Rewards for A level results

[6squirrels]

My son got his a level results yesterday (got an a, b & c) and I gave him a heartfelt, meaningful gift that cost about £50. He said “so am I not getting three grand?”. I laughed as I thought he was joking but he says that everyone he knows gets this. I didn’t know what to say! I was stunned that this is a thing (£3k is an awful lot of money in my opinion), shocked that he could be so rude, and absolutely gutted that my gift had gone down like a lead balloon. I’d planned a household party for us all (plus their partners) on Friday night with takeaway pizza (this will cost around £150) and a family party on Saturday which I’ve cost caterers for (costing around £300).
Would you give your child £3k just for finishing their a levels?

The problem with incentivising each grade is it is highly unlikely that all three of our children will achieve the same even with the same amount of effort. Things come easily to DS1 (though he will still have to work hard) but DS2 just finds things harder to start with and DS3 achieves well in different areas so it wouldn’t feel fair.

We have agreed on a family holiday in October half terms post GCSEs to somewhere that they choose if they demonstrate that they have worked as hard as they are able to achieve their grades.

For A Levels we will do nice dinner and contribute as much as we can to university.

Christ. Is this the thing to do? Mine got nothing but we did go out for a really nice meal...

No way. I bought my dd a special gift worth £250 and she was thrilled. She goes to what people would call a ‘posh’ independent school. She has been working all summer so has cash to spend on herself. I am very proud of her work ethic - academically and her employment.

@sst1234

He’s done A levels (in the year of inflated grades), not discovered a new planet in gene solar system. I think he’s having you on.

Nasty.

£3000. LMFAO.

I got a mug after passing my exams (Scottish, so highers rather than A levels). It was a mug with my name on it, and nearly 20 years later I still have the mug!

How has he come to the amount £3000 as his expectation? Why not £4000, or £5000, or perhaps something else instead... a box of McDonald's chicken nuggets maybe?

We went out for dinner with each of ours. Same for their graduation. It never occurred to us to give them anything else. Graduation was actually quite expensive with hotels, meals, clothes etc.

Think mine got a treat, meal out sort of thing. Got bought lots in the next couple of weeks to kit them out for uni and then help with rent. I've got 4 kids, I'd be bankrupt if I was giving them all money for GCSEs, A levels, degrees and Masters.

I'd also say reward the effort, not the result.

@User135792468

I’m a (state) secondary teacher in a nice area. Money for results is 100% a thing for both GCSE’s and A Levels. Normally it’s a set price per grade. As they do fewer A Levels, the amounts tend to be quite high. For example, 1k = A*, 800 = A, 600 = B, 400 = C etc.

Really?! I also live in a 'nice' area and would not dream of paying my kids to get good results. Not sure that is teaching them anything good about learning and trying hard.

DD gets her GCSE results tomorrow and we will probably just go out for dinner.

My son got one A'level result yesterday ( 2 does the other 2 next year ). He got a reasonable result and was rewarded with a big bar of marvellous creations chocolate.

I have £100 when passing GCSE's and £100 for A levels

I don't agree with cash incentives for passing exams. I bought a big chocolate cake (chocolate cakes seem to be an alternative to big sums of money) for my son and friends to share yesterday after taking him for a really posh breakfast! He knows I am thrilled at how well he has done and his reward is achieving his much longed for place at his first choice university.

When I got 6 As at A Level my dad let me pick out a CD when we went to the supermarket.

As a reward , I told Dd today she didn’t need to pay me back for her Uber last night when it got charged to my card not hers 😂.
We’re pretty generous and easy going generally so I don’t think she expects any extra from us after results .

Dd got her A levels results this week. Absolutely no money as a reward.

She's asked if she can have takeaway pizza from Papa Johns the next evening that she isn't working and I bought her some posh mini cheesecakes as a surprise treat. She's very happy with that.

The main reward is that although she didn't get the points needed for her first choice uni (got an A in the subject she has applied to study but one of the others was a complete disaster), the uni changed the offer to unconditional so she still gets to go there.

In an effort to spur me on my mum promised me £100 for every A I got at GCSE after being told by teachers I’d never amount to much. Let’s just say she regretted that commitment! Unsurprisingly by A level she didn’t make any promises but I had my iPod and GHDs and was actually studying subjects I wanted to so the incentive wasn’t needed 😂

Dd did extremely well and got a nice piece of jewellery worth around £100, a bottle of Prosecco and we bought her lunch.
She was extremely happy and grateful. Her wealthy friends got similar and some got nothing. I don’t know one child who got 3k or anywhere near that

Your gift sounds really nice. I think a celebration with family is a lovely way to congratulate him.

Giving £3,000 to an 18 year old is really silly IMO. If his friends really were given this, what are they going to spend it on? Probably fritter it away on clothes and going out. I think it's best to use that money to support your child at university or when they're getting a house.

I suppose we effectively are by covering accommodation costs at university. Cash in hand, though? No chance

Mine had a sliding scale two years ago (the higher the grade the more cash). I thought I was generous with £500 per A grade, but some round here did get £1k per A grade.

Didn’t give any of our children any money for their exams. They were his results & are for his benefit, not yours so why would you pay him?

When I did GCSES a number of my friends parents gave them £100 for an A*, £90 for an A, £80 for a B- and so on. My family was not as well of to be able to afford that. I was not a high achiever and my sister was so my parents also thought this ‘system’ unfair. I was gifted £20 for each grade I achieved that was what I was predicted. An additional £10 (£30) for each grade I achieved over my predicted grade and £10 less for each grade I fell short of my predicted grade.

I got all the grades predicted plus and extra £20 for exceeding my prediction. I did give me a bit of extra motivation, especially in the subjects I didn’t particularly enjoy.

I work in a school now and large amounts of money are often given as rewards/incentive at both GCSE and A Level

This takes me back to when I did my GCSEs in 1991. "Everyone" allegedly got £10 for an A, £5 for a B, and £1 for a Coming from a low-income family I was happy with £20 for a Maccies and some shopping for sixth form, not the £92 I "earned".

*For a C. Coming from.... that should say. I am going to fall out with autocorrect one of these days.

I teach A levels at a large college and I have never heard any student speak of getting £3k for passing 😆. The rewards you have given sound lovely (and undeserved given his attitude).