Rewards for DS for GCSE grades

[Boggyjo]

I am a teacher and have heard about students getting £500 for each grade 9 they get and other amounts on a reducing sliding scale for other grades.
What is reasonable?
My son is taking his GCSEs in the summer. I want to reward hard work and incentivise his revision effort, but certainly don’t want to go over the top.

Not at all. My post was really about amounts. I know of students who have had £500 per grade…. Clearly bonkers.

I could have offered DD £500 per top grade in the full knowledge I wouldn't have to shell out anything.

We bought each child a laptop after they finished their exams before they got their results. We didn’t give them money for each exam passed as they were their exams & they would receive the benefit of the work.

My DS was very capable of getting high grades, but I knew he simply wouldn't bother without an incentive (he's subsequently admitted this was the case).

I offered him £50 for each 9, £30 for each 8, and £20 for each 7. So not massive amounts, but since he'd get bugger all for a 6 or lower it gave him the incentive he needed. To be honest, he got more 9's than I'd anticipated and had to give him more money than I had hoped to😁

Adults work to create value for others. Not for themselves.

If you are rewarding, do it for effort not grades.

I agree with this.

DC1 was capable but on the lazy side and lacked the organisation skills to revise well across 10 subjects. I invested a day of my time to figure out a realistic revision plan for him and prepare all the past papers and online revision tools needed. The deal was if he stuck to the plan from the start of the easter hols to the last day of exams then we'd buy him something he really wanted (related to his hobby, not mind blowingly expensive, but way out of reach for him to save up for himself).

The combination of some clear structure and an incentive definitely worked and I'd say boosted him a grade in each subject.

I made DS a box of treats for when he finished his exams, lego, chocolate, computer game, that sort of thing. I organised a timetable, helped him a lot with revision, bought him a lot of resources - because for him that was going to be much more helpful and more likely to get better grades.

No cash for grades here but we did buy a present as a reward for hard work in exams. A child who works hard and achieves all 5s is just as deserving if not more, than someone who does the minimum and comes out with 8s and 9s though natural ability.

My DD has ADHD and ASD. She's not academic. It was an absolutely massive achievement that she got through all 18 of her exams. That's what we celebrated. She hadn't managed many mocks because of collapsing under the pressure.

We paid £10 for each exam she sat. She managed them all (just about).

We were going to go out for a meal to celebrate finishing the exams but she had no strength left, so that never happened. I did buy her flowers and chocolates and a well done card.

For us it's rewarding the effort not the result.

I am paying for cooperation with revision.

My child is ADHD and severely dyslexic so she doesn't find it easy in the slightest.

She is also money/desirable object motivated and so I have priced in my sanity and the saved costs of not having to potentially resit next year.

I don’t think I’ll do £ per grade when my DD does them, but it depends on the child I think- if I thought money was the only way to get them to study then I definitely would do it!
I think for my DDs I would rather to a treat like an activity or choosing where to go for a celebratory meal out.
I also feel like more cash for higher grades has the potential to add unnecessary stress and make them feel like they’ve failed if they get 8s instead of 9s - when an 8 or even a 7 is still a big achievement

My dad gave me a tenner for every one I passed. DS got £50 for every one he passed.