I can't believe...

[Kim]

i agree, its unfair when people get it if they dont do any work or skip lessons

i think you can apply for it this year even though you didnt get it last year, as youre told to notify them if theres a change in circumstance which means you dont qualify for ema anymore so im sure it would work the same the other way round. the best thing to do is ask at your school, theres no harm in trying, and im sure youll be able to apply for it

At my school, you had to go to all your lessons in the week, and if you missed any, you didn't get it. You couldn't go home in free lessons either, and had to be in the study room working. So if you are ill and have the day off, you won't get it, the same if you skip. It's the same in a lot of schools.

That is unfair, if you are ill, you can't attend lessons, surely you could get a note from your parents or the doctor to prove genuine illness to claim the money.

i agree, if you are genuinely ill its unfair, but how could that be proved? your parents could write a note for you if you wanted to skive off, and you have to pay for doctors notes so no ones likely to do that!

I think they did it because EMA is for you going to school. So if you don't, for whatever reason, then you don't get it. I didn't get it when i had trips either, cause i wasn't in lessons. And with the bonuses, you would only get them if you acheived or bettered your predicted grades in all your subjects.

My school might have just been strict, but it was a good motivator!

I thought it depended on whether your teachers thought you had worked hard enough for the bonus or not. Predicted grades is another silly system, mine changed so much during GCSE. I don't think it's fair to do it on those if that's what they do; I underachieved in 2 subjects at GCSE and they were the ones I did the most work for. I'm sure a lot of people have some modules worse than others, it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't been putting enough work and effort in.

[Abigail]

i agree, its unfair when people get it if they dont do any work or skip lessons

i think you can apply for it this year even though you didnt get it last year, as youre told to notify them if theres a change in circumstance which means you dont qualify for ema anymore so im sure it would work the same the other way round. the best thing to do is ask at your school, theres no harm in trying, and im sure youll be able to apply for it

At my school, you had to go to all your lessons in the week, and if you missed any, you didn't get it. You couldn't go home in free lessons either, and had to be in the study room working. So if you are ill and have the day off, you won't get it, the same if you skip. It's the same in a lot of schools.

That is unfair, if you are ill, you can't attend lessons, surely you could get a note from your parents or the doctor to prove genuine illness to claim the money.

i agree, if you are genuinely ill its unfair, but how could that be proved? your parents could write a note for you if you wanted to skive off, and you have to pay for doctors notes so no ones likely to do that!

We were allowed three self certifiable absences per term or 10 per year (don't know how they figured that out). After that we had to have a parents' letter or a sick note (which, btw, you don't have to pay for). We only had to attend for timetabled lessons (15 hrs + 1hr key skills in yr12, 12hrs + 1hr gen studies in yr 13) and could go home during frees.

Our bonuses were assessed on different things like attendance, punctuality, quality of work, on target, making an effort etc.

My mum would never write me a note if I was skiving.

[Kim]

My tutor was talking to us about self certificating absences on Friday. When my EMA comes through I will have to ask her if we are allowed so many before we lose the money. We're only allowed home for Period 1 or Period 5 frees in Year 13, providing the school are satisfied that we did our best in Year 12. They withdraw that though if it doesn't lead to improved performance. Don't have to worry about that just yet. I won't be able to go home if they'll allow me anyway unless I can drive by then.

[Perdita]

Attendance is the only criteria that should count for getting the bonus or not, if you don't get on with a teacher and he/she says that you have not worked hard enough, you could be out of pocket, although you might have worked as hard as you can. Everybody can just do their best which the teacher might not see the same

[di marco]

i agree, its unfair when people get it if they dont do any work or skip lessons

i think you can apply for it this year even though you didnt get it last year, as youre told to notify them if theres a change in circumstance which means you dont qualify for ema anymore so im sure it would work the same the other way round. the best thing to do is ask at your school, theres no harm in trying, and im sure youll be able to apply for it

At my school, you had to go to all your lessons in the week, and if you missed any, you didn't get it. You couldn't go home in free lessons either, and had to be in the study room working. So if you are ill and have the day off, you won't get it, the same if you skip. It's the same in a lot of schools.

That is unfair, if you are ill, you can't attend lessons, surely you could get a note from your parents or the doctor to prove genuine illness to claim the money.

i agree, if you are genuinely ill its unfair, but how could that be proved? your parents could write a note for you if you wanted to skive off, and you have to pay for doctors notes so no ones likely to do that!

I think they did it because EMA is for you going to school. So if you don't, for whatever reason, then you don't get it. I didn't get it when i had trips either, cause i wasn't in lessons. And with the bonuses, you would only get them if you acheived or bettered your predicted grades in all your subjects.

My school might have just been strict, but it was a good motivator!

yeh it sounds like your school were doing it how it was meant to be done. so many schools dont though which is unfair on students who go to the ones that do!

[di marco]

I think the whole system is silly too. It's not our fault how much our parents earn. Even if they do have a load of money then there's no saying they have to hand it over in order to help with their child's education. My friends won't get any EMA; I think a set amount per week should just be given to all students who stay on; no student's effort to carry on learning after 16 is less valid than that of another.

i agree with that. i didnt get ema and i dont begrudge people that did, but what annoys me is the only thing my mum paid for for me was my uniform (cos i went to a new school and had to wear a uniform) and my retakes. any new clothes i wanted for outside of school or anywhere i wanted to go i had to pay for myself, so it really annoyed me when people i know got the full £30 and just spent it on going down the pub or buying loads of new clothes, while their parents still gave them money and paid for anything school related. i know not everyone does this but it annoys me the people that did cos obviously their family didnt need the money if all it was being spent on was alcohol! one day last year when my sis was having an argument with my mum about lending her some money she told my mum that "technically you should be giving me £30 a week as i dont get ema so the government obviously think you should be giving that amount of money to me!" needless to say my mum told her off and said she didnt think she needed £30 a week to just go out with! tbh i dont think theres ever going to be a completely fair system, even if everyone got money then people would probably moan or if they made the guidelines stricter people would still moan. on the whole, i think its quite fair atm but its just the minority of people who take advantage of it

[di marco]

i agree, its unfair when people get it if they dont do any work or skip lessons

i think you can apply for it this year even though you didnt get it last year, as youre told to notify them if theres a change in circumstance which means you dont qualify for ema anymore so im sure it would work the same the other way round. the best thing to do is ask at your school, theres no harm in trying, and im sure youll be able to apply for it

At my school, you had to go to all your lessons in the week, and if you missed any, you didn't get it. You couldn't go home in free lessons either, and had to be in the study room working. So if you are ill and have the day off, you won't get it, the same if you skip. It's the same in a lot of schools.

That is unfair, if you are ill, you can't attend lessons, surely you could get a note from your parents or the doctor to prove genuine illness to claim the money.

i agree, if you are genuinely ill its unfair, but how could that be proved? your parents could write a note for you if you wanted to skive off, and you have to pay for doctors notes so no ones likely to do that!

We were allowed three self certifiable absences per term or 10 per year (don't know how they figured that out). After that we had to have a parents' letter or a sick note (which, btw, you don't have to pay for). We only had to attend for timetabled lessons (15 hrs + 1hr key skills in yr12, 12hrs + 1hr gen studies in yr 13) and could go home during frees.

Our bonuses were assessed on different things like attendance, punctuality, quality of work, on target, making an effort etc.

My mum would never write me a note if I was skiving.

oh ok, maybe if youre in fulltime education and 18 or under you can get them for free. i just assumed everyone had to pay for them cos i know of people who have had to pay for their doctors notes (and i think its quite expensive too!). though i wouldnt have thought doctors write notes for just anytime you were sick, if you always needed a doctors note for when you were off school youre not just gonna go down there if youre just off for the day with a migraine or something, i think the doctors would get fed up of having to do it lol! (i dont think i explained that very well but oh well i know what i meant! ). and i wasnt saying every parent would pretend their kids were sick when they were skiving (cos mine wouldnt either) but can you honestly say that no parent would do that? i was just saying that how is it proof you were actually sick just cos your parents have written a note?

[di marco]

And with the bonuses, you would only get them if you acheived or bettered your predicted grades in all your subjects.

I thought it depended on whether your teachers thought you had worked hard enough for the bonus or not. Predicted grades is another silly system, mine changed so much during GCSE. I don't think it's fair to do it on those if that's what they do; I underachieved in 2 subjects at GCSE and they were the ones I did the most work for. I'm sure a lot of people have some modules worse than others, it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't been putting enough work and effort in.

Our bonuses were assessed on different things like attendance, punctuality, quality of work, on target, making an effort etc.

Attendance is the only criteria that should count for getting the bonus or not, if you don't get on with a teacher and he/she says that you have not worked hard enough, you could be out of pocket, although you might have worked as hard as you can. Everybody can just do their best which the teacher might not see the same

im not sure what the official guidelines are for people to receive bonuses but obviously each school seems to decide differently. again though, i think it would be very hard to determine what criteria should be used. if, say, it only went by attendance then surely people could just turn up for school and not do any work or distract the class, but they would still get the bonus cos they turned up yet they didnt do any work. or if it goes by predicted grades, if you work your hardest, turn up to every lesson, do all the work, yet for some reason get lower than your predicted grade how is it fair that you wouldnt get the bonus? or if it was judged by effort, then one teacher could be more strict than another or favour different students. so im not sure how the bonuses could be decided on fairly but i do think that every school should have to decide using the same criteria

[di marco]

We're only allowed home for Period 1 or Period 5 frees in Year 13, providing the school are satisfied that we did our best in Year 12. They withdraw that though if it doesn't lead to improved performance.

we were only ever allowed home in our frees if we didnt have any more lessons that day, we had to come in first thing in the morning even if our first lesson was a free cos they wanted to make sure we were in school for the rest of our lessons and didnt turn up late etc. we were allowed to do that in both yr12 and 13 but they did sometimes not let you if you were consistently not doing hw/cw etc. the form tutor just used to ask you the next day why you werent in registration in the afternoon and if you said you had a free then it wasnt marked as an absence or anything

[Abigail]

oh ok, maybe if youre in fulltime education and 18 or under you can get them for free. i just assumed everyone had to pay for them cos i know of people who have had to pay for their doctors notes (and i think its quite expensive too!). though i wouldnt have thought doctors write notes for just anytime you were sick, if you always needed a doctors note for when you were off school youre not just gonna go down there if youre just off for the day with a migraine or something, i think the doctors would get fed up of having to do it lol! (i dont think i explained that very well but oh well i know what i meant! ). and i wasnt saying every parent would pretend their kids were sick when they were skiving (cos mine wouldnt either) but can you honestly say that no parent would do that? i was just saying that how is it proof you were actually sick just cos your parents have written a note?

A doctor's note is different from a sick note. The pink sick notes are free. Asking a doctor to write a letter on headed paper is what you have to pay for.