Year 8 given no extension work, told to help the others.

[Sandycar]

My DS, y8, has started a new school. I sent though his results from his previous school as requested so they knew his ability. He was top of top set before. He is now in a maths group doing work he did at least 2 years ago. He is so bored, he hasn’t learned anything new so far. Today the work was set. It is a 100 minute lesson. He finished in 15 minutes, full marks, asked for some extension work, was told there wasn’t anything else and to help the others. He was stuck with a kid who just argued with him and didn’t want to be helped, so they both had a very boring long lesson. Nothing was actually achieved. This has happened since the start of term.
He is so miserable 🙁 the schools communication so far has been appalling. I can’t get any response to the most basic emails.
there are lots of other things too. This is a ‘good’ school. Is this normal? Do I just have to suck it up? Going back to the old school isn’t an option.

It’s completely unacceptable though sadly, not surprising (speaking as a teacher) - there are many reasons for this which I won’t go into here. If the person teaching isn’t a subject specialist then there’s little you can do, unfortunately, as they may not have the knowledge to actually provide extension work. If it is a subject specialist then I would fight his corner. Ask for a meeting with the teacher in the first instance and if things don’t impress, contact the head of department. If he’s been put in the wrong set then they might just be waiting g until half term to put him up. If this isn’t the case and it’s mixed ability (unusual for Maths) or the top set is just working at a low level then they need to provide appropriate work for him.

That should say ‘improve’ 🤦‍♀️

Thank you, I hate to be thought of as a troublemaker but it’s awful seeing him so unhappy. He’s doing work in this y8 class that he already did in year 5/6, it’s really basic. Maths was his favourite subject. Feel so guilty that he’s in this situation.

Is there a reason he moved schools? You need to speak to the school.

was the old school private?

Is it just maths he has this issue with?

If so, could you afford some private tutoring so he can progress out of school and I’m afraid he’ll just have to endure being bored in school.

Is he in the top set or have they moved him down a set for some reason?

Does he need teaching or could he get on with work in his own time? In the end I just got my teachers to give me a textbook for maths and just worked through it. Did my GCSE and A levels early that way, and squeezed in a GCSE further maths qualification as well.

I would start by requesting a meeting with the teacher.

is the situation temporary as they are settling in?

does the teacher have a plan to provide extension work soon?
Talk about how if your son prefers not to tutor other students, and that should be optional, he should be allowed to work on other assignments or simply read quietly.

Does the new school set for maths? Is he being taught be an actual maths teacher?

As he is joining an existing year group, I would imagine he has been placed in sets that have space. I would speak to the HOD or his year group head and ask for him to be moved. They may say you will have to wait until the year is assessed and they can justify moving children between sets. In the meantime, the teacher should be providing him with appropriate work as extensions, so he does not fall behind in his true level.

Thank you all for your help.
All the lessons in all subjects have been very basic, there’s been nothing new so far, all stuff he did in primary school. He hasn’t minded too much, he’s very quiet and just wants to settle in. But the maths thing is ridiculous, it’s year 5 stuff and he’s year 8. He’s not consolidating any learning, this is just not learning anything. He did a test last week so they must have an idea where he is maths wise. I was just amazed that they had nothing when he asked for extension work.

I take it you've moved house and this is the school in your area that had space? You might want to keep him on the waiting list for other local schools if you are disappointed in this one.

It's for reasons like this that middle-class people remortgage their lives to send their kids to academic private schools 😕

It's not acceptable and, regardless of the school's resources, there's no excuse for it. But it's all too common, and I've also seen it in supposedly academic/private schools.
If he is too far ahead of the cohort, one solution is to buy a subscription to a computer-based package and to negotiate with the school to allow him to access it in class:
conquermaths and century cover the whole of KS3 and GCSE and slightly beyond. Integral and uplearn cover all of A level. "Complete maths tutor" covers the full secondary curriculum. I've used most of them at one time or another - they're all fairly decent.
Other components of a solution might include the UKMT mentoring scheme and/or maths circles, some of which are free to state pupils.

Highly likely he'll get moved up after half term.

The class teachers won't have seen the grades you sent through they will have gone to the timetables. Who probably looked at them, saw he was bright and stuck him in a mixed set group and been slotted in where there is a space as top set was probably full and timetabled.

The class teacher may not actually be qualified and there might not be extension work ( or not enough for him) if it is a cover lesson. If I were you I'd buy him a text book he can get out after he has complete classwork in that case and do his own work rather than the cop out "help someone else for 45 mins"

Pretty grim. The government should set up special divisions for gifted children. I’d be thinking of changing school.

In theory and if all children involved are well-behaved and want to learn, it isn't unreasonable for an advanced child to be given the task of helping others as an extension task. As I learned when I started doing maths tuition having got AA in maths&furthermaths A-Levels, being able to break down a technique to explain what you are doing and why to someone who doesn't understand takes a lot more mathematical skill than merely doing the problems yourself.

However in the real world it is not at all reasonable to expect a 12-13year old to deal with the obstreporousness of someone who isn't interested and doesn't want to learn.

Would you both accept a compromise where DS does have to help others when he's finished the work, but is only expected to do so with pupils who are going to focus, so that he doesn't have to magic up adult levels of authority and discipline too.

There's solid evidence that it's not beneficial for children with high levels of maths ability to race ahead of the curriculum.

Why has he changed school to one that seems so inferior? Was it unavoidable?

Research shows exactly the opposite of what you have claimed:

https://cdn.ymaws.com/nagc.org/resource/resmgr/knowledge-center/position-statements/acceleration_position_statem.pdf

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/smpy/

https://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Deceived/

I'm intrigued as to what the evidence is and what about it is not beneficial?

I was talking about their mental health and wellbeing as adults. The links above seem to be about how long their mathematical prowess enduered into adulthood (though I haven't followed every link).

It's certainly possible for a precocious child to power through the maths GCSE and A-Level syllabus very swiftly and to start doing degree level work while their peers are still doing GCSE. By some measures some people might think this a good thing. It just doesn't lead to happiness.

@BrokenSushiLook yes, DD has just stated year 10 and the GCSE syllabus. She's over it already and can not wait for some challenge at A level, although she starts FM next week so hopefully that'll bring some challenge.
The content is obviously new but once she's been shown it she's got it and then just sits bored for the rest of the lesson.

But you've just said that, rather than provided any evidence for it.

I could just as easily say that I was allowed to work ahead in mathematics and it caused me no issues and has not affected either my mental health or my wellbeing as an adult. Those things are true but they don't do much to evidence my claim because they are an anecdote rather than data.

If being allowed to work ahead of the curriculum in maths causes long lasting damage to children's mental health onwards into adulthood that would be really important and relevant to many parents of gifted/even just bright children, so I imagine sharing that evidence would be really helpful to them.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0016986210383155

"Accelerants equal or surpass non-accelerants in self-concept, self-esteem, self-confidence, social relationships, participation in extracurricular activities, and life satisfaction."

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/smpy/files/2013/02/DoingPsychScience2006.pdf

"positive effects are detectable up to 50 years later"