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?

@HipTightOnions as you’re a teacher, isn’t your standard planning and teaching all an initiative focusing on the middle? And then differentiation added in?

This is not the case in the school I work in. The middle ability group (well, ok, prior attainment group) make exceptional levels of progress- we usually get outcomes for middle band children at levels for high band children in other schools.

Have a look in the DfE performance tables at the schools local to you, and look at the progress breakdown by prior attainment groups. Often schools that are doing just ok in outcomes are starting from very different positions. Those that are getting average outcomes but have a lot of middle and low prior attainers are actually doing a good job.

I'm sure it happens but ime it's the exact opposite - everything pitched at the middle whilst either end sits there bored and frustrated.

It was the opposite in my school. Desperate to maximise the A-C GCSEs, so the middle abiry got the best teachers. The lower group were less likely to reach these levels and the top group likely to do with poorer teaching.

Indeed, year on year, despite higher levels up to GCSEs, the top group often achieved only marginally better than the middle one.

earthyfire
I HATE this and lose track of how many times I've annoyed colleagues by suggesting they stop always putting the quiet and compliant children in my form next to the disruptive students.

As a teacher I know there's rarely space to spread those out who need it, but it doesn't take much to consider allocating seats in a way that doesn't place the burden of bad behaviour on quiet students who won't speak up all the time.

earthyfire
If this has been going on for four years surely you would change schools if you have made representations to the school and governors and possibly LEA with no change to the situation. Would have thought this was an easy one to resolve for teacher, just change seating arrangements.

Definitely not unreasonable - I suspect a lot of kids underachieve because they get lost in the middle. Teachers have to spend so much time firefighting round the kids that aren’t interested and cause disruption that the ones who have great potential but need help unlocking it get overlooked.

I often think these are the kids who benefit most from private schools - the really academic ones will get there regardless, it’s the ones that want to get on but it doesn’t come naturally who get the most from the smaller classes with more attention.

OP it's 'a thing', they call it The Forgotten Middle.

earthyfire my 2 nice DC had this until I called the school out on their bullshit Buddy System. It's good kids babysitting difficult kids to give the teacher a break. My daughter got square on punched in the face by the son of the head of the PTA and I was basically blacklisted for forcing the school to move him away from her instead of saying it was ok and doing a tinkly little laugh.

Ime of kids at a large comprehensive with a lot of mixed ability classes, the middle bunch do the best for work at the right level and pace.

They don't get individual attention but then noone does.

'The forgotten middle' is a thing in the same way 'the customer is always right' is a thing - ie something that people say without really thinking it through.

The REASON the lower ability and the higher ability get 121 time with a TA is precisely because the entire lesson day in and day out isn't pitched at their level!! It's pitched squarely at the so-called 'forgotten middle' whilst the lower and higher sit quietly and stare in to space, for opposite reasons, waiting patiently for the little slither that will be pitched at their level.

But surely its not just about the level that the work is pitched at. If you leave the middle alone so you can focus on those that need it you're also ignoring their emotional needs in learning. My son was average throughout junior school and most teacher feedback was that he's doing fine and they know he'll just get on with it, but totally ignored the fact that he was hitting himself in class (until another pupil finally spoke up) because although he could do it, he believed he couldn't. He also couldn't move up levels often because although the teacher acknowledged that he was ready, they hadn't the time to evidence it. There's no easy answer and someone always misses out.

Not anymore - with the standard now being ‘working at end of year x or age related expectations’ the support and challenge for the most able is no longer a proper concern. It’s about how many you can get to that mythical standard.

@HipTightOnions

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!

This is exactly what I was told by a teacher when I asked about what they were doing to support my DS to move from achieving to exceeding expectations.

Nothing was her answer - there was extra support available for the underachieving and overachieving, but nothing for the middle.

I wasn't impressed, especially as she was very encouraging when I asked whether we should get a tutor.

Been going on for decades I think. Talking to my close friend just a few weeks about it - she was middle of the class, I was at the top. Top gets pushed with extra work and stimulation, the bottom gets lots of extra support. Middle bumble along half understanding everything.

Friend who is a primary teacher agrees, but there is just not that much that can be done without a lot more TAs etc. She said she makes a point to cycle through each child in the class, one or two a day and give them a little extra attention on how they're doing with their work, let them answer questions etc.

YANBU at all

As long as the middle stay in the "middle", more often than not there's no help, no incentive, no push to make them be more than "average" and actually reach their full potential.

The system is depressing. That's why so many parents spend fortunes on after school clubs and private tutors to boost their kids - they cannot afford private school but they want to do the best for their children.

I am always impressed by the various extra-curricular activities found by parents around me for exactly that reason. (First it means they care and they raise the level of the class which will benefit my own child, plus they are a mine of tips and ideas!)

In school we have something called target groups. FSM (free school meals) children; ALN (additional learning needs) children and MAT (More able and talented) children all class as target groups.

When teachers do their performance management they are often given objectives centred around improving performance across specific target groups (as named above).

Therefore all of the teachers time is being purposely diverted to those groups and whatever is left over, is for the middle.

It’s the shitty education system we have, that tries to make teachers treat all children as individuals to be targeted and yet just encourages the vast majority of learners to be forgotten. Well not forgotten, but with all that targeting, there’s little time left over.

Yes I do it.
No I don’t want to do it.
Take me back 10 teaching years - I liked it better then.

It goes in circles.

GAT/MAT
SEND
and what was the C/D borderline
PPG

As with everything else if Of twat sted and the government kept their noses out and stopped using education as a political football (+ gave proper funding, actually gave a shit etc.) teachers may just be able to do something about it.

That was always my experience. I coasted in the middle and had very little interaction with teachers as a result. Those struggling got extra support and those exceeding were praised and given more opportunities. I wish I’d been pushed a bit more

You have to remember that the 'over-achievers' aren't usually actually over achieving for them. They may be in comparison with the rest of the class, but the 'top group' will have much higher targets (based on EYFS and KS1 results) that the teacher is trying to get them to meet.
It is a problem but it is impossible for a teacher to be in 3 places at once. Especially now teaching assistants are few an far between. We used to be able to rotate and check on everyone but now I really struggle and end up supporting the lowers more because the poor souls just don't understand the lesson at all without support. It's a catch 22.