Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Attendence cetificates - am I wrong to be cross?

123 replies

Runoutofideas · 24/04/2010 18:00

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

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

foureleven · 26/04/2010 08:04

gorionine- re your child getting sent hom then not actually being ill an dplaying int he garden all afternoon.. that would make me

cory - that is such a shame that they didnt recognise your childs needs and adapt the scheme to include praising your child for something else. Schools should make sure that each child is valued for their own acheivements. But I do think that it is a valuable lesson (if done correctly) to reward children who have good attendance.

cory · 26/04/2010 08:50

The other thing with assemblies is, they can be very painful reminders for some children of why they were absent.

If it was because they were in hospital with something life-threatening (not my dcs) or because they have suffered bereavement or because they felt they had to protect their mentally ill/alcoholic/domestic-abuse-victim mum, then sitting through weekly assemblies on the subject can be very upsetting. Almost every school is going to have pupils who are absent for very serious reasons. Even some of the flimsiest excuses laughed over in the staffroom are going to be covering up tragic situations. In dd's class, I can think of at least 3 pupils who had horrendous reasons for being absent in the same year. And this is not a particularly problematic area; it's just that children are not exempt from the kind of tragedies that strike families.

Yes, you need to encourage attendance. But you don't need to rub people's noses into it.

And my absolutely, absolutely pet hate is rewarding whole tables/classes for attendance of the whole group. How popular do they suppose that makes the chronically ill child?

PinkoLiberal · 26/04/2010 09:32

Fllight I have to say I agree wrt to 5 year olds- mine are at Juniors (well the older 2) and it's them that have the certificates (ds3 might, its an SNU, how could I know LOL)

AS for the they'll get over it- yes most children will. But not all kids in MS are so tough. DS1 for example would not get over it with his AS; ds2 gets over it but hasn't gorgiven teh school that caused an injury then penalised him for it. That's how he feels you see- penalised. Of course what I should ahve done was kick up stink but the Head was leaving 2 weks later and had generally been a good sort so didnt want to, i've learned you have to do that for the sake of your chidlren seeing now. Or they feel let down twice over.

onebadbaby · 26/04/2010 10:14

Maths awards will upset those with dyscalculia.

Writing awards will upset those with dyslexia.

Sport trophies will upset those with physical disabilities.

Swimming award will upset those whose parents don't take them swimming.

Attendance certificates will upset those that were ill.

Do you really think we shouldn't praise and recognise children in assemblies as it might upset a minority of them?? How many infant children get 100% attendance anyway?? In my experience they are usually the minority.

southeastastra · 26/04/2010 10:15

am with onebadbaby!

ds was so happy with his award, he doesn't get them for anyting else usually

PinkoLiberal · 26/04/2010 10:16

But those kids who can't get certs for sport / schoolwork / etc are disproprotio9nately mroe likely to be the same ones who can't get it for attendance becuase their disabilities or SN mean time off for appts etc

Theya re not discrete groups, far from

onebadbaby · 26/04/2010 10:23

If you have a child with a disability and they don't get any form of recognition from school, for anything, then you need to be looking at the school and asking why? In the schools I have worked in and the school my daughter goes to there is a weekly achievement assembly, and the policy is that all children are rewarded for individual milestones, whether it be improved behaviour, nice writing, being kind and helpful, maths, sports, computers, etc etc and over the course of the term or year it was ensured that no child had been excluded from this.

onebadbaby · 26/04/2010 10:24

My daughter got a certificate for always having a smile on her face and being kind to her friends last term.

PinkoLiberal · 26/04/2010 10:27

DS2 got a cert for not falling over in dance class. they could chosen to give them a cert for the £70-odd they raised selling home amde cakes off their own back but no, that was ignored (but yes I agree school has isues and ds4 is going elsewhere)

Fliight · 26/04/2010 10:27

Good point Pinko

PLUS no I think awards are shite, at primary level. It's not about effort at this stage - well sometimes it is but that's not usually recognised in the kind of awards mentioned.

Our school has awards for 'being a good friend', for 'trying hard at maths even though he finds it hard' (word for word on ds's certificate above my desk) and being a 'good citizen and holding doors open'.

and everyone wins ONCE.

That's the kind of thing I really approve of, if they're going to do awards at all.
Things everyone can do if they try.

I don't think sports ones are appropriate until much later at competitive level, and that should be for children who choose actively to partake and are very keen...so it's only between those who want to compete.

Forcing every child to be part of an imaginary competition when they all have such varying levels of skill at whatever, is desperately unfair and counterproductive in infant school.

onebadbaby · 26/04/2010 10:35

I agree Flight, and in my experience that is how it works in most primary schools, kids are rewarded for trying hard.. and that is how it should be. I think the attendance thing is just minor mention at the end of the term.

RunningOutOfIdeas · 26/04/2010 10:45

When I was at primary school (way back at the dawn of time), we had a punctuality award instead of an attendance award. This meant that any authorised absence was taken into account and children were awarded for getting to school on time. This seems a little fairer to me.

Fliight · 26/04/2010 10:49

It would be fair for older kids, but not those who still require an adult to bring them.

We know a family whose children were late almost every day last year, simply because the mum has issues with time management.

Their dad brings them now but it would have been really unfair to have penalised the kids for being late when they had no part in it.

Shaz10 · 26/04/2010 11:43

And the punctuality award would also penalise the two children in my class - age 7 - who frequently had to get themselves up and to school. I was just pleased they made it at all! Having said that if there was a punctuality award in my school I would just give them their own reward for what they do.

Fliight · 26/04/2010 11:55

That is really sad

Ds1 is nearly 7. He is a fairly capable lad but I'd hate to think of him having to walk himself to school.

seeker · 26/04/2010 12:32

If this is like every primary school I have had anythingt o do with, there will be lots of other certificates for other things - not everyone can get certificates for everything!

And the children do have a bit of influence on theri own attendance - I don't know about yours, but my primary aged child is quite capable of pulling a sicky - and the thought of a prize at the end of the week may very well be enough to stop him!

PinkoLiberal · 26/04/2010 12:43

Three's a ten eyar old in ds1's class has to catch a bus and whose mum doesn't always give him enough to we have to subby him sometimes

My ds's think I am a riight meanie, they don't know they were born frankly. NO kid should have toc atch a bus several miles in year 5 especially when Mum is at home.

OrmRenewed · 26/04/2010 12:46

Attendance was the the first certificate DS#1 ever got. Which is why i feel a bit defensive about them I supppose. He was so pleased. Other children get certificates for things like good work, being good at sport etc. I wouldn't dream of complaining about that. Thankfully he is now getting certificates for good work now he's in secondary school but for years he was an also-ran in primary. It meant a lot to him.

It seems a bit mean-minded to object to a child getting a reward for something just because your child doesn't.

Fliight · 26/04/2010 12:49

Orm, i don;t think any of us begrudges your son his certificate! We are just saying, well those of us against the idea of it, that it is a bit of an unfair system.

I would feel bad if MY son got one and it made some other kid cry.

seeker · 26/04/2010 12:53

I am of the old school that says that if a child cries because it didn't get a certificate then the parents have got something a bit wrong somewhere.

But I don't put sweets between all the layers n pass the parcel either.

Bramshott · 26/04/2010 13:08

"NO kid should have to catch a bus several miles in year 5" - I'm afraid I don't agree with that sentiment Pinko. IMHO if more children were taking themselves to and from school, either walking or on the bus, there would be far fewer cars on the road at school run times and it would be safer for everyone. Clearly his mum should be giving him the money for the bus, but it would have been quite normal for a 10 year old to get the bus to school 20 years ago.

seeker · 26/04/2010 13:26

"NO kid should have toc atch a bus several miles in year 5 especially when Mum is at home. "

Why not?

Fliight · 26/04/2010 13:47

What is yr 5 - is that when they are 9 turning 10?

I had to walk on my own from when I was 9...I was scared every day, and so lonely I counted the steps. It was something like 2,100 I think...I feel as though I was scarred emotionally by that experience.

My mum went out to work first thing, to clean M&S - she was saving up to go to college. So no one was there in the morning, my dad had gone to work, my sister hated me.

It all depends on the child's family context imo.

Fliight · 26/04/2010 13:48

Gosht hat all sounds rather Billy Elliott doesnt it

mattellie · 26/04/2010 18:10

One of the stupidest ideas of all time. It?s like rewarding a child for having blue eyes.

Anyone who thinks attendance certificates for children are a good idea has clearly never had a child with a chronic medical condition who then thinks they?re being punished for being ill. And are then made to feel even worse by giving out class certificates which no class DD was in would ever have a chance of winning.

A discrete handing-out of such certificates by the class teacher at the end of term would be one thing, but DD?s school used to spend about half an hour giving these bloody things out at whole school assemblies (attended by parents) at the end of term. We stopped sending her in on those mornings ? that was another ?unauthorised? absence

Onebadbaby do you seriously not understand the difference between awards for achievement and awards for attendance? It?s not an achievement to have a healthy child. Just consider how lucky ? lucky, not clever ? you are that you don?t have a seriously ill child.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5