Rewards for good GCSE results

cougar_3

I got £10 per A* from my parents and £20 for each top five result in the country. That was 10.5 A*'s £105 + £20 = £125 in total. I was never doing it for the money and was motivated enough.

I look hard done by next to some of your kids, but GCSE's can be so easy! It's probably worth selectively rewarding. Reward for history GCSE or another difficult one (maybe maths for your kids, maybe English), but a blanket £100 seems a little excessive and may lead to dependence on you over the next 2 years in further education!

Alikay

My daughter got 11 A & A* passes this summer - maybe we're stingy but we didn't pay her, even though we were obviously thrilled....the results were reward enough. We bought her a nice silver necklace and some posh perfume as congratulations prezzies.
She isn't an outstandingly clever girl, or naturally studious, but she worked very very hard and organised her time brilliantly. For that, we gave her £50 towards a YHA trip she went on with some other girls...this came immediately after the exams, so was for her efforts not the results.
Her younger brothers saw this and hopefully it will encourage them to study well when it's their turn for GCSE's!!

Glad

my two are both expected to get 11 A's or above and aren't really bothered wether they get the money or not, but because it all comes so natural to them I want to make sure they focus on not becoming complacent,
my plan would be to buy them a car for their 17th if they did well anyhow, now they will put this money toward it

Sarahsaver

I had the reward of knowing all my hard work had paid off, and despite losing my father aged 15 and other family problemsat exam time, I passed all my exams with grades A to C and was able to go to sixth form. My 'prize' was to be able to rightfully be proud of myself, and make my Mum and Nanna proud too.

Bright_Eyes_3

My 17 year old son is so laid back he's positively horizontal!
We got an 'expected' grade from teachers at pre exam parents evening then agreed to pay £10 for each grade above expected.

Worked well as motivation when the money hoped for had an otherwise unaffordable 'want' attached.

Probably doesn't work for well motivated.

Wortha try and didn't break the bank at max £80 pay out (in scotland that's Standard grades at 8 subjects.

tiddles

I really think we need to offer this sort of bribe to my 17 year-old son, who is fairly clever but totally unmotivated. He admitted as he went out of the door to school this morning that he got a U grade for the Maths AS-level module that he took in January. He is just so lazy, and doesn't want to conform to what is expected of him, although he does seem to attend all his lessons at school.

What can we do?

Any helpful suggestions gratefully received!

Philippa36

Hi Tiddles,

I have no good advice but I am full of empathy for your situation. Despite the many talks I have had with my son, he doesn't seem to see the point of exams and has little to no motivation at all. I gave up with the £10 for each pass as it didn't make any difference.

Today I saw him strolling along, obviously about to be late again for class, head in the clouds. I'm not sure what works but I'd love to know!

juno

My dad said he would pay me, and then when I got my results he didn't as it would've cost him about £200