Money for results?

[Watdaheck]

I’ve just visited my daughter for a few hours, my GS (her oldest son) has started high school this year and we were talking about exams etc. During the conversation she mentioned that she had offered him £100 if he gets all E1’s in his exams ( I actually don’t know what this means but assume it’s top marks) and would I like to match it? I didn’t answer as the conversation turned to other things.

Back home now and mulling on this, is it right to reward kids with financial recompense for getting top marks? What’s the likelihood he would get top marks in every subject? If he doesn’t will this affect his confidence. He’s one of 4 kids (he’s the oldest) where does this leave the other kids. What if they’re all doing exams but not all getting top marks, won’t this cause jealousy?

interested to hear opinions on this.

I always rewarded effort, rather than grades. Though, for us it was usually a meal or day out, rather than cash. I am a TA and some of the children I work with work really, really hard, but will never achieve better than 'average' grades, and some won't even get that. But it doesn't mean they haven't given it their best effort.

The motivation to slog through school subjects that you didn't choose & don't have any aptitude or liking for, particularly when others behaviour is pretty bad and teachers are stretched too thinly is hard for younger teens.

I dont love the idea of giving them money for studying or improving their grades, but it's probably going to be effective!

I'm not sure I'd want to reward top grades though, so much as improvements and effort.

No, absolutely not. It gives completely the wrong impression.

Reward effort, tell them how proud you are of how well they work, and instill in them the idea that although good grades are great, there are many other qualities which make a good human.

What if siblings are unequal in academic ability? Why pay one to make the other feel inferior?

It's about knowing the child. We didn't with either of ours, they put themselves under enough pressure and it would be actively unhelpful. But I can see it works with some (more resilient) children and young people.

I firmly believe at both GCSE and A level that there is a good dose of luck in what questions come up etc. Some students will absolutely crush the entire syllabus but there are a lot more for whom the difference between a high 6 and a low 8, let alone between a high 8 and a low 9, is largely down to the luck of the draw.

We rewarded ours for their results but doctored it so they both got the same amount even though their grades weren't the same, so essentially it was for effort. And they don't know beforehand what they would get so it wasn't presented as an incentive.

I feel it gives the wrong reason for getting good schooling. Surely child is, learning, informing themselves & having a full sense of a subject, etc.; doing all that for themselves, …not for money?

People here are very anti giving money for grades but I don't see anything wrong with it. If it helps motivate a dc to start working, does it really matter?
You can be proud of how hard they worked, and be pleased they got great results.

I know one of my dc's friends was disappointed with their results and the parents said "we know you put a lot of work in, so your results don't matter" and he took that to mean "we never expected good results anyway" which was not what they wanted to imply.

Money doesn't motivate kids to get good grades - they may work harder, they may slog themselves to bits, but it doesn't mean they can attain the top grades.

Have people not heard of ability?

In the summer I gave my goddaughters a sum of money each because they both performed beyond their mocks. So they had been working hard. That's what I rewarded - effort, not attainment.

Every child is different - there's no one size fits all way of doing a reward.

DS devised a chart for himself - £10 for every 9, £9 for 8 etc. Bonus extra £10 for getting a 9 in English because he was predicted a 7.
It worked for him. He did very well.

DD on the other hand needed a different way. She was predicted 2s and 3s so she wanted £10 for every 4 and a bonus if she got English and Maths. It was about the same improvement on predicted grades as DS so we thought it was fair.
It worked for her - she got exactly what she needed to get into college.

Another child might not need an incentive at all, it might hinder them. You have to go with what your child feels will help them. There's no right or wrong. Let them decide.

Well yes if they have all the intrinsic motivation already then great. But not everyone's coming at it from that place, even with best efforts to instil it.

I did this, it worked a treat. I had a system and was heavily weighted towards subjects my DC found difficult. I did it for GCSE’s , they ended up with a nice pot of money, I never had to remind or tell them to revise, do homework etc.
One DC struggled with French and after the money plan was launched the teacher said I don’t know what’s got into your DS but he’s downloaded an app to help himself and he’s really couldn’t be trying harder. I worried he was going to be like me with languages so I was so pleased when he passed.
I think you know if you think this would be beneficial to your DC or stress them more etc.
I said to them the GCSE’s are important for A levels and getting into uni and that the money is just for GCSE’s. They worked really hard for their A levels so they probably would have for their GCSE’s too but even if it helped a tiny bit I’m happy with that.

@NestEmptying am I reading that right, your son's chosen reward for achieving a 9 over an 8 was a single pound?! I'm struggling to imagine the pound was the main driver there but whatever, he sounds motivated and happy which is all we want.

Most kids are at school because the have to be and not because they want to be. They often have no motivation to learn things that are of no interest to them and cannot see the point of.

Most people wouldn't go out to work if there wasn't any money involved, so why do we expect kids to not feel the same about school? Very few kids will be wanting to learn more and better themselves without an external motivator.