The Nottingham teacher & dad who blasts schools for awarding kids for attendance

An education consultant and former teacher has blasted schools for awarding kids for their attendance.

Nathan Burns, 27, said certificates handed out to children who don't miss a day of school causes other youngsters stress and doesn't tackle absenteeism.

Nathan aired his views on X after his six-year-old son said he couldn't take a day off even if he was ill because he needed to get the attendance award in assembly at the end of term.

Nathan, from Nottingham, said: "I was really shocked to hear him say he couldn't even take a sick day: his attendance is high.

"He said he could only be ill on the weekends: that really worried me.

"I know attendance in school is crucial, and awards can be an effective way of achieving results, but this really is a step too far.

"My son is really driven by awards: he works really hard to achieve them and sticks to the rules to get stickers

"He's at risk of making himself ill by not taking a day to recover if he's feeling under the weather.

"I think if he was ill tomorrow and I said he couldn't go he'd be really worried and stressed: I feel really sad about that, it's not healthy.

"At this age parents are responsible for getting children to school so it makes no sense to reward the kids for things they have no control over."

Nathan's son started full-time in the school nursery aged 3, and is now in year two.

The pair were walking home from school on Friday 27 when the lad said he wanted to get the award and couldn't miss any school.

Shocked Nathan tried to reassure his son that it's good to rest if you're ill, but said the lad told him the teacher talks about the importance of attendance every day.

Nathan took to X where over 22,000 others chimed in.

Attendance awards have become a hot topic since schools have used them to try to tackle increases in absence, particularly persistent absences, since the pandemic.

Nathan said: "It's not healthy or necessary to stress out children who have high attendance already: rewarding 100% attendance is a really bad policy.

"A child can miss six or so days a year and that's perfectly healthy and still 96 to 97% attendance.

"Then you have children who have other things going on: maybe anxiety, or other medical conditions, or responsibilities at home which mean they can't attend every day: this is an award they can't hope to achieve.

"If a parent can't get a child to school then offering the child an award for turning up just isn't going to help: in these situations schools need to engage with families to get to the root of the problem and find ways of helping.

"Leadership teams need to be brave and focus on the kids who really need help.

"Kid's in primary school don't have a choice about how often and when they turn up to school, so these awards are unattainable for them.

"It's a phenomenal school and I'm really happy with it, I don't think schools are doing this on purpose, but I felt sad and frustrated that this worry had been pushed on to my son.

"These awards are basically awards of luck: if you happen to have everything in your favour and you don't get ill for a term then maybe you'll get a certificate."