Prize giving. Does your school do it differently

[matahairyy]

We want to change ours up from lists of names and shaking hands. Any new ideas you like?

Ours has a music performance from someone in the house and speeches from Year 7s about their first year and teachers.

Ours has Heads of House giving speeches. Different each year, sometimes all around one theme (eg. success or effort) or on different areas eg. music, drama, sport, academic.

There is usually an outside (inspirational) speaker too.

Ooh I like those. Thank you

As a parent, really what I want is to hear about the success in the school - so a few minutes from HOYs on what has happened this year.
No music/drama/LAMDA/dance bits please. They have enough chances to perform at other things.
Clear indications as to what prizes are for - does the top scorer in end of year exams get the prize, top effort (whatever that means), most improved?. I'm not sure what I'm celebrating otherwise.

Group prizes into year groups, and a bit in the programme as to why that person has that prize.

Otherwise, just get it over and done with as efficiently as possibly

Veteran of very many prize givings - about to go to last ever!

Top tips

No more than an hour and a half long - preferably closer to the hour

Round up from Head about what has happened that year

Inspirational speaker - 10 mins max

Give the prizes very quickly - rehearse the kids prior!

Present certificates in small groups rather than each pupil going up and being applauded individually. It makes the whole thing go a lot quicker.

A short presentation from the Head of Year / Head of Key Stage about any collective achievements of the year group (e.g. organised a charity event themselves and raised £X). No speech should be longer than 5 minutes.

A short musical performance is fine to mark the beginning or the end of prizegiving. During the middle, you just want to keep the momentum going.

The whole thing shouldn't last longer than an hour.

While people are coming in: (assuming you have photo permissions) a slide show of photos from any trips or activities that involved the whole year group.

I agree giving certificates in groups. Keep it short. Heads speech do not discuss staffing as long as there are enough teachers no one cares. Rehearsal is key.
Ours do a year at a time.
Music by someone from year group. Brief summary of year from Year Reps on school council. Special commendations (eg saved life, raised hundreds for charity, represented GB). Brief speech by Head. Prizes given out in groups. Then inspiring talk by guest (brief). And then brief opportunity for photo with you child, and parents leave, students back to classes. And next year arrive.

We call our prizegiving, “speech day”, because we have speeches giving a review of the year and vision for the future. We also have musical interludes and certificates & trophies. And plenty of Prosecco.

Thanks for those but they are pretty standard. I’d like to shake it up totally. I know some schools do it more like oscars 🤔. Agree with the hour. Interested in opinions over performances

Oscars??? With dresses and diamonds? Please no! I cannot imagine anything worse.

I’ve been to loads of independent school speech days and these are very different to state school ones I have been to as a governor where plenty of prize winning DC don’t show up.

Therefore what is the aim of the event? If it’s just a ball type event with a gong, then are parents going to buy into it? An Oscar is just a prize after all! It just has glamour which rich people can afford and others will moan!

Our senior school kept it to 90 mins. Head made a short speech, chair of governors and then guest speaker, then prizes. They called DC to the stage individually and we used to do picnics in the grounds before going into the marquee. So lunch at school and speech day at 2. More fun that way.

New Head changed it to picnics after so no one bothered to set it all up afterwards and used the time to collect DCs trunks and then go home so it became a chore and no fun. Some schools restrict speech day to
Prize winners only so everyone else is excluded. You could try that approach if it’s new to you.

Progress prize is, of course, the biggest joke. Awarded to kids of rich parents or those with parents on the friends committee who were not remotely making much progress!!! My DD2 got one! One girl in my DD1’s year group scooped 7 prizes in upper 6th. That probably brought her tally up to more than 20 prizes down the years. Same names on the list every year. Music prizes to beginners when grade 7-8 DCs got nothing. The Classic was History prize awarded to a DC that didn’t do history! It’s obviously a load of crap, like the Oscars, and we only went for the picnic and booze!

It doesn’t matter what you do to jazz it up, it’s an unfair opaque occasion and most know that.

Oh god, no, not an Oscars inspired event. People only go to see their child get their award and don't care about anything else. Make it short, specific and no godawful performances by the Yr10 chamber choir.

Ds's old school did a three line whip speech day on a Saturday in a marquee. I would rather poke my own eyeballs out than have to dress up and sit on a nice day through that again.

Progress prizes are not a joke, IME.

I’ve always allocated them against strict criteria, in fear of pushy parents questioning me.

For Year 7, I rank the students on their MidYIS scores. I then rank them on their end of year examinations average. Subtract one from the other, and arrive at the student making most progress. The achievement award is for the highest average.

For subsequent years, I look at their old and new rankings.

There is no favouritism in this approach. It is chillingly mathematical.

We have other awards for students who have done their best in adversity.

I think the slide show in the back ground is a great idea - lots of big group shots particularly of fun activities like camps or school trips !- it means parents can watch for their kids and enjoy cute pics of the younger years instead of being bored rigid while the same 3 kids troop up and down for all the awards

One thing I really, really like about my DC's (state comprehensive) school prizegiving is that (with the exception of about 3 special prizes at the end) NOBODY can win more than 1 prize. There is a special category of prize for 'was up for a prize across a range of subjects', but the same person doesn't cross the stage twice, or receive more than 1 award.

Only prizewinners and 2 supporters attend, and it's aim is specifically to celebrate academic success, in the same way as the regular concerts celebrate musical success, art exhibitions showcase art success, the regular sports events celebrate sporting success, the dance evening celebrates dance success, the languages competition celebrates languages success, the D of E award evening celebrates success in D of E etc etc. It's not 'better' than any of those, but nor does it borrow any elements from those - which does make it quicker, and more focused!

Apologies for rogue its.

Well they were a joke at our school. Same DC every year, more or less. The amount of progress they made would have been astonishing if it had been remotely believable year on year. Everyone knew it was a parental good egg award. I'm glad some schools take it seriously. State school perhaps? Maybe there should be PP child of the year? Its just not a great thing in my view.

I totally agree with cantkeepaway. No more than one prize per DC.

Make it quick (1 hour), one, Max 2 short and relevant speeches, kids collect prizes in groups.
At dcs’ school the headteacher gives a short introduction and explains when to clap. It’s a well oiled machine and makes it bearable. No music or performance.
Time with dcs for a quick pic afterwards. Done.

At my school the whole operation is a lot less slick and drags on and on and on... also, parents just bugger off afterwards, no time for a quick pic or congratulations. But we have always done it like this and couldn’t possibly change the format

One thing I really, really like about my DC's (state comprehensive) school prizegiving is that (with the exception of about 3 special prizes at the end) NOBODY can win more than 1 prize.

Ds had an award for a subject at prize giving last year, first time I'd been to one in secondary. For S3 (Scotland) only 4 children got subject awards, ds had one, 2 girls had one each and another boy had the other 9!!!!!! (Ds's and the girls were for subjects that boy didn't do).

The plus side was it made the dull ceremony much quicker!

Agree on groups - names called out in groups, children file past Distinguished Speaker briskly during clapping, next group called.

There is music (by someone who has enough repertoire to go on in a low key way for a long time) on arrival, and a slide show. Head speaks (amusingly and briefly); a few selected groups of pupils speak about events of the year (again briefly, and on different themes each year), the Distinguished Speaker speaks (surprisingly well, IME), prizes are given out, everyone goes home. I wouldn't say I enjoy them, but i would say that the school's events are a really good balance of celebrating success and endeavour in a huge range of fields, and academic prizegiving is one part of that balance.

Lol at you all saying DC. Just say kids!
Yes. Not bothered by private ones really - there must be a way to get rid of boring lists and kids trotting over a stage. Luckily no one wins two at ours

Lol at you all saying DC. Just say kids!

Eh?

I assume you are very new to MN? dc,ds,dd etc have been standard throughout the site for many years. Maybe find out a bit more about the site before ridiculing and telling regulars how to post. 👎🏻

At my DC's school if you are getting more than 1 think eg. Commendation certificate as well as a real prize, you get them all at once.

Well yes, but the programme says names and prizes. Everyone knows it is 7 or 9. 9 is outrageous.

Mata,

My offspring aren't kids. They're young adults, in one case a fully adult voter. They are, however, my children, and mostly quite dear to me, so I can call them DC much more accurately than I can call them kids.