Prize Giving Ceremonies - Teachers Decide or What?

[hullabaloo22]

Just that, really, how do schools (that hold prize winning ceremonies) decide on which students are to be awarded?

E.g. maths/science prize, form prize, academic etc etc

I don't think it comes down to end-of-year exams or necessarily overall quantitative performance, so how are they decided?

Is it down to individual teachers to nominate and, if so, what do they base their decisions on?

Call out to teachers/school staff as having discussed this with a number of friends, we're none the wiser and genuinely curious to know...

Just a parent here - I didn’t go to a school which had prizes but dh did and my dc’s prep school does.
So far I would say our prep gives the prize to the pupil who has the highest achievement ( taking into account the whole year) in that subject that year. Sometimes they award joint prizes to two pupils.
Not giving an opinion of if this is right/wrong/other, just seems to be how it is done and how other parents feel it is done.

My dc never win anything - unsurprisingly the prize winners become fairly predictable year after year! I wouldn’t worry about it in the slightest.

It will vary from school to school. Sometimes it's based on results, often it's based on teacher nominations. Sometimes a bit of both. Departments may put their heads together and look at results and also attitude, achievement in class etc.

Different schools will do things differently.
Our school seemed to have 2 types, one for the best academically, and one for the most progress or similar. Then also some random ones such as 'overcoming adversity'.
Some schools will bother to ensure a spread others will just determine per subject which might end up with the same few scooping a number of awards.

Years back my DB one an essay prize in his A level year. It was a bit embarrassing as he had only entered 'for fun' and was doing science A levels.

It varies. Effort and attainment prizes are based on grades on their reports. Prizes for kindness are voted for by their classmates or sometimes nominated by teachers. Subject specific prizes are discussed by subject teachers about who deserves it and why.

Interesting, thanks for your responses.

Having discussed it with my friends (with DC at different schools, independents I might add), some seem to do it after all the exam results are in at the end of the year, others are informed before the end-of-year exams (so presumably this is not based on the overall achievement).

Does this favour the compliant rather than the children who asks 'difficult' questions?

Our school does prizes at the GCSE awards ceremony.

re Difficult questions. I think it would depend. Interesting questions asked in a way that doesn't disrupt teaching for everyone else would possibly be considered good. Other questions (sometimes more designed to show off knowledge?) that disrupt the actual teaching of the curriculum would I assume be considered a pain.

At our school, it's teacher nomination. Each department puts forward three names and then the deputy head distributes them, generally giving the prize to everyone's first choice, but maybe evening it out a bit if someone has lots of prizes! It was the same at the last school I taught at. Ours are done before end of year exams are marked, so more off the results/effort throughout the year. There is time to change them though if the end of year exams show the choice was entirely wrong.

It still bugs me that I came top in every maths exam during my secondary school career, won maths challenge awards, etc and yet never got the award for maths at prize giving! There was one per subject for attainment and one for effort, and I did win other prizes, but I genuinely think I deserved that one. (And it would have meant a lot as I attended a school where 99% of the time sporting achievement was valued over academic, so it would have been nice to be notified at that one time a year.)

're Difficult questions. I think it would depend. Interesting questions asked in a way that doesn't disrupt teaching for everyone else would possibly be considered good. Other questions (sometimes more designed to show off knowledge?) that disrupt the actual teaching of the curriculum would I assume be considered a pain'

Definitely this. Many students just ask challenging questions at completely the wrong time.

No, I guess we were more thinking those questions that are relevant to the topic but might be too difficult for the teacher to answer, or go beyond the current curriculum (due to child being very interested in the topic)! ;)

So it seems the very compliant, studious types regardless of whether they are particularly passionate (and not the highest scoring in exams) would be chosen ahead of others that are well behaved but perhaps a bit more animated/chatty?

Figures but good to know.

That would bug me too!

In one private school I worked at a student was awarded a cricket prize, which was promised to her because she managed to smuggle extra bottles of wine to our table at the teachers' end of year dinner.
She had never played cricket.

Really? That's kind of hilarious but sad too.

At my DCs' school the main prizes were awarded in KS3 and they were by teacher nomination. There was a bit of fiddling tho; ds2 and his mate were desperate to win the PE prize but ds won Spanish and his mate won German, much to their disgust. DD who was excellent in many things (and I am sure the RE teacher nominated her, from what he said) won the ICT prize so she was not impressed. :D The form teacher would pick best boy/best girl in the form each year. I think there were prizes in sixth form but none of mine won. DS2's super smart maths mate (now at Cambridge) scooped many of them I believe, and rightly so.

I meant to say that in KS3 you didn;t know what you had won for, just that you had won a prize and were at the ceremony. Hence the lust after PE and disappointment with MFL

Well I’ve often nominated students and there’s no set way to do it. Firstly you think, who stands out? That can be for any reason, hard working, good debater, overcome challenges. Then you think, who’s the best student academically - does it come easily to them or have they really put in the hours? And see who ticks the most boxes. So one year it was the “best” student as she was also diligent, fun, polite, super hard working etc and just an all round good egg. Another year it was a very middling academic student who had overcome some significant issues to achieve more highly that we ever hoped. Another time it might be someone who does Ok on the academic side but has a passion for the subject, always talks in class discussion, does things outside school and so on. It’s really a mix and depends on the class or year group as a whole.

In my school teachers nominate 3 in each subject and then Slt look at them. Eg if 1 kid has more than 1 it drops down to your second choice etc

When I was teaching, I was really mathematical about my prizes. For example, the achievement prize would go to the student with best exam performance or key tests over the year, the effort prize would go to the student with the highest effort score, the progress prize would go to the student who moved up the rankings from the previous year.

I could justify all my nominations should there be any queries.

No, I guess we were more thinking those questions that are relevant to the topic but might be too difficult for the teacher to answer, or go beyond the current curriculum (due to child being very interested in the topic)! ;)
So it seems the very compliant, studious types regardless of whether they are particularly passionate (and not the highest scoring in exams) would be chosen ahead of others that are well behaved but perhaps a bit more animated/chatty?
Figures but good to know.

I don't think I would draw that conclusion from what has been said? Surely teachers would like students who contribute to the class and are interested.
But a student who frequently disrupts a class asking complicated questions at inappropriate times would be another matter.

OP - is this about your DC being overlooked and you think it's unfair?

@AtomicBlondeRose
I wish everyone judged the prize winners in this way! It seems a very fair way to decide.

It just sounds so cringe that you are trying to put down other kids because your 'super interested, challenging and cleverer than the teacher' child didn't get one.

@CraftyGin That sounds fair 👍

Didn't mean it to sound cringe. I know other friends' kids who are really sparky but perhaps a bit disorganised and probably asks lots of questions, not always being the 'compliant' child. I know their child is super bright, it's evident speaking to particularly one of them.
Btw, my DC has had prizes and is lucky that way but we were genuinely curious.

I think this is in a way the fairest way, isn't it?