To think this reading challenge is bullshit

[Imhavingcheesefries]

School reading challenge. You read 3 chapters (KS2) or three small books (KS1) and in return you get a raffle ticket.

Each week the raffle is pulled and the child gets a small prize (rubber, ruler, small novelty thing). Tickets then roll over to the next week. They pull 10 tickets each Friday.

Last week one child had 77 tickets just for that week! So she had read 231 chapters that week apparently. So if you struggle to read at all there is no point in even entering because you're up against ridiculous odds, this kid has hundreds of tickets in the raffle now. She's not the only one either, there's about 6 kids with huge numbers of tickets and some kids with one or two.

AIBU in thinking they should put some upper limit in place, no more than 10 tickets a week etc?

[CrohnicallyPregnant]

YANBU. We were discussing a reading challenge the other day and decided to 'cap' the reward so that only 1 bit could be earned per day. (So in your case it would be 1 raffle ticket a day, max of 7 a week) Otherwise we would have kids doing nothing but reading and competition between parents to see who could get the most that day.

I mean, we already have parents writing in their reading diary that they read their school book, sibling's book, library book in one night. At 5 years old.

[barinatxe]

YABU. Children should be encouraged to read, the more they read the better. If this incentive works in persuading a child to read a few more chapters, all the better.

It's a bit like the apocryphal story of the factory introducing a bonus for every model that an assembly line completed. Work rates shot up, huge amounts were being paid out in bonuses. The management weren't happy at paying so much, so they put in a bonus cap. What happened? Work rates slowed back down again, so the bonus was achieved but no extra work.

The sensible manager realises that more products made = more profit for the business, even if it comes at the cost of more bonus payments.

Your suggestion of a limit of 10 tickets per week means that children will see no point in reading further once they have reached this number. I do agree though that the tickets should not roll over. The weekly draw should reward reading done that week. A child who spends one weekend a term reading constantly should not have hundreds of tickets in the draw when a child who reads two chapters per day only has a handful.

[EweAreHere]

It should be capped at something sensible, as posters above have pointed out.

[Imhavingcheesefries]

Yes thank you. This child's name was pulled 4 times last week

[ShelteredLifeMe]

That sounds awfully unfair in those who struggle.

My ds class have to have read any amount, a page, sentence book at any one time, 3 times a week to gain extra play on friday. Every child acheives this

[CrohnicallyPregnant]

That last bit- I'm all for reading and encourage DD, she reads several books a day. But it seems OTT and competitive to write all that in the diary, every day.

[CrohnicallyPregnant]

sheltered that sounds more similar to our reading reward, the focus is on reading regularly rather than huge amounts in one day and then nothing.

[ElderDruid]

I'm guessing it's meant to be motivation for the pupils to engage in reading, but as you've highlighted it's easily abused or goes in favour for those who genuinely read a lot. My DC just don't like reading, whilst I'm a bibliophile so they have access to every kind of book you can imagine.
The prizes are pretty poor, so I don't imagine anyone is deeply upset at not getting a pencil or rubber. Just get your child to achieve what they want and set your own motivational goals.

[bumsexatthebingo]

I don't think an upper limit would help but maybe if it didn't roll over it would help? Or they could give a ticket each time a child read a school book so kids would be rewarded for reading a book at the level they were at (presumably the better readers would be reading longer/more complex stuff). Are the same kids winning all the time?