How do I bring this up at parents night?

[WhatIsSleepZzz]

My DD has an incredible teacher this year at school and has come on leaps and bounds. She thoroughly enjoys school and her teacher goes above and beyond to ensure all the children in the class are progressing to the best of their individual abilities. She is also brilliant at helping with some of my daughters emotional needs. She can be an anxious child at times. She is fairly smart for her age and I think she is smart enough to pick up on adult situations but not necessarily equipped to handle the emotional side of things.

The issue is, in DD’s school, they have a behaviour chart. Each day, the children begin the day on ‘ready to learn’ and their names can be moved up or down the board as follows:

Superstar
Good job
Ready to learn
Think
Time out

DD is in year 1 and the problems with this system began for her in reception. She was really upset that no matter how hard she tried, her name never got on superstar. After a lot of discussion, we decided she should ask her teacher what she could do to get on superstar. As it happened, the teacher was doing her reading with her when she asked so the teacher instantly moved her up to superstar for “brilliant reading” and I think that was possibly the only time in the whole year she got up to superstar.

Now, in her new class, it seems to be the same again. She has never been on superstar and it gets her down. I explained to her (in a child friendly way) that some children who find it harder to follow the rules need the behaviour chart the most. I told her that because she was always so well behaved, she didn’t need it so much.

I want to bring this up with her teacher at parents night but I also don’t want to come across some sort of pushy parent who wants her child to be at the top of every chart/list going! In all honesty, I don’t care about the behaviour system in the slightest. I just want DD to be happy at school and to get that pat on the back when she deserves it.

Do you think this is something I should discuss at parents evening? How can I bring this up without sounding like I’m nitpicking?

I’d say exactly what you’ve just said. Your dd is just very observant. She knows she is trying her best and achieving but she can ‘see’ the marker isn’t moving .

It’s demotivating. And it would be to an adult too.

We had something similar when Dd 2 was in year one and it quickly got scrapped

Yes this is definitely something to bring up don't doubt yourself.
Like pp said you don't want your child to get down
I have a similar situation where my child thinks one teacher doesn't think she does very good work as she doesn't get stickers like the others. I'll be bringing it up

Do bring it up.

It's a crap system though, children's names should not be made public on charts like that, it only causes anxiety.

I agree that generally well behaved children can often be forgotten, and teacher often don't realise they feel hurt not being noticed, while those who are generally naughty get so much attention. It's never a fair system. I would bring it up with the teacher.

Our school used to give out awards for good behaviour weekly. Dd1 went two years without getting it. Two years! I eventually asked if there was a problem with her behaviour. There wasn’t: her behaviour was, and always has been, exemplary. She’d been overlooked repeatedly.

This used to be a fairly common system, but most schools have dropped it now for the sort of reasons mentioned above. The kids who fly below the radar get nowhere, and the naughty kids appear to get rewarded for doing nest to nothing (in the other kids' eyes, I hasten to add - they may well have busted a gut to do something/behave in a way that other kids find easy)

So yep, it doesn't motivate in the way it was intended, and I'm surprised any schools still use it.