Middle kids overlooked in classroom?

[comeonvogue]

This seems to happen a lot at my DCs school - the middle ability group are regularly overlooked for any extra support, teacher involvement throughout class and so on. The higher ability group are provided with what appears to be more interesting and varied work and the lower ability group are given a lot more teacher/TA support. Is this the same at anyone else's DCs school?

YANBU in my experience. When DS was doing his GCSEs he was predicted a B in a subject but told he was easily capable of an A. When I asked his teacher how they would be helping him to get there the teacher just said they wouldn’t be doing anything, they were just focusing on the less able students getting a pass.

Not sure why all the students didn’t get the help they needed but assume it’s just down to resources.

It depends on the topic and the lesson.

Can the middle be neglected by some teachers? Of course.Just like some teachers don't stretch the top enough and others don't put enough support for SEN.

However, if the highly able are getting additional work, the lower attainers are getting additional support then the work given to the middle is right for the middle. I'm not sure that middle ability students getting the middle band work is that much of an issue.

Ah this takes me back to primary school. I was in "top" English (not that you can tell now, arf) and there were a select group of us, around ten or so, that had extra English lessons every week whilst everyone else watched Pigeon Street. Even then I never understood it! Why give extra to those that already get it? Surely the time should he spent helping those that are struggling or even middling. Or a class for everyone!

My primary school was massive. One hundred and fifty or so per year group. It really was only a handful getting the extra.

Depends what you mean by overlooked?

Most class teaching will be pitched at this group and their resources tailored to them. That’s not to say that they should NEVER have additional adult support though.

Is your child making progress and achieving? If so, it doesn’t matter that they aren’t getting anything you view as ‘special’.

I always assumed kids in the middle did quite well in primary as teachers in general teach “to the middle”. They might then give some kids a bit more stretching work and help those who struggle, but the main part of the teaching is aimed at the middle. Or so I always thought!

This happens in every school I have worked at.

And in part it's because the 'middle' children can do the main chunk of the work we are asking of, the 'higher' ones will need an extension task and the 'lower' ones will need more help

Unfortunately this is the issue with big classes sizes

I will never send my child to a school with class sizes over 15 because it simply doesn't work

Yes they get over looked they get over looked if they are struggling too orovided they behave themselves and don't cause disruption

The middle children get pretty much every single lesson pitched to their level. They may well be overlooked for praise, but not for actual teaching.

I found this could be really patchy too, and teachers vary massively in how good they are at approaching it.

I was generally high ability, but I REALLY struggled with Maths once I hit secondary. Yet I got plonked in the top set and was harassed through the top set work for two years at GCSE. I got an A by the skin of my teeth, after a lot of misery.

I reckon I might have got the same A AND had a better time if I were treated as the middling aptitude student I felt like, not put to the futile stress of trying for an A*.

I worry about this with DS. He's on track for everything and also very polite, well-behaved and conscientious. I've always had lovely but very non specific and bland feedback for him, as he just goes in and gets on. I understand that the teachers are stretched, there a lot of children with SEN in his class, but I do feel he's overlooked a lot as he happily blends in.

I’m sure it happens. However, my experience of my daughter’s primary was the opposite. Everything seemed to be designed to teach to the middle. If you needed additional help, you didn’t get it. If you could do it standing on your head, you didn’t get stretched.

But remember the middle kids gets the massive advantage that every single lesson is pitched at their standard.

Well with the whole value added being very important now in the league tables, schools may try harder to support the ‘middle achievers’ get top grades to boost the value added.

The middle children get pretty much every single lesson pitched to their level. They may well be overlooked for praise, but not for actual teaching.

This. The children at the lower end of the scale never get the chance to get teaching that is specifically aimed at them, that they can follow without extra support. They have to sit through lessons they don't understand a word of and if they then get a bit of extra support to understand at least some of it, then people begrudge them that.

I had one bright but physically disabled child, one physically able child who was bottom of every class he was in until he reached secondary.

I never begrudged the fact that my physically able child wasn't pushed around in a wheelchair, nor that my academically able child didn't have a special TA to explain what the teacher had just said. They didn't need that: in that respect the world was already built around them.

But when I saw how little the limited resources available went to help them with the areas where their real problems lay...

@EnglishGirlApproximately

I worry about this with DS. He's on track for everything and also very polite, well-behaved and conscientious. I've always had lovely but very non specific and bland feedback for him, as he just goes in and gets on. I understand that the teachers are stretched, there a lot of children with SEN in his class, but I do feel he's overlooked a lot as he happily blends in.

@EnglishGirlApproximately this is my experience too. Lovely comments but never anything substantial!

On reading your op again, and the responses, it's actually the middle kids that are getting the most, so yabu.

Your op basically says...

'The teaching from the qualified teacher is aimed at the middle students. The lower ability don't understand the lesson so need help from the assistant to reexplain it in a language they understand. The more able students are bored by the teaching as they understood it easily, so a few harder work sheets are thrown in their direction.'

I had non specific and bland feedback for my high achieving (in some areas) primary school child. Are you over estimating the feedback that other parents are getting?

@comeonvogue yep it feels like he's largely well liked but unnoticed.
For those saying that everything is pitched to the middle, I get that totally but school is about more than just getting on with the work. If they feel overlooked they can get demotivated and not enjoy learning. Everyone does better with a bit of praise and appreciation.

To be clear I have no issue with the teachers or TA at all, they simply don't have the time and resources to give the attention to every child. I've been a school reading helper so definitely don't think I'm overestimating the feedback to others, I've seen it in the classroom.

I’m not really sure what you want for you child - is it the work that you perceive as more varied and interesting?
Because as an adult, what we see as more interesting, to a child of middle ability might just seem hard, not exciting.

Don’t forget that at this level, you can educate at home too. My daughter would do something at a basic level at school, then we’d do more at home. An example - school homework was who were the Allied and Axis powers of WW2. All they wanted was a list, and a coloured in map - USA and Russia as Allies, as if it was that simple. We used YouTube videos to talk about when and why Russia switched sides, and what a co-belligerent was, and photocopied the map to do it for 1939 and 1945. If you want your middle child to do more, support them at home too.

My experience is that teachers are encouraged to get kids over a certain line like certain grades in SATS/ GCSEs or whatever so the focus is getting the borderline people over the line.

The interesting tasks for top group is not something I've noticed personally- especially if there's a child who is much further ahead than the rest of top group. Interesting from an adult POV doesn't necessarily correlate with what a child would say was interesting.

@EnglishGirlApproximately

To be clear I have no issue with the teachers or TA at all, they simply don't have the time and resources to give the attention to every child. I've been a school reading helper so definitely don't think I'm overestimating the feedback to others, I've seen it in the classroom.

I totally agree with you. My youngest was in a class of 32, very much in the middle academically and also fairly quiet and well behaved. If you have 32 6 year olds to supervise of course some are going to get less attention than others. This is the one and only reason we moved him to a private school, and were lucky to be in a position to do so. I lay absolutely no blame at the feet of his teachers, they were great people but run off their feet.

Children with obvious educational struggles get more help because they need more help, though.
A child of average intelligence can sit through a lesson on, say, fractions and probably be OK to work through the problems on the worksheet afterwards.
A child with a higher level of educational needs really needs someone to help them understand the concept and apply it.
It's shit for both groups, really. The average children are kind of left to it, and the lower-ability group are just left to struggle as best they can with limited help- what would really benefit them is adapting the lesson to their ability.

yes and my child is ALWASY sat next to the most disruptive child in the class because she is seen as a calming influence...for four years she's been kicked, punched hit over the head with rulers.

YANBU. As teachers we are encouraged to stretch the high achievers (who used to have a special name, “gifted and talented”) via extension and enrichment activities. We are encouraged to support those who are underachieving via all manner of interventions. I have never heard of an initiative focussing on the middle. Who knows what these children might achieve if they got the same attention!