Attendance Treat advice

[ben1234]

I've seen a few posts on attendance awards like a certificate. My son has just had 3 days off sick. The doctor had to get a second opinion and was thinking of sending him to hospital. He went back to school with antibiotics.
He has now missed out in the attendance treat for being off sick. If it was a piece of paper I wouldn't be so bothered. However in the past it's been bouncy castles or a pantomime. Which is a big thing to a child to miss out on especially when they have been genuinely ill. All because the schools need to worry about stats for Ofsted.
How is it fair on a child ? One day they are allowed off sick. What illness lasts a day ? If you sent them in ill surely that's neglect?
It needs to be changed to look at it on an individual basis ie the whole picture as in are they performing at school, homework being done, how often are they late or off school. Children can't help being genuinely poorly. Schools can not punish children in this way just because of the bad parents that don't care about a child's education and won't bother sending them in and instead take them to Chessington during a school day. They are the ones that need targeting. The type of parents that don't send them in are hardly bothered if their child gets to watch a pantomime anyhow.
What are your views as I am looking to get things changed in schools with regards to attendance. Some children are more susceptible to being ill. They or us as parents can't help it. Views please

I always wonder if this would fall under the disability discrimination act.
When I was at school they didn't have attendance prizes, they just gave certificates. But I'm diabetic and attended hospital appointments once every three months at the time. I would never have managed 100% and given that I was a nearly diagnosed diabetic who already felt different it would have made me feel sad. Something else I was excluded from.

I think certificates / badges is fine.
Big rewards and trips is less fine. Well done you're healthy, is that what they're trying to say?

Totally agree leaping. It will be interesting to hear what gets said on Friday then !

Moonface there was another thread where their child had asthma I believe and they contacted said organisation and it was against some act that I can't remember. This would be a chronic long term illness where I still feel any sickness certified by a doctor should be accounted for. Again a price of paper is not so important to anyone but a trip is harder to take for a child.

I don't like attendance awards either, and that is coming from a parent whose child has only missed two days of school in her first three years at school, so it's not sour grapes.

I particularly hate the idea of rewarding the whole class/school if they achieve some overall percentage attendance, because then the healthy kids are very likely to turn on the ones with long term health issues because they see them as the problem, the obstacle that is stopping the whole class getting some treat. I find that not just distasteful but quite sinister.

Yes Nigella you were one. If you did have fb then that would be the sort of comment you would put. As all your comments have been about the way I have said something not once actually responding to the question itself. You've just picked out what in your opinion I have said incorrectly and completely missed the point of the thread.

If you did have fb then that would be the sort of comment you would put
gosh you must be a good judge of character if from my posts you can tell what i would write on FB, even though i do not have it.
astounding! have you thought about working for MI5?

Exactly Treacle. This is the whole point Nigellasdealer why I posted this thread to see what people thought to the attendance treat. That's it not for you to just pick out problems in how I wrote it.

Some good points that I shall raise with the head teacher

I did not 'pick out problems with how you wrote it' I objected to your judgemental tone about 'types of parents'. if i had wanted to 'pick out problems with how you wrote it' i could have but i didnt as it would have been a waste of time.
as is talking to you anyway.
bye, have fun in the school playground later, i bet you will be there 15 mins early with a 'swallowed a bee' face.

I do not like these awards..Our School gives out certificates...My DS has only had one in nearly 3 years but in total I can count on 2 hands how many days off he has had off sick most have been D&V which he isn't allowed in school or tonsillitis ....

I didn't care about the piece of paper but was concerned when DS came home without a certificate asking if he wasn't healthy as he hadn't got one...I obviously spoke to him about it and reassured him...

I think the problem with your post though is it does come across as very judgemental about other people , who you have no idea what is going on their world...and how do you know which parents keep their kids off when they only have a sniffle?

I actually don't like attendance award schemes and think they should be scrapped. The thing I didn't like about your posts is that you think it is fine to penalise innocent children who have the misfortune to have parents who for whatever reason have a negative impact on the child's attendance. Those children can't help being absent any more than your child can help being absent through illness. A small child cannot control his parents behaviours any more than a child can prevent getting sick.

Points taken starlight and impatient. I suppose I am looking at it from what I know about some parents as facts, the way they do things and maybe I am generalising a bit to much. Unfortunately there are alot of parents out there that do do such things as I mentioned. But I agree it's wrong of me to assume all parents do and I don't think that at all.
Exactly Impatient I take it back I do think its wrong for children to be punished because of the way the parents are. What I was trying to say was that if those particular parents are dealt with maybe the children will benefit in the long term.
Starlight regarding parents that take their kids off with a sniffle again I know people that do this so I am only pointing out facts of what some people do.
I'm pointing out that some parents take their children off school when they feel their child is ill but really they would be better off at school. That is a fact of what happens in some cases.
I evidently didn't put my point across as well as I could have done. I was trying to give examples of parents out there to put my points of view to people. That was not being judgemental as they are all true.

regarding parents that take their kids off with a sniffle again I know people that do this so I am only pointing out facts of what some people do.

I know somebody who does that, but she does it because her child is asthmatic and a slight sniffle can escalate within a couple of hours into a full blown asthma attack requiring hospitalisation. I also know somebody whose child has a low immune system and she keeps him off school if he has a slight sniffle or even if he is well but there is a known bug going around the class. Both of those people might appear to be negligent in their responsibility to ensure their child has good attendance. They might be the sort of people that you would judge as keeping their child off school for every little sniffle but I don't see why they should go around informing people of the facts to avoid people making unfair judgements.

I wouldn't class them as unfair judgements when it's the truth. a judgement is made without the facts. They are the facts.
I have a low immune system but I have to carry on. As I said some people take kids off for reasons that aren't always warranted.
You have your option in and I have mine. As I've said this about the original thread not about you thinking I'm being judgemental

I wonder how attendance treats sit with disability discrimination legislation? I don't like the OP's attitude, but I agree with the point about missing out on a treat for being genuinely ill.

I also would add the people who annoy me most are the people who do send there kids to school poorly and pass it onto mine...I would rather sick children were at home..

Primary school children do not decide whether they go to school or not it is the parents...

Our school tried it one year. We found that overall attendance went down because children were coming in sick, infecting other students (and staff) who then needed to take time off.

Keep your kids home when they're ill. There's plenty of other ways to reward children for things which are within their control.

I don't support the attendance rewards. One of my dcs has had D&V and a flu this year, I kept them off school - responsible thing to do. Other dc was lucky enough not to catch either of the miserable illnesses and she will be rewarded for being lucky...so she gets lucky twice.
Not to mention the poor kids who have medical conditions and need more time off.
The persistent offenders are not incentivised either, because once you miss a day, you are no longer in the running for the prize so you might as well continue with your poor attendance.
And then we have the truly ambitious who like to win whatever it is at all costs, kids coming into school spreading their bugs, when they should be at home because they want the attendance prize.
It lacks logic.

Our school has no awards or incentives for attendance. Reading this I am glad.