Background story

Caroline loved school. She had lots of friends, was well behaved and always got her work right. She never needed to stay in to finish any work off. Caroline was happy and knew she was doing well.

“My teacher is so proud of me. I always get lots of ticks on my work. I wonder when she’ll choose me for star of the week?” Caroline reflected.

The weeks went by though. Caroline still hadn’t been chosen as star of the week and she was starting to get a little frustrated.

“I wonder why I haven’t been chosen yet. Maybe my teacher is just letting everyone else go first. She won’t want everyone else to think I’m her favourite!” she thought.

Friday came around again.

“Surely it must be me this week,” she surmised, as she sat in assembly showing 5.

But Caroline was to be disappointed again!

“How can Megan have been chosen?” she shouted in her head. “She got stuck on that challenge and she didn’t finish it so she had to stay in at break time. That’s just not fair!”

Caroline was rather grumpy that morning.

“Caroline would you stay behind to speak to me at lunchtime?” her teacher asked.

Everyone else went off for their lunch. Caroline was somewhat bemused. She had never been asked to stay behind.

“Caroline, you don’t seem yourself this morning. Is everything okay?” her teacher enquired.

What should she say? She didn’t want to tell her teacher that she was jealous of Megan and didn’t understand why she had been chosen for star of the week. She decided to be brave.

 “I don’t understand why you chose Megan as star of the week. I haven’t been chosen at all yet and I have worked so hard this year. Megan couldn’t do her work and she had to stay in because she hadn’t finished. Why would you choose her?” Caroline blurted out.

“Caroline, we have to challenge ourselves. This helps our brain learn new things. This week Megan pushed herself and she chose a difficult challenge. She struggled with the work but she persevered. She chose to stay in to get the challenge finished. In the end she was successful and she learnt lots of new things that day. I wanted to reward her for challenging herself.” Her teacher responded. “You, on the other hand Caroline, always choose challenge 1. You find the work easy so you finish in good time. You also get lots of ticks. This doesn’t mean you have learnt a lot though.”

Caroline sat in her bedroom and contemplated what her teacher had said to her earlier that day. Was this true? Was she not really learning?

Monday morning arrived and maths was her first lesson. She had decided that weekend that she was going to try and challenge herself more. So she got up and took challenge 2. She reviewed the sheet and made a start. She felt like she wanted to cry.

“I can’t do this,” she thought to herself.

She remembered what her teacher had said about Megan and how she complimented her on her perseverance. So she kept going. The puzzle was very tricky and she just couldn’t find the solution. She tried lots of different ways but none seemed to work. How was she ever going to find the solution? Then suddenly…

“I think I’ve got it!” she shouted out loud.

Caroline’s teacher came over.

“Well done Caroline, you’ve found the solution. How do you feel?”

Caroline struggled to put into words how she felt. She was relieved she had found the solution and she felt good. This good, however, felt different than before.

“You should feel proud Caroline,” her teacher stated. “You worked hard and you persevered with the challenge. You ought to feel a sense of achievement.”

She did. She felt even more proud when Friday came and, this week, it was her that chosen as star of the week.