Attendance Awards: Why Punishing School Children for Being Sick is Ridiculous

Institutional discrimination whether covered by the ADA or not....

http://goo.gl/szRbPo

As ludicrous as the news about the Poole headteacher insisting pupils are sent to school even when they're unwell is, it unfortunately did not come as a shock to me.

Recently I collected my seven-year-old son and opened a brown envelope from his book bag. Every child at his Lincolnshire school, is regularly given a letter awarding them gold, silver, bronze or red status - the only criteria being how many days they were off sick. Beside the band it gives the percentage of attendance.

Gold pupils must 'achieve' 98% or higher. Silver kids are in school 95-98% of the term. Bronze children are there 90-95% of the time. He got bronze. Where else would you be on the third rung for 93.1%?

Why do they think they can punish children for illness? It is utterly unfair to reward families for good health, as this penalises others for sickness. It's a system designed to praise only healthy children - or those who are not well whose parents send them in sick.