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.

I don’t?! why don’t you put down your wine and read the full thread?

@ThinWomansBrain just because real teachers love teaching and especially love teaching and stretching clever kids. Having done a PGCE, teaching clever kids is the best fun ever. The rest are hard work. Drilling basics into the not really interested is mind numbing, but that's the job.

SATs practice is boring.
Same old thing over and over again.
Why not buy her some books or pop to the library

Why are these kids doing all this SATs stuff, mine didn’t ( now age 20 and 23). Mine were at private school, does that make a difference.

Possibly? I was at private school a long time ago (I’m 40 now 😭) and we were the first year to do SATs. As I recall I thought they were great fun but there was no pressure put on us and we didn’t have to spend months revising for them. Secondary school entrance exams were a whole other matter though….

YANBU, it’s part of the teacher’s job to provide work for all abilities in the class.

I would imagine extension work is part of the required planning.

So do you have to take entrance exams to get into state secondary schools, I didn’t know state were allowed to select based on ability! I thought that was just grammars ie 11+.
Is that why all this Sats stuff is being pushed?

You could. But I'd say at this stage, there is F all point. They are preping for SATs now and then they do bugger all till the summer holidays! I doubt the teacher is going to rustle up some more challenging work now.

Really you should be focusing on making sure she's at the right secondary school. Although a bit late for that now too!

I remember my kids were so bored and fed up during SATs practice. But I don’t see any harm in telling the teacher - you can obviously say you recognise she’s busy but your daughter has a right to receive work to her ability too. Maybe worth doing extra work with her at home too. I have 2 academically gifted children and they have been bored at times at school but never gone ahead until GCSE time when they both went ahead a bit / wider reading around subjects

I’m a teacher and can confirm we are drowning in work. But I also think it’s reasonable to expect your daughter to be challenged in school. What I often answer when kids ask what else they can be doing is ‘read!’ Reading is honestly the best thing that will help progress and it’s fun! Maybe ask the teacher for some age appropriate book recommendations.

Agreeing with Lmox. Reading (even randomly) is always the right extension work. Don't feel you need to direct it, your DC already knows what floats their boat. Our Oxfam bookshop is better than the commercial one next door, so a £15 float goes a long way... 6 books at least.

Private schools don't normally do sats.

State schools have to

Or the library.
Its good to get kids used to a regular library visit.
It also means councils don’t try to close them if they are being used.

So please! Use your local library

No no, sorry, I was thinking back to when I was at primary school and was taking exams to get into a private secondary school… No exams round here to get into our local state comp, just the right postcode ;-)

Oh we’re big users of the local library and charity shops. As a family we really love reading but honestly maybe DD should cut back on the books?! Her issue is that she’s too much of a smarty pants- surely all this reading is only going to make that worse?! 😂

😂
My comment was really about reminding people about the library as MN suggested buying at Oxfam.
So bit of free advertising there

Grammar schools ARE state schools. They’re just selective. If you come from a state primary yes you still do SATS as well as your entrance exam. Also contrary to Mumsnet belief, some very bright pupils choose the local comp over the grammar school. They have to do CAT exams at entrance there anyway to help stream the kids so SATS really are just to check the progress of the school not the child. I can’t even remember what mine got for SATS now.

Iknow grammars are state🤪 I didn’t say they weren’t.

If SATS are just to check the progress of the school, why all the specific test cramming ( there seems so much ) and why on MN are parents always so worried about them. I do get parents want their school to be doing well but parents comment that kids find it boring doing the same stuff over and over so why are they so invested.

You said something about having to pass entrance exams for state secondary and seemed to exclude grammar from that.

the simple answer to the east of your question is you don’t NEED to be invested in them. They mean nothing to your child’s future in reality. At maximum they will be possibly used to set an expectation level of ultimate performance in GCSEs but most state schools retest on entry anyway for that baseline. And it doesn’t stop a kid from exceeding that target anyway.

the issue is more if the school tells the kids it’s something massive and parents roll with it.

Actually we do! Maybe not for each individual child but its called differentiation. And teachers have specific children in mind when planning these extra bits.

Basically, Greater Depth children get extra questions to deepend their understanding whilst Working Towards children get resources to help them appropriately access the learning.

All children can access the GD, but in my experience, only children who need the extra support (resources, teacher presence etc) recieve this unless pinpointed during the beginning part of the lesson where we rule out/explain misconceptions 😊

My daughter was bored stupid in her final year of primary.

She is also now bored stupid in the last term of S3. In fact, she is sitting in history class watching videos on her tablet (with the teacher's blessing) because half the class haven't finished the work they have been doing for about 2 months now and her teacher said they can't start the next topic until all the kids have done the work. Before the holidays this was covered up with the pretence of "do a poster" (aka pointless busy work) This is the case in 4 of her 6 classes today. And yet if I keep her off, she'd be marked UA.

One sized education for all does not work. The brightest kids are held up by the slower ones, and there isn't enough resource to make sure both groups reach their potential.

Don't bother asking the teacher, there is no work to give.

You have a little lawyer.

i have one too. They speak differently to other children. Breeze through the early years of school.

Watch out for the wall. When it hits, it hits hard mentally.

I'd caution against giving an explicit aim of 120 as it could easily set up an expectation that anything less than perfection is rubbish. There will also come a point where to get the last percent takes as much effort as getting the other 99% and realistically won't be worth it for every subject.

By all means encourage smart learning where she looks at the errors she made and checks her understanding of that topic. Possibly even looking for any patterns in what she gets wrong, but not an expectation of 120.

If she's done her work can she read books related to hers hobbies? Or use the time to plan out a project to do at a different time?

So she is using the time constructively, but on something that is of interest to her and that isn't explicitly academic.

For example, designing a decorated cake and working out how to make it and the quantities required. Or planning planting for a window box to maximise colour year round. Or working out how to upcycle one thing into something more useful?

I’m a teacher. Definitely tell your daughter’s teacher. It is our job to challenge the brightest as well as support all the other ability ranges. I would ask maybe for some transition work that she might see in year 7, could be KS3 textbook work if the teacher has little time.

Are you a Year 6 teacher? I totally agree with you that part of our job is challenging the brightest, but at this point in the year, a Year 6 teacher is going to be prioritising those borderline kids who might juuuuust get 100 if the wind is blowing in the right direction.