To ask DDs teacher for more work for her?

[MissDollyMix]

DD is in year 6 (standard state school, class of 32) - so less than a term left at primary school. She has her SATs coming up in the next few weeks so I guess everyone is very busy getting the whole cohort ready for that. We have parents evening tonight and DD has repeatedly asked me to tell her teacher that she is bored in class and that she doesn’t think the work is stimulating or interesting enough and she wants more challenging work. As a bit of background to this I think DD is probably quite bright- she has been scoring 114/5 in her practice SAT papers and was recently offered an academic scholarship to the local girls private school (she won’t be going but that’s another story) Historically the teacher has been sitting her with less able/challenging pupils and she has been helping them with their work which I’m ok about because it’s a nice thing for her to do and helps her with her people skills. So would I be unreasonable to pass on her message about being bored/unchallenged to her teacher? I feel bad saying it because I’m sure her teacher is already working flat out getting everything ready for SATs and also I don’t want to seem like I’m being critical of the teacher (who I might add is also a parent in my other DCs year so I’m really cautious about offending her!) I also think if DD was really bored and unchallenged wouldn’t it have already been picked up? Maybe I’m over thinking this? - 20 years after I left school and I still get nervous around teachers! Many thanks for reading- all thoughts appreciated. I don’t like to mention it to any RL friends.

Exactly. Surely she could do some reading?

"DD has repeatedly asked me to tell her teacher that she is bored in class and that she doesn’t think the work is stimulating or interesting enough and she wants more challenging work." Sounds just the sort of thing a Yr 6 child might say!!! - or might she have heard an adult say this ........ ?

SATs prep is boring bollocks and the school should not even be doing this - they should be getting on with teaching. The whole SATs thing is utter nonsense.

She does not need extra work - she needs to have a good play/work balance and a balanced attitude to academic study in the scheme of things. Just leave it be.

Oh please don't ask the teacher for more work. As ppl have said, it's all SATS revision at this point in Y6 and yes, it's bloody boring.

It is ridiculous - teachers are meant to support those that need more support and provide stretch & challenge for more able children....Except with SATS which are a one-size-fits-all.

If you came to ask me for extra work, I would politely point you in the direction of NRICH for maths stretch, past Level 6 papers for Reading and Maths and suggest your DD reads as widely as she can.

Why the snark? Of course there are reasons, but

"It's a partial scholarship and the remainder costs too much, especially when we have other kids to consider"

is a very valid reason Vs

"I am opposed to private schools in principle and think they only exist to over inflate the egos of thick rich kids. The local comp is in special measures, but I think it'll do her good: if she's genuinely gifted then she'll cope"

Is an arsehole reason.

She does take a book into school with her. She’s an absolutely voracious reader.

@ilovesooty this only works if the teacher lets her read instead of participating in class teaching and activities. Being forced to sit and listen while the teacher has you listening to grammar lessons you fully absorbed two years ago, and practising basic maths over and over and over, means you can’t easily opt out of class and indulge in a good book. It should be possible, I agree! But I don’t know schools that allow this.

The alternative is to behave REALLY badly and rip a cupboard door off or punch the TA or run out of the classroom screaming and screaming and running round the playground; then you get taken out of class to calm down and you can ask to read in a quiet place. Several of my dd’s classmates had success with this approach.

@Uncooperativefingers at your more typical MN comment

Well done I applaud you

It’s exactly the kind of thing this precocious child says! Believe me, I have to deal with her on a daily basis 🙄 She’s 11 going on 40. She was just born that way.

I was a year older with the same problem, having to help the less able ones, bored out of my skull. After some very loud and deeply sarcastic comments that my maths teacher overheard, my parents were called in. They explained the problem and I was set more demanding work to do. It didn't help that I had had a gifted maths teacher in my previous school so almost everything was mere revision. Your daughter deserves an appropriate education as much as the less able ones.

I'd also suggest she maybe works on her writing. Writing is always pushed aside at this time of year (for a while anyway) but is arguably the trickiest subject to master.

Get her to write creatively - play about with texts and genres. If she's a voracious reader already, I'd imagine she's a pretty good writer - ask the teacher if there's any scope for this.

My very easygoing son was so bored in year 6 he cried repeatedly begging me not to send him in!!

its not just your child who is incredibly bored sadly = this is a systemic issue.

You absolutely should raise it with the school - just to remind them what a load of shit Sats are - if people don't keep saying it nothing will change

Unfortunately it's Dfe policy we can only hope this will change with the next government.

I could have wrote this myself 2 years ago. My son was constantly saying he was bored in school and it was too easy. They used to do after school classes and he was the only one not invited. When I asked why it was because he was too bright! He just wanted to be included.

In the end they wouldn't give him extra work due to there being too many kids in the class and catching up with kids not learning through covid. In the end we just had to stimulate his brain after school and he had to deal with being bored in school. Not ideal and he scored 120, 120 and 118.

Once SAT'S are done she won't be as bored. It's hard and unfair that they have to be bored but teachers are so stressed as it I.

There is every advantage in stretching a child, keeping them motivated and interested in a subject. SATs are totally and utterly irrelevant.

Im sorry but any parent who sits back and lets their bright child get bored in class as they are too shy to ask a teacher to properly stretch their child, or don’t want to be labelled as awkward or ‘that parent’ etc is failing their child.

Such a shame - that sounds a lot like DD. She’s always enjoyed school but now saying she doesn’t want to go anymore because she’s not learning anything.
Please don’t anyone think I’m bashing teachers. I come from a family of teachers and have a lot of friends who are teachers (including DDs teacher!) I know it’s basically the system at fault.

Tell your DD that she only has another four weeks of this to survive, then it'l be SATs, then (if it's anything like my DCs' school) they will have stuff like taster sessions at secondary school, an activity week/days, school trips, cycle safety training etc etc.

I wondered the same, so I'm pleased she has a good local comp. The trouble with schools not giving the brighter kids extra work is that you end up with a small handful of clever but bored children. As a result the clever kids don't get the grades they deserve because they switch off. The other kids in the class don't get the grades they deserve because a small group of bored kids have become disruptive. A good school should be finding extra work, particularly as bright kids in year 6 are very capable of working independently. All the teacher needs to do is ask parents to provide an AQA (or equivalent) revision book for their dc to pull out of their bag when they have completed their work.

Yup. The school are doing a lot of after school extra work clubs for the kids but as I understand it it’s for those who are on the cusp of the next ‘grade’ - which I suppose is fair enough.

Year six is a year of wasted opportunity for children - at an age when they are bright, curious, want to learn about the world - their minds are shut down and filled with pointless garbage - grammar they will never need - etc - it's tragic.

All of us =- parents, teachers, heads etc - need to speak up on behalf of children - its really really sad to see kids so crushed and bored.

These are the old level 6 papers.

Don't know about the English but the maths ones are actually pretty good as the questions can be worked out using primary maths but they are tricky.

www.sats-papers.co.uk/ks2-sats-papers/level-6/

You could also try past papers of the primary maths challenge

www.primarymathschallenge.org.uk/what-is-the-pmc

Or (harder)
Junior maths challenge past papers

www.primarymathschallenge.org.uk/what-is-the-pmc

Sorry, junior maths challenge:

ukmt.org.uk/junior-challenges/junior-mathematical-challenge

Independence, resilience and motivation are a great learning ethos to develop. This is something she can develop and will be much more useful ( than a higher level/more work) to her future.

Year 6 is boring. One if my DC’s summed it up with “oh WHY do I have to practice, again and again and again, all of the things I can already do…”

Education is a mess.

This is not the time for you to bring it up with the teacher.

DD will just have to suck it up and get on with it until high school.

Hopefully you've got her into a good one.

That’s exactly what DD teacher said to us last year! (she was so forthright, we loved her!)

But learning isn't solely the remit of the school? Parents have a responsibility to provide opportunities for bright curious minds outside of school, perhaps even more so than the school themselves? Surely a bright curious mind wouldn't be bored if they had regular trips to a museum for example and active engaged parents?

Yes, one of the best thankfully (my eldest is already there)