AIBU to think school giving out awards to exceptional children is unfair?

I actually think that it’s gone so far that the high achieving children often miss out. I feel sorry for them - whilst others are quite rightly rewarded for their efforts, those who are lucky enough to be naturally gifted or work extremely hard to achieve high results are overlooked.

I am all for children receiving awards for exceptional achievement. But they didn’t need to get the recipients to show their awards at the leavers’ assembly which is an occasion to focus on celebrating everyone.

The special children had already been celebrated separately, they should have left it there.

load of bollox. nearly every school does awards for "exceptional" kids. but given every school does it, they ain't exceptional at all. it's meaningless, just a load of noise.

As long as there were rewards for a variety of things art music sport and not just academic and awards for improvement too I think it’s fine. At my granddaughters gymnastic class everyone got a medal, even though it was for six year olds it was ridiculous, kids that just wandered around doing zilch got an award . My little granddaughter had practised for ages , even at her young age she knew the medal was pointless and worthless ! Last seen lying in her sandpit!!

When children work hard and do well they deserve recognition. It also inspires and encourages others.

At my son’s school there doesn’t seem to be the same ability to work hard and progress for every student. Children who are exceeding the standards will not be stretched or be able to demonstrate progress in the same way as others.

I thìnk it is a good thing to have academic awards as well as sports and music awards but I think there should be one other prize, which would be for the child who has made the most improvement/effort. This should not go to any of the children who have already achieved a prize.

plus why do we celebrate pop stars, actors etc if everyone is the same ?

well its certainly better than giving the bullies an award

Bright, well-behaved kids don't get enough recognition, so I think this is great.

So your child got an achievement award and now you feel sorry for the children with SEN???? Presumably an achievement award means you have actively achieved something. Don't see why that would rule out any of the children. It's positive to see hard work and results rewarded.

I put you are not being unreasonable because yes we should celebrate children's achievements but we also need to recognise children who while their achievements might not seem exceptional for them it is

Yes.

@Bigears6789 , better that children learn early that life isn’t fair. Sad but true, some people have exceptional abilities. We all have ability though and the trick is not to wallow in self pity but to exploit our own talents and learn to do the best we can with whatever our parents gave to us.

I don’t have a problem with this honestly who cares . Life’s no crystal stair , not everyone gets an award and children have to get used to this as well I guess . I do think it’s important that it’s not just about good results and that awards go to children for other things as well though. What a ridiculous comment implying that people with SEN don’t get awards and you feel sorry for them ? Like what are you actually on about a lot of people with SEN are high achievers and don’t need your “sympathy” plus not everyone who doesn’t get an award has SEN. Ludicrous comment

My son knows that he’ll likely never get an academic award because he isn’t academic. That doesn’t bother him to be honest, 100% attendance awards do though. I think because at least with academic awards, you have to work for them but attendance is just pure luck.

The thing is these rewards are never going to be 100 fair and that’s what I personally have got a problem with. They don’t do this at my children’s school luckily but if they did I know my DD1 would never win an award despite having been at the top table all throughout primary and being 2nd best in the class at English and 2nd best at maths in her class. Why? Because she’s not THE best, she’s hasn’t got SEN , she hasn’t got a winning personality and her efforts are consistent so no improvement. So she doesn’t stick out. Seeing some of the comments from other people with similar children who’s never won an award confirms this.

I never won anything at sports day but I'd always win something in our school Eisteddfod (for which we used nom de plumes) because I was better at poetry and painting than running very fast.

I think awards are a problem when they only recognise a certain type of achievement. My son's school has awards for academic achievement, sports, arts, but they also have big awards for students who embody the school's values - so stuff like kindness or resilience. I love those awards.

However, at a year 6 end of primary thing I prefer when everyone gets a prize - stick with me here - I don't mean that everyone wins so no one loses, I mean awards for specific things that make each child unique and wonderful in different ways. My nephew had "most curious mind" - he's clever but this was celebrating asking questions and sharing facts rather than who got the best results in a test. or you do "most likely to..." so you can reflect strengths and characters. You can award being a good friend, bravery, telling the best jokes, whatever.

I think it’s good that the kids who didn’t win didn’t have to sit through the secret assembly.

Exceptional kids should be celebrated more. Many schools avoid recognising this group in the quest to be more inclusive.

No, even more minor to be frank. It’s kind of shocking, even a teacher has picked up on it and said to his class “look try your best but we all know who will win everything anyway” hinting at this girl…

I do see what you mean. My eldest GC finds academic work easy, she puts far less in than my eldest DD (dyslexic) or youngest DD (LDs) ever did. My youngest has worked hard to get into catering in the NHS. My youngest GC struggles and has had health issues which has meant 100% attendance and outstanding academic work is impossible. We might as well have beauty competitions.

My DS1 often got awards for stuff. He's autistic and has mild learning disabilities AND to add to his struggles he wasn't motivated at all to learn anything. Yet he kept on having awards. DS2 who is academic only once had one when it was a regional maths comp. I had to tell him why ds1 kept getting awards. Luckily he didn't understand why he got them so he was happy. Otherwise he would have felt humiliated. I still don't think it's fair though.

Lol, yeah, course your DC got one. Course they did 😂

i’m guessing Tom Parker’s kid?

this is the issue with anything that’s not purely academic achievement based.

I think exceptional achievements should be celebrated and I think children should be encouraged to celebrate their peers.