4 year old never gets award

DS was in a class like this. Heard about the rewards and was extremely motivated in class, and was really upset and confused when the teacher didn't ever call on him and he never got an award. According to his teacher this was because his participation showed that he didn't need the encouragement...I moved him after that. Totally wrong message to instil in children.

Wow. Every class I know do it on rotation. So everyone gets a chance.

And calling me a peach is personal, is it not?

How was it a personal attack? You’ve consistently minimised people’s opinions. This is an opinion board! Why don’t you take your own advice and “let it go”

Another personal attack. You are a peach. Yawn.

Are you okay? Seriously. Your responses are quite personal and confrontational.

Perhaps you should take your own advise and not tell someone what to do? Or accuse them of things because you don’t like what they said.

It was a normal response, no sign of anger at all, just didn’t agree with your insistence that OP needed to let something go that was bothering her. You were trying to minimise her feelings which is poor advice. Stop with the faux concern, very transparent.

You are not being unreasonable I’d be the same and asking the teachers if there’s an issue

Some dc don’t get awards at all throughout school, especially if they’re high achievers. I just told mine not to worry, when they got older the exam results are what counts. Even then though, they’d been so overlooked we had other dc and parents disbelieving dd in particular’s results. You can’t have got that, they said. She went on to get onto an incredibly competitive degree course. Again, disbelief and no congratulations from school at all.

Teachers really should ensure all primary dc are appreciated and rewarded. It’s made dd a really hard worker who is extremely self driven. She’s humble and just gets on with it. Her friend who won multiple prizes despite not achieving the best results, is now having all sorts of therapy at uni and needs constant praise and reassurance just to function. It’s a really odd system in the UK. There’s something really wrong with it.

It'll be the kid who has gone 5 minutes without threatening to smear poo on the walls or something like it who gets all the awards, as it is in my DC school. I honestly would breathe a sigh of relief she hasn't had one OP!

That's the whole purpose of the awards though, to incentivise the behaviour the teacher wants?

I had this exact same thing but my daughter was in junior school. I sent and email detailing exactly what I had observed but explained I understand there are lots of children but surely the teacher/LAs/lunchtime supervisors if they’re going to do awards could keep track of who there giving things to and maybe encourage the ones that haven’t had them.

I had the quiet child that was very gifted academically. Used to drive me mad, all a sports team had to do was rock up and lose for a big sing song in the weekly newsletter. My son got the best SATs results, attended Yr 11 maths at the secondary school in Yr4, but nowt was ever mentioned. Sad to see things haven't changed much.

in my experience a lot of the times the awards get given to the kid who is a complete nightmare, but has had 2 days in a row without biting another kid.

Meaningless to you perhaps. But for some children, the ones whose parents don’t take them to swimming, gymnastics,chess club, ice skating,football training,ballet etc etc a printed certificate with their name spelled correctly , recording that they were kind and helpful to a new child in the class ( other awards are available) may be the only physical validation of their effort or achievement that they get.

Never underestimate the poverty of some children’s lived experience. It is easy to assume that all children are valued and praised at home, many are not.

Hmm, perhaps. I do think the emphasis on corelation rather than causation is flawed though if we have parents doing all those good things but not on the PTA, whose children are consistently overlooked for awards and recognition. I'm not saying that's the case always or everywhere, but I'm convinced I've seen that favouritism at play.
Maybe there's an alternative dynamic at work where PTA corelate to 'In group' and non-PTA corelate to 'Out group'.
My DC moved to the Independent sector from Y4 where there was no PTA and the parents were much less of a presence in and around the school. From that point on the recognition for children was much more about their actual ability and achievements.

At 4 years old by this point in the term they should have been able to give her an award for something- being a good friend, listening well, helping the teacher etc. They are being mean leaving her out like this. I would contact school and ask what does she need to improve on to get an award given that 50 something have been handed out and she’s not had one. I’m fairly confident she will then get one the following week.

I actually think you're right to raise it, op. It doesn't sound fair at all. I'd probably raise it very quietly though, and not display your disappointment to your dd. Lots of girls end up with performance related perfectionism. Don't pass any anxieties onto her about this.

Indeed. I know of at least two children of PTA parents who behave like entitled, uneducated bullies. Very affluent backgrounds, wealthy parents. Have been tearaways since the age of 6.

It just flags up how meaningless these awards are, if they are done on rotation. The other scenario is that the awards are given to children who need additional encouragement ( Well done to Benji who sat through a whole carpet session without hitting his classmate). Your DD is presumably kind and well-behaved and is passing below the radar.. not always a bad thing.
If DD thinks it's unfair, (as opposed to you) then have a word with her teacher. It's unlikely to be deliberate, or if it is, then there are concerns which you should be made aware of.

Whoa thats quite an angry response - are you okay?

This happened to my dc who was desperate for an award. When he finally got one I mentioned to the teacher how he had felt, just in passing conversation. The teacher was mortified he had missed out for so long. So maybe mention it if it goes on much longer.

Someone may have, somewhere...

However, when you see the looks on their faces when nice things are said about them in front of the school, then you realise the impact it can have.

Also, they can be given quite strategically, praising the behaviour/achievement in this way, (eg, unusally neat presentation in one piece of work when the child is usually a bit disorganised in their handwriting) can definitely have an impact on their effort with presentation subsequently.
I wrote one of these only last week and it has definitely had a good effect on the child in question.
With children who do not behave particularly well, I would usually give the award for something that they have achieved well in academically, rather than anything to do with a random day of good behaviour.

Why not give her awards at home - once a week / month - something she's done really well without you coaching her or giving her an inkling in advance. We often used to carry things on from school to at home. Bless her