Rewards for good GCSE results

Philippa36

Do you think its a good idea to offer rewards for teenagers taking GCSE's? My son has been offered £10 per exam he passes by his Gran, which is a very generous offer but I am not sure it will have the desired effect to make him work harder and get better results - his girlfriend and friends get far more attention than school work!

Glad

I've told mine they can have £100 for every A and £50 for every B
then they give me £50 for every C and £100 for every D

nearlyrich

I didn't financially reward my children for specific grades, they both did well and it's costing me an arm and a leg to support them both through uni LOL.

[Deleted User]

Not a good idea. The best motivation is self-motivation and praise from parents whatever result thay get as long as they did their best. Being focused on job/career/uni is the best thing, however nothing motivates some children until they get to their thirties and can see a bleak future looming unless they get working towards better prospects

funky-footprints

I dont think there is anything harmful in offering a financial reward for working hard, but if your child is brainy then i dont see the need as it would be expected they achieve A's, B's etc, maybe for a lazier/more relaxed child the incentive may offer a boost ? (i was the latter, did enough to get me through, but a bribe from mum certainly made me try a bit harder in the subjects i wasnt that bothered about)

joe13

Seems to be the norm around here to offer financial incentives - to get A's and B's. And at a rate closer to the figures Glad gave. £100 for every A. The majority of the children at my sons school go on to uni. and need to get A's or B's to get onto a course at a good uni.

I personally can not see anything wrong with this. A bit of bribery worked well in my time at school as well. I seem to remenber it was more like 50p then.

lipidicman

Glad wrote:

I've told mine they can have £100 for every A and £50 for every B
then they give me £50 for every C and £100 for every D

Good grief, I dont wish to brag but my results would have netted me a cool £1k if you were my parents. Still that is small beer compared to the increase in life earnings good results can earn you (shame teenagers dont appreciate that, 1 in 10 said they would quit education for a chance on a reality tv show!) So instilling a sense of what they want to do, and what they need to get there might be a cheaper and also more lucrative idea!

elona

If you pay extra for all A and A stars then two of my daughters would have cleaned up to £1500 each or more.

My daughter did GCSEs last year and when she did very well we went out and got her a laptop for sixth form - we would have done this anyway but it changed the timing a bit so it felt like a reward for her hard work. Also got a good one that she helped research.

We had also just paid several hundred pounds for an exchange trip to Paris where she stayed with a french family and offered her a shopping trip ready for sixth form so she was quite happy with this.

We both explained that we were rewarding her hard work and effort rather than the results as such as sometimes things happen in exams and people do not always get the results they deserve - mix ups by exam boards etc. and we did not like the idea of bribery - prefer a reward for effort.

lipidicman

elona wrote:

If you pay extra for all A and A stars then two of my daughters would have cleaned up to £1500 each or more.

Ah, no A*'s in my day, I took mine 15 years ago. £1500 each? wow, 15 GCSE's is a lot, you must be very proud!

Tondella

I got rewarded by my Mum for my GCSE results, I was already pretty motivated though. Think it went £75 for A*; £50 for A; £25 for B; £10 for C; then pay her £25 for every D and below. I got 8A* and 2A grades and felt so guilty that I settled for a lesser amount! It made the day a bit fun and was a nice acknowledgement of the work I had put in. I graduated from my PhD last year and Mum bought me a leather satchel for work as a gift.

elona

lipidicman

I meant 11 A s each and about 5 of those were A* so worked it out as roughly £1500 worth each.

I am proud of them but think if they tried to do 15 GCSEs each they would have collapsed lol:eek: