Why didn't dds teacher tell me this earlier?

[outofhere]

We went to year 2 dds parents evening last night. All good, she is predicted level 3s across the board. Then the teacher said she has got real problems concentrating in the class, is unfocused and this is affecting her work. I didn't realise there was an issue until now and wish dds teacher had told me before, so we could have sorted this out earlier in the year. Why do you think it was ignored 'til now?

Possibly because it is a milder problem compared to others in the class and the teacher has been extremely tied up addressing more urgent/serious problems or because your dd was still managing to get good results so again, there were more urgent issues to address?

sarah - that's a bit defensive?

OP - I would be really annoyed too. It doesn't take a minute to have a quick chat.

I honestly didn't mean it to be defensive. Just trying to see from the teacher's point of view why she may have left it this long.

As Sarah says teachers bring up things at parents evenings when it's a bit late in term to do anything. I think this is either because they aren't worth grabbing you after school for or the teacher doesn't like talking informally to parents.

DD1 had a teacher, who was great with most of the children, but not with adults. She'd come up with hopelessly unfixable throw away remarks at parents' evening instead of having a proper talk when there was time for an action plan.

Maybe is for the best to schedule an appointment with teacher and discuss the matter into greater detail. There is still one full term left to work on the concentration, if indeed there is a "problem", I would be inclined to think, there is no real issue here seeing your DD's predicted grades, she is more then on track of a very good achievement for end of Y2, but again go and see teacher if you are concerned.
Our DD's teacher has this tendency to add a bit of negativity just for the good measure, when talking to us about DD on two occasions this year, despite everything being good and positive, there always was a "but", I don't know Why?
If indeed teacher thinks there is a real issue here and she has decided to mention it to you now, after two terms, I also would be bit

Maybe your DD has only recently shown this problem.

Could it be that this wasn't an issue until recently? If she is at all L3 has the teacher moved her attention to pushing on those who are not yet at that level and now left your dd a bit bored? What did the teacher suggest they were doing to improve her concentration?

Thanks for the replies. I had thought of that sarah - my dd is doing ok academically so the ditractedness is not a major issue. I do feel very irritated though as i feel she has not reached her potential and has missed out a lot of progress this year. I also sound very pushy raising my concerns because she is doing better than average so the concensus is that i should be happy with that (which i am of course). I think work ethic is more important though and wish we could have done something about this before.

What on earth are you going to do about it?

Because it wasn't an major issue until recently.

DS's teachers have flagged lack of concentration throughout his school career (though now getting better- phew!).

But ... the lack of concentration isn't such a big thing - the teacher reminds him what he is supposed to be doing and he gets back to it. Of course it would be better if he didn't need to be reminded and of course if he is staring out of the window it will affect his work ... but as it hasn't made that much difference and he is still doing well it's never been a huge deal.

If your DD was regularly wandering round the classroom when she was meant to be working I'm sure teacher would have flagged it earlier, it's not a huge deal, which is why she hasn't.

Also tbh, how do you stop your child getting distracted in class?

As redskyatnight said, How do you stop child getting distracted in class?
Low level disruption, size of a class, noise and all other factors will affect some children more then others.
It's obvious she is working above average, and perhaps teacher is shifting the focus onto children who need bringing up to certain standard, nothing wrong with that, but it does mean children at the top table are left to their own devices, and What do children do in such situations?, well they tend to get away with a minimum and tend to slack off a little, IMO.

Totally see what you are saying. This has apparently been an issue most of this year. Fell a bit sad because dd used to be so focused and well behaved at school. It is true though, left to her own devices, she would do the bare minimum (unless it is something that truely interests her), then have a nice natter with her mates. I am powerless to do anything about it. I think school needs to address it with her.

I'm not sure you are powerless tbh and there is still a whole term of y2 to get her into better habits before she hits KS2.

What about asking for an appointment with class teacher when she has a bit more time. Explaining that you would like to help dd with her concentration and focus, and does she have any suggestions.

One suggestion would be, you check at the end of each week with dd's teacher how she has been. If she has been focused etc (mainly) she gets tokens towards some kind of highly desired treat. If not focused, she doesn't get to watch tv on a Friday after school. ( Or some such arrangement).

If there is work that the teacher thinks she should have finished or done more carefully, perhaps you could take it home over the weekend for her to complete/re-do. It will probably only take a couple of times of doing this for her to realise it would be better to do it properly in the first place!

If may be that just knowing you are on to her will be enough for her to sharpen her act a bit.

It might also be worth talking to your dd about what concentration and focus really mean. She is still quite young and may not be so aware of how she is working (or not working as the case may be). Perhaps you could have some "practise" sessions where she does some work with you at home and you can point out when she is pratting around going to the loo and taking ages to sharpen a pencil and suddenly deciding she needs an urgent conversation with you/the cat not so focused and when she is, so that she gets to feel what "focused" is like. You could set a timer for 10 minutes and see if she can stay concentrating hard for that length of time. What about a challenge chart where you start seeing if she can concentrate for 5 minutes, then 6 etc and mark how long she can manage on a bar chart? If you can get her to feel proud of managing to concentrate that will probably help a lot.

If she is getting all level 3's, is it possible that the work is a bit too easy for her so she is coasting a bit because of lack of challenge/boredom? One to ask her teacher maybe?

I'm sure school will be addressing it with her, but a double-pronged approach with home and school supporting each other always works best.

Thank you sarah. You have really made me feel better and more positive about this. I love all your ideas. I am going to make an appointment with the teacher as we sort of brushed over it a bit at parents evening and never made a plan of action. Your ideas have given me lots to think about and i really appreciate that. Thank you.

DS1, in Y4, on his 'personal attainment statement' or whatever that goal thing they write for themselves is called wrote (sincerely not ironically),

" I will try harder to concentrate on the teacher and not the more interesting conversations around me"

I agree to talk to her. Dd1 also in yr2 in her swimming report her teacher said she kept going under water and not listening to instructions. I spoke to dd about it and she told me it was just because it was cold in there. Spoke to teacher, came to agreement about what she should do if cold, and her concentration has improved. She may know, but will tell you and not a teacher.

Setting a timer really helps dd2 too when it comes to reading. We both concentrate hard for 10 mins then time for a break, if she can't be bothered then she loses out as she doesn't finish the book.

So do you want her to reach Level 4 this year? Is that what you meant by not reaching her potential? Is this with an eye towards doing GCSEs when she's 12, because what else advantage would there be in that rate of progress?

ragged - that's a bit ott maybe? I think the op was just concerned that from the teacher's point of view her dd wasn't working as well as she might - not about pushy parents- this was the teacher that was saying this. That's nothing about levels, just about her dd working well and achieving what she is capable of, whatever that level is. The op would probably have had even more concerns if the teacher had said the same things but her daughter was at level 1.

Hard to see that OP's child has suffered academically (so far). Hard to see that her long-term potential has been damaged (would be different if Level 1, because that's much harder to recover from, and worse, the child would be struggling on 2 fronts). The high levels are probably another reason why the teacher hesitated to previously mention behaviour that usually resolves itself, and even OP realistically sees she may not be able to control (OP is not there in the classroom when things go wrong).

Okay, Fair cop, I have a problem with "not living up to their potential" statements, especially when people talk about young children who are already high achievers, and not otherwise unhappy with work given. I'm not sure if maybe those worried about "potential" in obviously already high achieving children, really do want their children to take GCSEs at 13. So it was partly a serious question to OP.

Sorry to OP, I'm belatedly figuring out that she probably meant something completely different from what I thought she meant in using the word Potential (I read things way too literally).

My guess is that it is a recent problem as your DD is achieving well, but I would ask the teacher about it. It would worry me if it wasn't and I am not told.

By coincidence I found out at the beginning of the year that my DS (Y2) was behind in maths whereas the teachers (Y1 and Y2) always said he was 'fine'. The school was not forthcoming with information, but was then told that he is often not concentrating and off task, and that he is just not so interested in maths . I am still angry !

I supported DS all through Y2 at home and he is on track now and gaining confidence in his ability. Whereas at the beginning of the year he was in bottom set working with Y1s - and I wasn't told!

Sorry if i came across as pushy. That wasn't my intention at all. I just wish i had been informed of the issue at previous parents evenings and when i pick up dd - teacher is always there and talks about issues with other parents.

If I want to have a word with the teacher I just wait until she is free.