Should I get a Tutor, Self Study Books or Leave my Yr3 DS Alone??

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Help! I can't decide what to do for the best.

DS is doing fine at school, but I have no idea whether he is in top set, middle or bottom. His teacher has raised no concerns. However, I have noticed that he seems to lack some fundamental Maths knowldege. eg He would have difficulty working out a question such as 'XYZ buys 3 cakes @ 75p. How much change would he get from £3?' or 322-257. He has difficulty learning his times tables, and difficulty reading analogue clocks.

With his English, he reads confidently, and understands what he reads, but he tends to answer comprehension with 1 word answers - which are technically correct - but do not demonstrate he can write full sentances with punctuation and grammer etc.

For the future, I would only like him to apply for the Grammar schools if he is capable- but I have no idea whether he is or not.

Should I get him a Tutor now, or should I start doing the Bond or Letts study books with him? Or should I just leave him alone?

What is your concern? The things you have listed are not fundamental maths knowledge, they are normal things to be learning in Y3 (also have Y3 DS who doesn't sound too dissimilar to yours - and he's in the top maths set at his school). I think the answering comprehensions questions with 1 words answers where they haven't been told to do otherwise is standard too. Is he at state school? If so, his end of Y2 NC levels will give you an idea of where he is relative to other children his age.

Personally I think Y3 is too early for tutoring, unless you are doing so to address particular issues.

Redglow - yes he in a state school. My concern is that if he doesn't understand the basics now, he may struggle later. My DD was similar at his satge; however when she reached end of yr4 - she still did not have this knowledge - and worse still it dented her confidence in Maths. I don't really want ds to go through the same thing. Or I am worrying too much?

I suppose the point I meant to make before is that 3 times table, place value to 1000, analogue clock is work that is routinely covered in Year 3 - so for him not be secure in these at this stage of the year is not yet a cause for concern. If you'd said he couldn't add 4+2 I would agree that you should be worrying, but it sounds like he's working in line with expectations for his age group. Google the KS2 curriculum and requirements for different NC levels - the things you have mentioned (I think) are Level 3.

I would get some Bond or Letts papers to supplement what he does at school. Maybe one or two papers a week. Nothing too excessive but at least a little to help build up confidence in his ability and to get him use to the style of the test papers.