To F*cking HATE prize giving ?

[Cistus]

My kids are at a small school which has prize giving every year. DS1 is in Yr 5 and ds2 in yr 2. every year there are prizes an my kids NEVER get anything. I know why, ds1 has aspergers and add, and ds2 is dyspraxic with poor fine motor skills.... and no doubt other kids are brighter, more personable and charming.... but my kids try hard TOO, and do their best, and Im fed up with it never being recognised

oh that's a bit harsh - surely they should try and give every child a small prize for something.

Otherwise you end up with the same kids always winning the prizes and the same not getting anything.

Why is it a bit harsh??
I agree. School plays, good behaviour certificates. Always the same kids.

School should keep a list of all these things and all the kids who get something and make sure that every child gets recognised for something, even if it's only an always smiling' certificate"

It's a bit harsh to make some children sit and watch others getting prizes without ever getting any themselves despite trying their best is what I meant.

I dunno, if everyone gets a prize then what is the point of a prize?

Though having said that I can still remember the family that always used to win everything when I was at school. Their mum was really into the fundraising/PTA stuff .

oh I feel your pain
dd's school have one, in a sn school!!
one year there were 4 in her class(one had died) and 2 out of 4 got prizes.......
I wrote to the head.
now the whole thing has been re done and no more silly prizes(apert from the in memeory type)
so if you are unhappy complain

I don't think they can ever satisfy anyone at school prize givings, at ours they have prizes for the winners of the school sports day and swimming gala races (year 2 girls winner yr 5 boys etc etc) and the child in each year who got the highest mark in a music exam. Apart from this they have a 'caring cup', progress prize and academic acheivement trophy for each year. So thats only a maximum of 6 possible prizes for each gender, if there are 30 in a class then there will be kids who don't win anything.

FWIW my father is still bitter about his upper fourth prize giving where the children who came 1st, 3rd and 4th in their end of year exams average got prizes and he didn't, having come 2nd, apparently its because he was a crammer and didn't try massively hard throughout the year but pulled out all the stops for the exam, some would say he did deserve the prize, others would say he didn't.

Just make sure you're kids know you are very proud of them!

The Armadillo, Sorry thought you meant OP was harsh! Yes, I agree with you.

I hate prize giving too, generally the same children get them every year and I don't really think it encourages the others especially much. On the other hand though, the prizes for all is worse - it takes even longer for one thing (ie even more boring) & the children all know it's contrived & meaningless. And while I quite like the idea of no prizes at all, I'm not sure the complete lack of competition that seems to come with it is an altogether good thing. Sitting through prize giving when you've tried hard and not won anything is tedious, but I think it does help children learn to fail but press on anyway, which is an invaluable lesson that lots of kids these days don't seem to get. Also, if the prizes have plainly not been allocated fairly (seems to happen sometimes) - the lesson that life's not always fair.

Rest assured cistus - you & your children will not be the only ones feeling unappreciated - virtually all the kids/parents without prizes will feel the same way. So long as your dcs know that you are very proud of their efforts I don't think the experience will harm them.

If everyone had a prize, or it was dished out in fairness e.g.xxx's turn this year there would be no point!
I don't think it is a bad thing-life isn't fair. I have always been very proud of mine, which they know, so I don't think it harms them. At least if they do, on the odd occasion, they know it was deserved and not someone being kind. When I was at school it all seemed very fair-we knew who was the best at each thing. I think it is good to have prizes for effort.
We can't all win prizes, I think we should appreciate those who do and not take the sour attitude that we don't like it unless our DC gets one.

When DD was at primary they used to award two certificates per class per week. One was "Star of the Week" - which usually went on good work, lots of house points or whatever but was at the discretion of the teacher so could be stretched to cover anything else deserving. The other was "Effort of the Week" - speaks for itself.

Throughout the course of the year I guess every kid got at least one certificate. Kind of prizes for all, but it did seem to be done in a way to encourage them that anyone could get one if they tried.

we dont have it
am suprised you do