By celebrating student success with the presentation of awards, schools both encourage the high-performing students to continue their positive efforts by providing them with recognition, and motivate other students to aim to achieve the success of their honored peers. Many schools offer awards to students for a variety of achievements. Regularly presenting awards to students can help produce an environment of mutual respect and understanding within your educational institution. Perfect Attendance Reward the students who come to class on time every day with a perfect attendance award. You can either give this award quarterly, or once at the end of the year. Some schools allow exceptions, such as doctor visits or sicknesses with a medical excuse, while others hold a hard stance and only reward students who are actually at school 100 percent of the time. Grade Point Average Award Many schools offer an honor roll, but you can make the achievement of this honor more meaningful and visible by accompanying the honor roll with grade point average awards. Create a tiered award system, offering a gold award to students who have between a 4.0 and 3.8, silver to those between a 3.79 and 3.6, and so on. Present these awards in front of other students, so they can see the benefits that can come from hard work. Good Citizenship Award Some students struggle academically but still add a positive element to the school environment through caring, cooperation and community building. By establishing a good citizenship award, you can honor the students who make your school a better place, regardless of how well they perform academically. Athletic Excellence Honor students whose talents lie in athletics with an athletic excellence award. This award can be given to students who always win athletic challenges, or to students who simply make a positive contribution or show dedication to their team. Some schools tie academic performance to this award to ensure that students who enjoy athletics also keep academics in mind, while others base the award purely on sportsmanship and athletic skill. Student of the Year Celebrate an all-around wonderful student by selecting a student of the year. Present this award to the student who excels in the academic requirements, shows exemplary character and acts as a positive force within the school. The student recipient of this award should be a model against which all other students can be measured. You can name one student of the year per grade, or instead select only one student from the entire school to receive the honor.

Awards For Effort Instead of only awarding the top performers, present certificates throughout the year as well as at the end of the year for effort. These certificates can recognize students who struggled in a subject but didn't give up and eventually improved their performance. Proteacher.org suggests naming these the Survivor Awards. Teamwork Students that play well with others, and especially those who help their fellow classmates, deserve recognition. Create a certificate rewarding students that go out of their way to help others. Proteacher.com recommends naming this the Nobel Peace Prize. Subject Specific Awards Reward the best-performing student in various subjects at the end of the school year. Limit the number of such certificates a student can receive to one. This way, multiple students can receive a certificate, instead of the best student in the class receiving all of the certificates for the individual subjects. Use names of famous people from each of the these subjects as the award title. For example, you can present the top history student with the Christopher Columbus Award. Weekly and Monthly Certificates Certificates4teachers.com offers certificates that can given to students for periodic accomplishments. These can include a certificate to the student of the week or the student of the month. These can be awarded to students who have not only excelled academically but have also worked well with their classmates. Non-Academic Accomplishments All of the classroom awards don't have to be based on academic performance. Give a certificate to each student who had perfect attendance during the year or a student who is constantly cheering her classmates on. Acknowledge good organizational skills by giving an award for the neatest desk. Another award you could give is for the student who displays the best group leadership skills.