Why do teachers feel it is not a good idea to extend children at home?

[RoadArt]

This isnt a criticism or a complaint, but I am trying to understand why some teachers feel that children shouldnt be extended at home beyond what they are learning at school.

In my case, my kids do Whizz maths and have sailed through most of the tutorials very easily and as a result are working at a higher level than they are being taught at school.

When they do do the same maths at school, they are confident, know how to do the exercises, are perhaps taught a different method or concept, are asked questions in a different format, and therefore are comfortable and knowledgeable about the topic. The teacher uses my kids to demonstrate/help/support other students in the class.

I started them at an easier level to ensure they covered all the topics from the basics and have a good solid understanding up to the level they are at. I am confident they have no (or very few) gaps in the previous levels now.

The school has assessed/tested them and have confirmed the levels so there are no discrepancies or disputes about their knowledge.

However, during a recent conversation, a particular teacher said that parents must not allow their children to learn topics they havent covered at school because it is the teachers job to do so. Now whilst I accept this in principle, if a child is exposed to something new, and understands it, then what is the harm. Why shouldnt a child work on a maths level above that in the classroom?

I can understand the issue of kids being bored in class, but if they already know a topic, it is good revision to go over it again. Kids do forget and do need repetitiveness for some things.

Would be interested to hear teachers points of view.

Thank you.

because not all parents want to spend time tutoring their children out of school and then your child will be the only one sat there with nothing to do while the teacher teaches all the other kids.

The teacher probably doesn't want to sort out extension work for them.

What cat64 said.

Also, schools have policies that stipulate the way topics, particularly maths, are taught. So whilst a parent might think they are helping their child by teaching, for example, column subtraction, the school may be using a number line or partitioning method which can cause confusion for the child.
Unless you expect the teacher to set pre learning tasks for their pupils, in which case YABVU.

It would be more beneficial, as cat64 said, to give your child the opportunity to learn skills not taught in the classroom- reading sheet music, cookery etc.

What you teach your child at home doesn't have to correspond to what has been taught in the class that day/week. Personally I don't have a problem with parents supporting their child as long as the child gets plenty of time to play and be a child.

If a child was desperate to learn something new at home though, wouldn't it be quite detrimental to say "no you'll have to wait until your teacher tells you"?

That is totally different to making your child plough through advanced workbooks. Some children are just desperate to learn more maths (or whatever subject) - I was, I remember dad teaching me lots of stuff 'too early' and it certainly did me no harm. Quite the opposite, I'd say, as I'm doing a maths-based degree now. If he'd said no to teaching me what I was desperate to learn, maybe it would've destroyed my natural enthusiasm for the subject?

I dont see a problem with doing extra work with your kids at home especially if they seem to enjoy it. It certainly wouldnt be a problem in our school where there is no SET way to work out problems. We try to expose children to a variety of different methods and encourage them to use the one that they understand/find easiest.

As for setting different work a teacher will always have a range of abilities in the class from SEN children to G&T and good teaching/planning will reflect and provide for this. There should be no twiddling of thumbs!

My DD loved doing extra workbooks at home, so I let her. Her teachers were very supportive and said it can be very useful for children to learn different methods, because one will 'click' where the other might not. It gave her more confidence in class, when she found she was able to understand new concepts. She often came home and explained the 'better way' her teacher had taught her.

I would never have made her do extra work, because she was doing well and not falling behind. She did it because she wanted to.

It might help if you said "why does my dc's teacher feel it's not a good idea to extend my dc at home" rather than the massive generalisation you make in your thread title.

And I agree with posters who suggest enhancement of learning in other ways, including maths, if they're keen; not the topics that are on the curriculum necessarily as I do think that causes problems.

I think there's a fundamental difference between a child who has a thirst for knowlede/desire to learn and finds activities such as extra maths fun and intellectually stimulating alongside plenty of play and other fun and stimulating activities and parents extending children for the sake of their child being ahead.

That particular teacher probably either feels undermined because parents complain that the teacher isn't moving 'fast' enough or is fed up of explaining why there are different methods to children who've learnt to do something one way. Now in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter how you do a maths problem as long as you get the right answer using a valid method but when you have a concept/method which you're then going to build on it can be frustrating to have a child who insists on doing it the way the child knows works, because unless they get to grips with method 2 they won't understand what's coming next.

There's also different ways to extend - you don't have to teach a whole new topic e.g. division when they're learning subtraction. You can make the problems harder whilst keeping the fundamentals the same. Or you can introduce them to other aspects of maths as a tangent rather than accelerating their linear progression.

If my mum hadn't tought me at home using different methods from the school I would have probably been diagnosed with SEN as I did not get their methods of ANYTHING. As it was I left primary school with grades in the top 4% of the country.

The way I see it is that my mum had the time to find a method that worked for me. With. 30 odd children in a class this is not a luxury most teacher have.

What you choose to do at home with your children to stimulate their education is your business, and yours alone.

Goodness, do teachers really care?
At the school where I volunteer, they'd be overjoyed if any parent picked up a book and read to their child, let alone help with maths.

I've been teaching my children to do things since the day they were born and didn't feel any need to stop just because they went to school. I consider myself a home educator who uses school as one of my resources.

Well said Bonsoir. To give you my take on this, I have an older DD who hates maths and a younger one who enjoys it and will , unprompted, pick up a workbook and set to on her own. After seeing how the older one struggles with mental arithmetic, me and DH are acutely aware of the need to support and encourage as much as we can - luckily with the 7 year-old she enjoys maths, as I said.

However I would not introduce new concepts that she was not going to be doing in class, even though she may be capable of grasping them. Instead, when she has been learning number bonds we have done them to 20 and then 100 instead of ten, all times tables not just 2's, 5's and 10's, doubling and halving bigger numbers, adding three and four digit numbers when the class were doing 2-digit, that sort of thing, and her teacher thanked me for helping at home and was completely supportive.

Should add, I would not introduce something new to her just so that she could be "ahead" of the others, but I know parents who have ()

Sort of on same topic..just a question..
Can teachers spot the obviously home tutored children or perhaps just see them as GandTish? Can they also spot the very bright who are not home tutored? Is it ALWAYS an advantage to the child to be home tutored in teachers' view?
Lots of questions cos not quite sure what I am asking! [I have a brightish year 1 that does bugger all at home re schooling apart from his reading books. Guilt maybe fuelling my questions!].

Yes it is usually very easy to spot the child who has a natural ability rather than one who has been "extended" especially when new concepts are first introduced.

and i should add most children tell the teacher if they've done it at home 9you really have no secrets if you have a young child )

Thanks mrz. Think I will carry on in my slightly slack way!

I'm betting that a teacher would much rather parent's help at home, and not just with reading, than not give a stuff about their child's education and do nothing.

Exactly!
Why would I think it is a bad idea when it makes my job easier?

I would only have an issue with it if the parent taught their child incorrectly OR used it to tell me as I was doing my job wrong

2boys I'm guessing from your name that you have DSs? I know this is a massive generalisation, but IME girls are far keener to do workbooks etc at home, whereas boys will get by on the bare minimum.

If you want to extend them, and they want to as well, there is no reason why not. Teachers are well-equipped to cope with differing levels.