<p>Tis the season for school awards ceremonies....are you in favor of them or against them? I think our high school does it about as humanely as possible....the parents of the kids who are being honored get a letter inviting them to the ceremony, which is held in the evening. That way, the whole school/class isn't forced to sit and watch others get awards. My kids get the perfect attendance award; we went last year, but didn't go back this year. (Too humiliating: "What award are you getting?" "AP Stats." "What are you getting?" "Perfect attendance.")</p>
<p>It's kind of sweet that every teacher can give awards, so you have a kid getting an award for Math Models (the class you take when you aren't ready for Algebra II after Geometry) alongside the AP Stats guy. (Of course, other kids think it's unfair: "If I was taking that class, I'd have a 105!")</p>
<p>I assume that many CCers get multiple academic awards. Do you like the ceremony, or could you do without it?</p>
<p>Given that only kids who are getting awards are invited, it didn't seem too awful to me. But they are long and boring. There are two academic award ceremonies a "lesser" one during the day, which is mostly for seniors, but includes the junior book prizes from colleges and occasional other outliers. Our son got a math award for the ACM score as a sophomore. Then there's an even longer evening ceremony which is just seniors, except for some reason they do the RPI medal there instead of during the daytime ceremony. There are a lot of citizenship awards and business awards that go to kids other than the academic superstars. (But unlike elem. school, most awards seem pretty well justified.)</p>
<p>One thing they do which I know some parents hate is that they have the top 25 kids announced along with GPAs and where they were attending college and a little about their ECs and other accomplishments. I was quite interested in knowing what kind of schools kids were going to so I was interested. But I know many people felt it was over the top -especially the GPAs. </p>
<p>What was very striking was that very little of the money scholarships went to anything academic.</p>
<p>Our high school makes a big deal over the Top 20 in every senior class. They have a very nice seated dinner for them. Every Top 20 student not only invites their family, but one special teacher. The student and the teacher are photographed together and the teachers proudly display the photgraphs on their classroom walls.</p>
<p>The seniors have a special awards ceremony; don't know if everyone is required to attend, or just those who got an award.</p>
<p>We have Senior Awards Night in June....it's one of the "you only attend if you're getting an award" deals. </p>
<p>Then, on May 30th, my SLC has its annual Senior Banquet, which I'm looking forward to more than any of the other senior events. We're really the last class that had the original teachers of the SLC, so they're bringing back all the "original" teachers (the teachers that were with the SLC when it was founded). I can't wait.</p>
<p>We have senior awards night on April 22. Son (ranked fourth of 800+) has refused to go. In his defense, it is an interminably long event. Every kid who gets some sort of "Texas graduate" medal goes, which is almost the entire class. We went to his sister's and it was like three hours, which then was repeated at graduation.</p>
<p>Our school does the Top 15, which I hate. I'd probably love it if my D was one of them though. It seems somewhat arbitrary that 15 kids who get straight As with 8 APs get honored, but the kid with straight As and 7 APs does not. They are recognized like yours, missypie, plus announced at graduation. Someone on these boards once suggested that after the 15 are announced, every other senior should hold up a sign that says "I'm #16!" I thought that was great.</p>
<p>One thing our school does is recognize "Principal's Scholars" which are the kids in each class who have straight As all through high school. Since our school weighs AP classes, some of these kids may be in may be the 20-25th percentile of the class if they took all regular classes, but they still get recognition. One of Principal's Scholars is a girl in my son's class who is mildly mentally challenged, so she must get all As in her special classes. (They don't get automatic As, however, because another mentally challenged boy my son knows was not a Principal's Scholar.)</p>
<p>At my sons HS, they have the senior awards assembly during the school day in front of the whole student body (only 550 kids or so), and it only lasts about an hour. Scholarships from the local community are awarded, and most of them require extensive ECs and service work, as well as excellent grades. There is only one that is based primarily on scholarship. There are a few that are need-based and you have to prove that your income is below a certain level. Then there are the HS departmental awards, many of which require that you have done tutoring or other non-class related activities. They also recognize designated state scholars, who are the top 10% or so academically, and name the colleges they will be attending no gpa. If a student is getting an award, the parents are invited. </p>
<p>On the whole, the school handles it pretty well, and I am glad that the whole school has to be there. After all, there are multiple athletic contests going on weekly all year long at high schools, and the best athletes are constantly being applauded. Its nice to hear some applause for the scholars, service-workers and club-goers as well.</p>
<p>Ours is held in the evening, for all the kids who got merit schoalrships at their chosen college. I love it, since we only get 4 tickets for graduation. I invite the child's godparent, and a couple close relatives that don't get to attend graduation. Then they feel like the part of things, and my daughter has more "fans" at the awards program. Good for everyone.</p>
<p>they are dumb. we dont get awards for classes, just awards for...awards we already got outside of class (if someone gets into USAMO, wins state science competitions, etc.) but they are still long and boring as my school participates in and win lots of competitions. I generally dont go even if I am getting like 6 or 7 awards. Well i go as little as possible. And plus our school does it 3 times a year, lol.</p>
<p>No academic awards that I'm aware of for either S, so haven't been to one of those. We have gone to endless end of season sports thingies--which are very boring, in my opinion, and go for hours and hours for the fall sports. Not quite so bad in the spring. </p>
<p>S2 is in a bachelor auction this week, which is something I would actually like to see, but he has forbid us from attending. We only even found out about it because he brought home a Tux after school yesterday and I knew it wasn't time for prom yet. Apparently, the dance team has taught the guys a whole routine. Should be a hoot.</p>
<p>The one I don't like is the separate awards night they have for Science Awards...it takes like 3 hours for an award that you have to BUY to wear at graduation.</p>
<p>Parents attending the end of season sports/other activites banquets is a new thing to me. When we were in school, we had the banquet, but not a parent was in sight (don't even recall any adult chaperones other than the teacher.). We went to my daughter's JV drill team banquet after we found out that about 90% of the other parents were attending.</p>
<p>Our high school does one award banquet. It is the senior athletic/activity award banquet and held right before graduation.
Every senior who ever participated in any extra curricular activity gets to attend. This is about 95% of the senior class. They give the kids really nice plates with medalions for their sport/club and if you are in enough you get a nice wooden plaque as well. Each kid is called by name and their activities are announced.
The sports and clubs then do "outstanding member" at the end.
No scholarships or academic awards are announced - they are announced at graduation.
It is really nice and non-competitive. My kids have all had a blast getting dressed up and going to dinner with their parents, friends and friends parents.</p>
<p>We just attended ours, an invitation-based evening affair. Our school has 4 and 7 semester honor roll certificates, and a few other awards were given (NMS, etc.) I missed seeing several parents, either due to the crowd or due to the fact that some skipped the event. It was only about an hour. They recited the kids' names and the kids came up to the platform/stage in clumps, making it impossible to match name to kid. DD was delighted to attend this, but I don't think it attracted everyone.</p>
<p>Our school does this for all grade levels JH and up, invites only award recipients and I LOVE IT!!! I wait for this every year, it is the one time of year when my D can honestly (we live in a small town) feel important at school amongst a sea of jocks. They do announce the Top 10 of each class (HS only) and we have always liked that bc it has let us know exactly where D stands each year (last year she was 4th but hopes to be 2nd by the end of this marking period which is the final to determine salutatorian). Scholarships are also awarded at this one as are the various awards for subject. D is proud to have won the highest average in band award from 5th grade on, on what other night would anyone care about that?</p>
<p>At the JH they started a new tradition last year where all of the kids who make High Honor Roll (94.5 or above avg) for each of the first 5 marking periods are taken on a trip to a local amusement park (paid for by the student council) and also are the guests of Honor at a dinner at the school just for them. Probably most students could care less if they are invited or not but to the ones who are it is a real show of appreciation.</p>
<p>Our school is like missypie's in that a student can get a departmental award for improvement, going beyond expectations, dealing with adversity, just as much as for the 100+ average. D has been the top Latin student in the school for years, but the Latin teacher chooses to give the department award every year to other students for the reasons listed above, and D is OK with that (so long as she gets the recommendation letter in the end lol)</p>
<p>The tension and drama at our school award night is the announcement of the "val and the sal" at the very end. No one (and I mean NO ONE other than administration and GC's) knows ahead of time, and they are the only two that will know their specific rank, all the others will only know their decile. The looks on the students (and parents) faces when they are announced is priceless, and they always get a standing ovation from their peers for their accomplishments...</p>
<p>At my son's high school (a small public high school in Northern New Jersey, with about 100-115 kids per class), the academic awards ceremony is on a Wednesday morning in June, about two weeks before graduation. I'm pretty sure (but I'll have to ask him) that all the seniors are supposed to attend; I know that there are so many awards and scholarships that the ceremony drags on for hours, because my S went as a junior last year to receive one of the college book awards they give out. There's no class rank at the school, but I think they give an award to everyone who's ever been on the high honor roll for any year. Just to show what a huge number of different awards/scholarships there are (close to 75 of them, I think, some of them with multiple recipients, although obviously there are many kids who received multiple awards), I decided to cut and paste below, from the school website, the list of awards from last spring (names of the school and individual winners deleted). I would guess that at least half the class received some academic recognition. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.</p>
<p>My plan is to try to take the morning off from work and go this year, since my S will be getting recognition for his National Merit Commendation, and for being on the high honor roll the last couple of years, and also has a very good chance of receiving the departmental awards for Spanish, History (Social Science), and/or English. Any one of which, of course, would be wonderful, especially given that the school is consistently ranked as one of the 10 best public schools in NJ. And, not that I need any reminder of how special he is, but it'll be nice to see some official recognition of that fact after he's been in that school system for 13 years, before he heads off to U. of Chicago. Especially since, until recent years, his school was always known for worshipping sports, much more than academics. (There's an entirely separate awards dinner for athletic awards.)</p>
<p>Donna</p>
<p>2007 awards:</p>
<p>National Merit Finalist:
Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholars Program:
National Merit Scholarship Program Commended Students:
Isabel M. Hickman 4-year Scholarship by NJ Retired
Educators Association:
Robert Buckley Memorial Scholarship:
------- Home & School Association Scholarship:
Women’s Club of ----------:
Schweppe-Burgdorff-ERA
Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship:
Robert Lowe Memorial Award (Rotary Club):
South End Association Scholarship:
--------- High School Theatre Arts Award:
Mills Memorial Scholarship:
William C. Schenck, III Memorial Fund:
Sandra Woodhull Schenck Memorial Fund:
Hickson Memorial Scholarship:
Friends of the ----------- Library Scholarship:
Association for the Cultural Education of ------ (ACE):
Mark Buttitta Memorial Scholarship:
--ASE (------ Assoc. for Special Education)
Scholarship:
Girls’ Club of ------ Scholarship:
Mary Romeo Memorial Scholarship:
Gas Lamp Players High School Drama Award:
American Red Cross:
Van Wynen Scholarship:
R. Tyler Hodgson Memorial Renaissance Award:
John A. Candela Memorial Scholarship:
Fairfield University Book Award: [my S]
------- Seniors Golden Circle Award:
League of Women Voters:
------ Chevrolet-Buick Award:
Teddy Williams Memorial Scholarship:
---- Kiwanis Club:
Thomas H. Bowden, Jr. Memorial Scholarship:
The Star-Ledger Scholar:
------- Education Association (--EA) Scholarship:
Math Department Award:
English Department Award:
Social Studies Department Award:
Science Department Award:
Physical Education Department Award:
Fine Arts Department Award:
French Department Award:
Spanish Department Award:
Choral Award:
Louis Armstrong Award:
John Philip Sousa Award:
Computer Science Award:
2007 U.S.A. Biology Olympiad:
Finalist -
Semi-Finalists -
H.E.R.O. Program Award:
Student Council Awards: President -
Vice President -
Secretary -
Treasurer -
--APA Art Scholarship Awards:
First Place -
Second Place -
Honorable Mention -
Paper Mill Playhouse 2nd Annual Student Art Contest
Award:
First Place -
Honorable Mention -
Kinnelon Education Association Scholarship:
Principal’s Leadership Award:
Police Benevolent Association Scholarship:
R.I.T. Computing Medals:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Award:
Rotary Youth Leadership Award:
Yale Book Award:
Academic Achievement Awards Class of 2006:
Salutatorian:
Valedictorian:</p>
<p>Rachacha, interesting that the Val and the Sal are a big surprise. My kids get transcripts twice a year that have their class rank on them. They are instructed not to discuss it with anyone, but everyone knows the top 5-10 people in each class. By the end of the day the transcripts were delivered, my daughter knew the numerical rank of her entire drill team plus about 1/4 of the freshman class. At our school, maybe 3 or 4 people would be on the list of possible val and sal, but it would be a surprise to no one.</p>