Offering money for each GCSE pass or points?

In that case it's much better for him to face the consequences of not doing well and have to take retakes.
That's a much better lesson for young people than paying them per grade.

Back in the day my mum offered me a tenner for every A i got. My dad said he’d match it. Don’t think they expected me to get a clean sweep of all 9 subjects 🤣🤣 I don’t even think they said it as a way to get me to work harder, it was more of a passing comment.

No definitely not.
The reward should be the pass itself.
If you want to reward anything then reward the effort they put in not the grade.
But generally I think children and young people need to learn that doing well is going to help them in the long term and that not everything important comes with another external reward or bribe.

No, I have never understood this. They should want to do well for themselves, not how much you pay them. It also puts pressure on achieving top grades which feels unkind.

No

I used to be against it on the basis that it harms intrinsic motivationthen thought about the fact that it’s basically work, most of us do a job and try to do it well so we get more money and promotion. We are nowhere near this yet but I don’t really see the problem. I’m not sure how many people are intrinsically motivated to be an accountant for example.

No. It will reinforce not being self motivated. Let them deal with the consequences. Maybe THAT will give them reason to become more motivated. Young people don’t need to believe they’re always going to be rewarded for basic effort they should be doing anyway.

Sometimes it is much easier to bribe them through each stage than it is to pick up the pieces later.

Mine is severely dyslexic and ADHD with PDA tendencies though so that probably makes a major difference. Executive function is very behind for age.

We are doing £200 per 9 and £300 each if he gets a full house (all 9s).

Pretty much no chance.

We haven't said anything about rewarding 8s. Might negotiate a lower reward on that.

Absolutely not

With ds, who didn’t really see the importance of them, but really wanted a job (August birthday so still too young), we paid a nominal amount (I think £2, 4 years ago) per hour of work. Most of it was done on Seneca so could be tracked, but he was actually very conscientious and stopped the clock whenever he got distracted! I reckon he did about 100 hours overall which was much more than he’d have managed otherwise and his results were better than expected…

@Stowickthevast

My thoughts. I’ve got one who’s waiting for results and will pass them all with flying colours. No bribery needed. My daughter will work just as hard as him, but still won’t get 8s.

Agreeing with awarding effort.
9s can just be luck on the day. And if you have more than 1 child, it's not really fair if they both work hard but one gets more money as they get better results.

We offered money going by expected grades from teachers. Worked well for both our children and gave them an incentive.

Years ago I gave my son money for each A, simply because he had worked so hard. He was highly self-motivated and I didn't tell him I was going to do it until about a week before the exams so if he hadn't worked hard it would have been too late.
He ended up with 9 As so it was quite expensive!

If a child is a bit lacking in motivation but is motivated by money I think it might help.

I haven’t done this. I bought chocolates a card and we had a takeaway. I would have done the same regardless of grades. Grades are not always reflective of the effort put in or lack of it. My son’s incentive was that he needed the grades to get into his chosen level 3 college course. He didn’t want to do a level 2 or another year of GCSEs. We home educated.

This is what we did, but with more for each 8, then more again for each 9.

DS is very bright and would have passed everything without opening a book, but this incentivised him to actually put some effort in to get top marks. He has openly admitted he wouldn't have bothered without it. (We didn't bother doing this for A levels since without top marks he wouldn't have been able to get into uni, so he was mature enough by then to take responsibility himself...)

It isn't my style either, but I can absolutely see why some parents resort to it.

@TeenToTwenties

Fair enough - just not my style. I encourage mine for sure. I try and make them see the value of their GCSEs. We’re not a well off family. My kids know that they’re not going to be bribed or funded to motivate them. It’s on them and they know that.

No. Reward the effort and hard work when they've finished their exams.

£90 for a 9, £80 for an 8, £70 for a 7 etc etc

But not all DC go on to uni. For some it is a point of getting those passes to do a L3 BTEC, where they then fly.

If i could bribe DD to learn to drive, I would.

No. I wouldn’t. I just don’t believe it works. Try and foster intrinsic motivation in your kid. If they haven’t got it, the consequences of not having it will kick in at some point, and voila - intrinsic motivation.

When does it end? A-Levels? Driving test? …. Degree?