Looking for advice or what has worked from anyone else who has been through similar! DS 6 has just started Year 2. He's a May birthday so not one of the very youngest but among the youngest handful as there aren't many summer borns in his year. In Reception his teacher was thrilled with him; he was well-behaved, tried hard with his work, ended the year exceeding in reading and science and where he should be for his age in writing and maths. He's a bright little boy, fascinated by the world (in particular the natural world, anything science, geography or animal related), articulate, has a brilliant imagination etc. He is also a real livewire, very active and outdoorsy and can be very loud.
In Year One we saw a real change in his behaviour. We started to hear a lot of moans about schoolwork being 'boring' and about how he 'hates' writing, maths, reading etc. I do get it - I was a reading scheme hater at primary school and only happy once I was a free reader! But things started to descend into him messing around in class, constantly talking, being silly, having to be moved away from certain friends because of their behaviour together. He also became pretty challenging at home - rude, argumentative, physically violent, constantly answering back, incredibly loud and shouty. Should add here that all this came at the same time as his baby brother so there may be some correlation. There was also a handful of incidents where he was unkind to other children at school.
We worked with his teacher all last year on this and did eventually see an improvement. She told us last winter that she was concerned that his attainment was going to start slipping because he was putting zero effort into his work and messing around all the time. By the end of the year we had seen a lot of improvement - he was mostly working hard and while still very chatty and occssionally silly, had stopped with the outright misbehaviour. She had a lot of positive things to say about how he had come on. His behaviour at home also improved although he does of course have his off days.
Fast forward and we're back to square one again with the moaning about work now he's in Year 2 - he 'hates' it, it's 'boring' and 'pointless', etc. He doesn't struggle with the work as such, he just doesn't want to do it and so it can be like getting blood out of a stone. We had our first parent's evening of the year this week and his teacher said that she knows he is very capable but that he stalls and chats and puts off doing his work because he simply doesn't want to do it, then ends up completing it in a rush at the end of a lesson just to get it done. He has also been very chatty and distractable although not 'naughty' - so far. We talked about engaging him and to him about the importance of trying his best but I left feeling a bit disheartened. I know he is not even six and a half yet but just seems so grumpy and bored about anything to do with learning! I don't want to make him feel like we're harassing him about it but I also don't want him to be that child who sits messing around in class then does the bare minimum of work required to get by. Anyone have any advice?
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What would you do? Year 2 DS attitude to learning
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ballroompink · 21/09/2018 13:58
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