Waiting for rest of class

[Perimenopausal42]

My DS7 in year 3 has started saying he's finished his class work and is waiting for others.

He's mentioned he's reading his book which is fine but the other day he said he was doing his steps ( making hit watch count my moving his arm)

Today I asked him to make a note of how long he's waiting some times it was a few minutes but in English he waited in 3 different occasions one was almost 10 minutes.

My question is , is this normal, shouldn't they be saying if you've finished that do this?

He's asking me to give him stuff to do in this quiet time.

A child "being finished" isn't always an accurate representation of what's happening. I have children in my classes who "finish." When I read their work, it includes very little of what it is meant to and/or is completely wrong because they rushed. Is this likely to be accurate for your child?

I remember keeping my head down when I finished work before the end of the lesson in Junior school. If you told the teacher you had finished, the likelihood was she would give you more work. What child wants that ?

Funnily enough my (now adult) dd mentioned the same the other day - she clearly did the same and couldn't grasp why ANYONE would be daft enough to bring additional work on themselves. The conversation started about something at her job, but moved on to when she would keep quiet at school.

I wouldn't worry about 10 minutes or less.. if it got more though that would be a sign that the teacher isn't organizing things efficiently.

Also yes, as the poster above said, I've worked with a lot of kids and "finished" doesn't = "finished well" or with as much quality and detail as other kids (depending on the type of task)

The school day is full of waiting. I wouldn't worry about it. What takes 5 hours a day could easily be done in 90minutes or less but you are waiting for a class of 30 to do it.

What's the quality of his fiinished work like?

It’s a good opportunity for him to learn to check his work.

I always finished early and had to wait, I loved it if I was allowed to read my reading book, if not I'd just daydream. In secondary school I'd read ahead in the textbook. Sometimes my teachers gave me more work though, but I'd rather read or daydream!

DD has always been pretty quick compared to her class so she'd make a start on her homework during that waiting time, often gets the homework completely done which saves her a job at home. Can your son do that?

DS is sometimes quick, sometimes does extra work but judging by the lesson notes he gets, sometimes get fidgety and distracts others or just starts talking. Don't recommend your son follows his example!

Not sure the quality of his work is relevant here - I think OP's point is that if he says he's finished, shouldn't the teacher check and either tell him to correct errors/ spend longer on it, or give more work, so he's doing something?

Either way needing a bit of attention rather than just sitting there?

It’s never too young to get in the habit of checking your own work.

A 7 year old having a step counter watch is a new one to me.

DS always finished his work early in primary school, and the teachers always told him to read a book or help someone else with the work. I bought him some workbooks in a variety of subjects and asked the school if he could do those instead. They were happy with the solution, and DS enjoyed the books.
IME primary schools are not very interested in challenging bright children.
Secondary school has been much better with giving him work to stretch him.

What actually happens when he finishes? Does he tell an adult? Do they check/mark his book?

primary school seems about getting as many people as possible to a particular level. Sometimes children that finish can help others, do an extension activity that may/may not be busywork or just try not to look too bored. DS told me how bored he was recently hearing the same thing repeated and repeated all lesson. I wish they’d let them do their homework or read when they finish early if they’re not going to genuinely challenge.

Is he finishing it well or just rushing through the minimum? The teacher should be giving feedback as to how to develop and check his answers and an extension activity if really finished (although reading in English seems acceptable).

Has he told the teacher he has finished and asked what work he should do next?

That is school dependent.
My dd was always given differentiated tasks in Primary school, but got very frustrated at having to sit through hours of work that was not challenging in secondary (and yes, I did go in and challenge it several times and no there wasn't the option to move schools). At her school - and this varied considerably by subject - there seemed to be a real focus on getting the children "who might get a 'C' downhill, with a following wind" over the line, than those who were clearly safely going to get the GCSE without too much effort.

This often happened to me in secondary school. I used to just read ahead to the next lesson or start my homework. I would never ask the techer for more work because they would get me to help someone.

The same in the world of work. In some jobs you were not allowed to leave a task unfinished or sit idle. I would just spin out what Ihad to do so I could finish just on time and not be doing unpaid overtime.

Finishing work quickly doesn't equal bright btw. I was above average getting the highest sats results possible and took my time processing every piece of work and triple checking.

This is such a non issue. There is no harm in him double checking his work in a period of less than 10 minute before the teacher moves the class onto the next part of the lesson.

The lesson to teach here is to check over your work, re-read some of the book or simply learn how to be quiet and patient.

We sent our 7yo to school with a kindle she read so much.

The teachers offered her additional work that was more advanced. DD is brilliant, but lazy. She didn’t want extra work. So she would do the assigned work and then read.
Occasionally the teachers would let her skip the original assignment and do a different assignment, that worked better, but it wasn’t always appropriate.

I spent those years trying to keep up with finding age appropriate books that matched her reading level.

No, the teacher shouldn't check his work every time. It is impossible to check all 30 children's work every lesson.

The quality of the work is relevant - rushing and getting it all wrong is different to putting in a good effort and still finishing 10 minutes before others. Children need to learn to check and improve their own work.

My dd said in y6 she was so bored, she’d fantasise about villains or zombies breaking into school and plans various routes of escape/where to hide/ how to get to the kitchen to get defensive weapons in her head!

Sadly the bright child doesn’t get much challenge in state school.

I agree with other posters on checking the quality. Some children just rush through things. In subjects like English which can be more open ended, the extra time could be used to add more detail or improve sentence structure, rather than just providing a new task. This would improve self assessment and concentration too.

If he's rushing then it's still true that the teacher needs to get involved and tell him to slow down/ recheck. If children "need to learn to check and improve their own work" then that skill begins with an adult encouraging them to do so.

The kid needs a bit of adult input, whatever is going on.

He's 7 years old and he's sat there shaking his wrist to increase his steps.

I'm not saying that the child shouldn't have some input. But there is no evidence that he doesn't.

In my class, I will often give input eg. "have you included all of the criteria in your writing?" or "Use estimation to check that your answers are reasonable." I have taught the children how to do these things and the children in question definitely understand how. But they don't. They sit there "waiting" and probably go home and tell their parents that they're "waiting".

Don't get me wrong - some teachers do let children sit and "wait" for too long. But it isn't always how it sounds.