Health matters more than attendance
Obviously...
You’ve probably seen the new Department of Education campaign to boost attendance at school. If not, here are the ads, two for primary, two for secondary:
Fuck this.
Fuck the creators of this.
The complexities around why kids don’t want to go to school are many, and the reasons are nuanced.
FFS, these ads might as well have just said, “This morning he was ill, but being a good little worker drone, he pushed it down inside of him and carried on.”
As parents, we don’t want our kids to miss school. In many cases, they love hanging out with their friends, and of course, they’re learning stuff (even if the system is a hot mess, it’s all we have right now). But, more importantly, and more in line with reality, school is childcare for many of us.
If our child is sick or something’s going on, it’s a big deal to keep them at home for a day or two. Lots of us work from home so it means losing paying work or taking a sick day ourselves. So, we put a lot of thought into it. But their health is more important than making an attendance KPI. Not to mention the even bigger problem of sending your infectious child into a highly populated area to just liberally hose the other kids down with their snot. Like we know they do!
There’s also the massive minefield of not believing your kid when they say they’re sick. This is hard, and we’ve all called bullshit on it sometimes, dosed them up with some Calpol and sent them on their way. But we know when something’s up. We can spot the real stuff. And in those cases, we keep them home because we trust them. We believe in them. We don’t just say, “Well, I’m sorry darling, the school has to hit its attendance target so wipe off that sick and get your bag ready.”
On a more subtle front, plenty of kids are dealing with physical and mental abuse at school. Rather than tackle the root of that, this new campaign from our esteemed and caring government suggests we just smile and get the fuck on with going to school. That decades-old and woefully outdated curriculum isn’t going to memorize itself, after all!
No. Fuck this.
Yes I’m fucking angry. That there’s a little NHS logo at the bottom as well is just the rancid icing on top of this turd cake of a campaign.
It's gross. As a parent of a kid who has more hospital and health appts than most, this presenteeism shit RILES ME. The school has a weekly attendance award for the class that had fewest absences. Bulllsheeeet. Even though they take into account medical appointments the message it sends it grim.