Rachel Wright’s 11-year-old son has been rewarded for having a 100 per cent attendance record throughout his school term this year.
And because of this, he will be brought to a play centre to enjoy an evening with the rest of his friends who also achieved this accolade.
But JJ won’t be attending, because his mum has decided she will not allow her son accept this reward.
Rachel took to Born At The Right Time to explain her actions, and four reasons why she felt the need to keep her son from celebrating this ‘achievement’.
“We love it when school reward him BUT he won't be going.”
“We don’t reward luck, 100 per cent attendance awards can demonise the weakest, he had no control over his 100 per cent attendance and we’re taking him out for five days at end of term anyways.”
Rachel’s reasons have had mixed reviews, but to be honest, we find it hard to argue with the mum-of-two.
“In this family we will think of as many reasons possible to praise our children. We will celebrate and reward them, but being lucky enough not to get sick is not one of them.”
“In this family you are not shamed for ill health, vulnerability or weakness. In this house you are not encouraged to spread germs when you are not well. In this house we look after ourselves and the weakest amongst us.”
Rachel, who’s eldest son is severely disabled, compared rewarding the children who have perfect attendance to employees being rewarded at work:
“Can you imagine a work place that at the end of each week marked out all the people who hadn't been sick? Where all the departments with the least number of people off were rewarded - in front of everyone else? It happens in schools all the time.”
“Can you imagine what kind of atmosphere that would create with people who had days off because of bereavement, mental health problem or chronic conditions?”
“The messages we are sending to our kids when we reward attendance is wrong for so many reasons.”
While we are all aware that attendance is an incredibly important part of our children’s education the mum is calling for a better way to implement the process so that sick and disabled children aren’t left out.
And she’s not the only one who has had trouble with the system, Samantha Leighton, has also hit back at the system for isolating children who cannot achieve this feat.
Do you think attendance rewards should be scrapped from schools? Or do you think the initiative works well in your area?
