Rewards/Certificates - disheartened daughter!

[MrsTruper]

Daughter (yr 2) mentions every so often that so and so got a certificate for this and that and that she never gets anything etc etc. She get very disheartened by it, as she says she is trying her best and listening. I know she is one of the best behaved kids as the teacher has mentioned this to me. DD is one the youngest in the class, and the kids that seem to get the certs are all Autumn born.

I said to my daughter whether she knew what so and so had done 'better' than her to get a certificate and she never really knows why.

Is it unreasonable to expect the school reward system to be clearer so that kids know exactly what they need to do better next time? I presume the teacher must say "so and so gets a special certificate because she remembered to do X in her work, so if you all do X next time please"

Any advice?

But Hazey all children need encouragement and deserve to shine.All children have qualities to celebrate and areas they need to work on that could do with positive reinforcement. I don't think these systems should be used for a few at the cost of others,kids just don't understand,they really don't.

Peer pressure aside kids want to please their teacher,they're not daft and if they just never get rewarded for hard work they can assume they're doing something wrong.My dd is a switched on girl but she simply thinks her work isn't good enough whatever I tell her.

I think it should be scrapped too, it's all twisted. Soupdragon can you tell us more about 'This is why our primary school doesn't reward anything' - sounds interesting...

My DS has never got anything. Not bad enough to need encouraging (or so they think) and not good enough to warrant being the best at anything.

I wouldn't mind if say one child with special needs got 20 and everyone else got 10, but when most other children with no apparent issues (bounce in, bounce out) get them every 2-3 weeks, and dd2 gets it once a term (last one was last half term after I spoke to teacher). Trouble is I get on well with teacher, she likes dd, just doesn't translate into prizes! Some children just seem to be overlooked by some teacher.

We don't really have a system. We make sure everyone in the class gets an award over the year. But the reasons for why they are given aren't decided against a policy or anything. It is who stood out that week and for whatever reason it was. Later in the year we are obviously making sure no one has been missed.

For general good work and meeting classwork targets we give out stars for our starboard. Children dividied into 4 teams, working towards stars. 10 stars on chart = marble in jar for whole class. Full marble jar = class reward/treat. We also give out stickers/stamps.

I know we have more girls than boys in some classes. However, the cynic in me suspects girls get more certificates than boys up until Easter then suddenly there are lots of boys up the front.

And I get when it seems that girls are called out for neat work or English and boys for maths.
(Ok the best mathematician in DDs class is a boy, but lots of the girls must try hard in Maths and boys in literacy).

It is a silly system. Also, not all teachers keep a record, so many will genuinely not have a clue who they have given the reward to and who hasn't had it yet. It is usually handed out at either the end of the day/week with not too much thought in my experience.

Many teachers try to give it especially to the more challenging children in the hope that it improves their behaviour, as a result well behaved children are often/sometimes (depending on teacher) overlooked.

I'm meant to award two per week to children in my class (KS2), ideally one girl and one boy. What I actually do is to award them to whichever two children have done something that they wil consider to be worth celebrating whether that is making an effort with presentation, doing their best to include everyone in an activity, sticking their neck out by sticking up for someone, sweeping up the pencil sharpenings without being asked, coming back from lunch early by choice to get some extra work done, putting their face in the water for the first time in swimming.... I don't give wriggly children certificates for sitting still for 5 minutes nor do I give certificates for 'being lovely', I try to notice something extra or different.

I keep track of the certificates I've given and make sure that every child receives at least 2 or 3 over the year but not in a turn-taking way - I will award them when there is something genuine to be rewarded. What this means is that some weeks I'll award one and others I may give out four but they will be well and truly deserved, and specific to that week.

It is important to notice the children who are always doing the right thing, being great role models, supporting others etc. etc. and I use all sorts of strategies in class to ensure that those children know that I notice and appreciate them. Those same strategies reduce the attention that deliberately disruptive children receive and, most of the time, the deliberately disruptive children work out that they will gain far more of my attention by doing the 'right thing'. It's not perfect, but it means that certificates are just another layer.

Oh, and I don't do 'star of the week'.

SE13Mummy I would have no problem with your system, as everyone gets a turn, but for doing something significant, it helps them to take pride in their achievements. There is a different level so it is something which is relevant for that child, but all children will get a couple of times each year to feel special. Most importantly you know who is and isn't getting rewards and can look out to catch them doing something good. When it's not fair is if it is either a personality competition or a reward for being able to turn good and bad behaviour on and off.

Our primary has no rewards like "star of the week" or good behaviour stickers or "golden time" or "house points" or any of that kind of thing.

Homework isn't marked but is shared with the class or used in classwork or, in the car of the junior years, peer reviewed.

There is no competitive sport in the school bar one single race on Sports Day for the junior years.

There is no "nativity play" scenario where one child gets a starring role - they have an ensemble celebration for his sort of thing.

It is not necessarily a positive thing though and seems a step too far in the opposite direction. I remember a friends child being miserable because they got extra badges in some out-of-school activity if they bought in any certificate they'd earned at school.

In Y6 they do have an awards evening at the end of the year. There are an assortment of awards for stuff lie spot, dancing and basically "being helpful". Academic achievement is not rewarded at all

Oh, all stuff like register monitor is done on a rota system.

On the whole, I am happy with how the school does things as the results are excellent and the children are pretty much happy with the system so far as I can see - they see it as how things are done.

My reception child should get the prize for cynic of the year. It took him until October to note that the naughty children were getting stars. He now gets a bit concerned when he gets one!

Dd2's school have two types of awards. High flyer is given out once a fortnight and it is for a child from each class that has done some outstanding learning.
Super 6 is given out each week and this is decided by the rest of the class for a child that has helped others during the week.

Both are given out pretty fairly, last year my daughter was a high flyer for her model of a minibeast and this year she won for her minibeast experiments - which shows where her interests lie.

I don't mind rewards for good behaviour, when that is an issue, or for academic achievement, both of the truly great and the really tried type, but when I ask the teachers they all say how good she is and how well she is doing. She says 'it's always x and her friends who get it, and they don't even sit nicely and they're always asking the teacher how to do it, but I just get on and do what they've asked me to.' I know x and her friends and they are probably more bubbly, but beyond that they don't have any particular behavioural issues, or learning difficulties. I guess it is the same as when I was little, there was always a teacher's pet, it just seems more obvious when they always come out with a badge on. Maybe next year's teacher will keep a closer eye on it being fairer.

I think the reward system can be a good thing, especially for children with issues around confidence and self-esteem, or for whom the reward system is a part of intervention on behavioural issues. On the other hand, it needs to be monitored (as SE 13 does) so that no-one gets overlooked.

Awards at our school are given on Fridays. Dd has had 2 on 2 consecutive weeks for the same reason (being a good role model) while the teacher's pet in her class has had 9 (I checked the newsletter when dd and her friends told me this. )
Dd adores her teacher and is sure that her teacher doesn't like her. She has deduced that the award on 2 consecutive weeks is because the teacher has realised that dd has been forgotten and the fact that she couldn't come up with a different reason the second time round is because her work isn't good enough.

I wish dd's teacher would award them like ds2's teacher who is a nqt and gives them out on rotation and gives specific, good reasons like "good writing about the school trip" or "helping a friend in need"

I am very sad to hear about schools overlooking children for these rewards. My teacher pals are all really conscientious about this kind of thing and do as SE13Mummy and keep records to avoid leaving anyone out.
It seems bizarre to me that anyone who would choose to work with KS1 kids wouldn't have the insight to see how much a sticker or certificate means to a kid of six or seven.