy that their reward is having an easier time in life and lessons!

Our school did this one year. Not secondary school though it was primary. An ice cream van parked in the playground and everyone who had 98% or above got an icecream and sat out in the sun (it was summer) eating them while the other kids watched through the windows. My son did have the attendance but has a dairy allergy so he got nothing!!!
There was a lot of complaints to the school and the governors. They have never done it since.

They do a lot of raffles now so all the kids with 100% attendance get entered and a few win a prize but not all.

Also every term they come home with a present for attendance - book, Easter Egg, chocolates. And I always give eldest equivalent to what his healthy brothers get

Or just buy him an ice cream and tell him not to worry about attendance awards.

DS has viral wheeze - he’s still at primary. School got funny about his attendance even though he’s had blue lights in the past, so I was pressured into sending him in against my better judgment. That stopped after I had to rush him to A&E after school one night because they had missed signs of viral wheeze and he was so ill the GP sent us straight to hospital. Cue apologies from the school…

Would you have complained if he got the award?

Totally agree, they’re awful.

I had a friend whose 5 yr old was in hospital and the school rang to tell her that the absence would affect his learning. What do they expect from that conversation, the boy was on oxygen ffs. And I’m sure someone will be along to blame Ofsted, but no matter what ofsted’s policy says, they didn’t force the head call her at the hospital and talk about his disrupted learning. He could’ve called to ask how he was, and whether he’d need support easing back to school.

And here is a governor who got it stopped at our school. It does not work and it is not fair or equitable.

I’d be mad too
he was absent for an operation and not being on holiday, sickness especially with a doctors note should be authorised and holidays not authorised
I’d email the school definately

I actually did email DD’s old school to say I thought they were a bad thing even though she got the award. She’s in year 2 and has 100% attendance since reception and it’s nothing but pure luck. She’s had one vomiting bug in that time, but she threw up at school on a Friday afternoon after register was done, and was 48 hrs clear by the Monday morning.

I have a child where the council hasn't found them a suitable education in the two years they have been out of school. We are now allegedly approved for a personal budget, but that too is notable by its absence. Yet a mainstream child will apparently fail at the whole of life if they have a couple of sick days!

The ending is so true, the school really thinks his whole life will be ruined! Even attendances like 92% apparently they will fail GCSES.
I know a mentally disabled child with 21% (really) which I get, but anything over 90% should be accepted

Its nothing but pure luck isn’t it. Those same kids come to school ill, are sick everywhere, and parents wont send them back home!

My daughter’s school (she is a secondary teacher) offers these rewards, but the only pupils excluded are those whose unauthorised absence exceeds a particular limit.

That sounds a much more sensible system, though I imagine there may be a grey area around some pupils with special needs.

If you had an award for excellence at sport then would you expect everyone who took part to get an award or just those who were excellent?

Attendance awards work the same way. They’ve got to set the bar somewhere. Of course you could argue that schools shouldn’t encourage attendance in the same way but attendance is important and schools have a limited set of ways to encourage it. Attendance is about missed work but also about safeguarding. Often (not always) students who aren’t making it to school are doing so for reasons around their home life and they’re missing out of life chances because of this. If a student is not in school then they can’t learn. Encouraging them to be there is important although the execution may be wanting sometimes.

How do you think attendance could be encouraged or rewarded? I ask from the perspective of an attendance leader who is trying very hard to make a difference.

We do certificates because parents asked for them - not sure how much the children care! We put in place individual strategies for children who struggling with health issues (mental and physical). We are struggling to engage parents who keep children off because it’s their birthday, or because they had a busy weekend, or because mum was working all weekend and wants to spend time with them now. How would you suggest we support these children and their families?

Schools can decide what level of expectation they reward depending on the school context.

They can also do awards like most improved, consider those with medical needs, and decide what they count and what they disregard.

Have a conversation with the attendance champion to see if they have considered all options and if they can review their policy to make it fairer.

Often policies are changed when somone raises a valid point.