School sends home sick asthmatic 5y/o, then bans him from Xmas party for ‘poor attendance’

[Andy]

Obviously not directly about ME but I'm sure it talks about many issues that parents of children with ME face.

For a long time, children have been praised for having good attendance at school. However, in recent years there has been a dramatic change in the way this praise is approached.


The bar for what counts as ‘good’ attendance seems to have been raised to impossibly high levels. Worryingly, children are now being penalised for not achieving the national average of 95%, even when the absences are linked to medical conditions.

Whilst parents disagree on many aspects of schooling, the majority seem in agreement that the way schools are approaching attendance needs to change.

Medical conditions
In January, Jessica Smullen set up a petition after her five-year-old son, who suffers with severe asthma, was told he would not allowed to attend his school’s Christmas celebration. The reason? He had not achieved 98% attendance after being sent home ‘after the school said that he was too ill to be in’. Smullen’s petition urges schools to “stop penalising children with medical conditions for their attendance” and so far has more than 140,000 signatures.

When children and parents are constantly pressurised into high attendance, it results in sick children being sent into school. A child like Noah is more likely to catch illnesses due to an ongoing medical condition, and so will end up battling not only their own symptoms, but everyone else’s illnesses, too. Did Noah ever really have a chance at achieving 98% attendance?

https://evolvepolitics.com/teachers...-ban-him-from-xmas-party-for-poor-attendance/

 

[Alvin]

I don't know how many days of school there are in a year but 98% is probably higher then the sick days most countries allow employees.
Secondly this reminds me of a job i once worked, you had to have 98%+ uptime, which means if you went to the washroom more then once per shift or spent more then a few minutes during that one visit you were screwed.

 

[Andy]

Secondly this reminds me of a job i once worked, you had to have 98%+ uptime, which means if you went to the washroom more then once per shift or spent more then a few minutes during that one visit you were screwed.

Reading this I did actually think that this seemed very similar to the indoctrination that we all receive as adults about work attendance i.e. our welfare isn't important, only attendance at work is.

 

[Alvin]

Reading this I did actually think that this seemed very similar to the indoctrination that we all receive as adults about work attendance i.e. our welfare isn't important, only attendance at work is.

Pretty much, many employers don't have much regard for their employees. The bigger the organization the less regard in my experience. I think its a good policy to demonstrate failure though, if kids come to school with contagious conditions then all the kids will get sick more often, the average attendance will actually fall. But forcing kids to function while sick is not very ethical

 

[Snow Leopard]

Rewarding 100% attendance means that people come into work/school when they are ill with infectious illnesses, spreading those illnesses to others. Why is this deemed praiseworthy behaviour, when say, antivaxxers are shunned? Both lead to the spread of infectious disease.

 

[Starlight]

This disgusts me completely. Even if this child had been absent without ever having been sick his attendance at school is not under his own control.to To ban any child is ludicrous. To punish a sick child in this way is beyond comprehension.people. people with such low levels of basic compassion and understanding should not be involved in the care of children in any way.I hope heads will roll.

 

[Cheshire]

Why are these people allowed to be working in schools?

How could someone sane consider that to be educational in any way?

 

[Skycloud]

It's kicking sick children when they're down. My daughter's school are generally ok now but it took a while, and some teachers are just stubbornly stupid about it.

 

[Alvin]

Rewarding 100% attendance means that people come into work/school when they are ill with infectious illnesses, spreading those illnesses to others. Why is this deemed praiseworthy behaviour, when say, antivaxxers are shunned? Both lead to the spread of infectious disease.

Policies are often invented from the top down, if it seems like a good idea on paper its adopted. Real life and practicality takes a back seat to "good" ideas.

 

[TigerLilea]

Rewarding 100% attendance means that people come into work/school when they are ill with infectious illnesses, spreading those illnesses to others. Why is this deemed praiseworthy behaviour, when say, antivaxxers are shunned? Both lead to the spread of infectious disease.

I worked for a company that rewarded 100% attendance with a year end bonus . At year end, they printed up a list of all the employees with 100% for everyone to see. Management (family company) had absolutely no tact.

 

[Amw66]

Attendance is reinforced like this because it is one of the parameters schools are " judged" on. It is a trigger for social services involvement too.

 

[Wonko]

Surely this would further decrease the child's attendance, as school xmas parties tend to be at school.

I'd suggest the child sues, as they are being discriminated against and sanctioned for things the child has no control over, as well as affecting the child's chance at getting into Oxbridge.

Or...possibly it's simply an attempt by educators to teach children some of the more important lessons in life, that life isn't fair and that the world is full of jobsworths and other forms of heads