To think that this is not hard to understand?

[supersop60]

If I said to you that a student of mine (yr5) had tried really hard today so I gave her a merit, would you have some idea of what that meant?
Dp is not well, so amidst the moaning and groaning, he looked at me blankly and said "I don't know what that is."
Really?

I’ve never heard “gave her a merit”, but I presume it’s a point or a star.

Yes I would understand. A merit is like a positive sign (we had actual merit stamps on a card at school) to celebrate an achievement or effort.

We had merit stickers. Well... I never got one.

We used to get a yellow slip with 'merit' written on it

It was merits for us in both KS2 and KS3 but different schools have different things.

Yes, of course

@NotUmbongoUnchained here you go. You deserve it.

Reminds me of when I was in year 6 and we were awarded merits. Split into 4 houses - I was in red house. Anyway I found the teachers stash of red stars. For one week the red house got lots of red stars

Dammit. The picture didn’t post

Oh it did. Now you’ve got 2

And yes op of course I’d understand you and think what a lovely teacher you are for giving a merit for effort.

Omg Thankyou 😭
I’d like to thank my mum, my husband, the academy...

I think at my school if you filled up a whole page with merits you won something.

Perfectly obvious what a merit is! Stop being so damned obtuse husband!

Thank you. I think DP is SO ill he's forgotten how to speak English, and he struggled bravely to ask me how my day was. Hence my reply.

To be fair, a merit is really short for 'a certificate of merit' or similar.

Hate to stick up for DP 😜 but I'd assume it was a positive action / statement of some kind, but not necessarily whether it was a big tick, a badge, a pat on the head or a specific exam grading.

I'd think it was a grade on a piece of work or a test, above a pass but below a distinction. That or like above, 'a certificate of merit'.

Like a house point?

We had merits and discredits at one of my schools. So I know exactly what you mean.

Just tell him what it means. Problem solved

It's obvious that it's something good, even if you don't know exactly what precise form that takes. Does he usually play silly beggars when he's not well?

We didn't have merits at our school, we had commendations.

Perhaps they changed to merits to save ink or something

Alphas, credits, commendations, house points, positives, achievement points, stars. OR on the other hand, order marks, black marks, Gammas, de-merits. Any more?

Connect rewards

Ahh I remember green merit slips would arrive in your form tutor's register, with a name and a reason, if you got to certain amounts you got a bronze, silvery or gold merit badge for your blazer. Then the dreaded yellow de-merit and detention slips. You'd see the coloured slips of paper before you knew who they were for, I feel like my school built unnecessary tension into registration...