Does your school reward and recognise high achievers and their efforts?
ds1 has A* targets in every subject (NOT my idea: don't get me started on that one...)
- He is currently on track for all subjects.
- He always does quality homework and hands it in on time.
- 100% attendance, no lates.
- prefect
- No detentions or other disciplinaries.
- Is doing extra revision at home.
- And attends various extra revision sessions offered at lunchtimes and after school.
- To my mind he clearly works hard, and could almost certainly get away with doing less and still get his grades. But he still puts the hours in.
- Very few of the teachers at school have given him anything particularly challenging (ie above and beyond the GCSE curriculum) this year.
He has been showing some "attitude" at school (and at home), but not in all subjects (some teachers think he's wonderful), and not enough to get him into any 'formal' trouble - ie sanctions.
He's had no awards or rewards this year (school do termly certificates and so on) and his report is littered with little niggles and criticisms, which just seems rather petty to me given his high achievements. I know school isn't just about the grades at the end, but they appear to believe "oh, it's easy for him; he does well without putting any work in." And it's just not true. I know loads of kids with high potential who have ended up with Bs and Cs, because they've just arsed about the whole time.