Ds (y1) is at a private primary, at risk of being kicked out. Help needed

[bogie]

Ds is 5 and has just started year 1.
He is a very very clever boy, in all his subjects.
He is in a combined year 1 + 2 class. The teacher has told us he has been put onto the year 2 work because the year 1 work is far to easy and he is even having to have 2 extra books from the school library each week because the ones that they have in his class are to easy for him. The problem is that unless he is being set tasks constantly he is getting into trouble. He has already been told he cannot go out at lunch time for the next 2 weeks because he is starting fights, but now it is happening in class.
I have told him over and over that he cannot do it but nothing seems to be working. The teacher has said she is trying really hard to give him things to do but he completes y2 worksheets in about 1 minuets then runs riot again.
Any one been through this with their dc? If so any advice would be much appreciated.
I was also very very disruptive in school and ended up being kicked out about 30 times from numerous different schools, and I also found any work I was given too easy.
I endend up falling in with the wrong crowd and being kicked out of school permanently.

Two thoughts here, 1) he may be so profoundly gifted that he falls into the camp of those children who need to move up at least 3 levels and/or 2) there could be some sensory seeking type stuff going on as well. Gifted children seem to be more prone to this imo so you would do well to have it checked out by an occupational therapist before he gets some label that may not be correct such as ADHD -I see this in patients all the time.

This is an excellent resource.

Hi, he is 6 he should not be punished for 2 weeks for anything . He is being educated he should have work suitable to fill the lesson. This would make me furious. There maybe sensory issues going on and the school should inform you if they have their doubts. What is his behaviour at home like? Is it a disruptive/noisy class? Has he previously behaved well in a class setting?

Sounds like the teacher is out of her depth. I agree with iggly, 2 weeks is far too excessive. They need to bring in an educational psychologist to find out if there's any sensory issues etc.

Jabber - I will have a good look at that site now thanks. How would we get him checked out by an occupational therapist? I didn't even know that was an option but it may help.

Iggly - I also thought it was rather harsh! The class isn't a disruptive class as far as I have seen. He wasn't as bad as this last year in reception class, but it was a class with only 8 pupils in last year, now it is a class of around 20.

I'm in the US and we have to have a referral by the pediatrician for an OT eval. You also may want to look into primitive reflex integration therapy. Lots of kids haven't integrated reflexes such as the Moro and it affects the way they neuorologically process new experiences.
My ds1 is in the profoundly gifted segment and it is not without certain challenges. He did occupational therapy from 4 - 6, took a break and has now started again at age 8 as we still have a few issues to work on. He is doing astronaut therapy - heavy into the vestibular - and has just gotten into a group therapy class which will integrate appropriate social behavior as well. It's not as if he can't interact socially but I think there are certainly some subtleties that he just doesn't "get" iykwim.

Oh, and also, the reason I said he may need to go up more levels, there is evidence that children who are in the profoundly gifted group do not benefit as much from just one year up in their studies. It takes much more than that to get them to their proper challenge point.
we were very lucky with ds1. He was in a private school at age 4 and his teacher was actually excited at the prospect of the challenge On her own she arranged for him to take certain classes with kids from 1 to 2 years older. We moved to a school district for the next year that had a school just for gifted children. It was very hard financially but totally worth it as he has thrived on the challenge and has friends who are much like him.

HTH

jabber

PS if you search you may find a thread where I was very concerned about him at 20 months. I got totally flamed as you can imagine but it turned out that I was absolutely right. Always trust your gut :)

I think in the UK you would want to find a private educational psychologist to get a full assessment. I would seek this out urgently.
Since you were similar in school it sounds like you should have more insight than any of us, OP?!

Most bright children are not disruptive, even the very bright. I wonder if something else is at play here which the psychologist can shed light on, beit ADHD or whatever (not necessarily bad, I know some insanely gifted and very ADHD people, they make it work). But agree with all those who say the present school doesn't seem right for your lad.

If he is completing Y2 work sheets correctly in a minute, the school are not providing him with the work and challenge he needs, regardless of whether he has any other issues going on.

You have already had a lot of useful advice, the only thing I would reiterate is that you need to split the two issues, ie the disruptive behaviour vs the being challenged/stretched issue. In my opinion they are very separate things.

As others have pointed out the fact he is not stretched might be the trigger but not the cause. There are plenty of gifted children who are not disruptive and plenty of disruptive children who are not gifted.

If the education consists of various levels of work sheets, no wonder he's running riot. Don't they do anything exciting and stimulating?

.....and you're paying for this?