To be annoyed at school talent show?

[upsideup]

The talent show was a few days ago but I didn't have time to post about it. DS1 has just finished Y4 and has never done very well at school, most of the time hes falling behind and his behaviour isn't always as good as it should be, definitely not the teachers favourite, understandably. He is however a really talented dancer/gymnast, for the talent show he choreographed his own dance. He was really good, lots really impressive tricks for an 8 year old, the other kids and parents were cheering throughout his performance, there lots of gasps when he was doing his tricks. He didn't place though which of course shouldn't matter but he deserved to get an award.

Instead first place was a group of 4 girls dancing to a routine they copied online, every few seconds one of them messed up and they all started laughing, been allowed to stay it and practice at lunch everyday this week, were then allowed to preform it to the whole class because they worked so hard giving up they're lunch. They're well known at being the teachers favourites. 2nd place two kids singing together, again both top of the class, both help out at everything and so do their parents, they was good but it wasn't great.

I have nothing against these children and they are mostly all lovely, but they weren't talented in what they were doing. 3rd place, really clever boy, he obviously wasn't actually a dancer but hes made his own routine with lots of robot moves and it was actually really funny and enjoyable to watch so he deserved to be up there, he was way better than first and second place anyway.

It wasn't just DS I'm upset for and deserved to place, they're were lots of other kids who weren't the teachers favourites but preformed something they were talented at and people were actually impressed with what they had done. One girl, really shy and I think pretty middle of the class at everything so probably normally ignored sang, she was really nervous but she was clearly talented, she got a proper applause and she deserved to be noticed but wasnt.

So AIBU to think if the school decides to host a talents show where the kids are judged that it should actually be judged on talent rather than than who is well behaved, clever and most liked by the teachers?
I think the headteacher seemed to notice and not be impressed by this so I hope they got spoken to.

@BigPinkBall A child's hair colour has never once been a factor in whether or not a child is my favourite or not. I don't know a single teacher for whom it ever has. Are you perhaps confusing teachers with Nazis?

OP, you are giving this too much thought and you speak bitterly and critically about other CHILDREN. Tell your child they did a great job and move on.

You really need to let this go and move on. Tell your DC how proud you are and how fantastic the performance was.

Then forget about it.

It was the same when my DC were at primary. Same faces got the lead roles in shows, singing solos, picked to represent the school. DS was one of them probably because he has always been reliable, learned his lines and not messed about. DD equally reliable was usually villager number 4. Her face didn't fit in the same way despite her doing acting lessons and me helping at school!

I was a TA with a lovely teacher who kept a record of who had done/won what so that things could be fairer. She also picked children according to their individual strengths which was great.

We used to have a tealent show at the end of every school year, and we always made sure that the 3 judges were quite impartial- usually the school cook, the Head or deputy and a governor. It seems unfair that the class teachers were the judges, because obviously if your son had misbehaved during the year then they probably wouldn't want to reward him. Luckliy, our new HT decided to scrap the talent show so we don;t have to endure it now.

It’s a popularity contest and sadly a fact of life.
Teach your son to be resilient, true to himself and forget the rest.

Awwlookatmybabyspider
To be honest op. You find the winners are already picked out. Usually teachers children or one of parents is on the PTA.

Complete load of chippy bollocks, and a lazy cliche that is an insult to the teachers who put in a tremendous amount of effort to reward talent and hard work from everyone, in a fair and transparent way. I don't even know which of the parents in my class are on the PTA, nor could I care less.

I think there must have been complaints about our school talent show because two years in a row the winners were as you describe. 4 year 5 and then a year later, year 6 girls who lip synced and half heartedly shuffled to a dance they'd found online. Lots of giggling and mistakes. It was a whole school show so there were a couple of tiny 4 year olds who'd quite bravely got up and acted out a funny poem, a y3 girl who sang on her own, a quite remarkable piano routine, stand up comedy, a karate display and so on. But the 4 girls who won (2 years in a row) were the DC of the PTA and head governor. There were mutterings in the playground. Now they don't run it as a competition and every child is the winner. More mutterings

I too suspect parental glasses might be rosier than the teachers.
Perhaps instead of being angry about perceived injustice (maybe the girls were simply better) you make him endear himself to his new teacher by behaving well in school?
You teaching him he was treated unfairly ( which he probably wasn’t) over what was meant to be a bit of fun is a sure fire way to undermine school and turn him off learning.

Ours was organised entirely by the school council.
Each act was given a small prize and the overall winner was chosen by the elderly visitors from a local residential facility.
They chose the boy from year two who forgot his words but went on again at the end and did his song perfectly (if tunelessly). There were no objections. It is a tiny village school though.

OP
Does your son do dance and gymnastics outside school?

A school talent show can be about giving children who don't do OOS activities a chance to win. Not fair on your child in terms of talent and ability but fair for 4 girls who have given up their own time and managed to get a routine together with no dance teaching.

If your son is in OOS activities he came in there.

Can you imagine a school diving competition with a 14 year old Tom Daly

It's a highly unpopular view but ime it is the same faces getting the main roles, pieces to perform in assembly etc and it is demoralizing to the other kids. It is also one if those things that teachers are frustratingly unable to see.

Our year 6 did a leavers play. They held auditions for the lead roles.....the teacher could have saved himself the time and effort because any one of the parents could have done his line up for him. A lot of the children were very upset actually.

I know teachers put a huge amount of effort into performances and they want it to be great. But really, x has been a narrator for the last 6 years and would have liked a shot at something different. Great speaking voice or no. The teacher in our case could have bolstered the confidence of so many children but quite frankly blew it. I heard several kids say variants on "what's the point?"

Oh and being a talent show I'd expect it to be judged on talent really.

As a teacher l may be a bit biased but my bias is always with the underdog. As the Special needs teacher l do have a soft spot for that child who comes to me and struggles so much with reading / maths. I will be totally rooting for them at talent contest or when parts are being selected or teams picked. I like everyone to have their glory day. And l hate that talent contests are competitive. We just have a talent show..no winners.
But genuinely in over 30 years teaching l have yet to see the blonde child being favourite and in our staff room we have conversations about how Joe needs a bit more encouragement so lets remember that when the captain is being picked for the team this week. As SNT l constantly put a word in for mine and won't let anyone off with sidelining them even though a lot of them won't be the easiest in the class situation.
Op maybe school picked that group as they went from zero to performance in one week while your ds has had proper lessons for ages.

I think it would be safe to ignore the complaints of any parent who says the child with behavioural issues should never be able to win the talent show. Barring the naughty kids from having any success is about the best way for them to lose all faith in school and become even more of a problem in the classroom.

Welcome to schools OP.

I sung from a young age and was objectively really good. I had passed my grade 8 before year 9. In year 8 I moved from out local (private school) to another (private school). There were other girls there who also sang but max grade 3 level.

Every time there was a solo singing requirement one of two other children were picked and never me. Until one year the girl picked to sing the ‘once in royal David’s city’ solo bottled it. I was told with no warning to do it and killed it. Everyone complimented me said it was the best performance of that piece the school had ever done.

The next time a soloist was required the other children were picked again. I never got the chance to perform. To be honest it knocked my confidence and I haven’t sung since I was 17.

I should add. The other kids mums were always on the PTA or offered large donations to various causes.

Oh great, so now we have ninetysixer even accusing teachers of accepting bribes!

And colours effectively saying that teachers are too stupid to be able to see bias.

@wowlookatyou

Unfortunately, yes bribes used to happen in the private sytstem particularly when schools were struggling to stay a float. To think they weren’t is incredibly naive.

Schools are a business at the end of the day. Just like in business you have to ensure that you manage to keep your funds coming in. It wouldn’t have been as overt as “I’ll give you £5k if little Betsy get the part in the school play” but if Betsys Mum has just donated £5k to the school you damn well make sure Betsy and her mum are happy.

No, I damn well don't!

And I'm not in the private system so it's hardly naive to be ignorant of a malpractice in their dealings.

Of course teachers are biased.

On the other hand, listen to some of you. Get over yourselves

I feel really saddened reading the post. Lots of parents presuming that teacher’s biases cloud their decisions and yet refusing to see their own.

You cannot presume to know what other children are like in class and at school. The angelic blonde haired, blue eyed girl may have behavioural problems. The confident captain of the football team might really struggle with maths and actually have crippling poor self-esteem as a result. Quite frankly, narrator number 5 might actually quite like being a narrator and would hate being asked to sing a solo - it’s his parents that want that! Please trust, that most teachers, really know the children well and try very hard to let them all have their own victories and chances to shine in a variety of different ways. I actually had a parent phone me to grumble that a SEN child had won more headteachers awards this year than her chikd and they couldn’t understand how given that said child’s work must be of poorer quality. Frankly I was raging, that SEN child had worked hard despite finding learning incredibly challenging and their attidue towards learning had improved tremendously from earlier years. The complaining parent’s child was able but lazy, hence less awards. I then listed to the parent all of the other occasions her child had been selected or given a chance to shine that year which she had conveniently forgotten about!

Yes, teachers will naturally have children they like more. But the vast majority will know and acknowledge that fact and actively ensure that they are not seen to favour any one child.

Teachers are human, I think its just unrealistic to pretend they won't have kids the like teaching and kids they don't like and I dont think theres anything wrong with that, its natural.

And I think it is unfair to assume this affects their judgement when it comes to stuff like this.

Plus, way too seriously!

But, in fairness, if teachers are too stupid to see and compensate for their 'natural' biases towards children who are polite, well-behaved and a pleasure to teach, then what are you complaining about? It can't be helped!

(It can, of course, be helped, because, in general, teachers aren't complete idiots.)

Dismiss all you like, wow,
Ive witnessed it with my own eyes

Your own eyes? You mean you've seen various children cast in certain roles/win certain awards and you've made huge assumptions as to why that is.