shall we change schools?

[bamboowarrior]

DC, yr 5, is playing up a lot at school, defiant, answering back etc - i have lost faith in the teachers - they have labelled him as the bad kid and constantly set him up to fail - I want to move school (and have for 2 yrs) to a stricter more traditional environment with new teachers and tougher boundaries that will support him adapting to secondary school - he wants to stay - any thoughts?

[underneaththeash]

Give him until the end of term to learn how to behave properly and if he does let him stay, otherwise move him.

[BertrandRussell]

Why have you lost faith in the teachers?

[SuziQ10]

Why would the teachers set him up to fail I wonder?

[Whynotnowbaby]

Suzi they won’t be intentionally doing so but I have seen this happen. Teachers who assume a child will behave in a certain way and only notice that behaviour, teachers who know that certain approaches exacerbate poor behaviour but continue to employ them (sometimes deliberately, saying things like “he needs to learn to do this sort of activity...”). Of course many, many teachers are not like that at all and will go out of their way to help a child turn their behaviour round but teachers are human and individuals and some will find it hard to give endless second chances and new approaches to someone they see as difficult.

I think I would move schools op, a more formal learning environment is often much easier for children who are testing the boundaries- they come up against them quickly and understand what they can and can’t get away with.

[BlueChampagne]

I'm with underneaththeash

[Maldives2006]

Has he given any reasons to why he’s misbehaving, how are they setting him up for failure and when did the misbehaviour start?

I only ask because everyone seems to be obsessed with behaviour but maybe it might be worth looking at how behaviour systems are implemented. I’m not saying that firm is not important but it can be how the firmness is implemented.