4 year old never gets award

Is it possible to be mediocre at 4?!

There are still another 3 terms to go

if nothing after Easter and 6w left of school year then bring it up

someone’s child has to be last out of 30

The thing is, I sometimes wonder why on earth teachers do this stuff. It sounds good in theory but so often having star of the week / similar leads to children being disappointed. Unless it is managed extremely well (and, if some children are on multiple awards but one or two are yet to get their first, this isn’t managed well), it upsets the parents too.

To be fair, I feel the same way about those mad “build a Viking longship” projects. The best and kindest thing to do in that case is write an honest account of how long it took over the weekend and how many times the child (or mum) cried. If teachers actually saw how this stuff goes down at home, it may be done a bit differently.

When my DD was feeling similar I encouraged her to ask her teacher what she could do to earn an award. I didn't want to be "that" parent asking for their DC to get an award, and wanted to teach her to be assertive in getting herself seen / heard. I thought it might also just alert the teacher to the fact that DD hadn't had anything yet in case she hadn't realised. It seemed to work, she got one shortly after!

Imagine thinking any 4 year old could be mediocre. I feel sorry for you.

You’re completely missing the point of these awards 🙄.
They’re not for achievements so to speak , these kids are 4 !!!
They’re to Instill confidence in children, an incentive to like coming to school .
It’s absolute rotten behaviour that this little girl never gets rewarded for being kind or anything .
Shame on those teachers .
Every Friday this little child sees all the others around her be given an award & it’s never her turn , in her little head that must be awful .
I’d 💯 OP be bringing it up with them .
I’m not saying be confrontational obviously, but it needs to be addressed.

Unfortunately the children who just quietly get on, aren’t struggling academically and not naughty, are always back of the queue for any sort of certificates etc. I have two boys, both very academic, both very well behaved, but one is quiet and reserved while the other is outgoing and a very jolly character. The quiet one almost never won anything in primary and still is low on praise points at secondary despite never receiving a single negative point and excelling academically. The outgoing one was often very early in the term getting certificates and awards and was always picked for school maths competitions and Youth Speaks debates right from KS1, even though he is no more able than his brother.

This accurately reflects life where things come easier to extroverts than to introverts. I just really really talked up the intrinsic value to being well behaved & doing well in school.

Is it possible that she's just a bit mediocre?

A really good school makes sure every child wins something.

But has dd said anything or are your projecting?

It means nothing anyway.

I’m not saying don’t go and mention it. I would be more interested, as a parent, to find out if there is a reason why. You have said several times that you don’t know how she is behaving at school.. why not?

If you call the school and then she gets an award that week it’ll mean nothing. She’ll get one I’m sure, plenty of time.

yes, but you have a system to make sure no one is overlooked. If 51 awards have been given out don’t you think all 30 kids should have had one by now?

OP it could be an admin error…I once discovered that a child was missed off the bottom of the printed list we let recording this. It was in about December but tiny classes and multiple awards each week so everyone except her had had 3 or 4. I used to choose usually hy scanning down to see who hadn’t had one recently then choosing from them someone who’d done something good. I only spotted she was missing because she had done something genuinely outstanding so I chose her without looking and realised when I went to record it she wasn’t there. It could easily be something like this.

It’s tricky cos yes it’s just behaviour management but it matters. My daughter got a single PE award in all of y1 (each week a PE and a general award were given, so that’s almost 80 awards a year). She was gutted not to get a general one (v academic, well behaved etc, didn’t visibly need encouragement). Plus, when she got thePE one she actually remarked she’d messed around in PE that week and not tried very hard so has no idea why her teacher chose her!! So it clearly was done somewhat on rotation.

Or maybe you could explain your system to the parents so that they understand from the offset that their child is not struggling or misbehaving or being overlooked.

However...if you have a "system" that means ALL children will be rewarded how does that fit in with giving it to a child who "earned" it. What exactly must a 4 year old do to earn some validation? Your description of concerned parents "making a fuss" says more about you as a teacher than it does about the parents.

This was my DD for years, and her quiet nature didn’t help. She was never selected for an award until year 10. The award was for most academic and it was based on exam points so that’s why she won. The teachers were all surprised as they never saw her academic ability. They all found out when she got top grades in the school at GCSE and now younger DC come up to her and say are you XX and she says yes and they tell her she is an inspiration.

It really saddens me when some DC are overlooked. You’d like to think they have some kind of record and ensure all kids are considered for something at some point.

For gods sake, please don’t.
Do you not think the head of a school in charge of over 200 children has other things to worry about??
Speak to her teacher again if you are that bothered. Ask specifically about how she is behaving in school and is there a reason she hasn’t been awarded anything yet.
To be honest though, when a parent comes to me and makes a fuss about something like this it just makes me want to choose all
the other kids instead. I have a system that makes sure that no child gets overlooked but I’d much rather give them it because they’ve earned it rather than because mummy came and moaned.

And yes....teachers have favourites. And even the ones who don't have favourites can't see everything that happens in the class or in the playground so it's a completely pointless fear based system.

I officially opted out of reward charts and "star of the week" nonsense for my children in primary school. They are behavioural management tools that do absolutely nothing to instil a love of learning and a sense that being good and kind is your civic duty not something you do for rewards and points. I told my children that they would not be participating. I also had a massive issue that the "points" were often displayed on the wall in a hierarchy. Small children learn to sit still, share, speak quietly, etc at different times and stages. It is,imo, terrible to shame children for not having it quite right yet on a way that would never be done for learning maths or reading.

My son received an award from a dinner lady for good table manners. He’s 22 now and the only award ever given.

My daughter is 27, stood up many times for golden child for her class, but then bizarrely the head had to choose from 12 children standing up which one of them was the overall best to receive the Golden Child trophy for the week. She never ever got it as the head clearly had favourites. I could never get my head around it, as it was an on the spot thing.

I think YABU. They have told you she is fine which is probably true but an award is supposed to be for something exceptional. Why should it be on rotation, awards don't work like that. We had commendations at my school but there were no where near that many, they were done at the end if the school year and there were 5 in the whole school, not per class. In the whole time I was at school, i got 2, some kids never got any. If your child wants an award she has to up her game and do something noticeable. Just keeping her head down, her mouth shut and working hard is not enough.

@DesperateDad80 DC do notice. My DD got very demoralised about other dc getting all the accolades whilst she was overlooked. Bright dc pick up on unfairness, but she was older. So I would now go to the head as the class teacher has failed to address your concerns. I hate this stars of the week rubbish. My DDs infant school sent notes home in the book bag. Parents shared them with dc privately. Junior school was the offender.

I wouldn't go to the teacher; I would go to the head of the school.
She's 4.

Frankly, that's appalling and so demoralising for her.

Maybe you needed to be specific - 'I noticed that she hasn't had an award yet while everyone else has and some have had more than one - is this an oversight or is there something that we need know?' I don't think you are being unreasonable under the circumstances, but I suspect it's just an oversight. I remember when DS was in reception, he was upset because he was the only child not to have been given time in the reading corner (3 children were allowed every day) and now others were on their second turn. His teacher insisted that they had all been, but it turns out that he had accidentally been missed off the list and another child was on there twice.

@DesperateDad80 As a Reception teacher, I would advise you to ask the teacher if there could be an agreed upon target to help your daughter work towards an award. It’s probably an oversight. I think this is a good way to show the teacher your child wants to work hard, and also that you expect the teacher to have high expectations of your child (and also to know her well enough to set a target, and pay enough attention to notice when she meets it!)

p.s - just for reassurance, at my old school leadership wanted pupil premium children to have got their awards by Christmas. The vibe was if I was teaching them well, they would have achieved by then. Silly nonsense, but it’s the sort of thing that causes delays for other children.