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?

Our school has a house system, I noticed that all the naughty kids are in my daughters house, she’s top earner in her class. Apparently some of the kids for other houses have been cheating aswell. It’s a miracle her house have won at all.
The same thing happens in DS class, always the same kids....

What if kids are brats in the class and get star of the week cause it's their 'turn'. Not fair on the good ones is it?!

Even children with challenging behaviour are likely to do something during the year that is good. They may have to wait longer into the year to get it though.

I think you can do both. One of my dcs was very well behaved, tried hard at everything but was so shy and quiet she used to get overlook.
I agree that surely every child has some quality they can be praised for.

DS1's school used to do this. When I asked him why he got it once in (in yr1) he told me it was for "good sitting". When questioned further he said it "was his turn".

DS2's school appears to give it to a subset of children - I assume it matters to them. DS2 can't tell me why they get it but doesn't seem at all bothered that he never gets it. Fortunately he's quite happy at school so I suspect his teachers realise it's not a motivator for him.

At our kids' primary, the exceptionally good got it, the challenging got it - the invisible middle were overlooked as always

Same as at my kids school! Maybe they go to the same one lol

When my DC were at primary (3 years ago) it was often given to children who generally had behaviour issues but had behaved for a bit that week, or to the high achievers. The ones in the middle who sit quietly, do their work and don't draw attention to themselves were mostly ignored. I don't agree with it.

I dislike these kind of awards . Some children will deserve them every week and some will never ever deserve them but will get them just so they’re not left out (regardless of the fact they’re a total pain in the ass ) Then the average stuck in the middle quiet children are forgotten .

My child’s teachers gives out little notes to pupils when they feel they deserve it eg
Just a note to let you know that “ child’s name “ was really kind today when Andrew fell over and cut his knee .
Or “ child’s name “ worked really hard to learn his tables in school today “
They’re between the teacher , pupil and parents which I think work much better than the falseness of Star of the week .