Parents at a primary school in Cowes have expressed outrage after only pupils with 100% attendance were allowed to enjoy an end-of-year treat involving a bouncy castle.
Lanesend Primary School on Love Lane hired the inflatable as a reward for children who had not missed a single day during the academic year. However, pupils with less than perfect attendance, including those who had been off due to illness or to attend medical appointments, were excluded from the activity.
It is understood that the number of those able to enjoy a school-time bounce was just a fraction of the school population.
Several parents chose not to send their children into school today (Thursday), while others made their frustrations known at the school gates at drop-off time.
One Lanesend parent told Island Echo:
“This is unacceptable. Kids can’t help getting ill. All of the kids are upset about it.”
Other parents have labelled the move ‘discriminatory’ and say it breaches the schools very own Equality Act.
In an email sent to parents, executive principal Alex Augustus said:
“We are aware of a lot of communication regarding the attendance reward. Please know this was only done with the best intentions as we wanted to reward children for something that we thought was an exceptional accomplishment. It was never designed to discriminate against others.
We wanted to try this as a way to celebrate their accomplishments, similar to how we recognise academic achievement.
“We are sorry if this has caused any upset and will take your feedback on board moving forward into next year.”
Island Echo has contacted Lanesend Primary for a formal statement, but at the time of publication no response has been received.
When my kids were smaller, they got a special mention in assemble for 100% attendance, and a certificate. Had there been an exclusive ‘treat’ in front of all the other kids I’d have called that discrimination too, and declined to accept.
Engage critical thinking, Lanesend. Those kids already have the reward….they are always healthy. These days, that IS the exceptional achievement.
It is absolutely correct that kids who have achieved 100% attendance should be recognised.
it will teach the other kids to realise that when they grow up and become adults, not turning up for work, often means no pay until SSP on day four.
suck it up whingers
So we can only assume then that you have never been sick, and if you are ever sick, you’re happy for someone to rub your nose in it?
I suspect there’d be a very long queue of volunteers….
Here here. It’s ridiculous and cruel
Well said. My granddaughter was one of the 100% attendance & those kids deserve to be recognised. Maybe parents won’t keep kids off for sniffles or if they’re running too late for registration. We’ll done to you 100%ers I say.
Ok Sharon or is it Karen!:)
how are the Jones’s doing!?
Thing is, when you are at work, you are of an age at which you can decide if you attend or not.
the schools put in place policy’s for children with sickness bugs etc not to attend for 48hours. The child gets no say in the matter.
100% attendance should be rewarded appropriately, certificates used to always be the norm, or a special mention in assembly.
If the school wants to go above normal measures to reward children, do it after school or at the weekend, out of sight of those children who have not been lucky enough to achieve 100% attendance.
This is exactly the kind of ridiculous comment I’d expect from blinkered shallow individuals line yourself. The kids probably hadn’t even realised why they were able to go on the bouncy castle anyway. Kids are just that, and if any discriminations were being dished out it should have been taken up with the parents. As penalising innocent children is cruel especially when done like that
You are really sick in the head just like this government, I have had a gutful of sick gutless arseholes just like you.
Talk of grooming by the establishment.
It’s okay if you’re child has doesn’t have any medical issues as hospital appointments are usually in school time
Sounds like 2 tier schooling.
You can argue the merits of a 100% reward for students all day long, and I am sure many will. However, the truth of the matter is that the school has now been made to look bad, unfair and unjust right across the south of England on TV. This gesture, done with good intentions one would hope, will now go down as PR disaster for this school.
How can you argue it was done with good intentions? When the school purposely excluded SEN and disabled children. God forbid a child had to attend a hospital appointment for their condition, it’s okay though because those children deserve to miss out.
Good!! It’s like the other one on the news recently. Like going back in time to the work houses!
Not only is it a PR disaster, it highlights the underlying negative understanding. It suggests that they are naturally suspicious of the reasons WHY kids have time off, that they should ‘try harder’ to attend. In their heads, those kids who achieve better results/grades do so because they’ve put more effort in and should be praised for that, rewarded. It sets up a similar mindset in the kids themselves, a smugness, a superiority which in turn creates an inferiority in the others by comparison. In the same vein the underlying belief is that children should ‘try harder’ to not be sick. Or, keep going regardless of them being sick.
What might that do in society, Lanesend? Do we really want to start subjecting our kids to Darwinism? That’s where you find the discrimination in this case. It’s a nasty enough world out here currently because of that. Certainly there are kids who don’t want to attend school, or in the future, work, so maybe take your superior assumptions and the results in those kids and work out why the kids are disaffected and disengaged so very early these days, hmm? They pick it up from the teachings they’ve had thus far, measure themselves by YOUR standards and run from the obvious ‘failures’ you predict them to be in advance. Every child matters. Allegedly.
So well said !
I’m glad my children are beyond the age of attending such a discriminatory school as this, it’s disgusting and the council should look at the leadership involved!
It is not setting a good example to the children.
I cannot stand attendance awards , what’s the point of them , some children never stand a chance of attaining 100 percent attendance due to illnesses additional needs mental health issues and now we’re punishing small children for things way beyond their control . It’s actually disgusting .lanesend has always had questionable ethics so I’m not surprised to be honest . We’re teaching children to not prioritise their health or mental well being and just keep going on regardless . No .
What bright spark had that great idea!? As someone said, kids don’t get to choose if they have time out for being sick or go for appointments etc… some are off for health reasons as my child was throughout their early years.
it is discriminatory treatment in its highest form and the people who put it in place shouldn’t be in a position to judge or even decide to reward others in this very naive way. What did they think was going to happen?
I hope one day, when they grow up and maybe have kids of their own, they’ll think differently ;(
For too long now sen kids get everything I’m glad the normal kids who attend properly are recognised for a change. In this Country we are praising all the unfortunates who will amount to nothing while the bright kids get forgotten about it’s got ridiculous
Sen kids will amount to nothing ,,, wow . What a nice person you are , I have sen child who ended up doing 4 years in uni and is now about to do a masters and she never attained perfect attendance in primary school please don’t talk about things you know nothing about ,
Hey teacher…….leave them kids alone
Well, as a foster carer, that would exclude most foster children, many of whom are very brave and have overcome incredible odds to be attending school at all. I don’t like this one bit!
They always do this at St Bliacus Shanklin and never a complaint is heard