School Holiday Fines

sulphate

maman wrote: »

If only that were true.
No, maybe as an adult you wouldn't get a pat on the back but children need to be taught how to behave in later life and the rewards for good behaviour are a way of encouraging them.

I don't agree that medals for perfect attendance are the same as rewarding good behaviour. More like, here's a medal just because you were lucky enough not to get sick this year. Or even, here's a medal because even though you were sick you came into school and infected your classmates who in turn were off sick the following day, just because you wanted a medal.

foxster99

svain wrote: »

Absolute tosh!! ... Some of the most successful people in the country are were not academically strong. Passing a few exams is just a very small cog in a much bigger wheel of life and career

Of course there are always outliers and exceptions that can be found to apparently disprove any idea.

Here's an analogy...Some people win the lottery through a tiny amount of effort and investment. This therefore shows that everyone should give up their jobs and just play the lottery once a week instead. Right?

The thing is that these under-educated yet really successful people are a tiny minority. Their success usually being built with the assistance of a team of well educated and qualified people. The vast majority of us will go to school, get some qualifications and then have some kind of paid employment, the rewards of which are statistically proportional to the level and results of the qualifications.

State schools are geared up to grind innocent minds through this mill because that is what most parents want and expect.

If the parents of a child don't want them to follow that kind of route then they simply have to choose not to send their children to a state school.

Its not that black and white of course. Few parents or schools want to produce mindless drones. So schools do other things that are not exam-pass oriented, like after-school activities and such. Parents do the most of this kind of super-curriculum thing, hopefully during the quarter-of-a-year school holidays.

FBaby

here's a medal just because you were lucky enough not to get sick this year.

Yet no-one bat an eyelid when a kid gets a medal because they are lucky to be born with a higher IQ and do better academically, or because they are naturally good at a sport, or have artistic talent. All this could be qualified at luck.

If anything, I would think more kids have the ability to earn an award based on health. Yes, some will miss out, but most kids should be healthy enough to not be so ill they need to remain at home for one year in their education life. We are not talking about getting the award every year but once.

It does work! My boy used to say he wanted to go to school when he was feeling under the weather because he wanted to keep his attendance to 100%. I think I was only called once, maybe twice by the school, all the other times, he managed to get through the days.

onlyroz

sulphate wrote: »

I don't agree that medals for perfect attendance are the same as rewarding good behaviour. More like, here's a medal just because you were lucky enough not to get sick this year. Or even, here's a medal because even though you were sick you came into school and infected your classmates who in turn were off sick the following day, just because you wanted a medal.

Well exactly. To describe sickness absence as "bad behaviour" is just ridiculous. Obviously there are some parents who will keep their child off school for a minor snuffle, and this should be discouraged and investigated if the school thinks there is a problem - but to give kids an actual medal because they were fortunate enough to not get sick, or attend a funeral, is just ridiculous in my opinion.

onlyroz

FBaby wrote: »

Yet no-one bat an eyelid when a kid gets a medal because they are lucky to be born with a higher IQ and do better academically, or because they are naturally good at a sport, or have artistic talent. All this could be qualified at luck.

If anything, I would think more kids have the ability to earn an award based on health. Yes, some will miss out, but most kids should be healthy enough to not be so ill they need to remain at home for one year in their education life. We are not talking about getting the award every year but once.

It does work! My boy used to say he wanted to go to school when he was feeling under the weather because he wanted to keep his attendance to 100%. I think I was only called once, maybe twice by the school, all the other times, he managed to get through the days.

On the other hand I've had my daughter crying about missing a 100% attendance award one year because the school insisted that she had to stay off with a minor rash that her doctor said wasn't contagious.

And I don't see the link between rewarding attainment (which yes, does involve some luck but mainly involves hard work) and between rewarding good health.

FBaby

On the other hand I've had my daughter crying about missing a 100% attendance award one year because the school insisted that she had to stay off with a minor rash that her doctor said wasn't contagious.

Indeed very unfair if the doctor said she was fine to go. I would have sent my child anyway and not come to get her!

Saying that, kids needs to be explained that missing the 100% attendance is not failure (just like not arriving first on sports day. DD was very annoyed when she got all the way to end of May before having to be at home. She caught scarlet fever and a high fever, so not an option. I gave her a reward myself at the end of the year.

maman

maman wrote: »

No, maybe as an adult you wouldn't get a pat on the back but children need to be taught how to behave in later life and the rewards for good behaviour are a way of encouraging them.

onlyroz wrote: »

Well exactly. To describe sickness absence as "bad behaviour" is just ridiculous. Obviously there are some parents who will keep their child off school for a minor snuffle, and this should be discouraged and investigated if the school thinks there is a problem - but to give kids an actual medal because they were fortunate enough to not get sick, or attend a funeral, is just ridiculous in my opinion.

I think you've misunderstood my use of the word behaviour in this context. My point was that these awards encourage students to behave in a way that we'd hope they'll emulate in later life so for example not making medical/dental appointments in school time unless emergencies or staying home with the smallest sniffle or tummy ache.


That being said I would be pouring praise on students who behaved well in the more specific sense of behaviour too. Just like a good attitude to attendance if that's not been learned at home then schools have to teach it and rewards are a tried and tested method.

NineDeuce

The fines should be 10 times higher. That will actually put self-entitled parents off. The complaints are symptomatic of everything that is wrong with Britain

'When I dont get what I want, I blame someone else'

Boblm

Ooh check this guy out. He knows the difference between PCN and fines. :T

Must really impress ladies!

Get a life you bureaucratic, boring, jobs worth!

foxster99

It's Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) that are issued.

In effect it's a "fine" because an offence has been committed and a financial penalty imposed. You can argue the legalise and semantics but it ends up amounting to a similar thing.