Dad's fury after school rule convinces son he can 'only be ill on weekends'

Nathan Burns blasted the "really bad" school attendance drive which saw students being awarded with certificates each term if they managed to have as few days off as possible

A dad has told how a school attendance programme left his son feeling he could only ever be unwell on weekends.

Nathan Burns, 27, was left "worried" after his young son said he couldn't take days off school - even if he was sick - because he wanted to win an attendance award. He said the youngster, six, goes to a school where the pupils with the highest attendance win a certificate at the end of each term.

The dad, from Nottingham, has vocally opposed the policy on social media and called for schools to place less of an emphasis on attendance. He said the policy is "not healthy" and "makes no sense" and added that it would "stress out" children who - like his son - would have high attendance levels regardless.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Nathan 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. 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 sparked a social media storm after expressing his thoughts on social media, with 22,000 others chiming in on the already contentious issue. Schools have tried using positive reinforcement to tackle increasing absences that have become more pronounced since the Covid pandemic.

The dad added: "It's not healthy or necessary to stress out children who have high attendance already, rewarding 100 percent 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 percent 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."