disruptive boys in y2 class

[counago]

My daughter is very bright and has a few very disruptive boys in her class who are taking up large amounts of teacher's time. This has been happening for over a year. School claim they are dealing with the behaviour but I feel that all the 'well behaved' kids are losing out. Does anyone know how bad a child's behaviour has to be to pressurise a school into providing extra help for a class? Any other suggestions?

Yoy say you feel the well behaved kids are losing out. Do you know this as a fact? Would it be possible to volunteer to help in the classroom, hear children read, that sort of thing, so you can determine what's happening and if there is a problem you'd be able to give some examples of it.

I am helping once a week in the classroom so I see that a lot of time is wasted whilst the rest of the class waits for a few individuals to pay attention to the teacher and listen to instructions. One child in particular will not do as the teacher asks and so the deputy and head teacher are often called in to try and deal with him which again takes quite a bit of time. I just feel that this creates a difficult atmosphere for all the children and stresses the teacher.

i agree with you counago- unfortunately this is happening in classrooms the length and breadth of the country and as far as I can see the school needs to adopt a zero tolerance policy. Until this happens then a minority of children will continue to disrupt the education of the majority. This has been discussed at length here before and gets into quite a heated debate. IMO the governments social inclusion policy is responsible as most schools have their hands tied regarding exclusions and the like.
It takes a very brave headteacher to adopt this zero tolerance policy.

I think this is a difficult one. Education in schools is provided in a way which suits girls. Boys do not learn well in this way. This might account for some of the behaviour you have witnessed. Do you have any sons? How would you feel if another parent was pressuring the school to adopt a certain policy because of the way your child was behaving? Particularly if your child was only behaving this way because the school wasn't meeting his needs in the way they deliver his education?

In general, girls are more cooperative, orderly and disciplined in a classroom setting. Boys learn better in a physical way, which means a lot of noise and movement. Perhaps what you should be doing is putting pressure on the government to provide an education system which suits boys as well as girls.

The vast majority of boys settle in very well at school though - it's only a handful that become disruptive.

I'm having similar problems in DD1 class. She's Year 4 and according to most teachers at the school - this Year Group has been the worst by far to teach.

The stuff that goes on in DD1s class is awful - DD1 has been stabbed near the eye by a pencil, her work has been destroyed on numerous occasions, a pot belonging to my mum (she got from Greece) that DD took into school when they were studying Ancient Greeks was hurled against a wall.

On a daily basis, the teacher is called a "fing b", s*, wh**". She sends the kids up to the Headteacher who then gets called the same things!

On the other hand, I feel sorry for these kids. One of the lads involved is chucked out of his house daily and is allowed to wander the streets until 10pm. Another 2 of the kids (twins) are regularly called various names by their parents (friend lives next door and I've heard the things they called them).

I regularly help at the school (4 times a week), but only going into Years 1/2 and Reception. The behaviour of the kids in these classes (both boys and girls) is perfect. They're polite, helpful and an absolute joy to be with - particularly the Year 2 groups (actually my favourite Year Group).

I wouldn't say it's just down to the Education system - their home life plays an extremely important part in their behaviour at school.

NB - My post above is not talking about SN children.

I agree with freckle's general outline here. Of course I don't know the specific situation in your dd's class, counago. It might be that the teacher has got the balance wrong as you say, because she needs more support with this boy.

In any group, I imagine some children will need more attention than others, for all sorts of reasons - some won't be able to dress themselves easily after PE, others might need extra help understanding a specific maths problem. Where do you draw the line? Any one of those well behaved children might suddenly need more attention.

Have you tried going into other classes at the school to see how other teachers use their time?

I know my son needed lots of teacher attention and I used to feel guilty about this. I did hear the odd general mutter of complaint from parents (usually of girls) on school trips. They couldn't believe how disorderly the boys were compared to the girls.

Yes I agree that the school tends to teach in a way which girls find easier to fit in with than boys. Having said this, if a teacher is unable to get a child to comply with a simple instruction aged 6 then there is a problem which needs addressing. How is this child going to be behaving in year 6 if he is like this now? In this case there are problems at home and he craves attention. I have sympathy with him but I think that the school has to take the problem more seriously for the sake of all the children in the class. Of course resources are always the issue - is it worth raising it as a specific issue with the head? In my experience they are unwilling to talk about other children with parents.

FWIW from personal experience I can say that the way a 6 year old behaves at school is no automatic indicator of how they will behave in year six. Teachers say my year 6 son is a different boy to the one he used to be. And no, there were no huge problems at home IMO that made him not listen to instrucions aged 6 years old.

I think you could talk to the head, by saying how your feel your child is suffering, rather than getting the head to talk about other children to you.