East Glendalough School

Distinctions and Commendations

Commencing in September 2011, a new system of rewards for excellent student work is being implemented.

Distinctions
Where a student produces a piece of work that a teacher considers to be particularly excellent, the student shall be recommended for a DISTINCTION for that work.

The teacher shall correct the work as normal, but will also add a written recommendation that the work should be presented to the Principal and that the teacher believes a Distinction should be awarded.

It is the responsibility of the student to bring the work to the Principal for inspection. If they don’t, they will miss out on the reward to which they are entitled.

If the Principal agrees with the teacher concerning the excellence of the work, a Distinction will be awarded. This award will be purely notional in nature – there is no actual “prize”. However, the award will be recorded and announced in the annual Prizegiving Night Programme. In as much as is possible, pieces of work that have won distinctions will be exhibited on the Prizegiving Night.

Simply producing “good” work is insufficient to merit such an award – the teacher must feel that it is particularly outstanding, and/or that an exceptional amount of effort has been put into it. Typically, a teacher may award a maximum of about 10-12 distinctions across all their classes in any given academic year – this should give students a gauge of the level they should seek to reach in order to achieve such an award – it really needs to stand out as being one of the best pieces of work produced in the class that year.

Distinctions will not be restricted exclusively to written work – for example, if a student produces an excellent model battering ram in history class, breaks the EGS “bleep test” record in PE, or creates an exceptional piece of Art, this shall be considered worthy of a distinction.

It should be noted that the awarding of a Distinction will be entirely at the discretion of the teacher and the Principal. Any attempts by students to lobby or pressure teachers to award them a distinction shall immediately disqualify that piece of work from attaining such an award.

Commendations
Where a student achieves SIX or more distinctions in the academic year, they shall be awarded a Commendation.

This shall constitute a Certificate and prize which shall be awarded at the annual Prizegiving Night.

In very rare cases, a truly extraordinary achievement may result in the student being awarded a Commendation without needing to attain six distinctions.