Light-hearted mutual support thread about kids who don't do so well in school?

[ragged]

I wonder if that might be possible?
I don't really want heavy duty advice or "You must be doing something wrong, here DO THIS instead" tone.
Just thought it might be nice for those of us with expasperating children you know, we're seemingly always getting to chat with the teacher after school might get to swap notes, moan and laugh a bit about it all.

Any other takers?

Oh I'll join!

DS2 is quite bright, but just doesn't seem to fit with the school system. If he doesn't want to do something in class he won't

This understandably drives his teacher up the wall. I think I was averaging being called in for a "chat" twice a week last year! The thing is he doesn't actually behave that badly at home, no worse than your average 6 year old anyway. It just seemed to be school which he didn't like, especially when the subject didn't interest him!

By the middle of last term (after she had called me in AGAIN and I ended up in tears in the staff room, possibly the most embarrasing moment of my life) she started bribing him a star chart, and that seems to have been working slowly. If he gets all of his stars he gets to choose a "special" book from "the special book box" to bring home for the weekend (this may sound like a strange reward but he is a total bookworm).

They went back to school last week, and so far he seems to be behaving. But I'm not counting my chickens just yet, and still live in fear of being called in for a "chat" at 3.30!

It has it's moments though.

We pulled DS out of his first primary school when he was 7, because they so manifestly did not meet his needs (current school much, much better).

His last day was the day of the Christmas carol service. The whole class was up on the stage doing their carol, when ds started rummaging in his blazer pocket. Where he found a set of vampire teeth, left over from Halloween. Which he pulled out, looked at thoughtfully, then put them on for the rest of their stint on the stage.

One of his finer moments, and a wonderful parting shot...

Oh that's fantastic neversaydie!

Last sports day DS2 ran the egg and spoon race with the "egg" in his hand and the spoon tucked into his shorts. Half of the parents could see what he was doing (they were in stitches) but the teacher was oblivious until they were halway to the finishing line!

I'll join you too, got pulled over yesterday, three days in to the new school year. Should be flattered as the teacher said DS1 very intelligent, understands everything straight away but once he understands it he just isn't interested anymore and goes back off into his own little world. I became good friends with his teacher last year as I spoke to her once or twice a week, looks like it's going to go the same way with this one.

The thing is DS1 did really badly in his end of year tests last year because he just couldn't be arsed to answer the questions on the paper, would start a page do one question and then get bored. So frustrating because when you go through it with him verbally he'll answer every one perfectly.

Ooooh, let me join, let me join.

DS(7). Been told by teachers he has some genius in him - somewhere!!

Struggles academically but can make a masterpiece of an invention with two cereal boxes, the middle of a toilet roll and shiny sweet wrappers.

To me, he's the bees knees .

PS. also on his second school in an attempt to get to the bottom of him. Did seriously consider HE until when I spoke to him about it he declared he didn't need to learn anything about Victorians as he knew it all from Horrible Histories and as for science, he was well aware of time travel from watching Dr Who so that also would not be an area necessary of learning!

neversaydie - love, love your story btw. You couldn't make them up could you

Have you noticed it's all boys?

Em my DS has been constructing his own time machine using Wacky Wigglers and I believe he's very near to completing his own Pokemon creation device, so possibly verging on the boundaries of evil genius

Perhaps we should set up our own school especially for them? With a sympathetic teacher!

At the end of last term DS2's teacher asked me if I could help him with his maths over the summer. It's not that he can't do maths (OK it's not his strongest subject, but he can do it) but more that he doesn't like it and so doesn't want to bother. So, dutifully, I set him up on the BBC KS1 website Maths pages as they looked like fun. He was fine doing them, so I left him to it while I went to do something else... by the time I came back he had got bored of maths and moved on to KS2 history which was apparently more interesting. This triggered a summer long obsession with Iron Age Celts, which developed into many trips to the archaeology section of the local museum, many more trips to the library to borrow books about Celts and sometimes Romans, a trip to a reconstructed Iron Age village, the purchasing of various items of dressing up clothing including shields and helmets, and the building of a lego hill fort. We still haven't got round to the maths though...

DD2 struggled to catch up all through primary school. We have, or rather had as they are closing them next year, middle schools here and DD2 has just finished there and started at upper school last week. She is thrilled as she has been put in top set maths, the first top set she's been in for anything.

DS2 (9) however is still struggling with his reading and writing. He has no confidence at all, he has a fantastic imagination its just a shame he can't write it all down!
Still hoping he'll take after DS1 who after struggling for quite a few years seems to have been abducted by aliens and swapped for a genius!
It's hard to watching them struggling.

Can i join please... mines a girl (8) and has hated school since day one.

It often takes two of us to get my kids into school in the morning the older one goes with dad at 8.30 while i roll up with the other one about an hour later after her huge tantrum, refusal to wear school uniform, eat, all the usual stalling tactics! the worst thing is after looking at her tear stained face the ta takes her off for some special attention and i'm left with the tutting office ladies wanting to know what my problem is!

I think all schools should have a tea shop next door, they would do a roaring trade in the mornings, tea and cake is about the only thing that gets me through the school run.

fruitshoots - my heart skipped a beat when I read the beginning of your post - I thought - a girl, here's a girl, welcome, welcome.

But no!

WhatThe - bet you had that feeling too.

Dufy - welcome

my younger ds is 10 and his handwriting is awful, though he is academically able. However, unless it concerns pokemon, he is not interested.
So, all pictures/artwork at school are pokemon. All creative writing involves...guess what!
any construction/design work etc...- you got it!
Even baking at home has to be picachu-shaped biscuits etc.
He has 3 best friends - but only because they too are pokemon obsessed. If someone isn't into pokemon, he glazes over and discounts them as a worthwhile human being.

Dd2 (7) is into pokemon too. It is all she ever talks about, so I know all about eye glazing because it is me doing it.

mollyroger I believe we are son sharing. DS1 is sent to educational psychologists because of his concentration issues at school and the fact that they think he's on the spectrum. Now before he goes in I have to prep him not to talk about Pokemon, because at first he was telling them Pokemon stories, drawing them pictures, showing them his cards, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon. They told me that they think he's a little bit obsessed with Pokemon . Joking aside they did try and turn it into a problem with him. Now he draws them pictures of our dog who died last year, they go out to tea on that one.

Personally I'm grateful to Pokemon because until he discovered the story books DS1 had little inclination to learn to read, now with the books he's virtually taught himself.

His best friend at school is a little girl who loves Pokemon too, they play Pokemon together all the time.

Brilliant thread

All of the other posts ring a bell with me.

I have 3 dc, eldest two are girls and sailed through school so far. Ds is 7 and hates school, struggles with the work, finds it boring, and has friendship problems.

He is a fabulous little boy, so so funny and bright, but school and him just don't always mix.
So far we have had problems with talking too much, drifting off into his own world, working too slowly, handwriting and now maths.
He has very low self confidence and thinks he will fail before he even tries something.

He was given an IEP, which they then changed to an IBP (even though they said he wasn't badly behaved), but the problem is that it is rare they stick to what is on it, and ds knows this too.
I am giving new teacher until Friday to implement the new things on his IBP before I go in.

Ds also gets obssessed with things. In nursery it was Spiderman, and when he left his nursery teacher did say that she thought his obssession was not normal

It is now Star Wars and Dr Who, and he can ramble on and on and on about it for hours.
The most annoying part though is that he constantly hums the theme tunes, and I do eventually have to tell him to stop.

I have been dreading him going into juniors, because I simply don't think he is going to cope very well with the level of work.
We are also now having slight problems (more at home at the mo), with him not thinking before he speaks, and ending up being rude/hurtful towards people.
I have spoken to him about this alot, but as far as he is concerned, if the thought is in his head then there is no reason to not say it.

WhatTheFrack - My son is absolutely identical to yours, except its all about Mario. Its all he talks about, writes about, draws about and thinks about. His work has really suffered, as has his circle of friends - he used to have loads and now has just one - a boy who also loves Mario.

I have a meeting with his teacher next week. He has recently discovered the 'Wimpy Kid' books which has provided a bit of a distraction, but not much.

not sure if this is the thread for me as my dd1's problems with school don't quite seem the same as most of you posting, but i'll post anyway as I am beginning to get concerned about her progress...

dd1 is 6, just started y2 and is struggling academically at school - her Y1 teacher said that she is bright and engaged and came up with great ideas but she can't read or write with any fluency at all

she is still pretty much at the d-o-g dog stage of reading, although she can sound out longer words, she still has to sound out pretty much every word

her writing is very poor, too big, letters not in proportion and frequently the wrong way round or mirror images

because of her age there is no real reason for concern but her school is known for bringing children on academically and her peers are for the most part racing ahead. I've only recently started getting concerned because I have always tried to take a relaxed approach - that it will click when she's ready and she will catch up - but the longer she falls behind the more i feel she may have to be assessed for dyslexia at some point

nice to have somewhere to say it out loud, dh thinks i'm being precious and the school say no cause for concern just yet

thankfully she does enjoy going to school so no issue there, although she is starting to notice the gap in acheivement between herself and her friends

sadly for the purposes of this thread she isn't a pokemon fan

MrsMorgan, there is definately some son sharing here.

• drifting into own world,

• struggles with work

• boring

• friendship problems (very solitary is my little chap)

• low self confidence

• thinks he will fail before he tries anything (mine is very competitive and if he thinks he's onto a loser - pffff - no chance)

• Dr WhooOOOoooo!!

Shadeofviolet - We have had that problem also. Ds gets so obssessed with things, that he will only talk about that, play games to do with that, and let other people talk to him about that.
This has led to him coming home and saying he has no friends because the other children are basically sick to death of hearing about Star Wars.

I have explained to him that he needs to be more flexible and play other children's games too, but this falls on deaf ears.

Not mentioned Pokemon yet though but Club Penguin - OMG. Our social lives revolve around Club Penguin. Apparently something big is happening on Friday and he cannot possibly go to street dance after school. Will break the news later in the week!

Ha yes EmEyeHi - Ds has been known to stomp off during games, the minute something doesn't go his way, even if he could still win.

Ds is also very overdramatic. The other week he lost at some game on the wii, and so was saying 'oh no, why does this have to happen to me', this is the worst day ever', and 'the world is awful to let this happen'

I had a mixture of emotions listening to him. Part of me wanted to laugh and the other part wanted to make him see how unimportant it was.

So many of these posts seem to be describing my DS1! He too is a very able boy, but just seems bored at school, much to his teacher's chagrin and adding to his parents' frustration. He will sit for hours building a very complicated Lego model, but cannot bring himself to complete a basic cut and glue exercise which should take only 10 minutes. He to finds it difficult to follow another person's rules, both peers or teachers. We have had countless meetings last year to try and get him to "meet his potential" to no end, and I am dreading this year. I would like to move him to another school, and there is one which would fit his quirkyness, but there is a huge barrier to entry (7+ exam) which I know he could do, but only if HE decides he wants to do well (currently, he couldn't give a rats arse to try and do well). Reading all your posts has reassured me that he isn't abnormal and I should relax a bit and enjoy his idiosyncracies.

There seems to be a common theme running here!

Lol there is isn't there.

I considered moving ds to another school, but tbh unless it was on some far away planet, where Darth Vader or Dr Who were the teachers, then I don't think things would change much.

Ds just likes what he likes, and being made to sit in a classroom all day and learn about things that do not interest him, is not one of them.

I worry though what will happen once ds gets a teacher that doesn't find him funny and endearing, as his old teachers have, but rather annoying and irritating.