Denied school treat for attending mum's funeral
 

"Maddie Stevens, 11, was left in tears after missing the outing because only pupils with 100% attendance records were permitted

Heartless teachers stopped a 11-year-old going on an end-of-term restaurant treat because she went to her mother’s funeral.

Mum Gail, 48, died in January after a two-year battle with breast cancer and her daughter took the day off to be at the funeral."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...#ixzz382nyYsJr

Disgraceful.

That's disgusting

Indeed. The 100% attendance thing should be scrapped anyway.

How awful. I've read another article about a mother being fined because she's taking her terminally-ill child on his last holiday.

I know law is law, but it's still disgusting.

this is disgusting and enough to twist a childs mind - how cruel :conf::conf:

just disgusting.

the attendance thing shouldn't be scrapped, but yeah, this is truly awful.

..if they're scrapping the 100% attendance treat then it sounds as though the reason for the absence wasn't recorded properly...but yeah, I do agree that the attendance treats/awards should be scrapped in all schools personally...

Attendance is important yes, but I know a kid who has had 100% attendance since he first started primary school and he's in bottom classes at high school so it's not that crucial

If the rules for the outing was to have a 100% attendance record then that's fair enough, but if the only reason she didn't have a 100% record was because she attended her mothers funeral, then that is absolutely scandalous. and people should be sacked for it.

Rewards for 100% attendance only end up encouraging sick kids to go to school, and then all of the other kids catch it. It's retarded. I remember a guy getting an award when we left high school aged 18, because he'd had 100% since his first day of school aged 5. Come in with all sorts of bugs, colds and viruses, he had. What a ****ing hero.

I suppose the main issue with the 100% award system is unavoidable factors such as illness and yeah, it's good to motivate and all that but I bet a lot of those kids would've easily got perfect attendance if it was in their control.

Absolutely daft. Hopefully the idiots that enforce these heartless 'conditions' get moved to some inferior posts where they can hopefully not have any input into other peoples lives.

won't somebody please think of the children??!! *cries hysterically*

..I would have thought in reality though that very few children are kept at school if they are ill, their parents would be phoned and they would be sent home..I'm only going on the schools that I know of course...

this is why some stupid laws shouldnt be passed. the same will happen with assisted suicide...INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL BE BUMPED OFF

So does that go for teachers being there 100% of the time for valuable teaching as well? Do they need to have the 100% attendance record through illnesses etc? or lose the privilege of handing out the treats etc; I hope so, because what's good for the Goose is also good for the Gander in that case.

Idiots.Maybe they marked it down wrong or something?Family Bereavement should not be included as poor attendance.

..yeah, close family bereavements are put down as compassionate circumstances and even other bereavements at a Head's discretion..it would still go as an absence but not one that should have been penalised though...we don't know for sure I guess if it was the only absence of the year though or whether there was others that would have meant less than 100%....I don't think though personally that treats or rewards of being taken out somewhere is a good thing because it just 'excludes' anyway for something that the child has usually no control over....

100% agree, it's a mindless 'computer says no' response.

Exactly.At work it's classed as 'compassionate leave'.There should be an extra column to tick for these reasons which does'nt reflect on the childs attendance record negatively.

..there is several absence codes and some don't affect attendance as such which is why I can only assume it was either overlooked/put in incorrectly at the time or there have been other absences and we aren't getting the complete story....