Good behaviour raffle

[mustbetimefortea]

My ds's school has a weekly raffle. Children get raffle tickets for behaving well/good work and then each week a few tickets win prizes with no restrictions on the number of prizes per child. Is this a new teaching method?

It seems very ill conceived. I can see that you could bring maths into working out the odds of winning and it could be argued that it teaches children that working hard doesn't always bring rewards.

I have worked in an organisation that identified good performers but only gave a limited number of bonuses. It was abandoned because it was very divisive because people working in a high performing teams found that some got the bonus and others didn't. Those that did often felt uncomfortable about being with equally well performing teammates who hadn't received a bonus. Those that had worked hard and missed out struggled to see the point of working hard when there was only a limited and random chance that it would be rewarded.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why this would work with children and what the thinking behind it is?

It's just a way of noticing and incentivising positive behaviour rather than focusing on negative behaviour. Anyone theoretically can win. I would imagine there are other rewards eg house points, merits and certificates. It is just an extra. I am sure the children find it quite exciting just as adults do when they win something! it seems quite harmless to me. What is your concern?

Seems fine. It isn't a reaching method it is a rewarding good behaviour method. Focusing on the positives not the negatives,

I loathe this sort of crap, reward charts, certificates, prizes.

It is used in many schools these days. It's generally used in conjunction with punishment ie; carrot and stick.

Some schools have little prizes and some have bigger ones for instance I know of a school that gives away a bike at the end of every half term.

The system is usually used exclusively for behaviour management and attendance. I don't know of it being used in any other context ie; maths.

Simply put it's a way of saying "be good and come to school" and you might win X.
It's one of those things where it encourages an ethos of good behaviour without the children realising they are being asked to "be good" and after a time it becomes ingrained which is job done.

But if they keep getting raffle tickets and not winning where is the incentive to behave well? We all know people who always get seem to win and others who never win.

I would have thought if you are trying to promote individual behaviour (rather than house points) it would be better to give points with a prize when you reach set levels. So 10 points gets you some felt-tips, 20 points a book token, 30 points a voucher or whatever. Smaller prizes but a guaranteed win.

cansu my concern (having the same type of system fail in the workplace) is that some children will see that it is a lottery and would not see the point in behaving well on the offchance that their number comes up.

OTOH it does teach them that life isn't always fair and that good deeds do go unrewarded which could be seen as good life lessons.

Because some people like the idea of 'being in with a chance to win something bigger/better' - millions of people pay out money to gamble, be it the lottery or 101 other ways to 'have a punt'. Just the same with children, quite a lot of them like the idea that there's a chance they just might win something they really want, rather than a book token or pencil with the school name on, that they don't want.
They've already been verbally praised, and they grasp they have a higer likelihood of winning the bigger prize if they have more ticekts in the drum.

I'd be wary of a system that effectively encourages gambling.

DDs class has a raffle ticket system - I think prizes only happen once a term and seem to be small things. Not really sure I can see the point of it - a system where they get something for every so many points feels better somehow.

backforgood my suggestions were just off the top of my head rather than fully worked proposals. I don't think the prizes in the raffle are anything that ds would consider as extra special, it's just a prize. As Breatheslowly says is encouraging gambling really what schools should be doing?

Children rapidly see the pointlessness of prizes for everyone but turning rewards into a lottery surely can't be the best way forward?

We'll talk to the teacher about it

Does your child share your somewhat jaded view of the raffle? Or do they get quite excited at the prospect of being drawn out of the hat this week?

Dd1 (year 8) has one subject that does this. They also have a prize for the peron with the most raffle tickets-and once you've won a prize you can't get a second.

I know from what she says that it does really work with her (generally well behaved) form and the children love the teacher. They're all striving to get the tickets-the prizes aren't that brilliant, but they get terribly excited.

They do it every half term rather than weekly though, I think, and they have about 10 prizes. I think he's been quite generous with the tickets too, and made sure the slow, careful middle gets plenty too.

Last half term dd1 got the prize for the most tickets, and said that, pleased though she was, she missed the excitement of drawing the tickets and wondering if it would be her.

I used to do something similar when I was working full time in a challenging school. It was nothing to do with behaviour issues.
I was very aware that the children with challenging behaviour etc had some sort of "reward" when they met their targets and that the well behaved hard working children could see what was going on there.
So every time any child ( year 1 or 2) did a particular thing well, be a good friend, write a good piece of work, be particularly helpful, etc etc they would write their name on a raffle ticket and on Friday afternoon we spent a pleasant 10 minutes reading them all ( I tried to make sure each child had at least one ticket ) and shared some nice fruit that I had bought. Not a price as such but just an occasion to share positives. It was an event always looked forward to by all.

they are getting rewarded by getting a ticket, not winning a prize, so there is still an incentive for good behaviour - they've been praised and noticed, and have a better chance of winning. Presumably, more good behaviour means more tickets, and thus more chances - but not so much that children who don't get very many tickets will never win, which you can sometimes see happening with other systems.

Raffle tickets and marbles in the class jar have the huge advantage that a child gets public praise at the time of the 'good action', but not a public tally on the wall.

Star charts on the wall where DDs compare how many stars they have for good work, with how many X has for just sitting in his chair, quickly become divisive.

Children quickly forget other DCs getting raffle tickets and so long as the prizes are relatively small and done in class (not parent assembly) it's a bit of positive behaviour encouraging fun.

Good work/star of the week certificates in parent assemblies is a whole different thread and an absolute minefield.

Hi mustbetimefortea

Very interesting your school is just introducing this - so is ours. Worse yet the prize is something like having hot chocolate & biscuits in the staff room with friends of your choice or lunch with the HT with friends of your choice. [I wonder at the subliminal message that the prize is 'getting out of class']

This has resulted in the worst behaved children joining in on the prize - which has lead to some real from my DD1 (Y6).

DD1 (Y6) also complains that her class is so busy prepping for SATs that they hardly get any points toward the target to achieve a ticket for the raffle whereas KS1 & YR kids are getting 2 or 3 raffle tickets each a week.

Don't think it's working but I think this is also about changing the 'house points' system that a former member of staff instituted as he's now left to be a HT elsewhere.

Personally I'd much rather see the behavior award scheme feed back into prizes for an entire class. So the best behaved infants or junior class overall gets a raffle ticket toward a great piece of kit or a fantastic event. Everyone benefits and a competition well worth working hard for. But that would involve expenditure - and I suspect the scheme is set up the way it is because it's cost neutral.

IME by year 5/6 DCs are beginning to suss adult motives and whatever system you come up with they will pick holes in it.

Raffles and awards should be kept within classes. We had a bronze, silver, gold certificate scheme, where certificates were handed out in parent assembly.

It was utterly hopeless, because different class teachers doled out stars at vastly different rates. Y2 were getting gold certificates when Y6 were 1/2 on bronze, 1/2 in silver.

This was used at our school but isn't any more - and I'm glad of that. It seemed to me that the only kids who got raffle tickets in the draw were ones who were usually disruptive but happened to behave for once got a ticket so almost invariably the ones winning the prize were ones who have been difficult. I remember one particular occurrence - a child who managed a whole play time without hitting someone was given a ticket on the tuesday then later in the week was sent to the head at least twice for fighting - then got a prize at the end of week assembly! The children who were regularly well behaved and never ever caused a problem were never given a ticket and therefore never rewarded.

Administered well all DCs in a class should end the week with at least one ticket, the whole advantage over certificates is they can be given out for small kindnesses or trying your best at a piece if work. They should be small everyday well dones.

That way even the DCs who don't win know their efforts were recognised.

titchy It's a rollercoaster. It's been going several weeks and the day of the raffle ds is very excited but comes home despondent as he has yet to win anything. Things are made worse by one child winning every week and often winning several prizes.

He finds it hard to understand why he doesn't get a prize despite always having several tickets. I've explained it's just the luck of the draw and the teachers are helping him to learn that you can't win all the time.

runaway why bother with the raffle element? The teacher praising good behaviour in front of the class would be a good incentive to behave well. Or a sticker which they all crave.