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 ?

We are doing £200 per 9 and £300 each if he gets a full house (all 9s).

Pretty much no chance.

We haven't said anything about rewarding 8s. Might negotiate a lower reward on that.

Sometimes it is much easier to bribe them through each stage than it is to pick up the pieces later.

Mine is severely dyslexic and ADHD with PDA tendencies though so that probably makes a major difference. Executive function is very behind for age.

No. It will reinforce not being self motivated. Let them deal with the consequences. Maybe THAT will give them reason to become more motivated. Young people don’t need to believe they’re always going to be rewarded for basic effort they should be doing anyway.

I used to be against it on the basis that it harms intrinsic motivationthen thought about the fact that it’s basically work, most of us do a job and try to do it well so we get more money and promotion. We are nowhere near this yet but I don’t really see the problem. I’m not sure how many people are intrinsically motivated to be an accountant for example.

No

No, I have never understood this. They should want to do well for themselves, not how much you pay them. It also puts pressure on achieving top grades which feels unkind.

No definitely not.
The reward should be the pass itself.
If you want to reward anything then reward the effort they put in not the grade.
But generally I think children and young people need to learn that doing well is going to help them in the long term and that not everything important comes with another external reward or bribe.

Back in the day my mum offered me a tenner for every A i got. My dad said he’d match it. Don’t think they expected me to get a clean sweep of all 9 subjects 🤣🤣 I don’t even think they said it as a way to get me to work harder, it was more of a passing comment.

In that case it's much better for him to face the consequences of not doing well and have to take retakes.
That's a much better lesson for young people than paying them per grade.

No. The results were a reward in themselves. They shouldn’t have to be bribed to do their best - they should understand it is for them, not me.

No. What for? I have GCSEs myself. My DDs exam results are hers. I will support her when she asks, provide a home environment that enables study, sleep, nutrition and moral support but I will not become overly invested in her results. They are up to her. So many parents are desperate for their children to get high marks in lots of subjects and have given their children the impression that life without 7s is impossible. It clearly isn't.

Education is a broader thing than GCSEs. Can your child hold a conversation, sustain a commitment, a voluntary position, make a phone call even? Can they bounce back from a minor setback? Do they have internal motivation to pursue activities for their own sake rather than putting them on a university application form? These things will get them further than a 7 in a subject they won't continue beyond GCSE.

I would never incentivise my child with money for a myriad of reasons but if I was to be tempted down that path, it wouldn't be to get a particular number in a GCSE. I cannot understand why parents are so invested in the numbers and I am a teacher.

No money here. It’s their life.

But you generally can't just retake except for maths and Eng Lang, and pass rates on resits are low.

Some 15/16yos are quite immature. If you thought rewarding grades would get them to work, then why wouldn't you?
To be able to write for ever more on a CV '9 gcse passes at grade 5+' rather than '6 gcses passes at 4+', isn't it worth trying?

Yes, both children were offered/given the same financial reward, albeit for different grades. They have differing academic abilities and therefore the target grades were different. We wanted to reward them financially for their efforts and encourage them. Both have SEN and find studying at home challenging. Some people choose a meal, new clothes etc but we chose money for them to do as they please with.

I always tell my kids that if they don’t do well, it’s their life not mine. Both my kids are very self motivated, one of them has finished their a levels and still studying ready for uni.

Why do we give tips or bonuses to people doing there jobs? Isn’t it to show appreciation for doing a job well done?

dd got 1s and 2s in her mocks, she’s worked incredibly hard so regardless of her grades, she will be rewarded, just going into school each day was a massive challenge for her, but she did it, and she sat each and every exam (complete bloody waste of time, but there we go). She’s relieved to have finished her education.

Bless her. Hope she enjoys her long summer 🙌. It can be such a relief to leave all that behind you.

Yes we did for GCSE and I think it worked. He was very unmotivated and achieved 2-3 grade uplift from mocks. Would do it again.

Maybe it depends on the kid....?

It didnt piss me off...🤷🏻‍♀️

my dh parents did the same.
It was also very common in general at my highly academic school and there were A grade aplenty...

Our kids are a way off it, but we will prob pay for grades... it's a reward for hard work.

I think this is one of those mumsnet things people lie about.... like when everyone on here pretends they wont/didn't bother tutoring for grammar school

No.

I did with DS1, I believe it helped him focus - a bit more than he otherwise might have done. It wasn't so much the money, it was the new bike it would help him buy. Then I came unstuck a year later with naturally academic DS2 who got mostly top grades, had to negotiate to settle for a sensible figure.

We did money for doing old test papers. Meant more revision was done. It seemed to work fine. I did notice that the hardest subject was the one DD got the best results for as she revised more for it thinking she'd fail, and ace the others!

The sad side of assigning an amount to each grade is that on the morning that the grades come through, if your child didn't quite get what they studied for, then you hit them with a reduced amount, it's like a punishment where you really hope it will be a reward. Grades don't work that way. If you feel you want to motivate your child then say that if they study hard you will reward them. I have been a teacher over twenty years and listened to this conversation pre and post exam results day many times. I also have three children and rewarded all of them. I gave all three the same amount as I knew they all did their best and would hate to have given more to the one with slightly higher grades. That's not a parent's job. Think carefully about exam results day, would be my advice. Good luck.

Tried that out if desperation but didn’t work!

This is a good approach. Thank you. It is better to link it to hard work I think. I will do this.