To some extent that makes it worse as it takes away the human aspect of knowing each and everyone of their children in the physical sense or the actual emotional aspect and then giving them support in those times of loss or any other situation. My first thoughts on hearing this was that the child may have moved school, apparently not as seen no evidence of such.
It would be at times like this that you would need to enlist the help of your local councillor or MP...or failing that the Press or, if necessary, the ECHR.
To be fair, I probably should have taken it further but I was just so relieved to see the back of the stress I just wanted to get on with life, forget it and concentrate on my little boy.
Blaming a computer is a right cop out. These are children with needs, not a product to manufacture.
Seems at odds with the whole "they were told the reason for her absence and still refused to let her go on the trip" thing put forward by her father.
To be fair the BIB was put forward by the papers... The dad said in the story that he had only found out about the trip (and contacted the school) after the trip had already happened.
They can blame the computer all they like but she STILL didn't have a 100% attendance record, nor did anyone else who had 1 day off.
What is the purpose of the computer system, to keep a record of attendance or to pick lucky reward winners?
The rules of this little competition say "best attendance"... it's available on their website if you look.
Here it is...
"The children with the best attendance in the school at the end of the
academic year receive their own 100% attendance certificate and a reward –
this can be a trip to the cinema or something similar. The reward is limited to
the top 30 children, but depends where a fair cut off percentage can be
calculated."
If they had not relied on their tried and trusted method of picking the reward they could have fiddled the list but she would then have won it as a consolation prize.
It might have been nice to contact her father first, despite being in the middle of bereavement, to see if he would like her to go and add her as number 31 rather than deprive someone with a better attendance record.
If you don't apply rules in a hard and fast manner, then you are forever having to deal with judging exceptions. Make an exception and others will insist an exception should also be made for them.
In a school of, for example, it only required 30 pupils to be there everyday for her not to be eligible, if there were 100s she wouldn't have been in with a chance.
If she didn't go "Girl denied reward because her mother died"
If she did go, but someone else didn't, "Girl rewarded because her mother died"
Computer systems are only as flexible as people wanted them to be when they were written.
It may depend on the tabloid involved but it would probably be spun in a different way. You can bet the other child's bereavement wouldn't get much of a mention otherwise the complainant would lose some of the sympathy votes.
What has been shown is how flawed these systems and policies can be, and saying more disabled and speical needs children are being taught in main stream schools but these policies take no account of that alot of these children will HAVE to be having time off for hospital treatment or speical clinics which there is no way there appointments could be made out of school time. So these children have no chance of ever being part of these of these things from day 1 of starting at the school.
These are children with needs, not a product to manufacture.
Sadly many just don't care about that. If you look at various threads you'll see people saying school should be preparing children to be part of the workforce; so they need longer days, less time off, more pressure, blah blah blah.
Thanks to various govenments and topped off by Gove, the pressure put on children from the day they enter the school system is disgraceful. I feel so sorry for the poor little souls, being primed for tests when they should be learning for the sheer delight of learning.
Compassion is fast leaving education and that is a terrible thing.
Sadly many just don't care about that. If you look at various threads you'll see people saying school should be preparing children to be part of the workforce; so they need longer days, less time off, more pressure, blah blah blah.
Thanks to various govenments and topped off by Gove, the pressure put on children from the day they enter the school system is disgraceful. I feel so sorry for the poor little souls, being primed for tests when they should be learning for the sheer delight of learning.
Compassion is fast leaving education and that is a terrible thing.
Kids must have time just to be kids and have fun .
And anyway in work you have right to have sick days and compassionate leave schools should be the same.
Your getting mixed up with "unauthorized absence" and "100% attendance"
100% attendance means "no time off".
You can have time off for any number of reasons such as a family member dying. That time would be authorized, but it does not mean you therefore have 100% attendance.
An authorized absence should have no impact on the attendance record.
I left school 35 years ago and I have never worked for a company where an authorised absence for the death of a near relative is counted against an employee's attendance record, so why should it in this instance?
Comments
Even then you don't get no work, no pay. You get no work and statutory sick pay.
To some extent that makes it worse as it takes away the human aspect of knowing each and everyone of their children in the physical sense or the actual emotional aspect and then giving them support in those times of loss or any other situation. My first thoughts on hearing this was that the child may have moved school, apparently not as seen no evidence of such.
To be fair, I probably should have taken it further but I was just so relieved to see the back of the stress I just wanted to get on with life, forget it and concentrate on my little boy.
Blaming a computer is a right cop out. These are children with needs, not a product to manufacture.
To be fair the BIB was put forward by the papers... The dad said in the story that he had only found out about the trip (and contacted the school) after the trip had already happened.
What is the purpose of the computer system, to keep a record of attendance or to pick lucky reward winners?
The rules of this little competition say "best attendance"... it's available on their website if you look.
Here it is...
"The children with the best attendance in the school at the end of the
academic year receive their own 100% attendance certificate and a reward –
this can be a trip to the cinema or something similar. The reward is limited to
the top 30 children, but depends where a fair cut off percentage can be
calculated."
It even manages to sneak the word "fair" in.
If they had not relied on their tried and trusted method of picking the reward they could have fiddled the list but she would then have won it as a consolation prize.
It might have been nice to contact her father first, despite being in the middle of bereavement, to see if he would like her to go and add her as number 31 rather than deprive someone with a better attendance record.
You're heartless.
If she didn't go "Girl denied reward because her mother died"
If she did go, but someone else didn't, "Girl rewarded because her mother died"
Computer systems are only as flexible as people wanted them to be when they were written.
Sadly some people have no human emotion.
It may depend on the tabloid involved but it would probably be spun in a different way. You can bet the other child's bereavement wouldn't get much of a mention otherwise the complainant would lose some of the sympathy votes.
Sadly many just don't care about that. If you look at various threads you'll see people saying school should be preparing children to be part of the workforce; so they need longer days, less time off, more pressure, blah blah blah.
Thanks to various govenments and topped off by Gove, the pressure put on children from the day they enter the school system is disgraceful. I feel so sorry for the poor little souls, being primed for tests when they should be learning for the sheer delight of learning.
Compassion is fast leaving education and that is a terrible thing.
Kids must have time just to be kids and have fun .
And anyway in work you have right to have sick days and compassionate leave schools should be the same.
An authorized absence should have no impact on the attendance record.
I left school 35 years ago and I have never worked for a company where an authorised absence for the death of a near relative is counted against an employee's attendance record, so why should it in this instance?