Is this fair? School reading competition

[RosieLemonade]

There has been an extreme reading competition at school Basically children had to take pictures of themselves reading in extreme situations. One child posted themselves reading on a horse. Is it fair they win as not many children would have had the opportunity to take a picture like that?

I don't see the issue really. A child reading on a horse is no better than a child reading on a trampoline IMO, or on a canal boat!

Also, is reading whilst on a horse, an 'extreme situation?!'

We do 'extreme reading' but not as a competition. Any child can send a photograph in and get a certificate for their extreme read. We also are very relaxed in what classes as 'extreme' - it's basically anything other than just sat reading a book tbh.

Most extreme would be in a library at the moment.

If you really feel strongly about it, OP, why do you have to pick a winner? Make a big display of all Class 4s amazing reading pictures,and everyone's a winner.

My DD had an extreme reading picture perched on the apex of our friends' garage roof! She thought it was amazing, especially as she had to climb out of a window and then along the roof to get there. I nearly died watching her.

The kids who miss out on these fun little activities are not the kids who don't have ponies or trampolines, they are the kids whose parents don't care, think school is stupid, or who are only motivated by cheap booze and drugs. You know who those kids are in your class. Let one of them win, even if their picture doesn't include a horse.

Ours is also ongoing, not just for WBD, etc.
It runs alongside our normal reading certificates, which are for x number of reads.

And this is why, eventually, schools will stop doing anything interesting m imaginative or even vaguely risky. Because so many parents are a PITA.

The one my kids' school did which was quite a nice way of working with some in school and some out of the school (and circumventing the competitive parents who wrecked the extreme reading one the previous year - we had professional photo shoots arranged and a fair few ponies) was that they did a Masked Reader with various disguised staff talking about their favourite books (obviously their child friendly favourite books - not their Jilly Cooper shagathon one) and ran a voice disguiser software... video on the google classrooms with a form to fill in the kids' guesses and I think all those who entered are in a draw to possibly win something. Had my two absolutely riveted to try to figure it all out.

@Hankunamatata

We did one of ours sitting on a tractor 🤷‍♀️

Well that’s not very fair, is it, not all of us have tractors!

Life isn’t fair and it’s more important than ever for us to teach our children that.

Maybe give it to the kid who needs the biggest boost of confidence reading ☺️

Oh dear God you did not start a thread about that! I feel embarrassed for you.

YAB massively U.

It's a bit of fun. Your child can read in the bath (fully clothed...) if they want. Or draw a horse on a cardboard box. Or in front of your local zoo.

Unless a photo of a child on a horse was REQUESTED to enter the competition - and so not terribly inclusive in most state schools, you are being ridiculous.

@Bimblybomeyelash

I’d have felt very annoyed as a child if the horse picture had won. It’s quite low effort for the child involved.

It’s a fun activity to do, and I’m sure the kids enjoyed it, but no need to make it into a competition.

But who are these people!

You want to remove the fun from absolutely everything, do you? Your little darling won't win everything. You need to learn to deal with it.

Aaaaaargh! If you're just going to pick a name out of a hat why should any children out any effort in at all?

That's a massive cop out.

About as fair as kids getting a £10 voucher for 100% attendence when mine has health issues so has various hospital apps so never gets it. Because he loves being sick 😒

@funnylittlefloozie I agree. It is the children that don't have the support at home who need a confidence boost like this. OP I can understand why you'd feel conflicted on this especially given you've mentioned being in a poorer area of the country. I was extremely poor as a child, and any money that was meant for me was certainly not spent on looking after me. The neglect and abuse I suffered could be a whole other thread but to answer this one - I would have been upset if that child had won over me when I was a child - my parents didn't care enough to find a fancy way to help me enter a contest like that, never mind having a horse. My view is it might be quite disheartening for the poorer children - essentially, if that child wins, it was because they were fortunate enough to have access to a horse, the poorer child never had any chance of winning and might as well not have bothered. That's how it might feel to a child. I'm not saying they are right to think that, as PPs have pointed out, life isn't fair, but children don't always think rationally. This would have really put me off joining in things like that as a child, just like I skipped school or hid in the toilets on non-uniform and costume days because I didn't have anything to wear, just like I didn't put effort in for the school performances because I knew my parent wouldn't make the effort to bring me to the real thing... I'm clearly affected by my past but it can go a bit deeper than 'it's not fair, life isn't fair and they need to get over it!'

I sympathise. At my school wealthier kids always ended up winning competitions because they had a lot more resources available to them. We had the electricity cut off so much DS and I often finished homework by torch light in the winter. So we could never really do anything interesting.

Amazing how many haven't read the OP's update

Should all children just be dressed in a bin bag and made to eat the same grey gruel just to make sure that everything is always fair for everyone? Some children have the advantage to do more interesting stuff. I wouldn’t be encouraging seeing that as hugely unfair unless I wanted my child to wear chips as epaulettes.

My child has no hope of winning, I’m that mum who didn’t do photos nor did I do dressing up day for 30min school lesson

I'm in a nice mc area and only know one child that goes horse riding regularly, and wouldn't have bothered me if they'd won.

I'd feel more put out both as a child and an adult if I'd found it had been pulled out of a hat, as that wasn't what the competition was.
If you're going to do that then say you will put all entrants into a hat for a prize. At least be honest about it, so they know not to bother doing any effort.

We've had that several times. We've had under the Bush in the garden (unfair on children without a garden?), while painting the wall (unfair on children who live in rental houses where the landlord won't let the redecorate?), in the wheelie bin (unfair on children whose parents think that's unhygienic) and with it dangling in front of her from her prosthetic arm (unfair on children who don't have a prosthetic arm).
She won once, can't remember which one which shows exactly how important it was.

Its amazing that on a thread about reading such a sizable majority are so very eager to tell the OP off for being a jealous parent that they haven't read the OP's posts and understood that she's a thoughtful teacher in this scenario, not a parent failing to teach her child that life isn't fair and Septimus will always rightly beat Jayden

Sapho47 that's one of the most insensitive posts and generally horrible posts I've seen recently.

@Sapho47 - what on earth is wrong with you? I don't think I've ever read anything as disgraceful as that on here before, and that's saying something.

Sapho47
your kids are just as entitled as "free" medical care in this country....so they are not missing out on anything.

They won't get the same free care the royals do, obviously, but they'll get the same as their school peer.

So what on earth is your point??!