Class Star of the Week

[ReceptionParent]

Hi

I am wondering if anyone can point me to research on the impact of 'Class Star of the Week'.

My DS aged just 4, has been upset to not receive the star in his first few weeks at school. I understand from his teacher that his behaviour is good and this is not intended to be a negative assessment of him but a public celebration of another child's achievement of something celebration worthy such as 'being especially kind' or 'learning to follow rules'. One child per week.

He has told me that he has not had a star because he is 'not fantastic at school' :( I am aware of other children who have had similar conversations with their parents about this.

I understand that this system is widely used in schools so somewhere surely there must be a paper/study which underpins why this is such a popular system. Has anyone seen anything like this please?

Alternatively, if you know of good examples and are able to point me to the guidelines which are followed by the teachers issuing the stars in those good examples I would also appreciate that.

I am not trying to undermine the school here but I have real concerns about this system. I could write an list but am trying to keep my post concise.

ATM DS loves school and I would like him to continue to enjoy learning and enjoy being part of the school community also, I am worried this will switch him off over time.

Thanks for any help you can give me with this.

My children's school does SOTW, but alongside it, a raffle system. In each class, children can win one of three tickets - for 'good answers', 'being sensible' or 'being kind'. At the end of the week, the raffle tickets are put into a hat in school assembly and the one which is pulled out gets a prize. This spreads the rewards more, and given the criteria, anyone is in with a shot. Maybe suggest to your PTA?

Don't get me wrong, I don't thing it's a marvellous system or anything. It just does seem to have been blown out of proportion here.

I'm sorry but this really is over thinking it.

delivered carefully with proper predictable criteria and measurements

It's a way of signalling to individual kids that they've made a good effort. That will differ between kids. What has been really tricky for one kid to achieve, will be easy for another. How would you ever explain the criteria and measurements to a 4 year old?

Just don't make a big deal of it. Answer his questions with comments about how he needs to enjoy school and praise his individual efforts.

The school will probably start sending home more stuff - class bear, special books, etc - so that will take his mind off it.

My DD is in year 5 now and rarely got star of the week. She is very bright but quiet which may explain why.
She has never mentioned it and does not seem traumatised in the slightest, neither is my year 1 DS who has had it once so far.
I doubt your 4/5 year old thinks he " fits the criteria" and I expect it bothers you more than him.
There will be many things that happen at school that won't be managed the way you would yourself but there are up to 30 children in a class and the teacher has to manage them ALL so unless something is a major issue ( and it doesn't sound like this is) then don't worry about it.

Thanks for all your input.

I was really looking for the justification of and good implementation examples for this popular system because I could not find them.

I do now have a way of explaining to DS when he next asks about it, which I am sure he will. Thanks again to Dewe's DD, I think the concept of improving on a personally relevant area rather than being best is useful here.
Best I think needs more transparent measurement and parameters.

As a small child looking up to a teacher it is important to you that they think well of you.

There are plenty of reward systems in schools and children in reception always receive praise and recognition. In our school we have achievers assembly where children are awarded certificates for hard work and good behaviour. I really do think you'll find star of the week is just one of many ways of praising children. For the life of me I will never understand why parents get so uppity about individual children getting recognition. Its not a competition

LOL yes, don't worry I am not going overboard
DS raised it three or four times spontaneously, I have never asked him about it.

(please don't pick though my choice of words too much, it is really not about me or my choice of words here, and it is not only my child affected by these things)

Tell him, this is how it works. Each week, the teacher secretly picks 3 or 4 children to monitor and decides which one, of those 3 or 4, gets the prize. Everyone is noticed, but she / he is concentrating extra hard on a few. You just have to be the best of those ones. Once it is your turn, you win if you are the best or go back into the hat until your turn comes round again. Everyone gets a chance.

Although, you are overthinking it. Everyone gets recognised, or should do. It takes time, but it does happen. It will be all the sweeter for waiting.

As such it's not a competition, no. However, certain children will inevitably feel rejected and confused as to what they're not doing correctly which leads to frustrations.

I witnessed two extremely advanced children in reception. They could read better than the Y6 children having been taught at the age of two by hot housing. These children were astute beyond their age, recognising the fact that the system was pointless as everyone would by the end of the school year receive an award - some would receive two - but that was unavoidable. When one of these two children eventually received star of the week very late on in the term, she was very upset, refused to accept it as a 'meaningless piece of paper.'

I'm not saying she was right or wrong. I am saying that children are astute, do pay a lot of importance into so called 'rejection' and the system has more negatives than positives to it. I like the idea of a raffle system. All children have talents, they can all receive a raffle ticket with the element of surprise and fairness when names are drawn out of the box. A much fairer system.

Sorry, but I don't think that the raffle system is fairer. DS1 is one of the brightest in his class and has received loads of raffle tickets, yet not once has he had one of his tickets drawn out of the hat. When he mentioned it to me I pointed out that the draw comes down to luck. I don't think that's very fair.

SOTW is also luck. Even if all 30 children displayed improvement in any subject or kindness or something equally worthy - only one child receives the award per week (in the main).

A child can go unnoticed for the best part of the academic year - that's a long time through no fault of their own.

A raffle with the system explained as everyone is a winner, you've all done exceedingly well this week, the raffle system could be used for more than Star of the Week, Register Monitor, other encouragements.

My ds (also reception) has mentioned the fact he's not got sotw (2 each week) with a hint of disappointment. We've had six weeks, one awarded it twice already and another got a class star and headmistress star.
He's a sensitive soul as it is, and flagging with tiredness (so whingey and uncooperative come afternoons) so I can perfectly get that his behaviour beeds to improve! At the mo when it's mentioned we just saying as long as you're trying your best and following the golden rules then that's all that matters.
He's ultra proud when we get the class toy or even a point for his house for eating all his dinner so we're just praising all his hard work we can notice

one awarded it twice already Do people really keep spreadsheets tabs on which kids get a special mention in class? Who has that kind of time on their hands??

At our school the star of the week children are listed very prominently in the middle of the front page of the weekly news letter. Given that we are only 6 weeks in, it would be easy to notice that a child had had it twice, especially if its a name you know.
We do however have a reward system even worse than star of the week - lunchtime VIP table. Every friday one child from each class is selected to sit on the VIP lunch table with a friend. This is a reward for being kind, helpful etc at lunchtime, polite to midday assistances etc. Ok nothing wrong there, but... The children get to select their friend, this leads to mass winging of " I choose Jack when it was my turn but he didnt take me", type senarios. Plus once on the table the children are fed cakes and biscuits, after their lunch. Given the push for healthy eating, and the ban on chocolate etc. at breaktime, who on earth thought it was a good idea to feed children who had just had their lunch, junk. The parents are not given any notice of who will be selected so there is no oportunity to adapt the lunch sent in to accomodate it. Totally bats!

Children notice. They really do. Children like fairness above all else in school. They know immediately who is a favourite child (awarded stars trice) or the naughty one. Thank goodness we did not have "Star of the Week". All children were praised on a regualr basis and no-one was placed above anyone else. My DD had to wait ages to bring the teddy bear home and by that time she could write about his evening with us. Most of the children, earlier in the year, could not and the parents did it. There are some advantages of coming late to the table!!!

Actually, for that reason our reception get 2 per week. So nearly everyone in the first term. Plus various special awards so everyone has something by Christmas.

Hate this. Dd now in y5 periodically gets upset that she is never chosen (except for once in y2). Says that when she is extra helpful or kind it's just taken for granted because she isn't badly behaved the rest of the time.
Was quite tearful a few weeks back and I might bring it up at parents evening if she doesn't come with me.
However when ds1 was at primary it seemed to work more fairly with all of them being chosen at least once each year

DS worked out that in nursery you had to 'Hit other boys then don't hit them' to win Star of the week.

btw this was his observation, not his behaviour!

Thanks everyone for your input I am finding this really interesting.

I am not obsessing I promise and DS has not mentioned it this evening, though he did offer me a star for being a good mummy . Honestly he did, as we were walking home form school.

I am thinking now I might have to summarise the responses in terms of those strongly in favour of sotw, those accepting of these systems, those that think I'm 'that' parent, and those who have found sotw a negative experience

So one more question
If this type of system has had a primarily positive (ideally sustained positive)influence on your child/pupils achievement or behaviour please can you add your thoughts?

I think it's quite good that they come to realise that they don't get a turn every time.

I absolutely hated Star Of The Week, my daughter went to a very bad school from reception to Y2, certain children would get star of the week quite a few times and others would never get it despite being very good at school.
Parents would have to speak to the teacher at the end of the school year as their child had never had it, they would then shove a group of poor children up together in assembly on the last day of the school year for their group star of the week.

To a young child it means a lot.

oops I should have said said DS offered me a sticker not a star, must re-check my posts!

When I worked in a primary school, the children loved it. Star of the week was a chance to feel special. They loved the anticipation of waiting to see who it would be, and they loved receiving it. Children would actively try to behave/work well in order to be noticed - I did always remind them that there could only be one star each week though!

I kept an eye on who had/hadn't been chosen, but tried to make it something special - a child who had done something that stood out, to me as the adult, in terms of effort. Often, a child who struggled with something, who had made a real effort to improve. We gave it for work OR behaviour, and for a generally well behaved child, it was usually for trying particularly hard academically. Everyone got a turn in the end, but I tried to make sure they had done something that week that was special, and deserved the recognition.