Attendence cetificates - am I wrong to be cross?

[Runoutofideas]

I've just had dd (5) in floods of tears because she wasn't given a certificate on Friday. After questioning it turns out that these were for children who hadn't had a day off sick in the time from Sept to Easter. DD had 5 days off to have her adenoids out and gromments fitted, plus a week off for chicken pox - neither of which could have been avoided.

Am I wrong to think that praising attendence at this age is pointless, as the parents make the decisions and the child isn't choosing for themselves whether they are sick or not? It's made me a bit cross that she's now sad over something which she had no control over....grrr

Kids learn many things from missing out on awards - often it's that the naughty kids get awards for behaving well for five minutes or that the same clever popular kids get the awards everytime, the average child learns there's no point in bothering their arse because no one notices them. Does it makes them cynical about all this crap - or they take it personally - and I've seen a few devastated by continually missing out on the star of the week.
Has anyone done a cost/benefit analysis of all these awards - psychologically speaking - for the kids who do and don't get them - or have we just assumed they are a good thing because at least they don't involved getting smacked with a cane.

You don't need to create situations for kids to fail to win - life experience is very good at doing that on a regular basis.

Thanks everyone - interesting to get a range of opinions. Just wanted to apologise for mis-spelling attendance in my OP .

Eek! And "certificate"! I really shouldn't type when cross!

The school will be getting ridiculous pressure re attendance figures from OFSTED. So if they do something like this, it looks like they're trying. Blame OFSTED for setting pointless targets.

I am sure most teachers and schools ensure all children receive rewards and recognition for their efferts. At my last school I had to choose two children each week to be in the 'special book' and get a reward in the end of week assembly from the head. I had to make sure that it did reward genuine achievement but also that over the course of the year all children were included and recognised for their different attributes. I have never taught a child that I couldn't think of any reason to reward.

efforts

I have to admit I think it sucks too

My DS (5) has had 5 days for Flu and 5 for Scarlet Fever. More than I would have liked and a darn nuisance, but unavoidable, and he is exactly the sort of child who is upset when he misses out. He hopes and prays every single week to be a good citizen and is gutted every week (except once) as things like that just MATTER so much to him.
Of course when he did get his Good Citizen award he was so proud he was walking on air for a week and his description of his heart trying to jump out of his mouth and his eyes stinging when he heard his name were so sweet. Just a shame he doesnt seem to get recognised for anything else

That makes me very , and tbh quite .

dd's school does not count illness as missing school...they still get certificates (at least, the infants do, not sure higher up).

Though dd isn't hugely bothered about them, some of the children are and not getting one because of adenoid op (eg) seems a bit like punishment on top of the unpleasantness of medical procedures/illness. Grrr.

Yes, utter nonsense. I'm always a bit when I hear a child has not had a day off sick in their whole school career - either they are incredibly lucky, or they've been sent to school with all sorts of ailments and told to get on with it. There are plenty of other things that a child can be rewarded for, and things which are outwith a child's control which shouldn't count when it comes to rewards.

At DSs school, for example, they rewarded 2 brothers for their acting abilities. They go to a drama school after school hours and have acted in a number of plays, small TV productions etc. That's great - but they also don't hand in homework on a regular basis, and miss school to attend drama related things. It seemed a bit odd to reward that - but maybe that was just me. Sorry, I'm rambling....

Totally stupid and they probably pay somebody to add all the figures up to make the % for the area / county/ country whereas the salary could probably pay for ????????

Rosa my register is on my computer. I just have to click their name to get the attendance %. All figures get updated to the LEA automatically.

This also gets my goat. It seems that kids are being rewarded if their parents send them in whatever state they are in, whereas my kids get penalised because I keep them at home for 24h after any episode of diarrhoea or vomiting (which was probably due to a virus caught from someone else at school ).

Furthermore I remember in the ds's old school there was a lot of chickenpox one Christmas and the next term we had a letter from the head saying that the local authority had noted attendance levels were down and we must make sure we only booked our holidays during school holidays! It seems to me that everything is being lumped in to these attendance figures - including truanting, which is yet another issue.

Yes I think it is quite pointless for infants as they have no say in whether they attend school or arrive on time.

I also feel we receive mixed messages from the school as on the one hand we are constantly being told to keep our children at home if they are unwell (quite rightly) and to leave it 48 hours from bouts of V & D. On the other hand, they have these certificates for 100% attendance and prizes for the class with the best attendance each term. We also have reminders sent home that the school is not reaching it's 95% attendance record but it's hardly surprising with the amount of virus's and bugs circulating throughout the winter.

I'm about 95% positive - but not 100%! - that authorised absences (ie sickness when you phone or write in) doesn't count as absence on the official figures to the LEA. So if they're writing home about it then some people are not phoning in to let the school know or taking unauthorised holiday etc.

However, any absences - authorised or otherwise - count as a flat figure when Ofsted judge your school.

I was once in charge of attendance awards and had to single out one pupil who was the most improved. Instead I gave it to a child who had leukemia and had poor attendance but battled in as often as he could. Felt he deserved it more! However as already said just as unfair as sports prizes and achievement prizes.

"I'm about 95% positive - but not 100%! - that authorised absences (ie sickness when you phone or write in) doesn't count as absence on the official figures to the LEA. So if they're writing home about it then some people are not phoning in to let the school know or taking unauthorised holiday etc."

Most schools only use this double book-keeping for special cases and some never use it. We were being hounded by education welfare officers despite having sent in countless letters from GP, paedicatrician, school doctor etc. to dd's primary explaining that dd's absences were medical and unavoidable. It is only after 5 years (and after dd tried to cut her wrists) that we have managed to get her absences not to count, but that is probably more to do with her having moved to a new school which has a far better pastoral record. One of her friends got into trouble over attendance after the school had agreed to let have a week off to spend with her terminally ill mother. However, the secondary school is far more understanding.

"However, any absences - authorised or otherwise - count as a flat figure when Ofsted judge your school."

Which is why dd's old headteacher was trying to bully us to move dd to another school: he was desperate to get an Outstanding at Ofsted and the school's attendance record was low so having a pupil like dd on his books was not in his interests.

I wouldn't mind a simple thing like a certificate, if the school also occasionally rewarded other achievements, but not all schools do. Dd's primary only ever rewarded attendance.

"Which is why dd's old headteacher was trying to bully us to move dd to another school: he was desperate to get an Outstanding at Ofsted and the school's attendance record was low so having a pupil like dd on his books was not in his interests."

Cory I am at that. I am not really up on ofsted reports but do they have a mark for pastoral care. I would be tempted to write to ofsted and let them know what goes on.

My children don't get these certificates either. I asked my son what he rather wanted. A certificate or sitting at under the duvet with mummy drinking hot choccie when home with a cold.....A no-brainer. I don't think children get so upset if you show you don't really care. My children wants these things mainly to impress or make their parents proud of them.

my sons gets these alot, they're from the county council rather than the school. it seems a bit churlish to resent other children getting them, my son was really proud of his!

We do award 100% attendance over a whole year at our school.

BUT we also award 95%+, children who've improved and children whose attendance is 'good for them' ie children in difficult circumstances either health-wise or in a social sense.

All absence is judged by both LAs, DCFS and OFSTED - only very, very rarely would you be able to get around that. Even absence for religious observance is taken into account which I have a huge issue with. How can my school with something like 45% muslim children, plus a % of other faiths, rightly taking time off for Eid etc compete with the Church school up the road, whose cohort is almost totally white British and only taking Christian holidays which we're already closed for. Grr.

I don't resent children getting certificates, I resent a system which rewards something over which the children have no control and cannot improve their performance by putting in more effort.

Health is down to luck and it's a feeble attempt at increasing attendance when attendance should be dependant on health, not the other way round.

we don't have them at our school btw but we get blasted for our children having maybe 10 days off in a year for illness - that's when we are never late, are at school every day unless he is ill or there's some other impossible circumstance, etc

while they went to great lengths to fight for some parents to be allowed 10 days off for holidays in term time.

They actually challenged the LA on this matter. But if your kid is ill? No bloody way.

It makes me furious.

I think its a great idea, it sets a strong work ethic for life. Step daughters mother keeps her home every time she sneezes its ridiculous.

(the winning a bike is a bit extreme though, its more often that not like in OP where time off isnt the kids fault)

Your child will win something else, dont worry about it.

Also a good lesson in not having to win everything!!!

I've comer across far too many kids with health issues that require hospitalisation that then feel tehy are being punished to support these certificates

DS32 was injured at school by their error (made him dance on the gym surface when varnish had gone sticky in the ehat, he moved but part of the sole of his foot sdtayed behind) and took 3 days off through medical advice and lost his cert- WTF?

Ridiculous ideaimo. I;d support a cert for anyone who didn't ahve unauthorised absence (so all absence sick related and properly signed by aprents) but no more