Year 3 Maths, Dd is struggling

[nutcracker]

Dd has always been a good all rounder, especially good at English, reading etc and quite good at Maths.
When she did her SATS last year she got level 2A and also did a test level 3 paper and scored well on that too apparently.

Now she is in year 3 and they did a Maths SAT last week and she was very upset to only get 3C. I told her that is an absolutly fine socre, nothing to be worried about but she is starting to sound stressed about her Maths in general.

She told my dad she finds the work too hard (she is in top group). I asked her if she had told her teacher and she said no. I think she feels like she can't say it's too hard as they all think she's fab at it.

It's parents meeting tommorow and I am going to mention it to her teacher but tbh she is a bit of a drip and I am expecting her to just say 'oh well nevermind' and thats it. Thing is, i'm not sure what I want them to do.

Any advice ?

[cazzybabs]

Ask for them to put her down a group to regain her confidnece or will this knock it further. TBH 3C is good - national average for year 3! Ask her what she finds hard and then help her with these areas!

[Hallgerda]

Is it possible that this is the first time she's really had to try, and that it's coming as a bit of a shock to the system? If so, it's a positive development even if it may not seem that way now.

It may be worth you asking your daughter exactly what it is she is finding difficult. That might clarify whether the difficulty is over not understanding what she's doing, being overly competitive or perfectionist, or just copying what her friends are saying (I'm sure I didn't know the words "trauma" and "stress" by the age of eight, but most children in Year 3 seem to know them now...). Not understanding is probably the easiest of the above possibilities to address.

[nutcracker]

Thankyou for the posts.

I have just got back from her parents meetings and we have all agreed that it's more of a confidence issue than ability as she can actually do the work but it doesn't come to her as quickly as her literacy.

The teacher agreed that 3C was absolutly fine and that she was only a few marks away from 3B anyway. Neither she or the maths teacher had any concerns but reassured Dd that she only needed to ask if there was something that she didn't understand.

She has had 'to improve my confidence in maths' as her personal target.

Oh and I can't post without adding that she got level 4A in her reading [proud mum emoticon]

[cadbury]

wow, clever dd! I hope that will give her a general confidence boost.