Rejected petition End School Attendance Reward Schemes

Reward schemes for 100% school attendance punish and exclude children who are absent from school due to illness, disability and bereavement, or who come from families with problems like addiction or mental illness. In effect children are either given a reward they haven't earned or punished (withholding a reward being a de facto punishment) for something over which they have no control.

This is divisive, discriminatory, cruel and unfair. It is also ineffective and contrary to established psychological theory.

We call on the Department for Education to issue guidance to schools to end this practice immediately. We also request that schools are supported to devise more targeted, less divisive, more evidence-based ways to encourage attendance.