Should I be disappointed - parents evening?

[Cactus5]

My 7 year old child is one of the oldest in the class. He was a late talker, but started talking just before starting nursery at nearly 4. He got an amazing report at the end of nursery, teachers were so impressed with his general knowledge, maths, writing and reading. In Reception, his teacher was also impressed with his work. In Year 1, he got working towards greater depth in all subjects, but his behaviour, attitude and homework went from excellent to good. He's in Year 2 now and we've just been to the parents evening. He doesn't seem to finish all his jobs and even though his work was still good, he seems to have lost interest in trying his best. The school had very high expectations for him, which I feel might have been just because he's one of the oldest in the class? Has anyone had similar experience? How did it continue?

He doesn't seem to finish all his jobs and even though his work was still good, he seems to have lost interest in trying his best.

It is important not to say anything negative, but for both the school and you to be working on how to encourage your son and develop what is called intrinsic motivation around education.

It is normal for kids to get a bit 'meh' about school. This happens when they get just a bit wiser to what they are being asked to do. Also kids start to become more conscious about any failure and this can affect how hard they try. School can be repetitive, it can get hard at times, it is more fun to play than work.

If you want to help them educationally, review what they do at home and what is modelled. How much reading is going on? How much time is spent talking about the value of trying hard? Does he see his parents trying hard at things? Do you say things like 'I think it is great how hard you have worked at that picture, I'm so impressed with the effort you put in'?

You can read up about intrinsic motivation, there is a lot out there.
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/how-to-motivate-children-science-based-approaches-for-parents-caregivers-and-teachers/

It may also be that there is something else going on that means he is finding school hard so always keep an eye out for things that underlie. I would ask for a follow up chat with school and ask them how they encourage your son to make effort in class and check what their aims are for your child. No child progresses in a straight line. School should, if they have any sense, be saying things to the class like 'I can see you have made a lot of effort there' rather than only discussing the output of the work.

My kids are much older but there were ups and downs. I think staying positive about schoolwork is the main thing - humans in general respond better to being told 'I feel proud when I see you trying hard' (positive) or 'You try so hard, it is brilliant' (positive) than they do to things like 'You need to try harder' (negative) or even worse 'You don't try hard enough' (negative).