Having been a mum for fifteen years and a teacher for twelve I class myself as qualified to speak about motivating and rewarding children. Let’s think about it we all like being told when we have done something well, it makes us feel good and encourages us to repeat the behaviour. Rewards only need to be little to have a big impact. Children respond to rewards but I think we need to be clear what the reward is for.
In Education we are good at using rewards and sanctions, when marking A Level essays even my sixth formers liked me putting a sticker on their work. It made them feel valued. However I do think that sometimes the balance can be wrong and children are rewarded for doing the things that they are expected to do. Take the child that is rewarded for sitting still because usually he doesn’t, what message does this give to the other 29 students who always follow the rules? Our children quickly notice when the rules are different for them. I want rewards that really mean something and that students have worked hard for. In Education there is the term grey child, no one should be a grey child in my opinion, the grey child comes into a classroom, does what is asked of them and then leaves. They cause no trouble and are pretty average. Those children are often the ones lacking the rewards, they don’t get sanctioned because they don’t rock the boat but they don’t stand out either. I want to see more done to celebrate and reward these children and I want to see every child engaging in their learning.
As a parent if you don’t know your child’s schools reward and sanctions policy find out, ask their teacher. Education works best when it is a partnership and you should be able to see a copy of the policy.
The way schools reward and what should be rewarded.
- Attendance, if schools have the ability to fine for poor attendance they should be rewarding good attendance. One girl I taught had never missed a single day through both primary and secondary and I was really pleased when she was presented with a substantial gift as a reward,
- Good work, yes good work is variable and subjective so different children will be rewarded at different stages, but it means ALL children will get the reward.
- Taking a risk, my children’s primary school celebrate different types of learners and this is good, they get to wear a coloured crown for the day. Children need to know that it is absolutely ok to get something wrong, they need to try different things and getting something wrong is important.
- Being nice, respectful, polite- when we see children being kind and we reinforce that we are teaching children to make a better world. When I was younger I was told not to use the word ‘nice’ in writing because it is not descriptive enough. That has stuck with me because I think that we don’t celebrate being nice enough. I like the word nice and think it is undervalued.
How to reward children
As I said at the start I think Education have mostly got it right, the rewards include:
- Verbal rewards, again something that I think we forget children (and adults) appreciate. Don’t underestimate the power of the spoken word.
- Stickers and stamps and one of the best places to buy reward stickers and personalised rewards for children is Brainwaves.
- Certificates, children love bringing home something they can stick on fridge.
- Prize draws, this works well with older children too.
These techniques are useful for home aswell as school. Just a thought but how often do you sanction your child compared with rewarding them? At a training course I was told that to keep a child feeling positive we should say five positive things for every 1 negative. Now that’s food for thought!
