Celebrating sport but not academics?

[chickensaladagain]

Prize giving assembly this morning

General well done to all the children about sats and how hard they have worked

But the sports teams got shields, tshirts with their names on and fair play awards -and it was the same children over and over again as there are no try outs for teams, the teachers pick them

So the academic children -what message do they get from that?

I have 1of each btw

I feel in the same way. My son's school give a certificate to one of his classmate, because she is learning how to swim and she is in Level X (I think some high level).

But they do not give certificate to my son to being billingual and learn two languages together (he did not speak any English when he started in Sept)? Or they do not give certificate to the best achieving child in the class, who probably learnt very hard all year round.

I agree - schools should celebrate all aspects of education - sports, academics, artistic talents, performance, public speaking, effort. We should encourage children to celebrate their differences and recognise achievement comes in many forms.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. The whole sports thing is such a drag for some children, and it is so unfair that only something overtly visible gets celebrated...

Academic children get praise all the time. G&T workshops, extra house points.... school is an academic environment.

In my experience, children who are very good at something, whether sport, music, dancing, acting, writing, maths... indeed, anything, will always get praise.

Spare your sympathy for the many children who are not the best at anything.

THere was a recent thread very like this about how " unfair" it was the school sent those that took level 6 SATS on a " treat"...

As the parent of 3 academic kids who never got any appreciation for academic achievement till secondary school I pointed exactly this out but was mostly shot down because they'd all " tried hard" in their SATS..

Secondary school for us is revelation- prizes for sport /music/drama and academia are all doled out and not everyone is " a winner" but they understand that.

Our school celebrates sport and academics. Id like to see more categories of celebration like art, being considerate, helpful, kind to friends...
I have one who wins popularity awards, one who never wins awards but is always picked for plays and sports teams and one who is average and never wins. The one who never wins tries the hardest so it's a shame that his effort and attitude isn't recognised unlike the other two who win more than their fair share.

Jeee the gifted and talented dc do not get celebrated all the time in my experience

They certainly don't get extra house points, they generally have to work harder for their efforts to be recognised

The 'middle ground' are the ones that get the merit awards where they have to get a certain number of merits to win a prize

The g&t pupils have taken part in a maths and spellings competition and done well both times -not a mention

The sports team will get thumped in a tournament but get sportsmanship awards for not letting their heads drop and keeping on trying

Chickensaladagain- My children complain that the "naughty" kids get behaviour awards more easily than the well behaved kids. They have to be good for only short periods to get noticed and rewarded unlike the other kids who are usually good.

Jeee, the so called G&T never get celebrated for their academic achievements, not in my experience of two completely different state primaries in two different parts of the country anyway.

Our award ceremony last week had certificates and cups for

sport generally, football, , improved effort, academic achievement, helpfulness, contribution to society, music, art, academic progress and finally presentation, something for most people!

Maybe different schools do different things

DD's school awards academic prizes and sports prizes. Both valued equally. That seems fair enough IMO

I'm lucky, my dd goes to a school that celebrates academic, sport, music, or any other achievement that comes to their attention,
but the thing with the sports teams getting acknowledgement is that they are doing this over and above their lessons. Everyone attends English, maths, art, science, etc.,etc, but the ones who are in the teams go to practices after school / lunchtime and matches after school and occasionally on Saturdays, so, even on time alone, they have contributed more to the school.

If they gave an award / praise for 'being best in PE lessons' but not one for 'being best in maths lessons' then that would be unfair, but you are not comparing like with like.
In my dd's school, they have children out the front in asembly who have done well in the National Maths competition, and recently there were some children who'd done some literature debate thingy organised through the library. To my mind, these equate to the sports teams, but the lessons don't.

Actually I used to nag DD about 'only' getting sports prizes and it was time she brought an academic prize or two home.

Back for good

The academic competitions took place out of school

The sports teams don't practise, they get told they are playing

THere was a recent thread very like this about how " unfair" it was the school sent those that took level 6 SATS on a " treat"...

Wow, I rate that as ridiculous.
I have strong impression that awards get spread around at DD school. DD excelled at SATs because she did the work off her own back, she did it for her own satisfaction.

Complicated for me as my very sporty & very academic & rather musical & most arty child are all the same person. It would indeed be very bad if she took a complete sweep of the boards. I know of at least 2 occasions when the school rigged things in favour of another child getting more sport recognition (thank goodness).

That's different then Chicken - you didn't say that in your OP.
In that case I agree with you. Recognition should be given for all children who do "over and above"

Same at our school lljkk - it was fairly apparent that the different sports coaches had collaborated in choosing their trophy winners, in that no-one got two, and quite a few children you might not have expected to, got awards.

The more I read these boards, the more I realise how lucky I've been with the school my dc have been through.

I agree that there is often a discrepancy between what is acceptable to celebrate publicly...for instance, it is perfectly acceptable for children in my DD's Y1 class to have their swimming badges sewn on their book bags but any child who says "I got 17 out of 17 at maths today" is often told by a worried parent to shush and "well done but let's talk about that at home". I think as far as possible schools need to provide opportunities to celebrate academic achievement as well as sporting achievement and, as others have said, also to celebrate those kids who go the extra mile to help others or really put the effort in.
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