Rant addressed to all those who have been moaning about behaviour rewards - I'm pi$$ed off with you all

[shimmy21]

Ok - nobody around on education threads so I'm safe to blow my top.
Will all the people who moan incessantly about positive reward schemes in their dc's school being unfair just get a bl33ding grip.
Just because your child hasn't yet earned a sticker or got a smiley face or been star of the day does not mean they are being publicly humiliated and ashamed.
Do you really expect teachers to teach a class full of 25 children of different abilities, interests, personalities and behavioural quirks without setting certain ground-rules of what is desired and not desired behaviour?
Your dc may be cute, boisterous, chatty and ask incessant questions. At home this may be charming and appropriate. In a literacy lesson it may prevent 24 other children from learning anything. Do you propose that the teacher does not in some way try to encourage the necessary behaviour and discourage what is unhelpful?
So your child is the only one who has not earned a petal on their flower and you feel this is damaging to their self-esteem. Would you prefer the unwanted behaviour your child is no doubt exhibiting to be punished instead?
If your child got their spellings wrong in a test would you expect the teacher to mark them right so as not to upset your child? I guess you would expect the teacher to establish what the child is finding difficult and help them to learn those words with praise and encouragement for the parts they are doing right. Same with behaviour, surely?
fgs just think about what you are asking. If you don't want positive behaviour rewards and presumably you don't want punishments and you want your children educated in calm and well-controlled classes then you are asking the well-nigh impossible.

Have you considered home ed?

I don't think I've complained but I'm intrigued as to why you're p*ssed off. Has something happened?

i have - i would probaly do it better too

only i cant afford to stay at home and home ed.

when i was at school - we had house points.

that worked well - it meant you were part of a team.

you could earn housepoint for anything any teacher saw fit.

if you opened a door and the teacher had had a bit of rumpy pumpy the night before and was in a good mood - you got a housepoint.

housepoints were kept on a chart

on the wall

every one could see who has housepoints

so out of a class of 30

a teacher could easily see at a glance a child who may not be benefitting from a rewardsystem.

so maybe instead of having a shitfit at the parents

we should work together hand in had to come up with a system that benefits all children.

the last snetance is becuase your goona find flaws in that system - but you get the idea

peace love and dahlias

Have a nice cup of tea. And get a grip, love

All children are good at something. All children need motivating. It's not motivating to be consistently overlooked.

You would be pretty peed off at work if your boss never acknowledged you for the things you do well.

I can only speak for our school, but the stars, stickers etc are handed out for effort and achievement, depending on what the child is capable of and what they are struggling with. 'Undesirable behaviour' is dealt with separately (and very effectively) and so it should be imo.

star of the day

that sounds like a crappy idea

a good teacher should be able to motivate and discipline without sunshine and clouds IMO

they give stickers occasionally in dd1s home reading book if she has read particulalrly nicely

they are for HER to see and me ONLY

no public achievement and I am very glad of it

I would expect a teacher to tell my child off if she didnt behave not forgo a petal on a flower - tis all bolleaux

shimmy21 - agree, agree, agree! But only 25 in a class - you luck things you!

A system should benefit and encourage all children and sometimes its just not thought out. My dd was in a class and the tables were split into coloured sticky stars (ability). Not a problem, until you find the colours for individual tables are GOLD, SILVER, yellow, blue and green! DD was 6 and could see that wasn't quite right! The GOLD and SILVER tables (with their shiny stickers) did do better than the others (with their matt stickers) .

25 in a class?

we haev a team point thing
tehn every week at celebration assembly( 2 45 pm friday all parents welcome and about 60 go)there is
" learner of the week" from each class
used to be " worker of the week" which i like a lot more becuase of its Stakahnovite nuances)

they also haev personlaity of th week where one kid gets tto telt eh clas all abotu their hobbies and fmaily and pets and chelsea fc

Shimmy, personally I think that advocating home ed because you're unhappy with one aspect of school life would be a bit of an over-reaction. Positive behaviour management is great, if done well. If done sloppily it becomes harmful imo.

no on eelse have learneres of the week?

its ften foe really crap thigns
liek being very kind

or doign maths tricks
cna be academic or social

My ds loves the whole cloud and sun thing, the stickers, jewels, merits, special assembly awards, certificates etc etc - all the things which make him feel valued and gives him some clue as to whether the hard work he puts in (or not!) is worthwhile. They have coloured tables too - he knows some others are really clever and are on whatever table and whatever colour book just like he knows some are really fast runners.

I'm sure it can be done well

I dont quite understand where shimmy's argument is going though

"If you don't want positive behaviour rewards and presumably you don't want punishments and you want your children educated in calm and well-controlled classes then you are asking the well-nigh impossible."

I do want punishments! and positive behaviour rewards - but in dd1s class a positive word from the teacher goes a long way. But she is in a smallish class where the teacher has time to spend individually with each child - I guess if you are rushing through it then names on a chart is a quick way of doing it.

Agree with ladymuck about home ed comment though - but think it would be quite sad if you were so unhappy about the rewards system in your school, that it was so debilitating to your child that you had to home ed.

blimey, that is a rant.
I don't really get this attitude that the school is above criticism, that we must all support the school unconditionally, that all the rules set by the school are inviable.
I am always surprised by how conformist everyone suddenly becomes about school matters.
sometimes schools have rubbish policies and lousy rules. and sometimes good policies are crapply implemented.
don't really see that the choice should be - put up or home ed?!?!

Invioble?
no that doesn't look right either.
tbh, very few people can afford to home ed, so that's a little flippant

In the top class at one of my (many) primary schools there was a prize at the end of each week to the person who had done the best work, and the one who had made the most effort. The prize was a jumbo Mars bar . For really special achievements this teacher would give the pupil a cassette with a compilation of HIS favourite music on it. Narcissistic creep.

Seriously though, if dealing with parents' different opinions and values is causing you to spit blood and feathers to this degree, perhaps a change of career is in order. Something a bit less "customer-facing", perhaps?

Is shimmy a teacher then?

Sorry shimmy if you are, but I would be horrified if any of the teaching staff at my dd's school felt so angry about parent feedback

oh I see, I am a little taken aback by that actually.
would I expect a teacher of 25 children to respond to their needs and give them all praise and encouragement? yes, of course. that's their job.
(greeny, what word am I looking for??)

Not Greeny, but 'inviolable'.

As the parent of one of those children who is clearly exhibiting unwanted behaviours, I reserve my right to think that 5 year olds just don't get why it is OK to be rewarded for sitting quietly but not for reading well.

I do want positive rewards for behaviour and achievement. And I do want sanctions/punishments if that's appropriate too. I just think they should be dealt with separately and that all children should get the chance to get something positive once in a while. And I agree that it means much more when it's personalised - ds's school gives out stickers with 'I did xyz today', or 'I was a really kind friend' etc hand written on.

thank you singersgirl, sorry I am being a bit dim there.
no sticker for me

(((sits down with nice choccie bar and cup of tea )))