RHYDDINGS Business and Enterprise School headteacher Barry Burke gave his farewell prize night speech last night.

Mr Burke became head of the Oswaldtwistle school in 1999. In 2005 it was named as one of the fifth most improved schools in the country.

At the end of this term Mr Burke will leave to take up the post at a new inner city academy in Manchester.

Mr Burke told patrents and pupils: “Tonight is the last time I’ll speak to you as headteacher of Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School.

“As you know, I’ve been given the opportunity to take some of the ‘Rhyddings Magic’ and plant it in a new school in Manchester.

“So you see, it’s really your fault I’m leaving at the end of this term.

“After all, you’ve demonstrated to the world that Rhyddings’ students improve their performance year on year with your year group achieving the best all round set of results ever, and that makes me look good!

“And just like Joe Calzaghe’s decision to ‘quit’ while he’s at the top, I’m able to leave Rhyddings at the pinnacle of my teaching career – all because of your outstanding success.”

Mr Burke thanked pupils, staff, governors and parents and added: “I’ll take my Rhyddings ‘snapshots’ with me to make me happy when times get tough and call on the support of my friends when I inevitably meet those apparently insurmountable obstacles.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants, like those in Rhyddings, has made me successful but, more importantly, happy.”

>> PRIZEWINNERS

100 per cent attendance: One year, Katie Collins, Kirsty Evans; five years, Daniel Duckett; Art and Design: Aqsa Munir; Business Studies: Daniel Duckett; Engineering: Liam Koral; English Language: Farheen Mohammed; English Literature: Nafisa Tahir; French: Rebecca Entwistle; Geography: Katie Collins; Health and social care: Leanne Slattery; History: Farheen Mohammed; ICT: Kirsty Ormerod; Mathematics: Daniel Duckett; Media Studies: Sameena Waheed; Performing Arts: Emma Ward; Physical Education: Danny Wilkinson; Religious Education: Zisham Abid; Science: Rebecca Entwistle.

Technology (Catering): Katie Collins; Graphics: Louise Pike; Product Design: Aqsa Munir; Technology, resistant materials: Drew Owens; Textiles: Zakkeha Begum; Travel and Tourism: Louise Pike; Urdu: Zisham Abid.

School Trophies: Moore Trophy for service to the school: Mark Braysford; Governors’ Trophy for service to the community, Annabel Johnson; Rhyd-dings Trophy for effort, Moinuddin Anwar; Banks Trophy for achievement, Emma Ward; Mim’s Trophy for extra-curricular perfor-mance, Christopher O’Connor; Rhyddings Trophy for outstanding academic achievement, Rebecca Entwistle.

Originally posted by Catherine Pye

Oh, for the days of expectations in public education. There was a time when attendance was an afterthought — teachers and parents demanded that students be in class every day, barring illness, and that they pay attention in class, study at home and be able to read, write and perform basic calculations with ease.

Students faced undesirable consequences at home and at school for not fulfilling their charge.

Now it’s the schools themselves that face punishment if the kids decide to play hooky. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, poor attendance rates can get a campus designated inadequate, even if the students who actually come to class exceed academic benchmarks. That can cost schools funding.

So schools have taken steps that would have been considered disgraceful just a few generations ago — they’re offering trophies to children just for showing up. Clark County School District campuses are providing academic awards ranging from free yearbooks and prom tickets to bicycles and iPods.

Compared with some parts of the country, the valley’s schools are showing restraint. A couple of systems have offered cars to kids with perfect attendance.

“We shouldn’t have to bribe kids to come to school,” Clark County School Board Trustee Terri Janison said during a recent board meeting.

The trophies are worsening “this generation’s sense of entitlement” and absolving students and parents of their “sense of personal responsibility,” she said.

Exactly. What’s the point in rewarding a middling student with another distraction device such as an iPod?

Clark County School District brass say the goods are funded through donations, campus vending machine revenues and other student-generated fees, not tax revenue. That’s certainly appropriate.

But principals should ask themselves whether they’re sending the right message to students by providing trophies for good attendance. If schools decide to stay in the business of providing material incentives, is it too much to ask that they reward … excellence?

Originally Written in the Las Vegas Review Journal