AIBU to think 100% attendance awards are fundamentally unfair?

[Nijiko]

My child has severe asthma and is on immunosuppressants, so occasional school absences are just part of life for us unfortunately. Hospital appointments can only be taken in school hours, and when they catch a bug they don’t easily “bounce back” in a couple of days like many other kids do. Even a simple cold can wipe them out.

So yes, I have to keep them home a bit longer if something nasty is going round. Because they need to recover properly and risk ending up back in hospital.

But what’s upset me is the attendance awards at school.

My child has never had one and realistically never will. Not because they don’t try hard at school or because we don’t value education. But because their body is disadvantaged.

The awards were handed out last week and my child just sat there knowing, yet again, they’d never be one of the children called up. To be honest, they knew that they wouldn't before the school year even started.

And honestly? It is a slap in the face constantly for them due to something they can't control. I find that heartbreaking.

I know schools are under pressure about attendance, but I can’t help feeling these awards mostly reward children for being healthy/lucky enough not to get ill.

And I also think they encourage people to send poorly kids in. We all know families who dose them up with Calpol and hope for the best.

Our school makes us evidence every medical appointment. When I was young, if you were sick your parents were trusted advicate. Sometimes it feels like parents are treated as guilty until proven innocent if they keep an ill child off school - to protect them and other kids from getting sick.

Maybe I’m overthinking it. But I don’t really understand why children should be publicly rewarded for something other children, through absolutely no fault of their own, can literally never achieve. It feels like health discrimination. I would much rather see children rewarded for exceptional efforts in their learning.

AIBU?

I totally understand your point and I certainly don't think very poorly children should go to school BUT schools are judged on outcomes and the biggest single factor in outcomes is attendance. There is a strong correlation between GCSE results and a young person's attendance to school. I'm not saying I agree with this but that is the why there is such a push on attendance.

I agree that's going to far. Most children don't really care about awards certificate they did not get for more than 5 minutes.

Who is paying for that? Or are they donated?

I remember doing birthday song at school. We always did them on Monday for those that had them over the weekend and first day back for those during holiday.

sorry should not be quoting but can’t edit it out.

I prosecuted parents for failing to ensure school attendance, these were primary school children and by the council before academy so many years ago. It was never parents of disabled children, or those where the child may be a carer themselves, or those bereaved .

Occasionally bullying did come up and be addressed and we as the legal team would never prosecute without evidence it had or the magistrates would not convict.

it was those don’t value education and just don’t send their child to school. That might tip of an iceberg neglect. It may be they had bad experiences at school and if their child says they don’t want to go it isn’t a priority - we were prosecuting at 60% attendance and there were many meetings before for parents to raise that the child had illness or bullying. One said to the magistrates that they couldn’t make their 7 year old (no SEN or illness) get up. At that time there were parenting courses and I did hear from attendance officers that they could work. Certificates would make no difference if they weren’t really bothered whether their child was learning to read and do maths

Sadly I think a lot of the children in all those groups valued education and liked school and would have cared about the certificate but had no control.

I can see why school's do them as school attendance is an issue. Maybe they could look at breaking it down into shorter time spans so that children most children get a good chance of getting at least a couple of certificates a year. Getting an award at the end of the year wouldn't motivate most children anyway as it's such a long way away surely.

So it’s an achievement to be healthy, to have no disability or health concern that takes you out of school? My DD needed to attend CAMHS for therapy, she had a weekly appointment for 4 years, always in school hours because that’s when they operate. Now you could argue getting a long term service from CAMHS is an achievement in itself, but she had no control over the fact that as a result her attendance was never over 90%.

Attendance awards are pure propaganda to prepare workers for a capitalist society. They're important on some level because they put the idea into many children's heads that showing up to school (aka work) as often as they can is something honourable and aspirational. Without this attitude, a lot of companies will suffer because they don't get the workforce they need. If the notion that showing up is optional or less highly regarded, then the economy may collapse.

They do not exist to boost the self esteem of all kids, or as some sort of reward that is attainable for everyone. They obviously know that there's always going to be small percentage of children who cannot reach 100% attendance, just like there will always be a percentage of adults who cannot hold down a full time job. But on a larger societal level, it's crucial that those who CAN get close to 100% attendance at work will take it seriously, otherwise capitalism stops working.

Attendance and Behaviour are now together in Ofsted gradings, so you get a grade for attendance and behaviour. If a school’s attendance percentage and persistent absence percentage is below national average (and by nature of averages, lots of schools will be.) Then this could pull the grading down for that category and schools are fearful of having a low grade as parents may look at it and think it is due to behaviour. Parents don’t often read the detail and nuance behind headline grades. That is inherently unfair and a fault of the system which is outside a school’s control. With the focus on attendance, you will see schools trying to do everything they can to keep their attendance rates close to national.

If you ever volunteer as a governor or work currently in a school, you will know the efforts schools are going to behind the scenes to improve attendance - they have picked up the role previously done years ago by the local authority and social services with no funding. Whilst some schools get this very wrong e.g. reward trips for 100% attendance, but the majority are desperately doing their best in limited circumstances and I can’t get worked up over a certificate at the end of term. I have a limited amount of energy to get worked up over things and in this case I save it for Ofsted and the government who saw fit to impose this on schools.

It's almost exactly the same for my son. He was diagnosed with cancer in Year 3 and also had to go through chemo, several surgeries and is now disabled as a result.

Primary school has been great. He's in Year 5. I honestly dread him leaving primary for many reasons.

Obe of DDs friends (yr10) has a chronic illness which neans her attendance is below 50%.

Shes always on time with homework, maintaining grades, logging into the online classroom etc.

Far bigger achievement than DDs 100%attendance.

Yes this was the same as DS’s school, they had the same awards week at the end of the year, first dibs went to those with 100% attendance. Top prize being a theme park/trips to London etc, bottom was a film in the hall.
It was so disheartening to DS that he was never going to be able to go on the big trips, he felt he just was not good enough. Wasn’t enough that he missed a huge chunk of his childhood in hospital, lost his hair and missed out on a lot.

Schools just don’t have a clue.

As long as there are other awards I dont see a problem.

Its along the same lines of everyone "winning" a prize at sports day.
Not everything in life is or can be attainable for every person or child.

Kindness, respect, trying your best and raising a good human being is what everyone has the opportunity to be. - so long as these types of achievements are awarded alongside everything else dont see the issue.

Yes this was my dread and sadly I was right. I think it didn’t help that secondary didn’t see him go through the treatment, and his disability was thankfully mild and pretty invisible. He is such a quiet and gentle lad that he just blended into the background.
I faught it every year. He also isn’t academic (LD due to the tumour/chemo) or sporty so it’s not a case that he got other awards instead. He just sadly went to a school with a headteacher with blinkers on. I couldn’t wait for him to walk out of that door last summer and never look back!

Please don't take this as not supporting the need for good school attendance.

The point is that 100% attendance awards don't appear to increase attendance or address the underlying causes of individual absences. It is a blunt tool that could even have the opposite effect, whilst also being discriminatory against those with health issues.

Someone claimed that Ofsted encourage schools to implement them - which may or may not be the case - but we do know that the Children's Commissioner has pushed it.

@AmberTigerEyes If a trip is part of the curriculum, all dc must have a chance of going.

I think the big issue here is that dc cannot improve. For academic or sporting prizes, dc are all in the race so to speak. For attendance they plainly are not. Most people accept a fair competition but attendance isn’t. The schools know some dc cannot get 100%. Therefore it’s not inclusive. Schools really must find better ways of improving attendance.

This isn't the same as a sports day - which recognises an exceptional individual in each sport.

The premise behind attendance awards is not some exceptional skill, it is supposed to be accessible to ALL children - and yet it is completely inaccessible to some children who are disadvantaged by their health.

Sorry to hear about your son. It is blatant discrimination.

I can understand them linking it to effort (although tbh it isn't obvious how you gauge that fairly either) because that is within the child’s control. Attendance simply isn't when a child has health conditions.

Yes, air filters are a practical way to improve attendance (and I have supported / campaigned for them for years) we should all get behind them as they improve attendance and protect health. Schools should all have them - not just those in London with high pollution (actually most schools are in high pollution areas).

However, it doesn't address the underlying inequality in 100% attendance prizes that I am trying to highlight here. Children with underlying health issues will always have greater absences due to health and medical appointments, and they cannot control them.

That's my concern too. I suspect it will be a similar experience, unfortunately.

My son's disability is physical, he can no longer walk and is also bowel incontinent. He had a tumour in his bowel which caused endless complications, what should've been 3 months of chemotherapy turned into chemotherapy + several surgeries + 10 months in hospital including 7 weeks in intensive care due to sepsis which is how we found out he had cancer and is the reason he can't walk now.

As a result, he isn't particularly academic either as he ended up missing most of Year 3 and didn't go back to school at all until after Easter in Year 4. He of course can't be sporty now either but used to be.

Cancer bloody sucks.

It’s such a strange award.

It is a strange award, as are most primary school awards. Parents are so willing to complain about everything and anything that you just know your child will be awarded with something for one spurious reason or another by the end of the year, just to make up for all the “hurt” caused by the awards they couldn’t win. Frankly, it feels like damning every child with faint praise. Everybody is either awarded for something that comes more easily to them than others, or for having the resilience to keep trying, despite the fact their achievements are inferior to other people’s. Of course, people only tend to complain about the awards they don’t think their child can win. One begins to wonder why schools bother with awards at all, tbh, because someone always has a reason why an award demoralises rather than motivates their own offspring, whether it’s to do with attendance, sport, academic achievement, or even being “kind.”

I genuinely don’t understand how these awards can be seen as anything but discriminatory.

I have 2 boys 11 months apart 1 got 100% attendance the other didn't as he gets poorly easily and doesn't bounce back easily either he wasn't bothered he missed out . Its the same as at work some will get bonuses others won't and some get a bigger bonus than others is that also unfair ? I dont understand parents who get worked up about this none of my kids have ever gave a crap tbh .

Have none of your children ever got an award or certificate that other kids didn't get ? Same bloody thing isn't it . It reeks of my little prince / princess is so special they should never miss out life isn't fair some will excel where others dont and an attendance award may be the only award some children ever get throughout school .