Yr1 child is happy but unchallenged in school – should I worry?

[Silverbirch]

My dd (yr 1) is happy at school and enjoys playing with her friends, and has learnt a lot socially, but is not being stretched academically. It is not too bad with numeracy, and her reading is done independently anyway, but with writing, while she writes reams and reams at home ? all spelt correctly and punctuated - at school she does not get the chance to do this, and she only writes short basic sentences. She is a child who loves spelling and is fascinated by words (unlike her mother!) but this does not seem to be catered for at school. Before she went into year 1 she told me that they do lots of writing in year 1 but once she arrived she soon became disillusioned again, and has been asking to be home schooled ?because I don?t learn anything at school? (she does learn things at school btw ? but she has a friend who is home schooled and likes the idea of learning at her own rate).

Anyone been there done that?
Should I worry?
She can read and write so there is no problem and she is certainly learning other things at school?but I am worried that she is getting the idea that she doesn?t need to work at school. Also I can see that she gets frustrated by having to do ?easy? work ? especially in literacy which is a major part of their day.

I don?t want to be a pushy Mum, I don?t feel comfortable with the idea of homework at this age for example, and I don?t really know what goes on at school as I haven?t seen her literacy book. Would it be reasonable to ask to talk to her teacher about this or am I being overly concerned.

TIA.

I should add that dd's teachers are lovely - just incase the message sounds a little critical - I don't mean it to.

I'd have a word with her teachers - and explain what she's capable of - I'm sure if you approach them nicely they'll do their best to try and accomdate her

surprised you havent seen her literacy book. have you had a word?

my dd1 is quite behind her peers in reading and numeracy but funnily enough she loves writing and spelling (she isnt very good but has bags of confidence and doesn't mind trying to spell any word - so odd she isn't like this with reading...). We do loads and loads of it at home and her handwriting is lovely - we communicate a lot by note - we think its funny and it helps with her reading.

If she is being challenged by numeracy then hopefully she should have enough to hold her interest?

In my experience No dont worry at the moment.my ds has th eopposite problem,he is bright etc and the school deffo have made efforts to meet his needs academically and he is challenged etc,BUT he is not happy at school,he is at a v small school and because he is not a boy who like s football (aargh)he is not happy at playtimes-he is actually popular at school but lonely and frequently doesnt want to go,tears etc,they are helping him but ultimately i feel you can make up th edifference academically but not in other ways,i cant physically make more boys like my ds join the school!!As long as your daughter is happy ,and the school are happy at this age i wouldnt panic at all.T o my mind them being happy and doing well socially is a huge positive.

I agree - you can make up for a lot at home in academic terms and as long as they are happy in school things are ok, imo. I have a very bright ds in yr2 whose teacher does what she can to stretch him (doctoring his numeracy exercises beforehand so it's not made a big deal of etc) and because of his easy going nature he works ok in school atm. If/when he gets day-dreamy or disruptive because he's not stretched then we will rethink but for now he's happy, has friends (despite hating football - we're lucky!) and that's ok for us. Also, there is more free writing in yr2, in my experience, so this may well come for your dd.

Gosh Enid, I'm sure your daughter can/will read if she can write! I think it's so sweet she writes to you.

sorry off topic

had chat with dd1 last night about her reading (she had struggled with a book again) when she seemingly couldn't read a word that she can write and spell fgs!

she said 'but writing and spelling are private so it doesn't matter if you get them wrong. reading is so everyone can hear.'

think I may have got to the bottom of it

Do it at home and just let her plod on at school with the masses. DD was kept down several reading levels "as she would have no-one to group read with if she was on a higher level".

She tells me she is bored at school. The only thing that doesn't seem to bore her is French, which she loves, and her report from the French teacher could have been describing another child compared with the one from her usual teacher - we were comparing "never joins in" with "very enthusiastic, always the first with her hand up, loves the group activities etc etc."

We have ditched crappy school readers about lost hamsters which are dull and turgid and she is reading Harry Potter and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe very enthusiastically at home.

My DD is always writing stories, poems etc at home, but doesn't seem to do much creative at all at school. It's a pity that mediocre seems to be the rule of the game.

She's in Year 2.

Um, well I would be concerned myself, having been in that position as a child. I never learnt how to work hard whilst in Primary school, because I could literally do the work in my sleep. Then about two-thirds of the way through secondary, it dawned on me that I had no proper "learning" strategies. Subsequently I really struggled and never fulfilled my potential.

Whilst it may not affect her education in the long run in terms of what she is learning/not learning, it may affect her ability to work effectively if she is not stretched, at least a little, from a young age.

Both my dds work at a level higher than their peers (dd1 is in P4 but works with the P7s, dd2 is in P3 and works at P4 level), and we have discussed at length how this should be managed in the medium and long term with their teacher. I know National Curriculum makes things more restrictive in England, but I still think that there are things that your dd's teacher can do to encourage her to work at a level that grabs her interest a little better.

Miaou, you are lucky that your two have this opportunity. I find our school very restrictive, and, as I said, only interested in educating the masses. The dimmer ones get a lot of help, but the brighter ones just get lumped in with the middle lot. DD1 is apparently in the top group for spellings, and is bringing home words to spell like "there" and "cow". I was told "these are Year 2 words, the National Curriculum says they have to learn to spell them and we have to make sure they can."

Great attitude, no?

Hi Tanzie!
I was wondering how your dd was getting on.
Are you there for the forseeable future? I thought at one point you were anticipating moving?

If schools are not challenging children, it is very important (IMO) that they do have opportunities outside of school to do things that they find difficult and cannot in fact complete. I now work with teenagers, and am shocked how many of them (even or even especially the brightest ones) are reluctant to persevere with something if they cannot immediately do it.

Tanzie, I'm really sad that you and Silverbirch find yourselves in this position. I must say, we do appreciate how lucky we are to have such good schooling provision (though part of the reason we moved here was because of this!). It was something that became an issue when we realised dd1 was very bright.

Given that you don't have the opportunity to change the situation in school, I would say you have the right approach to dealing with the situation - I'm just sorry that I don't have any better advice for you both.

How do you know if they are very bright? My d/d1 4.5 is very switched on and notices everything. "Mummy is Santa married as he had a wedding ring on?" I am by no means a pushy mum but would love my kids to do well academically. I can relate to what Miaou is saying. I can see that with d/d things come quick to her then I don't want her to get lazy like I was. I remember meeting friend who had gone to Grammar school having passed the 11 plus ; I said how I had only managed to pass 2 o'levels failed the others mostly grade D and she said to me have you got the sylabus for the repeat boards and I never knew what a sylabus was!?! once I had that knowledge I passed them all second time around. We all want better for our children and obviously the early years are important for habit forming. Having first meeting with reception teacher this week so it will be interesting to hear how d/d is doing?

Thanks for all your comments ?

Interstella, I?m sorry your son is unhappy at school. I agree happy and sociable is a huge positive and I am really glad we have that with my dd as it is worth a lot (I was more like your son at school), and Grammaticus, I find your attitude very reassuring.

Tanzie, I can relate to your comments about the school readers. Reading is the one area where we don?t have a problem because dd takes in her own reading books (she was very perplexed to be given books without words when she started school!) ? she is also currently working through the Narnia books and she uses these for reading at school too. Dd?s teachers are nice and are basically on our side but there are 30 children and a whole range of abilities. I do understand that they need to concentrate on the stragglers. Tanzie, I?m shocked at the yr 2 spellings too. Dd is in yr 1 and doesn?t have spelling yet but she would emphatically not be impressed with there and cow. When she plays spelling at home it is words like archaeologist, pneumonia, achievement etc. and I think she expects the same at school (she can spell ?cow? and ?there?).

Miaou has hit on the issue that really concerns me. My sister was like Miaou ? she figured out early that she didn?t need to work at school to do well and realised too late that she needed to work at secondary school. By 15 she was refusing to go to school.

I can see both sides of the do / don?t worry arguments. I shall try and speak to dd?s teacher next week (I work so it is slightly difficult) ? if only to reassure myself that Grammaticus and Interstella are right?

Miaou, I am like you! I drifted through primary and secondary, and finally stopped working at age 13 - did no homework or anything. I went to a mad left wing school (slightly left of Lenin) where if you wanted to work, that was fine, if you didn't that was fine too, and no-one could be seen to fail, so no competitive sports etc. I got my O levels somehow, cocked up my A levels (twice!) and drifted into employment, rather than going to uni (I did get a place, even though grades were dire).

Back to DD1 - yes, Roisin, we are probably moving on in the summer. Back to the UK and the state system, hopefully a nice small village school. I don't feel that this school has pushed or helped DD1 at all. She is a very quirky child, and I feel that her current teacher doesn't like her (neither did her Kindy teacher, nor her reception teacher - her old reception teacher currently teaches DD2, whom she says "is a delight to have in the class after.." - sudden coughing fit and swift change of subject!). She is happy enough at the school, but I think it was the wrong choice for her, and if we were here longer I'd move her.

Humph - ds1 is now coming home saying the work is too easy...he's still happy and so on, but I'm less sanguine than I was!!

I worry a lot about this for both dd(7) and ds(6).
They are bored at school. The reading material they have there is well below the standard of the stuff they're used to at home. I worry they are bored and stifled.

Also, lately, they've developed an unpleasant sneering attitude to those pupils who are less able. It's very unhealthy, but they are angry at being 'held up'in certain subjects.

This is a bug bear of mine. I believe the more able pupils are being failed all too often because teachers have limited time and naturally concentrate on those who are struggling. This is no slight on teachers, but I've seen the phenomenal nature of the task they're supposed to take on and it's too much.

Also the work seems to be pitched at strugglers IME. This shouldn't be the case. All children have an equal right to be educated and challenged in line with their individual needs.

I have talked to the teachers and it helped a bit. At the same time I don't want to critisise them because I believe the failing is largely institutional rather than coming from them.

Hi there...

For what it's worth I've been in a similar situation and left my DS to be perfectly happy, I think their happiness is worth a lot more than what book level they get in school. When they reach the age of 18 and go to uni does it really matter when then went to level 5/6/7 books? no, what matter is that they enjoy their schooling experience, enjoy the socialising and built up some self confidence.

DS's reading book and the math homework and the spellings he gets are easy for him... So long as he is happy there is no worries... with the reading book I concentrated more on expression, making the story sound alive. Making reading out loud fun not just about decrypting the words.

That was (and still is) my firm belief...

However... I've just had my first hurdle in my fantastic theory and have been called in (see previous thread about y1 writing problems) by the teacher the first three days this week because DS has completely switched off .

He now seems to be spending his day in class daydreaming... I was reluctant to call him bright, just he has "facilities" as in he learns and remembers quickly... But his teacher didnt really know what to do with him and DS seemed not to care about it all... So I went to the headmaster who was lovely and seemed to know DS really well. And he has told me that he is very bright (DH now feels really vindicted as he kept on telling me) and full of personality/character and is most probably not getting challenged enough. I am I suppose lucky that the headmaster in question is just going throught training courses on the subject and seems to have a soft spot for DS. He will go into the class and try and help the teacher.

SO basically so long as your DD is happy and is engaging in class I'd let her be, school teaches you a lot more than merely reading and writing. The day she misbehaves throught boredom is the day you take things up... I think!