6 year old is sad to only have 2 words to say in nativity

I’m a teacher and had your situation and left it, didn’t cause a fuss. It never got any better. My child was overlooked throughout primary. Unfortunately some teachers aren’t particularly fair and don’t consider how left out some children end up being. So ask, don’t leave it.

If it makes you feel better - when I was at school and we did the nativity, the first year I had no part at all. Just left to sit it out with two others for whom there was also apparently no part. This was a small private school with less than 25 of us in the year. In contrast, there were 90 in DD's year and they managed to find a part (most non speaking) and a costume for everyone. Villagers, sheep, loads of inn keepers, stars....it's not that hard.

I haven't read the full thread but would say this.

We're only about 13 weeks into the year. So not everyone will have had certificates yet. We generally try and be fair across the year and ensure that all children will be recognised for something. We give out one certificate a week. Not a certificate for every child who shows something every time they show it.

Secondly, allocating parts in the nativity/Christmas performance is an absolute minefield. Include a SEND child with unclear speech and another parent will be cross that their child with perfect diction hasn't been included. Include a child with perfect diction and the parent of a child with unclear speech will be cross that you're not being inclusive enough.

We often see a different version of a child than the parents see at home. We allocate roles, speaking parts and consider how much movement there is based on what we see of that child every day. Some children want a speaking part others don't. Some like the idea of it and want to do it but are anxious about speaking in class so we wouldn't put them on a stage to speak in front of an audience. Or we'd give them a couple of words.

I've never worked with a teacher who just thought, "Ah fuck it!" And randomly allocated parts or gave the least confident child a major.part. personally, I consider their personalities, capabilities, behaviour, levels of comfort etc and find a way to.include everyone as best as I can.

Thirdly, I also don't mind any parent talking to me about anything for any reason. Be respectful and listen to my response that's all.

It's my class and my job and I do it well. That doesn't mean I never make a.mistake, never forget or never overlook, even though I do my best not to, because I'm still just a person doing a job and no one is perfect.

The fact that you’ve said you are a teacher amazes me! You should know better.

The issue with the play is that you have 30 kids per class and need to give each something to say. Perhaps others are more vocal and will be given roles of narrator which do generally get more to say, however it's likely most children only get to say something small. I know we have had to have a child saying welcome to our play and someone end it with thanks for coming just to ensure they had something to say.

Certificate wise how often are they given out? We do ours weekly and it's one per class. Maybe he hasn't got one yet as it's a new school year and the class teacher won't know what last year's teacher did. We have a copy of the register and tick off when we have given a child a certificate so in theory everyone in the class will get chosen at some point, but it might not be til the summer term. It sounds unfortunate but as he joined late in the school year he might just have been missed off by that teacher.
Definitely encourage him to continue showing the right behaviours. We have some children who cry when it's not them that win, and have to work with them on understanding we need to be pleased for our friends but it is ok to feel a bit sad.
I don't think there is anything worthy of mentioning to the teacher yet, unless it turns out for example 5 certificates per class are handed out each week and the same children are chosen each time.

We are 12 weeks into the school year so less than half my class have had a certificate yet. We give out one a week in celebration collective worship. I’m not sure what you want the teacher to do about that - invent more weeks?

Sometime ago This morning featured a boy who had the task of opening a door to let Joseph and Mary in and that was all he had been offered by the teacher. Sadly not all the kids can be the star of the show. I thought it was good of the teacher to think of having door openers in the event as it must be hard trying to include everyone.

I don't think there's any harm in telling the teacher hes feeling invisible. The teachers do want the children to thrive.

I hate Star if the Wrek. Great for the one who gets it, rubbish for all the others. And the one that's last on the list feels the worst of the lot (and it feels like a made up reason... DD got got hers for "doing well in the drumming class". )

My son is doing theatre at the conservatoire. This year he will play someone who doesn't say anything because he's mutic. A play is about group effort not individuals so you can tell him that.

About the diploma I would gently ask the teacher if everyone got one except him. Maybe that's not true? And if it is the teacher will surely give him one.

When I was a teacher there was av pager in my mark book (I’m that old) which showed which kids had received a certificate and which hadn’t, I’d always tried to make sure over the years they all got one/a fairly fair split. It will come.

As for the play big up his part, with a class full of kids they can’t so be Mary and Joseph. In some places it helps if your parent is a governor. I was one but my kids were not interested and asked for demotions.

You’re a teacher? Secondary by any chance?

Don't be so ridiculous 🙄

My granddaughter was Mary last year. She had two words " I'm tired' it's amazing how different those two words can sound. With the right gesture, eye role, sigh, yawn she smashed it. She's now known as Dame Judi Dench. He'll be great... ' Who meee ???'

I have a class of almost 30 children and only 5 have speaking lines.
Of course I had to choose children that were confident as they need to be happy to perform this to all the parents. Your son doesn’t sound very confident and so this is why he wouldn’t have been chosen for a larger role.
Re certificates, yes it’s worth mentioning in February if he still hasn’t got one. However also consider that intrinsic motivation is far better for child development than extrinsic motivation (which your son (or you) seem so bothered by).

All children will get a certificate /star of the week etc

weve had 11/12w of school so under half of the class (if 30) would have had by now

someone has to be last

They hadnt planned to have dancers. They had six classes of children involved.

@deste why obviously no dancers. DS’s school plays always had a dance sequence, usually performed by the younger cast members as stars, angels etc

Get your son to ask the teachers the questions first. If no resolve then you can do it.

Mine was asked if she wanted to be a singer in the nativity but she said “no, she wanted to be a dancer”. Obviously there were no dancers and she was a narator as were many of the others.
My friends grandson has one line.

Did the teacher ask children if there were parts they wanted to do? Is he good at reading, confident? If they are trying to share lines across 90 children they will need the more confident children having the larger parts, otherwise it might be a nightmare trying to run a play with so many speaking parts and so many children forgetting them which will have knock on effect on all the other parts

But he hasn’t been in this class 6 months @Crowandrow