Yr2 Maths - Supporting struggling DS

[NamedyChangedy]

DS is my oldest and not a natural mathematician - he's just turned 7 so isn't particularly young for the year, but he seems to really struggle with understanding / retaining basic concepts. It's starting to affect his confidence as his 5 year old brother is now well ahead of him.

I've found school to be quite passive on the whole subject - at the last parents' evening his class teacher was cagey about even admitting that he was behind, and just said she'd look into getting extra support, but we don't know whether this has materialised or not. He seems to spend a lot of time with teaching assistants rather than the class teacher which I feel uneasy about but don't know whether I should say something or not.

We had a taster session with a local tutor last week who said that at the rate he was going DS wouldn't be able to attempt any of the SATS reasoning paper - he showed me a past paper and sure enough it's all well beyond his abilities as he can't do the underlying arithmetic needed.

I think we'll continue with the tutor, as even with that one hour session I could see an improvement - before that DS was drawing pictures to help with addition, e.g. 52+34, but the tutor had him using place values, so counting the tens and ones which was much quicker. DS also really enjoyed the session which was great.

But there's so much more to be done - the tutor pointed out that DS didn't know what the division symbol meant, for instance.

The tutor also picked up on the fact that DS has been copying the work of more able students that he sits on a table with. I suspect he's been placed next to them in order to encourage him but I wonder whether the class teacher knows this is happening.

Is there more that we should be doing at home? For the last couple of weeks we've been playing little adding and subtracting games etc, but I'm worried that it won't be enough. How can I help him more without putting too much pressure on him?

And should I be expressing my concerns with his teacher? It's hard to know how pushy I should be in this situation...

[Naty1]

My dd is yr 1, i looked at the sats papers and they do look quite hard.
As currently she can't automatically say what 2 numbers added together make.

[NamedyChangedy]

Thanks Naty, I think your DD has plenty of time to get up to that level though. Do you think she might be lagging behind?

[Naty1]

Not sure as it would depend on whether they mean adding and subtracting mentals or using fingers or pictures/counters.

[summerlovingliz]

It sounds like you need to go back to the teacher.. I would ask her exactly what the situation is and what they are doing at school to help.. he/she will also be able to advise what you can be doing at home to help. I think the general message is little and often in terms of whatever you're doing at home..all the best x

[NamedyChangedy]

Thanks summerloving, I'll book some time with the teacher - it's clear that speaking once per term just isn't enough, but they certainly don't invite more frequent communication. Although I can see why, with 30 children per class!