Teachers, be completely honest, would this annoy you?

[lovecheese]

DD is an able but often shy child who will not speak up in numeracy lessons if she is finding a topic easy. She pootles between the 1st and 2nd groups, often a lack of confidence rather than ability putting her with the 1st group. Anyway, she came home yesterday and said that a PPA cover teacher had put her with the 2nd group and that the work was really easy and was something that I know she is very confident with. So I had a quick word with her regular teacher this morning, who is lovely BTW, and asked if DD could work with the 1st group as she is really strong in this area. teacher said yes, fine, and we parted. I HATE doing it as I really don't want to piss teacher off, but if DD is going over stuff that she could do independently months ago would you speak up? Any thoughts?

Of course it's fine.

Wouldn't annoy me.
Shouldn't p any decent teacher off - you're not questioning her professional judgement, just providing her with more info that it may be hard for her to get from your DD as she is a bit quieter.

Tbh I would much rather have a pushy than passive parent every time.

hth

As a parent I would talk to the teacher if I knew that my DD was going over the same stuff over and over again that she is confident with and was not being allowed to be extended to learn stuff she doesnt know.

And I would hope that the teacher would be honest and tell me if my children were not showing they were capable of doing the work in school. Quite often children know stuff at home but then dont show/proof it at school so the teacher assumes they dont know it or havent understood it.

The teacher should be able to assess whether your DD is capable of doing the work irrespective of her shyness, she must spend some time with her?

I know teachers have to ensure that the breadth of a topic is covered fully before moving up to next stages but sometimes children do need to move up to try something before they realise that actually they dont fully understand the topic and that they could do with some more sideways learning. Its almost like a catch 22 situation.

How did the teacher react? Do you think she was OK with you talking to her and do you think she will listen to you?

I'm a teacher and wouldn't mind at all if a parent raised this with me. The fact that I don't do the 'groups' thing probably makes a difference though... I tend to provide three or four levels of work and, with a bit of direction, encourage the children to choose the level they think they can manage (but not do with their eyes closed - I expect them to challenge themselves).

I've also done PPA and must say that whilst some teachers leave comprehensive instructions on who sits where/with whom and at what level the children are working, others just leave it to chance.

Thanks for the replies. I do worry sometimes that DD is not showing what she is capable of in lessons. Her teacher described her maths as "Phenomenal" recently, which leads me to think "well if it's that phenomenal why isn't she being challenged on a daily basis?"

WWYD?

Could I ask what age your DDs were Euphemia and Lovecheese? The reason I'm asking is that I'm intrigued. I get nowhere near enough information from either of my kids (Yr R and Yr 3) to judge whether the work is easy for them or hard, I have no idea what they are doing in class beyond the term sheet of topics they will cover which is always handed out by the teacher in the first week of term. And homework for the older one just confuses me, I can rarely tell whether he will be able to do it or not. Sometimes he surprises me and does something I think is hard with little fuss and then he throws real wobblies over things that look simple to me. Are your children a bit older?

Year 2 sageygirl, and just 7.

I think as long as the approach conveys respect for the teacher it should be fine - I had the opposite problem, felt that DD2 was struggling with both maths and confidence so contacted the teacher, who was really approachable and said she'd discuss it with the group teacher and with DD herself. Then at parents' evening the teacher said they were trying to resolve the problem by moving her up to the top group - not what I'd been expecting, I thought down would have been better.

Turned out I was completely wrong, she is much happier in her new group, doing brilliantly and her chatty, maths-loving old self again, so I didn't get what I thought I needed for DD but felt that I'd been taken seriously and not taken for a nagging mummy.

I wouldn't have minded. I think it's a bit of a sign of an insecure professional to mind parents asking questions and pointing out the odd thing to you. I'd like to think that parents wouldn't have thought that occasionally missing something was not a sign that I was not doing my job properly. I genuinely believe this whole journey is a three way partnership between children, parents and school and best results come when everyone respects each other and listens.

I have this with my Y2 DD at the moment. She is a lazy learner and so doesn't ever really complete much in class, but is more than capable. I asked to bring her maths book home yesterday as I wanted to see what she was (and wasn't doing!). She tells me she is bored and knows the work so doesn't bother. I have tried to explain that if she knows it then showing her teacher by actually doing the work would be better than not bothering. She is in the middle group right now and I honestly think if she went up one group (she isn't going to be a top set girl for maths - not any time soon at any rate) it would challenge her and hopefully make her more excited about maths. In her workbook everything is always correct, there just isn't enough of it! I am in a quandary as to whether I should speak to the teacher, but maybe after reading this I should just bite the bullet and do it?
WWYD?