Discussion with teacher on 5 year old's inconsistent effort

[user1471524923]

Hello All,

I went in to drop my 5 year old DC in school today and the teacher asked if I could have a discussion after school today with her to discuss about my DC. DC is in Key Stage 1, year 2.

Teacher hinted that she plans to send in a mid year school report and my DC is tracking below expectation. According to the teacher my DC has an inconsistent effort for the past 3 weeks and sometimes refuses to perform tasks in class.

I am happy that at least the teacher is mentioning this but I am surprised that she plans to grade my DC for a 4 month period over a 3 week attitude. I am also really disappointed that the teacher did not even mention this attitude for 3 good weeks. My DC attends a private school and I expect that any deviation in behaviour to this extent needneeds to be escalated and reported as soon as it is noticed.

What do you think about this discussion I should be having in about 2 hours time? Has anyone been in a similar situation? If so, what was your approach and outcome? I do not think anything major has happened in the past 3 weeks so I don't see where this is coming From. Could their be an underlying medical condition. FWIW, my DC has 2 episodes of forgetting things in school about 4 weeks ago.

Please note that I want the best for my child and will not appreciate any conflict with the teacher as I do not think that approach will yield any positive outcome for my DC.

Thanks

[user1494670108]

I think it was fair of the teacher to wait as at that age it doesn't take much to distract them.
Did not take it personally just ask you can do to support at home what they're doing in school.
Really at age 5 don't sweat it, he needs to be happy st school and the rest will follow do next t put him under pressure to "achieve targets" he should be utterly unaware

[LetItGoToRuin]

Is your 5-year-old really in Y2? Y2 children are aged 6 or 7.

Or is your DC in Y1? Or is this not England?

[user1471524923]

We are not in England but Netherland. Kids start school at tge sge of 4. My DC is in the 2nd grade. I guess the system herenis not sure equivalent to the English system.

[LetItGoToRuin]

I think it does change things slightly, if we’re talking about a 5-year-old. I would expect a bit of inconsistency at that age!

I think it’s unlikely that the teacher is going to produce a mid-year grade of ‘below expectation’ solely on a child’s performance over the past three weeks. Perhaps your DC is currently working ‘below expectation’ – this is not necessarily a concern in itself – they’re all different and progress is not always linear. Maybe there are specific areas your DC needs to work on, and hopefully the teacher will talk about these, and explain what he/she is doing in class to address them.

I think the behaviour issues over the past three weeks are likely to be a separate thing really. I don’t think it’s at all surprising that the teacher has waited 3 weeks to raise this with you: the teacher will have been watching and encouraging – every child can have an off day or two – but now the teacher is sure it is a pattern or habit, and has asked for a chat.

If it were me, I’d want to listen to what the teacher has to say with an open mind, and arrange a follow-up meeting in a few days’ time. When I got home with my DC I’d want to talk to my DC, to find out whether there is anything bothering/upsetting them, and to encourage my DC to keep trying at school.

I know it’s worrying any time a teacher raises any concerns, but I think it sounds as though the teacher is managing the situation quite well and has come to you with concerns at the right time. Do let us know how it goes!

[user1471524923]

Good morning All and thanks for your prompt replies.

I did have the chat yesterday and it was much better than I expected. The teacher mentioned that my DC was tracking below expectation for effort not performance in some items (e.g. writing and Maths). She also mentioned that she had compiled the report over 2 weeks ago and that since she compiled the report, she has not seen one incident of this inconsistent effort so the report may be out of date when it is issued in 2+ week's time. She was particularly surprised that in their maths class yesterday that my DC was the only child who could perform the task without adult help in the entire class and DC was also one of the only children in the class that really focused during their group reading.

She did mention that she noticed a similar pattern after the autumn break and she thinks that my DC gets tired easily in the first days of school after a break and that could attribute to the low energy and reduced effort.

She did mention that I should not worry about the report as my DC is doing just fine.

Now I need to wait for the report to see if these ratings turn in back or not.

I will also focus on trying to send in alot of food and drink for DC right after every break to boost energy and encourage lots of rest after school.

Thanks again for your replies.

[ElanorGamgee]

He is so little, inconsistent effort is an awful phrase to use at five.

[LetItGoToRuin]

That’s good news – thanks for updating.

[Lovesagin]

Do you know what I did when I had a similar remark? I said "I'm not surprised there are sometimes issues with distraction and 'effort' and attainment, hes 5" and I asked them to keep me updated if there were any real issues that I should be aware of.