Primary school "Star of the Week"

[littlemissmoomoo]

At my children's school, each class teacher picks a child who is"Star of the Week". The names are announced in the weekly newsletter. In assembly on a Friday the children all go up to the front and are given a chocolate medal. And the end of each half term all the chosen kids have a tea party (cake and juice) with the head teacher.

The same children seem to get picked all the time. I know this because I have 3 kids at the same school. One seems to get picked every 3 or 4 weeks, one has been picked 4 times this school year and one has only been picked the once.

I personally think each child should get picked once and then repeat throughout the year.

My child who has only been picked once gets upset every time one of his siblings gets picked.

How does it work at your kids schools?

I'm the one who types the names onto the newsletter at my school. I don't know how the kids are picked, but it's not the same ones every time, and I can see how the teachers have sometimes had to have been creative to find an excuse for someone's name to go in. New children nearly always get it at the end of their first or 2nd week for settling in well. It's based on our school values rather than academic achievement or pure behaviour, and it's a certificate and a round of applause in assembly, a mention in the newsletter, and the certificate goes up on the wall for a week. No other reward.

The fact they get a sticker for putting pen to paper makes them even less likely to work.
it really annoys me when that happens. There are no brats in my class, there are 30'children who have individual needs and they all have to earn their stickers, it takes a darn sight more then putting pen to paper as they have to go beyond what they must do. I put effort into finding each child's sticker moment and when they get one they know they have earned it.

School who are making sure everyone gets it twice a year (or whatever) might as well do it in alphabetical order, no?

I don't think teachers can win on this one. It is very dispiriting for children never to get one. On the other hand giving an equal number to every child means they become rapidly meaningless as given for where the child is in the register rather than for a reward of effort or attainment. I have twins and they quickly learnt with one teacher that if ds1 got a certificate one week ds2 would get one the next. Maybe not so obvious for the other children she was trying to be fair but it did make a mockery of the whole reward system for them.

Mind you don't get me on "Star of the Day" voted by the children. Brilliant way of telling a child they are deeply unpopular and unliked.

In my DC’s school, every child is supposed to receive at least once. I am currently a bit annoyed that my well behaved, hard working DC hasn’t been given it yet this year despite other children receiving it more than once.

My DD's school has this nonsense. When she was in year 3, she had a very personally ambitious class teacher who was also the head of reading, head of tear 3, head of bloody everything. She was more focused on getting ahead on her career than on the class so the entire class got star of the week except for DD. She didn't get it once. But the 'bratty' kids got several times.

DD is a quiet child, she hardly speaks up so the teacher conveniently forgot about her. I'm absolutely sure it's not because she didn't earn it. She was always in the top sets in her class and is extremely well behaved albeit rather timid.

So I used to tell her that the bratty kids needed the reward because their behaviour required improvement but DD was already well behaved so there was no room for improvement or some such bullshit like that.

I don't hate star of the week but I do hate incompetent teachers who can't carry it out properly.

I used to hate this when DD was at primary. She was a quiet middling child who rarely got the Star but was very aware of it.

I personally found all this frustrating ( unless of course my perfect children were picked )
Joking aside, my own children would come home and report that the 'mischievous' children would get rewarded regularly yet the very well behaved children wouldn't.

I totally understand the reasoning for this but I still could see my children's point of view.

In secondary school the same happens ( not pupil of the week) The children who require more guidance, discipline for whatever reasons tend to get numerous house points, yet the kids who are continually well behaved, respectful barely get any.

My girls were the invisible... the school quite obviously had a rota for the first go through of the class - alphabetical ... then did the high flyers and challenging students for the rest of the year.

My 2 were in the middle, well behaved, fairly intelligent, did their work etc - basically invisible. So they didn't get another, or a big part in a play, or to greet visitors, or library duty ...or...or... or anything only seemingly allocated for the high flyers or most challenging.

But now they have bloomed at secondary school and have attained a slew of A/A*/8/9 the school want to put their pictures in the "didn't we do well" newsletter of the year - one DD has said yes - she didn't really care and her friend is in there, the other said something which I am not comfortable repeating but made it clear she was not letting primary school get any credit.

The kids remember.

At my last school I used to keep a list to try and make sure all of the children had it a roughly equal number of times and that nobody was missed out, but there was no rota and if a child stood out as deserving it I’d give it even if they’d had it recently. Sometimes I’d have one child left who hadn’t received it after everybody else had had it at least once and I’d be desperately waiting for them to have a good week (or even a good day) for weeks. To be honest I found the whole thing a massive pain, it would get to Friday morning and I’d usually think ‘oh shit, I have to think of a reason for someone to be star of the week’ as only occasionally would someone have done something outstanding and memorable.

I’m much happier that my current school doesn’t bother!

My dcs are at Secondary now too.

Our Primary never did Star of the Week. Instead, they used to give out 'Merrit' certificates for - good work, creativity, kindness, helpfulness etc. The certs were given out regularly without huge fanfare. I used to find them in the book bags and put them on the fridge for a bit. I believe that nearly all children in the class must have have some form of certificate fairly often.

In Secondary they won't get awarded constantly so it's good to get used the idea. We have an awards day coming up (I'm 99% certain my dcs don't have an award) but it really is something special that they're awarded for - not just 'hard worker' of the week etc.

I hate this so much, my DD never gets picked its always the same few each and every year.

We have had a few learning issues that she has worked really hard to get through and has smashed her targets but still no star of the week. Same with the school play and taking the register.

We pick a goal each week which children work towards so as the scope is very wide all children eventually get it. The whole school is on the same goal.
If we have one or two children who haven't received it yet we endeavour to find an area they try hard at in order for them to get it.
They are always thrilled even though there is no big prize or anything...just the recognition and the cert.
When we pick the goal the children go all out that week to surpass themselves in that area which often continues on...not always. Eg if its... showing good manners the whole school is falling over itself with good manners which can continue into the future.

I’m not sure exactly how dds teacher chooses it but I haven’t seen any child get it more than once. It seems ott with chocolate medals and tea parties though.
My dds school - the award gets posted to the house (I spose to stop other kids feeling bad?!) and the teacher writes on the back why it was given, which is really nice!

My DC's primary school has stopped doing Star of the Week, for all the reasons mentioned on this thread. I don't think anyone was too upset when it stopped!

Many children who are "quietly in the middle" often seem to get overlooked somehow ,which is a shame .Having a rota seems somewhat pointless however !.Some children just seem to "shine" in the classroom enviroment. Perhaps other awards for Sports,merit or just good behaviour? .I seem to remember this at my childs school some time ago!.

My kids school does superstar of the week and star cushion. Everyday someone who did a good thing gets to sit on this nice cushion the next day. Because its everyday and they rotate it carefully, most children get a go regularly. Superstar probably is slightly less of a rota but it always impresses !e what they choose. I have had three DC through the school so we have seen our fair share. Sometimes its for a really good work, or behavior, or asking a question of a visitor when no one else would, or being helpful. My bolshy daughter got one once for originality and leadership skills! I think they really try to compliment the child on their individual strengths, which is what it should be about.

Some of those ‘brats’ are the children who most need a bit of appreciation. 

So totally agree..

My school give it once to every child in the class (to preserve the sensibility of the parents we think).

then to the children who deserve it the most.

So everybody has 1 go, and then it's on merit.

'making sure everyone has a turn, regardless of effort, behaviour or attitude to learning and school life makes the entire thing pointless. It's the same as insisting 'everyone's a winner' at sports day. The children should get recognised for their genuine achievements, so that when they win something they know it's a real accomplishment, rather than that they would have eventually got the certificate anyway without having to do anything to earn it.'

I agree

Completely pointless

I’m a teacher. I don’t have a rota but do have a class list I tick off when children have had the certificate that week, to try to make sure everyone gets a turn. Not to say I’d give it to a child who had done nothing to deserve it just because it was their ‘turn’, but if I knew someone still hadn’t had one certificate whilst lots of other children were on two, I’d be watching that child carefully to see what positive effort/behaviour/progress I could recognise. There are no ‘brats’ in my class and there is no child that has nothing positive about them, if I thought like that I’d be in the wrong job.

That said, I could happily live without star of the week (and all the other certificates and awards I constantly have to find children for). I teach young children and waiting to make a fuss on Friday because they did something great on Tuesday just seems a bit pointless and looses its impact.

Thank you to all of the teachers on here doing an excellent job. I don't agree with posters saying these awards are a waste of time at all. I went to a boarding school after some rather hectic years at home (6yo) and was constantly told off and punished. I used to get stars for good work but then have them taken away for black marks. It made me so angry/sad/disheartened and I know I disengaged. One mistake not saying the right thing at breakfast would wipe out a lovely thought out story I'd slaved on in prep. I tried to run away and worse before I was 8. Cried in the car on Sundays when I had to go back. Then in y3 (now year 5) a lovely teacher gave me a gold star for a story and said I could type it up for the magasine! She made effort with me and I completely blossomed. I just wanted to come on and say that I am so glad times have moved on in 20+ years and on the whole most people in teaching do understand that encouragement for good behaviour is always better than negative attention for bad flowers.

And I shouldn't post on here with a hangover

I hate this star of the week crap. My child is in Reception. Desperate to get the bear to take home for the weekend. But not had it yet, and this week one of the naughtiest children in the class got it for a second time. I think I'm going to have to be 'that parent' who speaks to the teacher about it.

I don't like star of the week. But if a school is going to do it they should make sure it is fairly distributed. Every child has something to celebrate. The ones a PP call 'brats' probably need it the most. At our local school each class has a star of the week and they are told why they get it. Eg trying extra hard with xxx this week., being very helpful, kind to classmates, joining in well etc, So there is no reason why a child with ADHD or other learning difficulties shouldn't get it as often as other children.