Offering money for each GCSE pass or points?

[Purpleandyellowflowers]

Would you offer money to your child for each GCSE pass/point? If your child isn’t self motivated ?

Considering it, for anything 7 or above.

We offered a reward for any 9’s. Her Dad was livid he had to fork out £150 as she got 3 of them 🤣

Definitely not. They knew the value of good results for their own future success. I couldn't have afforded it and wouldn't even if I had. Motivation needs to be intrinsic to really work.

No, it's psychologically and educationally unhelpful to a) focus only on grades b) use money in this pay for results way.

To be honest, it pisses a lot of kids off to be pressured this way.

Nope, 5 dc and never did this.
They all were rewarded but I told them all, these are your GCSE's not mine.

Own them!

I was given £50 per A many years ago. It wasn’t a motivator at all. In fact monetary rewards generally aren’t - that’s known from psychological research. I put effort in because I wanted to do well, then banked some cash at the end of it but the two things felt slightly separate

Sadly my DC doesn't seem to be intrinsically motivated, and appears happy to be barely passing, when school says he could do much better.

Money might just motivate where discussion is closing doors and reducing future opportunities is failing.

Sorry discussion of, that should say. Didn't realise Edit was a premium function these days

I don't think that is the answer. In any case, for most GCSEs it is just a good pass that matters.

We rewarded effort (studying) not grades, gave him money one year and a new tracksuit the next year after his last exams.

Didn't mention it beforehand ( no pressure) but rewarded financially afterwards.
I don't think that succeeding and getting a reward is a bad lesson. Guess the type of reward you give depends on your own circumstances

if Theyve done better than or as expected surely parents will tell their kids well done

Choosing a suitable grade you think is the minimum isn’t OK

I wouldn’t be bribing with money at all or in increments per grade point increase either

If all else was failing and I thought it might help, then yes I would. (I didn't, but that's not the question).

Some kids just aren't mature enough at gcse age.

I do think that rewarding effort might be better though as it is more tangible. Eg you can reward every school revision session attended, every hour spent revising at home (provided there is a tangible outcome of notes made, or you test them, or past paper done)

Ask your child if it would make a difference. I would do a test run for mocks. Like 20% of the final reward. Then no more nagging.

We didn’t give financial rewards but DD 2 did ask if I would buy her a car if she got 3 A stars at A level. The fact that I said yes probably displayed my lack of confidence! She only got one AStar but got into her first choice uni.

During exams we did stuff like cooking them oily fish (doubt it made a difference but made them think we were on their side.

No, I wouldn’t do a reward for grades.

I do a meal out and a present (money or a physical present) after the exams finish, to reward effort if I felt they’d worked hard.

My dad offered me £50 for each one I passed.
He never did pay up for any of the 9 passes I got. I didn't tell him about the extra one I did.

I will definitely financially incentivice my eldest. It's the only language he currently understands (Although that mighy change as he gets older)

I think that it can depend on the child. My parents did this with my DB and I. It was £10 for an A, £5 for a B, nothing for a C. We had to pay them £5 for a D and pay them £10 for an E.
It helped my DB get his lazy butt in gear and get the good grades he was capable of.
I said I didn’t want to do the same as wanted to work for the results not money, and that was fine.

I wouldn’t choose to do it with my DC, but it did work for my bright DB who was slightly heading off rails. So you know your DC best. But think it’s important to set at realistic level - my DB was capable of the A’s, so this was ok.

No - because they knew that they needed to study to get the grades they needed for the next stage of their education. That was enough to motivate them - they knew we were proud of them.

My DD nedds to work harder to get her 5s in English than her 7/8s in Maths &Science.

If anything we will reward effort.

No

My parents did this.

£75 per A*, £50 per A, £25 per B.

1 A*, 9 A’s and a B later, they were £550 worse off and pretty fuming. I, however, had a great summer 🤣

I totally would/did if it encouraged them to work harder.
I wasn't blessed with intrinsically motivated children, both would have been happy with 5s - enough to move on to their next stages.
A few years later and one is very happy with the 6s he got, and now needs to apply for a slight career change.
Not everyone is mature enough at 15/16 to see the big picture, especially if they are young in their year (and surrounded by others also lacking in motivation). But they quite often look forward to buying something new!

Michael Sandel says No;

The corruption argument (Sandel)
The idea is that some goods have a value that is intrinsic to the activity itself — learning, curiosity, the satisfaction of understanding something — and that introducing a market incentive doesn't just add an extra reason to do the thing, it actively corrupts or degrades the original value. A child who reads because they love stories is engaged in something qualitatively different from a child who reads to earn £5. The money doesn't enhance the reading — it changes what the activity is.

I think I would do it double-edged: if you exceed your predicted grade in a subject by 1 grade, I will pay you £10. If you get a grade below your predicted grade, you will pay me £10. £100 for two grades above or below.

That could really stress them out though. 😂