Did anyone's child suddenly 'blossom' academically in Years 3-6 ?

[cornflakemum]

DS2 (summer baby) just seems to resist school and struggle a bit academically.

His teacher says he is in about the 'middle' ability group in the class, but he is very S L O W to complete his work, and is reluctant to participate in class much.

He will be going into Year 3 in Sept, and I'm beginning to worry how he will cope. DH says he thinks it is because he is still young, and that it might all 'click' as he gets older.

I just wonder if he's being optimistic though, and whether anyone has had this happen?

yes. ds was seeing the senco for years and years. started in year one. no actual special needs, just slower at learning coz he couldnt sit still and listen etc. and teachers just couldnt spend th e time on him that he needed in a class of 34 once he started juniors/
he was in the bottom set of five in year four. by the first term of year six, he was the top child in the second set for maths, and the teacher couldnt say enough nice things about him academically. i had to ask if she was actually talking about my child.

however, in year seven, he is back in learning support. but for him, that is excellent. he needs the smaller class sizes to blossom.

not my child... but my MIL's- my DH- couldn't really read until aged 8 or so, then it all just fell into place. He is gifted at maths though, and by mid-secondary school had surpassed his teachers' knowledge. He was never reluctant to participate though, just slow as a young boy, though your son may be embarrassed by his perceived failings and this could be holding him back as he doesn't want to show himself up.

This happened with ds1 who is also a summer baby. It was also complicated because he has SN (autism). Like your ds he was always very slow with his work, due to difficulties with fine motor skills and a tendency to drift off into a world of his own. His teachers said they found it frustrating because they felt sure that he could do the work but they had no way to prove it, especially as he was also reluctant to share his ideas.

Year 3 was the year when everything fell into place for him. His teacher experimented with moving him up into a higher group to give him a bit of a push. The results of his end-of-year tests were an eye-opener for all of us.

I thought that Yr3 would be a nightmare year for him as we'd been warned about how the work gets harder and how children are expected to be more independent. Instead he thrived on it and really enjoyed it.

I've seen something similar happen to a couple of other children too. I don't know whether it was purely a developmental thing or whether it was just the work that suddenly interested or inspired them but they really seemed to change.

Yes, my DS was average in KS1 and was G&T by year 5. He is a summer birthday. My DD seems to be following a similar pattern. My DS didn't like the informality of KS1 and found it confusing. He surged ahead once he was sat at a desk with clear instructions in year 3 in a much quieter and calmer environment. It may also have been because his KS2 teachers were a lot better with him than the KS1 teachers.

Some children don't start pulling ahead until secondary school, or even A levels. I don't believe (apart from a very tiny minority) in some special group of bright children. Almost any child can excel or slow down at any age; your future is not set in stone at 6.

DS1 is an August birthday and Y4 was when he started making quite rapid progress; by the start of Y5 he was in an extension pull-out for maths. He learned to read very quickly and always got very high standardised scores on reading tests, but apart from that was in the upper average part of the class. He's just got into a very selective secondary school and is definitely one of the 'top' boys in his class.

DS2, now Y3, has been an earlier developer .

Thank you for these - it gives me hope!

The thing is, that he 'seems' very bright - he has good general knowledge, he can read (but chooses not to, except school books), and he is actually very capable...

BUT

it seems as if he struggles to get his ideas or knowledge out on paper, or even verbally (if in a group).

I think he is very conscious of
a) being the youngest in his class (and a bit less capable at sports etc)
b) his elder brother (DS1) who is very gifted academically, and probably tends to dominate things a bit.

Ds is a late-August baby. He was always in the bottom sets throughout infant school and also in Y3. In Y4 things started to change, he blossomed, became more confident, started to work faster, started seeing the point of school (other than a nice place to meet friends and have fun)
He is now in the middle set for both literacy and numeracy and is doing extremely well.

Dd has a July birthday and was average up to yr 2. By the time she got to the end of Yr5 they thought she was above average (but not much) but at the end of Yr 6 she got straight 5s for her SATs.

She is now one of the high achievers at her secondary school (Yr12) and has said to me that at primary school they never expected much of her but when she went to secondary school she decided that she wanted to work hard so has done well.

All children are different and most get there in the end.

My DS 13 (sept baby)steadily climbed up the class from Yr2 to secondary school. Reading clicked at the beginning of Yr2 but still has dyslexic problems mainly with spelling, but got the top score in his class for yr6 Sats for science.

He is now considered one the high fliers at his secondary school.

Does he not manage to get his words down on paper because he can't write fast enough? I found this with DD. Her teachers were alwasy saying she was perfectly capable, had it all going on in her head, but struggled when it came to writing it down. She told me it was because she had to write in a certain way and she struggled to make her writing perfect and get the work done at the same time.

Since she started secondary school, she has flown. The writing isn't as important. (Her writing has always been perfectly legible, but not to the standards that they taught in primary) Now, she has found her own style of writing, which means she does keep up and she much happier and more confident at the same time.

Think the writing thing could be the problem with my ds! Everything has to be perfect with him and he is constantly asking for a rubber as he doesnt think it is good enough.

Heres hoping he takes off in the next few years then

Yes - the writing is definitely part of the problem, adn he is also a child who worries about getting it right all the time (so too much rubbing out IMO..)

DS2 (August baby) has only really shown his full academic abilities in Y12 (i.e. from the Lower Sixth). He was very average all through infants, junior and secondary school, and the real improvements only started in Y10/11 when he was studying for GCSEs. We knew he had it in him somewhere ...

It happened with me when I was 7 (august baby). Suddenly it all made sense and I staretd enjoying school and doing more maths at home 'cos I wanted to. I did change schools then so not sure if that was anything to do with it or not.

I did, dramatically , I was slooow.

DD in Yr5. DS#1 in Y6/7. Magically.

we always seem to mimic singersgirl's family!

dd (born in August) has started coming into her own this year (yr4). We were told at the start of school that yr4/5 was when you stop seeing the age gap in their work as much as you do in the infants and early juniors and there does seem to be some truth to that. I wouldn't say she has quite blossomed yet but she's certainly more confident and capable than in the earlier years.

DS, now in Y8, struggled with English until Y7 when he started to fly! I put this down to a few things: being a boy, self-esteem, beginning to read every day (we banned TV etc in mornings and he is an early riser and there was nothing else to do ) but most importantly some consistently good/inspiring teaching when he went to middle school and started having subject teachers in Y5.

English is now his favourite subject and he actively chooses to read. I really believe that some boys just progress at a different pace and that the system doesn't always cater for them.

My personal experience is ..... ds2 went through infants at lower end of academic groups. Couldn't read when he started and had never shown an interest in numbers etc. Got to year 3 and was still finding it hard to be self-motivated. Comments from the teacher were daily and negative. We decided to take him out and place him in an independent school. Within 3 months he was a different child. Motivated and very, very happy. He sat his 11+ last year and has continued onto a senior independent school where he's thriving. Haven't read the whole thread, just original post, so not sure if any of this has been covered. This is purely my personal experience, so I would say "Yes" to your question, given the right environment for your child in a 'good' school with 'good' teachers and lots of encouragement/support at home - which you will do, 'cause you obviously care allot about your child's education