How can I develop love of learning - DS Year 4

[LR47]

DS is in Year 4. I have been nothing but impressed with his school
experience up til now (younger sibling also there and thriving).

Extremely nurturing school, enthusiastic teachers, appears to be great SLT. There is very little staff turnover. Up til now he has absolutely thrived. I’ve always felt lucky that it’s our local school as the arts, sport, extra curriculars etc are great as well as, so far, fabulous teaching which has inspired my DS.

Then he went into Y4. He has a job share (not a new thing, he’s had them before and thrived). Both teachers are friendly and approachable but he now hates school. This has worsened through the year and he is hugely switching off. He now only enjoys all the things he does out of the classroom (music lessons, Sport, Choir, playtimes, assemblies etc). He has lots of friends so there doesn’t appear to be a bullying issue. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do at home to re kindle his love of learning? I am
not knocking his teachers in any way, they all have different teaching styles, personalities etc and work very, very hard putting in lots of hours whilst managing their own families. I’m fully aware that he will have a range of teachers through his school experience and teaching styles will vary. This is about what I can do to help at home.

I am in regular contact with school so they are implementing things from their side. What can I do to support and make sure he doesn’t lose his love of learning now, aged 9!?!

Any advice welcome, thank you

What do his teachers think is the cause of the change? What are they implementing at their end? What have they recommended that you do?

It may be worth having his sight and hearing tested.

Might it be a stage of life - hormones - causing a (hopefully temporary) shift in focus?

A friend's DS was a bit older (just into secondary) when his attainment dipped. The school felt there was a mismatch between his ability and his attainment, and he revealed to another family member that words seem to jump on the page. His parents paid for quite detailed tests of some sort, and he was diagnosed with visual stress and also slow processing. A couple of adaptations mean he is doing well again.

His teachers didn’t really know him when he was in previous classes so they haven’t noticed a ‘change’ as he has just behaved this way since starting Y4.

They haven’t given any suggestions for what I can do, I’m just at a bit of a loss and sad that he’s lost his love of learning

It's a bit disappointing that his teachers don't remember him previously! Is it a large school?

I still wonder whether there is something else going on, if it's such a change.

How is he with reading to you at home? Is he confident and fluent - or does he appear to struggle in any way, or get tired/distracted quickly?

I'd want to be sure he hasn't got a problem with his sight or hearing.

Things get a bit more formal in Y4 and this can be a shock for some kids. They are preparing for UKS2 where expectations are high.

Is he struggling? If so, it might help to get a tutor to help him regain his confidence, but if he's just bored this could make matters worse.

I would say to take off the pressure on academics at home and try to get him involved in the hobbies he enjoys. Let him read whatever even if it's way below his reading level. Then on the weekends you can do fun activities around his current topics and next term's topics- these should be on the school website. Kids like knowing things that other kids don't, so it's a boost for them if the teacher starts talking about earthquakes and he can say how he went to the science museum and tried out the earthquake simulator, or they start learning about the Stone Age and he's already built a roundhouse out of popsicles.

His current teachers didn’t know him before as that year group were in a different building. It’s a very big school.

He absolutely loves reading and we’ve booked a night away to stay near a museum which is based around his next topic

He’s working at greater depth across the board but isn’t doing much work in lessons, he says they’re boring but surely if he doesn’t even do the work, it’s never going to get more interesting!?!

Sorry, no problems with sight or hearing. Not struggling with anything, just not actually doing the work!

My son began to lose his spark around the same time. It got really bad at the beginning of yr 6 (this year) to the point where he started school refusing at least once a week.

The cause for him is boredom. He’s always worked at greater depth and in lower years was allowed to work ahead and pursue his own interests more. But with the shift towards SATs he just got bored as he wants to do more. The school have done what they could to support him. His yr 5 teacher gave him secondary maths workbooks for example. Yr 6 has been a little trickier because the focus is so much SATs - thankfully the 11+ prep has distracted him.

And distraction has been key. But I mean helping him to try new thinks outside of the classroom. Stretching him in art, sport and music.

For my son the boredom was affecting his mood and confidence (feeling different than your peers can have a big impact) . But once again the school have been great getting him art therapy/elsa sessions and 1:1 time with intervention team just to chat so he doesn’t feel so isolated.

Letting the school know and chatting honestly with his teachers about his mood change is important.

Thank you. I didn’t want to upset any of the adults in school as they work so hard!

You won’t upset them. They want to know when things aren’t right because they want to help. If your child isn’t thriving that’s not about blame it’s about reevaluation. What’s working and not working? What can be changed? Are there other resources or outlets for him?

Kids who are more able often slip through the cracks because they’re still hitting all the test scores. It’s best to work with the school as soon as you see a behaviour change before it starts impacting their mental health or becomes something bigger (like school refusal in our case).

Never worry that you’re bothering his teachers. They want to know these things and want to help.

Thank you, I will speak to his teacher when I pick him up from school. He loved school SO much until he went into this year group. I’m not sure if it’s a big jump from Y3 to Y4 or whether the curriculum is particularly dry in that year group? I know they have the multiplication check at the end of the year so I can understand the emphasis on times tables (which aren’t the most riveting things to learn) but he just finds the whole curriculum boring. I’m not sure whether it’s the content or how the teacher is delivering it which is where I was concerned that I might upset them if I said anything as I wouldn’t want them to think I am criticising them! Hope this makes sense. I will have a chat at home time

Thank you, I will chat to them tonight

The school system is really poor for higher ability children unfortunately. It's not down to staff- what teacher or TA wouldn't find it an absolute joy to invest in and explore the potential of an intelligent child?- but down to the way that schools are judged. It's more important to drag the children achieving below average up to average and once a child is "greater depth" they have achieved the maximum they can for the purposes of the stats and there will be no time or money to invest in stretching them to the full extent of their capabilities.

I would definitely spend as much time out of school doing things that really challenge him, if he's musically inclined learning an instrument can be a good use of brain power, or working on projects together.

I've got a bright year 4 who was always quite ahead in his schoolwork until this point. His enthusiasm has recently taken a nose dive, commented on by his teacher. We need to decide whether to embark on 11+ tutoring or not, and I was wondering if this indicated he's not actually grammar caliber. I did some paddling about online and used AI. It does seem to be a bit of 'a thing' at this age, kids who were ahead and easily shone have been caught up by the whole class coming up to standard. The school work is becoming a bit more repetitive, they've had a few years of it now. And the curriculum can be superficial or slow if the kids grasp the concept already. Just interesting food for thought.

yes I think the huge spread of abilities in a class make it hard too. There can be children struggling with basic literacy and numeracy, kids with Sen needs, as well as those who may be learning English alongside the curriculum.
and my son’s yr 6 teacher told me that they’re not allowed to teach secondary. (I didn’t tell him that his colleague had already given my son yr 7/8 workbooks last year.)

I’m not from the uk - and where I’m from higher ability (broadly called gifted and talented) fall under SEN so are afforded the same assessment and plans. There are even specialist primary schools and classes for the more because the system focuses on meeting the needs of the child. (I think the English school system has been broadly great btw) I’d love that here but as the governments latest announcement reveals there are too few resources and funds for the current SEN provision.

This is very interesting and useful to know that it may be an generic year group thing rather than a specific issue with my DS. There definitely don’t seem to be any issues with any other children etc, just that he is incredibly bored and wishes he could go back to Y3!

If he is very bright, even 'new' content can be boring if it's delivered at much too slow a pace. Take maths – the teacher introduces a new concept. It's basically intuitive for him, so he's understood it by the end of the introduction. It's then explained it what feels like painful detail, possibly a couple of different ways (all blindingly obvious to him), and then maybe a couple of (to him, ridiculously easy) problems are worked through together. Then we get to the 'you do' phase – the last thing he wants to do at this point is more too easy problems on this topic.

It's not at all easy to cater for a child like this in the classroom, and it's not easy to be a child like this either – being 'attentively bored' for hours everyday day is hard going.

Or it may be something else entirely, but if he's greater depth across the board, still interested in reading, museums, etc., but declares schoolwork boring and isn't engaging, it might be worth considering.

This describes him well. He loves reading, museums, all his extra curricular etc. But says his lessons are boring