Do most of people promise their children cash payments in exchange for good GCSE grades?

[Theodoraalways]

My son has been coming home from school recently talking about his friends getting £100 payment for each grade 9 in their upcoming GCSE….not only that, he has been harassing me relentlessly about me paying him, too. The only response I get from him when asking why should anyone pay their child to do well in school at any time is that “everyone does it!” and so should I!
He has predicted 9’s in all his 10 GCSE subjects and has been found to be exceptionally talented in all his subjects by his teachers since he started secondary grammar school. That is what makes it even more shocking for me that someone so highly intelligent (he has chosen to test his IQ through school in Year 8 and the result was 162) could be putting monetary value to his efforts in school.
He is our only child and has been loved and looked after unlike many unfortunate children I read about. We do go on holiday every summer to Italy or Greece for 5-6 weeks, stay in luxury accommodation (villa or apartment), he has several hobbies outside school which we pay for, we always bought him masses of presents for his birthdays and Christmas, lots of books throughout the year, we try to install decent human values into him, we saved nicely for him into his Child Trust Fund account, he has never wanted for anything - we bought him most of the things he asked for over the years….
Am I wrong in thinking that no child should be promised money in order to succeed in school? I cry when I read some young people saying to their parents they do not wish any money for their grades, it is their achievement that motivates them…Am I wrong in thinking we should be celebrating his achievements by buying him a present and going out for a meal, rather than be putting a price for his grades in advance?

I celebrated with them after exams finished and on results day.

I got a belly button piercings (guess when I did my GCSE...)

Some do. The majority don't. Whatever he says This is in the same category of 'everyone else goes to bed at 10.00' when he was 7 and 'everyone else plays GTA' when he was 12 and 'everyone else's parents buy them alcohol'....

Early 90’s. I got a tenner an A at GCSE and 100 bonus for all As. It did make me work hard for the 2 predicted Bs to turn them into A’s. A-level was 50 an A and 100 bonus for all As. That was less effective as I was already motivated by my uni offer as needed 3 A’s anyway.

My kids pocket money was based on school effort grades.

If they got a 4 or 5 (out of 5) effort grade they got £5 a week next term - had to do Sunday washing up too.

Odd to give an intelligent child £100 for a top grade when another child getting a C grade is the maximum they are ever likely to achieve.even if they work their butt off

Yeah- literally everyone’s allowed to play call of duty till 1am on school nights. You’re so unreasonable!!

No, the grade is the reward. When I passed my GCSEs my mum bought me a bar of chocolate she made me share with my brother. We will get a takeaway of DS choice after his last exam and congratulate him if he gets the grades he needs buy thats it.

No, we didn't pay dd for her grades. We have taught her that the reward for her hard work is her own sense of achievement and the doors that good grades can potentially open for her.

Your ds sounds a bit spoilt tbh. My dd had quite a few friends whose parents paid for good grades but she never once asked us to do that. Quite the contrary, actually - she thought it was totally unnecessary.

Tell your ds it's his life, not yours, so he needs to work for the grades that he wants. They aren't for you.

I did, I customised the amount per grade for each DC.
It worked really well.
One DC found French difficult, I offered a certain amount of money if he got a C in it. He then downloaded an app and would spend any odd bit of spare time such as standing at the bus stop she practicing words etc. He got his C.
I didn’t do it for A levels, my thinking was they needed the GCSE’s to do A levels and then go onto university.
I never once had to nag them to do any studying for their GCSE’s or A levels.

This was very common the year I did my GCSEs; 2006. Many of us got money for certain grades. I think my parents did £100 for an A, £80 for a B and £50 for a C but I’m not 100%.

I made it clear from the start that I refused to pay for grades as was still as proud of him if he got a grade 7 as if he'd got a grade 9, it was just important that he did his best. He didn't know I was going to but I gave him £200 on the day he finished his exams to enjoy the summer with - it was for the effort he put in and the revision he did even when I knew he didn't want to! He worked hard and did the best he could and I wanted to 'reward' him with money to go out with friends etc and relax over the summer

No. I vaguely heard of a kid my age getting a car after their A levels, but I didn't hear anything about cash for grades, then or now.

I took ds out for a meal the night before his gcse results to say well done whatever your grades. He'd worked incredibly hard and his dad died early in his GCSE courses so my pride in him knew no bounds.

Tell your ds he'll be able to give his own dc money for grades. How much would he pay?

My parents and Auntie paid me back in the day, it was good motivation for me!

Ours have just done year 10 mocks and had £10 per 4+ dangled at them, in the hope of achieving a few of those... we can only dream of 9s 😅

My DM did it with the 11plus for DB. I was a year older than him and would quite happily do past papers in my spare time. My brother wasn’t so keen so my DM promised him a bike if he passed.
We both passed and it really was life changing for us as at the local comprehensive over 90% of students left school the Easter before O Levels were taken.

I haven't promised ds any cash. His reward if he does well in the GCSEs is I get off his case.

I never did. I gave them money as a present to celebrate the end of exams but they knew the results were important for them and I already had mine so no money for that.

My 2 dds worked really hard. One was doing A levels and the other doing GCSEs at the same time. We gifted them £250 each when they were finished just as a well done for working so hard, not because of the results

No we don't do this, although DD has also said "everyone's parents are doing it" at school. I said "well it's just unfortunate for you that youve been born to us then"

If she doesn't want to do well for the sake of doing well, then no amount of money's going to help her.

I wouldn't give him a penny. I've been saving for DD since she was born, so she's already got that privilege. I don't see how I'd be setting her up for the real world by bribing her.

I got the bribe but in those days it was £50 any pass grade oh that and a ski trip . Most of my friends had the same.

Absolutely not, I have 4 DC and don’t see why the naturally intelligent one would receive more than his DB who works his socks off but just will never do as well as he isn’t an academic child. We have however booked and paid for a trip to London for the day after his exams finish. We haven’t told him but he will love and appreciate the gesture and it’s important for me that my DC recognise that I see how hard they work and I am proud of their efforts.

the end results are not that important to me, there are plenty other paths to follow other than uni, even if it means a longer road they will get there.

We paid for a festival ticket but not per grade as such.

My Dad offered me £100 for every subject I beat my cousin (who went to a top private school) in. This was the 90s so a lot of money back then!

I got straight As and a grand in my back pocket. Dad saved a fortune on private education.

So he wants £900 for doing well in his GCSE's? I assume one of those GCSE's is Business? That seems like a huge amount to me.

Our DD is predicted all 9's and will possibly get £100, but that's not been promised nor asked for and isn't based on any grades. Her happiness will be in doing well and not in money.

...at least i hope it will be! :😀