To complain about attendance rewards as (Sen kids are already disadvantaged cause of medical appointments)

[whylie]

Hi
So I am thinking of putting a formal complaint into DS (Sen ) school.
All children who receive 100% attendance get a day trip out with ice cream.
The problem with this is those children who have (Sen needs, or medical problems e.g asthma, allergies) have to attend medical appointments, paediatrician, Physio etc.
In his school when you attend an appointment during school time this is deducted from your attendance.
E.g) Physio appointment at 9:00am get back to for 10:15am DS (Sen) had 100% attendance, DS attends school for rest of term, receive attendance sheet it would say 99.5%(can't remember exact percentage)
Cause he attended Physio.
So therefore he will not receive the award, I understand he won't have got morning mark as a point was at 9:00am but it was a medical appointment that he must attend!

AIBU to this this breaking the equality and diversity act?

As cause he has (Sen) needs he is already disadvantaged in getting this award!
As would other children who have asthma as the need their asthma check up by the nurse yearly.

Attendance awards are horrible. And I say that as a parent of two children who have had just 1 day off each in a whole school year. They’re hardly ever ill but that’s just pure luck!

How people can feel comfortable about punishing kids who were ill through no fault of their own? It’s ridiculous and cruel, especially when it’s a day out or an event or something like that.

Parents are following guidelines regarding illnesses such a chicken pox and D&V yet the children are punished?! Bonkers.

Dd2 is buggered already for 100% attendance next year- managed to get most of the course of OT we've been waiting ages for booked in during the holiday but the last session falls just after the schools go back. Under 1 week into term and you've blown the 100% carrot completely (She will go in for morning and then be picked up to get to the far side of the city for her appointment- won't make it back into school because of where the OT is).

We won’t get 100% next year either as we will have numerous appointments due to ds’ SEN.

Please, please complain, as per my post above. I do think that if as many parents as possible, all over the country, raise this, citing the DfE guidance and the law, it might help.

Attendance awards are ridiculous. Even for the kids who are out of school when they shouldn't be it's a ridiculously passive aggressive way to get at the parents who are actually responsible for getting their primary ages kid to school. Then when you have kids with medical needs being discriminated against it's even worse.

I am kind of in favour of attendance awards. It's a good motivation to some children. When I was a child, attendance awards were awarded to the children who had no absence during whole primary, which was incredible, and worth the reward, which was a certificate and a medal, and those children were normally the ones who were least expected to get any kind of awards.

Even though my ds would never get it, I think it's good motivator for some children to get a certificate for just be in school whole year. I 've heard children shouting to parents they don't want to be late because they don't want to miss the award. For some children, it's something they look forward to getting.

So, I am ok with it, as long as the school won't reward them with special treatment like trips or ice creams.

At the same time parents could also petition Ofsted, asking them not to insist schools use rewards as a measure of how much we’re doing to improve attendance.

We have a problem with persistent absence in or school and were told at our Ofsted inspection last year that if we hadn’t been able to show what we were doing to improve attendance, we would have gone into Requires Improvement.

Any other suggestions for improving persistent absence would be very welcome - we feel we’ve tried everything!

Attendance awards are disgusting and ableist and I say this as a primary school teacher.

I fight against them in every school I teach in, and in some have won.

I'm totally against attendance rewards, precisely because all,they do is reward those who are lucky enough not to be unwell (either illness or a longer term-condition).

DS's best friend had amazing parents who really prized giving him as normal a life as possible, including taking the minimum time off for his numerous hospital appointments (locally most week, centre of excellence monthly). They put way more effort into attendance than anyone else I've ever known.

It’s not difficult to argue that these awards are not in the spirit of non discrimination legislation but schools have persistently ignored this and no one has forced them to have an inclusive attendance policy. The one I outlined above is the one that is recommended for schools to meet the law. It’s not so difficult to administer. Lots of schools spend their time chasing up their real poor attendees.

irvine

They can shout all the want but if the parents don't care or are too disorganised then it's just not going to happen is it.

And one traffic jam on day 4 and they have nothing left to work towards do they. They have "failed" before they even started

Where's the motivation then? They are made to feel crappy over something thTs 100 percent reliant on someone else regardkess of bow many days they soend stood fully dressed waiting by the front door.

At the same time parents could also petition Ofsted, asking them not to insist schools use rewards as a measure of how much we’re doing to improve attendance.

Thankfully - the kids' school isn't one that really goes nuts on attendance - the biggest "reward" they get is a note in the newsletter for the top class for the week and a poster for the classroom window.

Ofsted have just been - and despite a lack of bullying (a local school is insisting on doctors' notes for ANY sickness - the GP surgery are less than impressed), silly rewards (again - same other school is offering a bike raffle), or public shaming or anything like that - they've basically earmarked the school to be reinspected with a view to getting Outstanding next year (can't get Outstanding off a quickie anymore apparently).

Friend at the other local school who go to ridiculous lengths to push attendance (and ironically have a less-glowing Ofsted... and both inspections are recent so I'm comparing like-with-like on that one) had all her child's absences reinstated for the purposes of 100% attendance rewards as they were medical appointments after her kid broke their leg in school as a result of shitty playground supervision. Originally they were going to penalise the child for attendance after she got hurt in their flipping care! (Took the parent basically embarrassing the Head in front of all the new intake parents to get them to do this though!)

I try to keep DD2 out for the bare minimum of time for appointments - grab her out for a couple of hours to attend them when I can - but when you're offered no leeway on appointment times to get them at a point in the day to be able to do this, or they're changed at the last minute (eye clinic are particularly fond of doing this), or the department's over the far side of the city through some of the most congested roads in the area - or you're offered speech therapy after being waiting a year but it's at a far-flung site and you still damn well grab it after waiting that long... sometimes there are limits as to what you can do in terms of getting them back in and out of school during the day.

Think the fact we still got 94% or something despite all the medical appointments last year is bloody awesome (especially if you add in that she's a blooming skin picker which then gets infected and you're into 48 hours out for impetigo repeatedly). Sibling in contrast got something like 98/99%.

You can shout at parents all you want about not booking appointments during school hours - but the NHS ain't hearing that message and are so strict about any excuse to discharge you if you quibble appointment slots that if you've got a child in that system - you really do end up having to take whatever they give you. Schools really don't seem to be getting that - or they're selectively ignoring it - which adds onto the mental load you're already dealing with if you have a child with additional needs - you're already constantly being quizzed, judged and questioned by umpteen professionals which wears you down - and then you get shit from the school about why aren't you booking the therapy appointment you've waited nearly a year for outside school hours?! (Thankfully our office staff are lovely and the only reply I got to forewarning about the latest batch of absences was a cheer that we'd finally hit the top of the waiting list)