I have a seemingly irrational dislike of the new 'Stars Of the Week' system at dds primary

[PoorOldEnid]

and I wonder why

Is it because of an intrinsic dislike of anything 'happy clappy' or holiday camp-ish

or ARE there any downsides to them

Teachers pick one or two children a week to be the STARS - the reason is put on a board in the reception area of teh school eg " Enids dd is a STAR because she is reliable and helpful to others"

[MamaG]

I don't really like it either. My DD is 8 but wasn't SOTW once last year - she was actually very upset and she's a confident girl. It pissed me off - I thought they ensured that everyone was SOTW at least once but having 5 different teachers in the course of a year mucked it up I think.

Tis shite.

[MamaG]

actually she's 9, but she was 8 in last school year

[PoorOldEnid]

oh god

if dd1 or dd2 ARENT stars at all I will be furious

am assuming everyone gets their little moment in the 'sun'

[FluffyMummy123]

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[FluffyMummy123]

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[PoorOldEnid]

it reminds me of 'employee of the month'

the cornerstone of any crap job

[bundle]

dd2 has star of the day so everyone definitely gets a chance

they sit on a Star Cushion

[Majeika]

I sort of agree and would be sad if ds didnt get to be a superstar.

It might help those who need something to work on though.....

....dunno really as ds is regularly a superstar!!

[MamaG]

i did consider going into school near the end of the last term and mentioning that DD had never been SOTW, but I have been quite, er, vocal about other more important things in the past adn don't wnat the teachers to talk about me in the staff room "God she's a right bitch" etc !

[Majeika]

lol at star cushion!!!!

[PoorOldEnid]

yes we have new head

it is no longer 'miss minchins academy for young ladies' but all shiny and new state school ish

[FluffyMummy123]

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[FluffyMummy123]

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[Pidge]

I detest it too - they had it in reception at my dd's school and it's a ridiculous scheme. Only one or two kids get it each week, so it doesn't improve general behaviour because it's an irrelevance to most of the class (unlike whole class rewards like Golden Hour), and in practice it just rotates around the naturally quiet and well behaved kids anyway.

My dd got it one week and said to me "Well, I don't think I did anything better this week than I did last week". She saw through the whole sham at age 5!!

[Boco]

I don't really like it either. They've just introduced it into dds class in year 2. Even the children know how stupidly arbitrary it is - dd said yesterday 'Kate is star of the week and she hasn't worked hard at all! It's only because her mummy told the teacher that all the work made her tired!'

[MamaG]

you won't love it if your DD gets overlooked htough, like mine

[mehgalegs]

We have the Golden Book. Each Friday is Golden Book assembly and two children from each class are chosen to go in it. It is torture, especially if they have written poems to read out. It is the longest assembly in the world. I only go if one of mine is in it and then I leg it quick when they have done theri bit.

[Buda]

Our school does Top Dog awards every Monday - each class gets one - they do ensure that every child gets at least one over the course of the year. Although I don't remember DS getting any last year!

They also have a Positive Postcards thing. Every Friday at assembly one of the children rides in on a trike wearing a postman's hat and give the postcards to the dep head to read out. Anyone can send a postcard to anyone. For instance a teacher might send one to a group of children who helped another child with something. Or a child might send one to a teacher for being nice and friendly. The children seem to like it.

[FluffyMummy123]

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[Majeika]

Just go in and say it MamaG

I went in and said to DS1's teacher, ' I dont care if you think I am one of those parents - I want DS to have the more difficult spellings to learn!'

I am sure they would prefer to have parents that care about education rather than those who cannot be arsed to do anything!!

[FluffyMummy123]

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[PoorOldEnid]

they do lots of things like 'I am fantastic because...'

and they have done a thing with the name of the school where they have a big sign saying the name of the school with motivational words coming out of it like this:

C uddly
R espect
A mazing
P ious

etc etc

[FluffyMummy123]

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[Majeika]

at the thought of kid on a trike a la Postman Pat!!!!!

[PoorOldEnid]

ooh good I am glad you have used the word 'arbitrary'

it is, totally