Bright DC not motivated in year 1

[GruffaloZogTiddler]

Hi,

Since starting yr 1 dc has complained about being bored and missing the play aspect of reception. There's too much work in yr 1 apparently.

Her teachers have told me she's very bright but she has developed an attitude where she thinks she knows everything. I feel she is like this at home too and also gets irritated by how easy things are in school.

How on earth do I motivate her and change her "arrogant" attitude? Should her teachers be doing more to engage her?

Tia for any replies!

TIA

A bit confused. "Too much work", and "everything is easy" doesn't seem to equate???

I had a similar problem with dD at the beginning of Year 1 she struggled with the transition as the teacher was much stricter and quite shouty apparently. I was told DD could do the work easily if the TA/teacher sat down with her but she wasn't an independent learner and wouldnt do it on her own. DD said she wasn't sure when to start work or the person next to her would jog her and she was in a group with a few children with behavioural difficulty that she said were noisy and put her off (I suspect there was a fair amount of chatting on her own part too). She was with that class in Reception and Year 1, the classes were mixed around this year and she is doing much better, settling down to work easily etc whether this is down to the mix in cohort or just age and experience of what is expected of her now.

As far as the Knowitall side of things I make sure DD does an activity outside of school that she doesn't find naturally easy (dance) she certainly doesn't fail at it but knows she needs to work hard to improve.

Keep in touch with the school. If the reception is in the school, they should be used to helping the transfer to first year when there is less sand play, dressing up etc. Try to explain to dd that she now in big girls class, but make sure she gets plenty of chance to play after school.

Are things too easy though, how are they differentiating for the more able.

Another strategy that DDs year 2 teacher is doing is taking the More Able students out to do other work with a TA.

Also if they are doing topic work you can build on that at home which means she will have more to write about. DD has become fascinated with the plague and London Fire so we've been reading library books and watching horrible history's which has led to looking at Guy Fawkes which was a similar time.

Thanks for replying.

To clarify irvineoneohone, she says to me that she misses reception because se doesn't get to play as much. But also that she finds the work set in yr 1 boring and easy.

From what I know, in reception they did take children out to work with a TA in small groups, according to ability. Not sure if it still happens in yr 1.

Yes I think that's a good idea about linking school topics at home.

Also about afterschool activities, I will look into more interesting things for her.

If she finds work too easy, you really need to talk to the teacher.
Hopefully they do something about it.
But it gets harder as she goes up year group.The gap widens and teacher's effort seems to go where needed most, naturally.
My ds' school isn't ideal. But sound like some school are good at extending, so you maybe lucky. Never know until you ask.
If not, there's quite a lot you can do at home.
At the moment, best thing I've done for my ds is let him learn a musical instrument.

There will be extension tasks each lesson, is she getting to these?