Being quiet in lessons? Year 12 report

[Stugs]

Dd is in year 12. She's just had a written report which her school does once a year. She's doing PE A level and one of the teachers wrote that "Snugsdd is quiet in lessons, and one if the quieter pupils in the class, however despite this she has an excellent grasp of the topic and performed well in the recent tests".

She had a really good report with Excellent for learning for all subjects/topics apart from that one which was Good.

I'm really happy with her report and she knows I'm proud of her for getting her head down and working hard (she's been unwell). She's working at grades B mostly with the odd A. She's needled by the comment as she doesn't think she is quiet at all!

This is just a question to (genuinely!) ask if you are a teacher why is being quiet in lessons a bad thing? She says there are two very loud girls who play solitaire (!) in lessons and shout out who the teacher really likes as they do the sport that he teaches- this is just what dd has told me obviously not sure how true that is.

I'm not a teacher but do be glad! My son's reports occasionally said, "It would help if he would stop being the class clown!"! Long time ago.

The teacher didn't actually say your daughter was 'wrong' to be quiet in class, however the sentence was poorly phrased and I can see that was implied.

Don't worry about it, it sounds as though your girl is doing well.

It's not necessarily bad but maybe the teacher is concerned that she may not be happy in class?

Well does it mean quiet as in doesn't talk when she's working, or quiet as in won't answer questions and really struggles to communicate with the teacher? As I'd definitely have been the latter at school and I really did need to work on my confidence and assertiveness

It’s factual rather than an outright negative.

It gets mentioned in that context because quiet can sometimes mean disengaged or not active participating in the learning (which is important) but the teacher has clarified that in her case it’s fine as she is keeping up well.

At year 12 it may be she isn't engaging in discussions, which generally happen more than lower down the school. I would raise it as a concern if I feel students are lacking understanding and not asking questions to clarify, deepen her understanding.

If I said a child was quiet in class it wouldn’t mean they didn’t chat, it would mean they never contribute to discussion or attempt to answer questions. This is not a good thing, especially at A level as it suggests a lack of engagement and interest in the subject.
you can be a quiet person and still attempt to answer questions and/or contribute especially when working in pairs or small groups.

If I mention being quiet as an area to improve it means that the pupil doesn’t contribute much to the interactive part of the lesson which makes it difficult to gauge how well s/he has understood the concepts until individual work is completed. Sometimes it takes much longer to correct misunderstandings that have been embedded like that.
Sometimes the atmosphere in a class can make a pupil reluctant to articulate their thoughts even though they may do this happily in other contexts. The loud girls may have this effect on your daughter. It may be the teacher’s manner that is not well suited to your daughters learning.

I've never understood this either. I was seriously underestimated at secondary school because I was quiet, I remember in maths I did the 'lower' end of 1st year test, then they got me to do the 'higher' one because I'd done so well, then I was one of five that had to do an extension paper because I'd done so well in that too.
The reason I didn't answer questions was from a fear at being laughed at or put down by the teacher for getting it wrong (which happened at primary school and then affected me all through secondary)- if teachers want shyer kids to answer questions then they need to make sure their classroom is a safe place to do so.

I wonder if this is it actually. I don't think she is that happy in this particular class.

Thank you this is really helpful.

You have to say something in a report and if a child is quiet, that is often all you can say.

An honest report would look more like this:

StugsDD seems to be doing fine and is getting good grades. I don’t really know her very well because she doesn’t say much and the rest of the class are quite a noisy bunch. I would love to say something more meaningful but I can’t remember much else about her as I teach 200+ children. She hasn’t given me much trouble so I’m happy. I hope she is too.

My son used to get that a lot. I found it very annoying especially as he was pretty much top of the class in most subjects so he wasn’t disengaged and they would highly praise his work. It seems teachers prefer kids to be loud even if their loudness has nothing to do with the subject being taught.

That would be absolutely fine but there are only 6 taking PE A level!

9 not 6!

My son says he was quiet in class because he did understand the subject and the concepts. He said the noisy kids were the ones shouting ‘Miss, I don’t understand’. The teachers knew my son well, (small private so they knew everyone well) they knew he was very competent but still they’d put he was quiet in lessons year after bloody year.

But presumably that isn’t the only class the teacher takes. I had an A level class of 8, I saw them once a week for an hour because another teacher taught them the other part of the course. I didn’t know them that well as I also taught around 200 other students in different classes. PE teachers often do coaching outside school as well.

I agree it's weirdly annoying 😄 it's annoyed dd (mainly because you get some sort of prize or something if you get Excellent for attitude across the board and this one teacher gave her a Good !)

In Year 12 'quiet' means she isn't contributing very much and probably should. The teacher should be putting a lid on the noisier ones and encouraging the 'quieter' ones to express themselves. It's all part of the skill of teaching.

Playing solitaire during lessons?! If true, not on.

Yes fair enough.

I'd have been like that. When I first started at work I was picked up in appraisal type discussions for being too quiet and in team meetings too.

It wrankled with me because it's just who I am, and I do happily speak when I have something to say, am not silent. But it is good for her to be aware that's a trait and how she's perceived by the teacher as it gives her the opportunity to practice participating more robustly in class discussions- and hopefully become a more confident contributer to group discussions.

Yes she's the strong silent type generally. Probably doesn't help that her dsis is very very lively and chatty and although she didn't do PE a level the teacher knew and liked her.

I wish teachers would think before they put/say comments like this. It can be very detrimental.
Dc1 was told this in every report and every parents evening. Has asd, struggles with communication, never was a behavioural issue, just wanted to be invisible in class. It caused issues with not wanting to go to school because felt had to speak but couldn't.
Dc2 also asd and selective mutism (although has improved lots). Was distraught last parents evening because every teacher said she needed to speak in class. She had been trying her best and when possible aiming to answer one question a lesson. She's doing exceptionally well academically (gcse predictions of all 8s but expected higher). It's actually done the opposite of what the teachers want she's stopped answering questions at all because the pressure is to much.

It can be annoying for those who contribute to discussions to think that some capable people don’t share ideas in turn. My son was a shy-ish boy we encouraged to speak up but he found it annoying when he did it and saw people write down his contributions but never add their own.

She is also doing RS (philosophy) and psychology, both of which are more academic and those teachers seem to appreciate the more thoughtful members of the class!

It's the "despite" that wrankles (rankles?).
Nothing wrong with being quiet. It's not the universal barrier to learning some people think. A classroom should be able to accommodate and appreciate a quiet kid.
I can well believe the solitaire playing btw.