I work in a SEN school and when we give feedback to our children it's worded in the positive, ie we focus praising that they've learned xyz skill etc and their good qualities.
We of course focus on what they need to learn too but we very much highlight skills they already have.
My son goes to a mainstream (has SEN but not severe enough for a SEN school). He just had his school awards and I just found it...odd.
But here are some examples of awards:
- found school hard due to SEN but showed great resilience in turning up and trying every day
- not academic but any skill they do learn they share with their friends which encouraged peer to peer learning
- found it hard to concentrate all year, just wanted to play, but by the end would sit down to do the learning and had matured
- didn't like to do messy play but very diligent with reading
Is this normal in a mainstream setting? In our setting
...of course we would constantly be working on the bits that needed work, we wouldn't have mentioned them in a public award ceremony.
I am just getting a feel on MN as my view may have been skewed working in SEN.
YABU - this is fine to word awards in that way
YANBU - there was no need to list a childs weaknesses during an award ceremony, she could have just said "has resilience, plays well with friends, diligent with reading" etc