How do I help my son do better at Junior School!

[Rose33]

My son is 7 years old. His teacher informed me yesterday that my son is in the bottom set for English and Maths.

How can i help him achieve better? Can anyone recommend the Bond No Nonsense books? I've just also found parentsintouch.co.uk which helps with spellings and grammar etc.

I would be grateful for any tips and resources please that work.

What did the school say they were going to do to help him? Do they think he is underachieving? Do they think he has some kind of educational difficulty?

If he is struggling then chances are he might not be interested in doing books at home.

Why not build in maths and literacy through your day to day life (a bit like learning through play). Play games, a whole variety of them, they introduce counting and numbers and memory and even strategies.

Talk to your teacher for specifics of where he is at, what he needs to do and work with the teacher. If you are both working together this will be more beneficial for your child.

Hi Rose. I think I would need more information to give you helpful advice. What year is he in (i.e., is he the youngest or is he the oldest)? What has his progress been to date? Is his class a high-flying class, or normal? Is your son's teacher concerned?

Thank you all so much, very useful advice. He has just started Year 3 in a grammar school, he is one of the youngest in the class, the school is very results driven. The teacher isn't very concerned but i'm disappointed he is in the bottom set. I'd be happier if he was at least in the middle set.

Rose,

He is still very young.I'd be worried if you push him by doing worksheets at home as it really isn't much fun.I'm sure if it is a results driven school he gets homework anyway.

What does he like and what does he struggle with? Does he feel he doesn't want to be in the bottom set?

What do you think would suit him personality wise? My ds is very competitive so the better he does he better he wants to do.

This is good for information.Descriptosaurus is good for ideas to get my ds going.Do you still read to him as well as him reading himself? Do you talk about books and ideas for creative story writing?
Ds gets First News weekly and we chat about this.

You can ensure his times tables are solid by rote learning.Timez Attack.Tutput is fun.We sometimes use maths zone,cool math and woodlands junior.

I just try to think of using whatever my ds is interested in to motivate him and outside of the school curriculum we take whatever he is doing and read articles and books,visit museums, go to plays or films,watch programmes together and talk about this.

I think it is long term you are inspiring a love of learning in whatever they enjoy.
School surely should be covering grammar etc.

"He has just started Year 3 in a grammar school"

He's seven and in a grammar school? How does that work again?

I found with my dd that playing cards really helped. Playing 21 forced her to count herself. It was also a non pressured way but fun way for the whole family to get involved.