School using curry 'bribes' to improve attendance (From Daily Echo)

School using curry 'bribes' to improve attendance

2:50pm Tuesday 21st July 2009 in

By Ash Bolton » Senior Winchester Reporter

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SCHOOLS have cooked up a novel idea to improve their children’s attendance at school.

Parents are being offered the chance to win a free curry if they get their children to class more often. Local restaurants have joined the scheme by offering a meal to mums and dads.

It has proved so successful that truancy rates by persistent offenders at one school have been cut by more than half.

But the scheme has not curried favour with everyone. One teaching union branded it “bribery” to reward parents for fulfilling their legal obligation to take their children to school.

The scheme was launched at Glenfield Infant School in Bitterne last September after average attendance figures dropped below the recommended level set by Ofsted.

Every youngster at the school with a 95 per cent attendance rate is entered into a draw once a term along with those whose truancy has dramatically declined. Good behaviour is also taken into consideration.

The winner’s parents receive a meal voucher to the value of about £40.

The cost of the scheme has been met by POSH, with no money taken from the school’s budget.

Five sets of parents have so far received a meal voucher at POSH Indian restaurant in Southampton, which also entitles them to alcoholic drinks.

Head teacher Joanne Dorricott, who came up with the scheme, said it was not bribery but a reward and incentive for parents.

She said: “We are delighted.

Even if we can make a difference to one child it’s good news. The number of persistent absentee children has decreased by half since the autumn term.

“We don’t want parents to think that they are not good at getting their children to school. But we need to imbed how important it is to get children to school at this age.

Otherwise we have lost them.”

Barbara Trott, vice-chairman of governors, said: “It’s ultimately about the education of children and if they are not there regularly their education is just going to suffer and we will have failed them. So anything we can put into place to increase their attendance can only be a good thing.

“It’s a way of saying thank you to the parents and that we appreciate their efforts by making sure their child recognises the importance of coming to school. It’s teaching children to abide by the school rules to come in every day and turn up on time. If you start getting behind that’s when problems occur. We want the best for every single child but we need parents to work with us.”

Ron Clooney, Southamptonbased executive member of the NASUWT teaching union, said: “It’s bribery and totally inappropriate.

It is a legal requirement to bring your child to school. It gives out the message that you don’t do anything in life unless there is a reward.

“If a parent doesn’t send their child to school they should get a prison sentence not a curry.

Society is going crazy and it’s bordering on lunacy.”

A similar scheme was also run at Townhill Infant School during the 2006/07 and 2007/08 academic years.

Head teacher Penny Orme said that it also improved attendance after parents received a meal at POSH and Kuti’s Brasserie in Southampton once a month.

Manoj Raichura, owner of POSH Indian restaurant, Queensway, said: “It’s sad in a way that we have to do this but we are doing it for the future of these children.

“If we can do something good and it helps just one or two kids avoid ending up on the streets or doing drugs then at least we can say we tried.

“I think it’s excellent news and we want to increase their attendance even more.”

See today's paper for more on this story

Comments(66)

goard says...
12:11pm Tue 21 Jul 09

Talk about the carrot and the stick! I would be using the stick rather than the carrot and that would be for the parents. It's time to put the boot in for some parents and their erstwhile kids - actually I use to truant and scrump for apples, but by golly I was afraid of Mum. All kids do it, but its worrying because we are now breeding sub-human species on a large scale.

goard