Paul Dix - Hot Chocolate Friday

[TankFlyBoss]

Interested to hear from anyone familiar with this concept, in particular those in schools. I'm interested in the other side of this, how it could be demoralising and exclusive for children who have tried their best and not been recognised or selected, possibly for long periods of time.

My friend's daughter's school does this I think...apparently it has entirely the reverse effect in that no teenager in the world ever wants to have hot chocolate with the head teacher

My concern is that most students do the right thing most days and that not everyone gets the recognition they deserve as these sorts of initiatives tend to end up either focusing on the ones who go above and beyond and are centre stage, or they end up being used as carrots for students who don't behave and have refrained from disrupting the lesson for one afternoon.

There's no easy answer when it comes to rewards, but my gut instinct is that meaningful, targeted praise based on knowing the children as individuals has more value to them than the chance they might get a hot chocolate once a year if they're lucky.

Thank you this is really interesting. We are primary so I guess the secondary age not wanting to have hot chocolate with your headteacher isn't so relevant but I completely agree with the poster who said that it's not great for the majority of kids who behave well the majority of the time.

DDs school did this, it works for YR and Y1, and some Y2 but by Y3 they're not interested or the ones that are are the ones who don't really need it.

They've not done it since pre-covid and don't know whether they're bringing it back. I'm not bothered my DD never got to do it anyway.