secondary school teachers! can i ask a question?

[gymboywalton]

when schools have prize giving evenings-what do kids do to get nominated?

is it down to effort? being super clever? gifted and talented? progress? behaviour? what?

what makes one child get nominated over another?

We nominate for departments and tutor groups for each year group. If I am the only teacher who teaches a particular year group then I will make the choice. It is very much about the student who has impressed me most; not necessarily the highest achiever (although it could be) but the student who has shown the most enthusiasm combined with a certain amount of spark will usually get my vote.

In terms of the tutor group prize, at my current school I have been asked to nominate a "most improved" and a "consistently great". I try to recognise genders equally and avoid repeating prizes if possible.

I have to say that I find these nominations absolutely heart-wrenching as there are always more deserving students than there are prizes. :)

thanks-that's helpful

We have 2 prizes for each tutor group. One for academic achievement and one for extra curricula activities or generally being a good citizen. Like coops I try to balance genders and it is school policy not to repeat prizes (which can be annoying as by year 11 the 'best candidates' for the prizes have all already had them earlier in the school)

Depends. We have an academic achievement prizegiving, and we choose the highest achieving.

We also have rewards for progress and attitude, and we choose in department meetings. Our behaviour system is linked to rewards, so top point scores are acknowledged.

And I give a prize to someone in my tutor group at my discretion. The reasons for that award vary considerably.

Oh and if I absolutely can't decide then the class vote for which of the 2 or 3 children in the running get it, giving reasons.

Again here it depends - I am allowed to give 2 subject prizes for academic achievement and for progress and can nominate for tutor and that could be a multitude of reasons.

If the prizes are meant to be for 'most improved', 'consistently great' academic achievement etc - just wondering why this would not be done on a whoever deserves it most basis rather than needing to 'gender balance' which a couple of posters have said they try to do. Just asking as there was a competition at the secondary school a friends dd goes to for best stories - there were 2 prizes, one for the best by a girl and one for the best by a boy - we thought it should be simply for the best 2 stories.

It isn't really necessary to balance the genders, so if for example I had 2 particularly outstanding girls one year in my form then they would be given the prizes. It's just that if there is a girl recieving the academic prize and there were 2 fairly even contenders for the 'good citizen' prize, one boy and one girl I would go for the boy (and the girl would probably get it the following year).

Luckily for me this year I know that I'll have a boy getting the academic prize from my form (he really is incredibly clever as well as hardworking) and the girls seem to be the ones in the running for the 'good citizen' prize.

In terms of a story competition I would have separate prizes for boys and girls in order to encourage the boys to enter. For some reason they think that girls are better at writing stories and don't think they would stand a chance. That's possibly only at my school but I think it's a general trend.

I tend to balance genders because I am aware that I have a bit of a boy-bias (it's not deliberate, honestly!). I often notice improvement in particular in boys before I notice it in girls thus I force myself to award both genders to avoid ignoring girls who maybe don't thrust their successes in your face in the same way.

A am interested in this as trying to motivate my children in secondary. I am not keen on HT commendations, tutor recommendations etc as the criteria are not clear to the class and parents.

It seems somewhat arbitary and therefore can be perceived as unfair by the rest of the class. And easy for pupils to criticise and compare "I didn't get one like Fred, but I am also trying". This unfairness (as perceived though, I don't know if it is real btw) can colour the whole school/teacher relationship.

At least something like adding up effort grades, or achievement or plays for teams, or recognising even extracurricular stuff, can be objective, or can it?

My big bugbear is the rows of children getting 100% attendance certificates at the annual prize giving as I would rather my children aimed to get a better grade, or effort grade than struggle to go in when ill.

I agree with you wave that 100% attendance isn't a particularly fantastic achievement. I have pupils in my form who are recieving certificates for 100% attendance when they have disrupted lessons for almost every day they have been in. And others who have been model pupils, not particularly outstanding for anything but working hard to do their best, and they don't get anything because they have been ill for a couple of days. BUT they have been shown to work to improve the whole school attendance, as pupils do come in with colds and other minor ailments when they would have taken time off before the certificates were in use.

Effort grades are subjective really. Adding up attempts to put a number on something subjective doesn't make an objective measure.

Atendance however is definitely objective...