Bloody Prize giving

[AllienOlliemum]

I have 3 DC in the same school, it's a grammar school and tends to achieve very good results. Every year they do prize giving. There are two award categories, Excellence and Effort.
Last year I queried what exactly excellence is in this case and was told "The excellence awards are decided by each department as a whole and considering attainment, attitude, progress and effort" the second award category is simply for effort.
In the upper school (Y10-13) 3 students are selected for each subject and ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd for excellence, and 3 students (if enough uptake of the subject) are given effort, not ranked). In Lower school (Y7-9) 5 students are selected for excellence, not ranked and 5 for effort not ranked.

Today the upper school prize giving awards list was sent out. The actual ceremony is at the end of June but I guess it's because some leavers will have to plan around it. My eldest DD is in Y11, sitting her GCSEs and for the 5th year running not a single award. She has fantastic predicted grades and we are frequently told how hardworking and diligent she is. As per usual though it's the same kids as always. In fact one girl has an award in every single subject she must have taken, 7 Excellence awards and 3 Effort! With 1st in 5 of those! She also seems to have won the award for an essay writing competition and the award given by the historical society!
My other two children (Y8 and Y9) have also never received an award to date but the lower school awards aren't announced until middle of June.
Last year I queried how it is possible one child wins all the awards and was told the departments select their own winners and can't know who the other departments have chosen.
There are also non academic awards such as Integrity, but typically it's always the same students who get these too.

AIBU to be massively pissed off with this bloody system which is centred around favouritism!
It's every good damn year!

Sounds like sour grapes

She claims this girl is a bit of a try hard and teachers pet.

She is her mother’s daughter, that’s for sure

from both mother and daughter

Don’t be that parent

Perhaps she'll come into her own at Uni or when she starts working?

Or maybe she doesn't need to excel any more than she already does, it's just that she's in a school with pupils who are exceptionally bright?

Either way, school will be a distant memory in a couple of years.

@bbqsalt you seem to be taking this very personally! 😂😂

sorry in my mind i was thinking in terms of 5 years of school

so year 7 start , would mean year 12 if 5 years later

because i don’t like to see what seems to be the damn good effort and achievements of children peed all over by mother and daughter

Totally meaningless awards, that outside the school mean nothing.

too late

Surely by this point, the reward of working hard and doing 'consistently well' is that you get the grades you want and go on to do the A Levels and get into the university of your choice (or follow whatever path you choose).

Teenage girls like to moan and bitch about each other. Maybe encourage her to see the bigger picture....

Jealousy isn’t a good look OP.

I'm failing to see the issue though? This girl is fabulous and is awarded for it

Hardworking and diligent is admirable of course, but I’d expect most children in a grammar school to be that. It doesn’t mean that they’re all such high achievers as the girl who wins the awards though.

In a primary school, a child might be a big fish in a small pond. At a selective grammar, they’re all big fish, but some are bigger than others.

@AllienOlliemum you need to ask for a StJustus prize.
Our school has this
I’m guessing for all the kids unjustly treated, given the life and death of St Justus.
My ds was awarded it in his final year after
Top grades throughout
Playing in individual orchestras and the full orchestra
First team in all sports
Never getting into trouble

Not made a prefect or anything or ever given a prize by the crappy discriminatory head ( now sacked ). He was given the award by a returning teacher as acting head. In defiance I think 😊

No it wouldn't. Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10, Y11

Fellow all-round swot here, SlipperyLizard. My much younger sister's first day at secondary was blighted by the head's welcoming, 'So you're Guppy's sister? And will you, hoho, be winning all the prizes for Physics and Latin too?'

It's basically been downhill from there.

Why don’t you just print off your own well-done certificates for your DD? They’ll have just as much meaning in the real world

I was top of the class for several subjects year on year. Another girl was top for all the other subjects I wasn’t the prize winner. No one else got a look in for 5 years. Often if you’re good enough to be top in one subject you’re good at a lot, especially at GCSE level which is just one big memory test (and I have a near photographic memory). As for the effort awards - who cares? GCSE results are what matters.

Please don’t make a fuss.

I know it's not a big deal in the real world but it definitely dents my kids confidence in the short term.
Considering each Excellence award gets a £10 book token this kid has also just bagged herself £70 in books (probably more if essay writing and history get tokens too).
There should probably be a rule where kids can only win in 3 subjects and maybe an all round excellence award if they happen to be little miss perfect!

Yes, it's nice to recognise everyone and to be able to give a prize to everyone that's worked hard.

But by Y10/11 the kids know who is 'top' for each subjects - they talk about their marks in tests and they know who the Top. 3 are likely to be. If this girl is at the top of all of her subjects then good for her - what a shame that she's labelled as a 'try hard' for working and achieving.

If the teachers just picked 3x kids for the achievement prize and they weren't the top three then the awards become completely pointless and the children would realise it very quickly.

Considering each Excellence award gets a £10 book token this kid has also just bagged herself £70 in books

over 5 years

OP you have made a complete tit of yourself with that comment

Look my DC was like this. Brilliant, sporty and worked hard. Never got an award. It made me livid but he always felt that a) his results were their own reward and b) it’s a flawed system and didn’t matter.

He used to laugh at the ridiculous nature of it all and now (when he has an amazing career/life) I realise he was totally right.

No in one year - each award gets its own £10 book token. So this year alone will £70.

I know it's not a big deal in the real world but it definitely dents my kids confidence in the short term.

The start of "life lessons".

little miss perfect!

Oh shove off. This snideness doesn’t land as you’re clearly after your DC to be in her position.

Bottom line is, your DC aren’t as good as she is. The fact that this unmotivates your DC is irrelevant