To be furious at ds's teachers?

[ginnny]

DS1 (9) is a bright little boy but lacks confidence. Last year at parents evening they told me that he has all the ability to be in the top maths group, but he's not fast enough and lacks self confidence.
He has just gone into year 5 and came home on Tuesday over the moon because this year he had been put in the top maths group. He had some homework, which he did well, only asked for help a few times and tried so hard.
Anyway, yesterday he came out of school really upset because his teacher said after having a chat with the maths teacher they want to put him back down to the middle maths group for a while. No explanation. Nothing.
So now he thinks he's rubbish at maths and not good enough. One week back at school and his confidence is at an all time low again. This is an important year for him as we will have to decide whether to put him in for the 11+.
I'm really not one of these pushy mums who wants him to be in the top group no matter what, but I think its so wrong to do this to him, especially when I saw how well he handled the homework. I wish they'd just left him where he was in the middle group, rather than build him up and knock him down again.
I?m so mad ? I could have cried for him yesterday, poor little thing.

[ginnny]

They were doing general maths as a class for the first week, then they got put into groups on Tuesday. Then yesterday he got moved down. I just realised I got the days mixed up earlier, I thought today was Friday . Wishful thinking!

[sundew]

ginny at my dds school the ability groups are pretty fluid with children moving between them on a regular basis - however, sfter saying that I think only giving your ds a couple of days in the top group is not enough for them to assess him properly.

But there is little point him being in the top group if the work is going to be too difficult - to see other children getting it right and for him to struggle would knock his confidence more I would have thought.

Hope it goes well when you speak to the teacher later.

[thedolly]

Perhaps the teacher is genuinely torn over what group to put your DS in. You could try to have a quite word about the chopping and changing in a 'there seems to be some confusion over which group DS is in for maths so I thought I would talk to you about it' sort of way.

[sundew]

pinkdelight - they 'stream' or put into ability groups from an early age - usually from year 1 upwards for literacy and numeracy. This isn't to stress out the children but means they can different work to the different groups - so that the higher ability ones are given more difficult work to stretch them etc

[katiestar]

sounds to me that there has been a bit of a communication mix up between the teachers and he has been put in the wrong set by accident

[moomaa]

Maths is a funny subject because some people can just do it almost without thinking. I am not one of those people but can manage most stuff given enough time and I bounced between top and middle maths groups the whole time at school.

The way you described your son reminded me of me. Being with those people that can just 'do' maths when you are not one of them is miserable, it kills your confidence and you have a choice of holding up the group by questioning or moving onto harder stuff when you haven't had enough time to bed in the basics. I would encourage him to be happy at the top of the middle. At his age I would go and see the teacher to get the whole story but would also encourage him to take this in hsi stride because you can get moved groups a lot at secondary.

[PeedOffWithNits]

to the people who think children should not be streamed for primary school maths, of course they should!

when you have children starting juniors who are still not competent in number pairs that make 10, who cannot tell you without counting that they have 5 fingers on each hand, who cannot do basic subtractions like 5-3 in their heads, whilst others can add, subtract, divide and multiply in 100s and 1000s, of course you need to stream them!

Often it is done within the class, so each "table" is a group working on a particular piece of work, but the drawback of this is that the teacher and TA have 5 or 6 groups so several groups are left on their own. Far better IMO to stream them with the year above and below, where everyone in the class is on a par and the teacher is teaching them all so they make progress

ignoring the differences in ability makes the bright kids bored and the less able kids switched off and thinking from age 6 "i can't do maths", a mind set that is difficult to change in later years

[PeedOffWithNits]

and to the OP

as a teacher,i think your child would be happier being at the top of the middle set, TBH, instead of getting all anxious about keeping up with the top set, and if they have flexibility to move them around and he comes on tremendously, then they can move him back again - rather now than leave it till christmas when it is apparent he cannot cope

but agree they have handled it badly

[ginnny]

Peedoff - I agree with you that he would be happier in the middle set and I would be happy for him to stay there.
He's much the same as I was as a child, he's very shy and quiet and doesn't like to cause a fuss, but he was genuinely upset yesterday and I want to nip it in the bud and at least make them aware of how he is feeling so they can keep an eye on him and encourage him.
I'm really grateful for all the replies. I'm going to see the teacher this afternoon so I'll let you know what happens.

[katiestar]

It is YOU who decides whether to put him in for 11+

[TheLadyEvenstar]

Ginny this is the same thing that happened to ds1. He was moved to the top set of math where we all praised him for his hard work etc and the following week they moved him back to middle set. Where he was at the top and found the work easy.

Now Maths is not his best subject and yet even though the school knew this they basically lowered his confidence in it even more so.

When it came to the sats he got a level 4 which I was proud of and yet the school having put him in the middle group were disappointed because he had not got a level 5 yet he had not been doing the work for that level iyswim?

He started secondary 2 weeks ago and within 2 maths lessons he has been put in the top set...so obviously his maths is not that bad or maybe its the fact that the teachers in this school are looking at his potential rather than his present ability...who knows.

I hope you got some satisfaction at the school.

[ginnny]

I saw the teacher. She said they did a test and he did really well so they put him in the top group.
Then she spoke to his year 4 teacher who said he was very quiet and her opinion was that he'd be better in the middle group, because although he is capable, there are a lot of children in this group and he wouldn't get the attention he needed and would probably struggle.
So they decided that since he'd only been in that group for 2 lessons it would be less of an upheaval to move him straight back to the middle group.
She is going to review it at half term and will speak to him to reassure him tomorrow.
I do agree with his year 4 teacher but all this could have been avoided if they'd consulted her before they decided.
She did apologise for the mix up and said that apart from this he's settling in well.
Thanks for all your support today.