Worried about level of Maths for year 4

[PeppyBee]

My son is in year 4 and always tells me the maths is too easy. I have spoken to the school many times and they tell me that they have to follow the curriculum. I have attached a photo showing what he is doing as homework at the moment. I feel it is far too easy for his age range and it really worries me that he is not being challenged enough. I wondered what your thoughts were? Also wondered if anyone sends their child to private school and what their education is like compared to this?

It doesn't. It actually builds confidence.

I completely understand grammaninja it must be difficult trying to meet the needs of all different abilities. I really don’t know why children aren’t streamlined for English and Maths and then stick together for all the other subjects. It would make more sense to me. Thanks so much for your post, I will be asking the teacher if she can provide some harder homework for him.

I think the opposite actually. If it’s too easy, it leads to boredom. Children can then become disengaged and disruptive. Too hard and they can loose confidence yes.

It my experience with DS it did not build confidence. It built a why bother attitude.
Why bother listening to the teacher when I already know how to do the question?
Why bother concentrating for the whole lesson when I can do it all in the last 5 minutes?

When DS was faced with a tricky question and he couldn't instantly do it he would give up because he knew it was above what he was expected to know.

His confidence has increased now he is at a private school that will teach to his level and there are others at the same level. I put this down to he knows he has to concentrate in all lessons now not just some. If there is something tricky he can have a go as he is not expected to get it all correct.

It really doesn’t. it creates boredom and resentment.

Thanks for all your comments, it’s school pick up time soon, but I will look into all of the suggestions you have all made about extra learning materials and just want to say thank you, it’s my first time posting and you’ve all been incredibly helpful.

My daughter became very bored with maths when she was in Year 1, and complained every day thst the work was too easy. Her class teacher refused to differentiate the work and just told me that ‘she was so far ahead of where she needed to be’ and didn’t care about how bored she was. We went to a trial Kumon maths session, which she loved, and she then did Kumon every day until she was in Year 7, by which time she was working at GCSE level. The Kumon way of learning really suited her and she progressed through the levels quickly. I know it isn’t the way that some children like to learn and you have to really commit to doing it every day, but it was probably the most educationally beneficial thing she ever did as a child, and I would always recommend thst children who aren’t being stretched at school should give it a try.

@PeppyBee Have you asked about what he does in terms of questions after the lesson? Where I was a state primary governor, children had 4 levels of questions. Level 4 was Herculean! It was designed to extend the very brightest. A DD who got a scholarship to Wycombe Abbey wasn’t held back by the NC.

Yes, schools teach the curriculum but greater depth should be available and teachers should know who needs this. My DD had a primary friend who went to Cambridge for maths. She wasn’t taught outside the curriculum but had a much broader spectrum of questions that required much more depth of understanding. Teachers also get these dc to explain concepts to others. Parents don’t like it but using language for maths is important.

I’d talk to his teacher about what “Herculean” questions are on offer! Clearly a bright dc needs stretching, so how are they doing that? Some Sen dc won’t be accessing the same lesson in the same way so questions afterwards must be different. Whole class teaching has benefits but teachers must get progress from all dc.

Your comment did make me laugh MeetMeOnThrCorner just imagining myself asking the teacher about Herculean questions. To be honest I think I would just be met with a blank expression. But nevertheless I may give it a go! My son says all the questions set are the same.

I'm happy to share who we use if it's helpful. They were actually originally a recommendation off mumsnet that my DH found!

My DS is in the same boat and always complains about school maths. I have raised it with school and they say the right things but they don’t actually do anything. We do extra at home. I moved my DD from state to private in year 5 so have I experience of both. I would say they don’t routinely teach miles beyond the curriculum but they do give extra challenge questions to those who are coping well with the curriculum. I didn’t feel the need to do “extra” with her at home. We use CGP workbooks and he goes to a tuition centre once a week.

Should say he does the CGP workbooks for the year ahead of his current year for extra challenge

In addition to the ideas being given about stretching the maths being learnt in a formal setting, I wanted to add a bit about the informal stuff. We ended up home-educating, initially because my oldest was bored stiff in reception because everything felt too easy and they were extremely miserable. I also tutored children in maths, both home-ed and at school. One of the things that worked well with all of them was to apply school-type maths to real-life problems.

I remember one girl who was really struggling with maths at school but she was massively keen on ornithology and way, way more knowledgeable than me about birds, which was great because we ended up learning from each other. We spent a block of private lessons designing and constructing bird boxes for her garden. It covered a lot of number work, measuring and geometry and calculations about materials and costs but it had meaning for her. Although we didn't do it, we could also have easily moved onto things like exploring databases about bird populations or migratory distances of the birds she was most excited about and so on.

My own children went through a Dr Who phase and the geometry needed to construct a life-sized dalek out of cardboard was very challenging (still makes me shudder!) - there are billions of angles, hemispheres and 3D geometry in a dalek. Astronomy is a rich source for applied maths. So is looking at manufacturing something, maybe cooking something or making easily like Christmas decorations, and do the maths about the idea of scaling it up into running a small business - it links nicely with beginning book-keeping, business studies and profit margins for starters.

It wasn't around when my children were young but Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert produced an online resource about money management for young people which can be downloaded for free from that website. There might be other mathsy ideas in there that could be useful for the long term. www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/financial-education/#download

@PeppyBee To expand further - hopefully to help! Our school had 4 levels of maths work after the lesson for dc to use their knowledge. So: Hard, Harder, Hardest and Herculean levels. By y4, teachers are aware who the dc are who need the breadth and depth of the most challenging questions. They can work in groups of 3 if appropriate. It’s about working out how dc might get the right answer as well as the answer itself. (Other low achieving dc work with a TA to recap the basics). If your school is getting many dc at the exceeding level, they are probably teaching well. We are a grammar county and dc achieve highly in “leafy lane” schools and parents know what dc can do. So yes, ask about breadth, depth and challenge! Ask about dc’s progress and how this is assessed.