House points tally on the class wall by the door.

[LittleFrieda]

Is it normal for primary schools to display house points on the wall by the class door? DH and I went to see DD's (Yr1) work today and she said as we went in: "These are the house points, I'm last because I'm rubbish at reading and numeracy."

And she was last. Her behaviour is really excellent and she is making significiant progress, reading has been slow to click for her but she's whizzing now. She is always punctual and seldom off poorly. At our last parents' consultation with the teacher, the teacher said she is well behaved and she's always exceptionally kind to her classmates. In reception, her teacher told us she was one of very few children who had never had to be told to sit on the time-out mat.

I just feel cross that she has accepted this house point tally as evidence that she is useless.

Is this normal? It seems so schizophrenic that nobody is allowed to win a running race any more, but they can label children like this.

I feel so sad for her.

The stars on the star chart in my sons yr 4/5/6 class are definitely awarded for effort as well as attainment. The top, say, 8 children are all the quiet hard workers of varying ability not the 'naughty children given a star for behaving' or whatever people like to accuse teachers of. Knowing lots of the children really well I think it accurately portrays their effort level. However I do think the disparity between the total numbers of stars awarded must be demotivating and indeed counterproductive for those lowest on the chart - some children on page 6 and some on page 1 !

taffeta that was my DS's experience at his old Primary.

I've only ever seen house marks displayed by house, I can't quite believe they show each child, that must be awful for the ones at the bottom.

In the 3 schools I know who use house marks, they are given for all sorts of things, cleaning up the dining hall, assisting staff (with a wall display for example), for good work, good sport, good manners, even for achievements outside of school, if they reflect well on the school.

You ask those questions OP.

"not the 'naughty children given a star for behaving' or whatever people like to accuse teachers of"

Thats probably because its Y4/5/6, not Y1, KitKatGirl. My DS is in Y3 and it works differently by then.

OP - hm, what is your profession? I just found that before long the teacher offers me the solution I am after (and she thinks it was her idea ) without creating bad feelings.

Sorry, taffeta, wasn't in response to you but to a lot of complaints in other threads. It's that way all through our school, children getting praise for overheard kindness and for effort and for consistency and for friendliness as well as achievement, or in the case of my autistic ds back in yr 1 for eventually managing to draw a recognisable image after 18 months in school!
Shame if other schools do overlook the quiet ones in the middle.

Oh, and we do have competitive sports day too which I totally approve of despite ds always coming last. Sorry know that is totally relevant, just that other thread about 'all schools always do x y and z' has really annoyed me :-(

OP what I meant was at our school your dd would probably be at the top of the chart!

Unusual for house points to be tied to academic output - usually for effort, behaviour, helpfulness etc, IME

At DDs school, there is a chart showing every girl in the school!

BUT, the points are given for commendations (academic achievement at their own level) and merits (politeness, kindness, extra curricular activities etc) Therefore, a girl who gains a commendation may not have the best results in her class (this is not made publicly available) but for achieving something by working to the best of her ability.

Once a week, the house cup is awarded to the house which has gained the most points overall.

There is a similar system at DSs school.

I think it's definitely worth speaking to the teacher, and if that is not successful, the head.

I don't think the teacher is rewarding the naughty children. In fact there are no naughty children in DD's class I don't think. It isn't just the teacher who dishes out the house points, but parent helpers who go in to help with things.

It's a merged year class too: an almalgamation of the oldest yr 1 children and the youngest yr 2s. Thinking about it, there were no Yr2 children at the bottom of the table.

Ds's class used to have the traffic light system for behaviour displayed by the door. This term it's moved further inside, I suspect after complaints. I'm most disappointed because it gave me a sneak preview of whether the teacher was likely to say "Mrs De, can I have a word".