Parents have been left furious over a school's 'unfair' decision to hand ice cream out to children who had 100% attendance last term.
Children at Bede Burn School, Jarrow, were reportedly crying over the primary school's attendance reward system, which sees pupils who had full attendance last term a free ice cream, provided by a ice cream van which came onto school grounds.
Mum-of-two Gabrielle Houston, whose children attend Bede Burn, said the incident had left her eight-year-old son 'in tears' at school pick-up on Friday, January 21.
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"As soon as he came out, I took one look at him and he started crying," said Gabrielle. "He told me that some of the kids in his class had got ice cream from the school, and some of them didn't, he was was one of those who didn't.
"He explained that the children who had one-hundred-percent attendance were able to leave class to visit the ice cream man, and then return to their seats with their treats, while those who didn't get one had to continue working.
"The incident made him feel as though he had done something wrong, even though he hadn't at all.
"There were lots of other children who were also visibly upset and crying to their mums and dads in the playground too.
"Children can't help becoming unwell, and they shouldn't be penalised for having to stay off school because they are sick. It's just completely unfair."
Gabrielle, 28, who lives in Jarrow, said that herself and 'several other parents' had expressed their concerns to the school on the day of the incident, but said she felt as though their complaint was 'brushed off'.
Supporting Gabrielle is her sister 24-year-old Liv Mouter, from Hebburn, who said the school's reward system was 'extremely damaging to young children's mental health.'
"When Gabrielle told me what had happened at Bede Burn, I was in disbelief that a primary school would be using sweet treats as a incentive for attendance," Liv said.
"Reward systems are not the issue. Children should be rewarded when they have done something positive or need to celebrate an achievement, but children as young as four-years-old should not be rewarded for their physical health."
Whilst Liv acknowledges that Bede Burn did not take Covid-19 related absences into account as part of it's reward scheme, she said that the pandemic would still have impacted children's attendance because parents were acting more cautious than usual over typical colds and flu.
"Children catch all kinds of illnesses on a regular basis, often from school too," said Liv. "It's ridiculous to teach children that because they've managed to avoid a tummy bug over the term, they deserve an ice cream, and those who were less fortunate do not."
The ice cream reward system was introduced to Bede Burn for the first time this year by headteacher Helen Smith, who is also the head of St Oswald's CE VA Primary in Hebburn.
St Oswald currently shares the same reward system as Bede Burn.
Liv, who has a Masters of Research Psychology degree, accused the current system 'taunting young children with food' and that a fairer policy at Bede Burn would be awarding children with attendance certificates, house points or handing out stickers.
"There are many families in the North East who will not be able to afford treats like ice creams at home and young children would have been taunted with not being allowed one," she said.
"Children at this age are very sensitive, and whilst it might seem trivial to an adult, to a young child, not being treated the same as your other classmates is a huge deal and causes a divide between pupils.
"I would go as far to call it cruel."
Gabrielle said that on the same day of the ice cream incident, the school also handed out free specially-designed pencil cases to children who had handed all of their homework in last term.
Each pencil case was personalised with the name of the individual child being rewarded for homework record.
"If a child had handed in all their homework in on time last term, then they received a personalised pencil case," said Gabrielle.
"Whilst I understand the importance of children completing their homework, all of the pupil's work is now completed online through an app, and it's actually up to the parents to send the work back to the teachers.
"These are really young, primary school age children and they rely on the adults to make sure it gets sent off. It isn't like it used to be where children can bring their work in on a paper copy in their book bag and hand it to the teacher themselves.
"It's therefore not the children's responsibility to make sure their homework reaches the teacher, it's on the parents, but it's the child who will be penalised for it.
"There are also families at the school who don't have permanent access to technology and the internet, which makes completing online homework a real challenge."
In response to the incident, Liv has now started a online petition on change.org, which she hopes will encourage schools across South Tyneside to find 'more inclusive ways to reward pupils'.
"I started the petition so that schools in the area would take notice and hopefully implement a healthier alternative," said Liv. "It would be great if we could raise awareness over the issue, and even get the council on board to help us encourage a fairer system in schools for the future."
The petition, which can be found here, has now collected 538 signatures since Saturday 23 January.
Bede Burn Primary School told the Chronicle that it was aware of the concerns regarding its attendance and homework reward systems at St Oswald's CE VA Primary and Bede Burn Primary School, and confirmed that it will be reviewing the type of rewards which are offered to pupils.
Mrs Smith said: "We strongly believe that praising children for attendance and homework helps to prepare pupils for the world of work and life in Modern Day Britain. We believe that these values should be reinforced from a young age.
"We pride ourselves on our inclusive and nurturing approach to learning, and while we acknowledge the concerns raised, our attendance and homework policy will continue to stand. We will, however, review the type of rewards that are offered to our pupils, in consultation with parents, staff and governors."
A spokesman for South Tyneside Council said: "We are keen at all times that good attendance is rewarded by schools in an inclusive way. We recognise the challenges with school attendance currently as Covid infection rates remain high.
"Individual schools will have their own approaches to this and if parents have concerns they should raise these initially with the schools concerned."
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