She is year 9, it's the school prize winner evening next week. Most of the prize winners are year 11, there are only 4 from year 9 of which she is one. She doesn't know what she's won.
She's getting really stressed about it. She says she doesn't want to go because she doesn't want everyone looking at her. I have pointed out to her
- that with about 200 prize winners she will only be on the stage for a matter of seconds
- that she won't be the centre of attention if there are 200 people there
- that she will create more attention by not going - "the prize for XYZ goes to KP, where's KP, is she not here? etc etc"
I have also told her that it's something to be proud of, we're all proud of how well she's doing at school. I've also given her the "your mum and dad and I will all be very disappointed if we don't get to see you get your prize".
What would you do? Would you keep pushing it? Make her go? Step back? I really don't know what to do.