DS, 5, complaining that school is really boring

[poachedeggs]

They all do this, right? It's OK to breezily ignore his whining?

He doesn't mention anything specific beyond hating school because it's boring, he has to sit sill and learn his ABCs. He enjoys playtime and seems happy enough (for a mournful, dramatic child, it's all relative). His teacher says he's doing fine and is quite bright.

Plan of attack is to jolly him along and not pay much attention to it, unless MN says otherwise.

Reception or Y1?

Does he like anything like counting, reading, drawing?

I think at that age 'boring' is a catch all phrase for not being particularly happy about something, as opposed to a child really being bored.
Like you I take the not paying much attention tack.

My daughter loves school. If she told me it was boring I'd worry.

My DD2 (Reception) says school is boring because it's too long.

However other things that have been boring have been art club (which she requested to do), a friends party with bouncy castle and cake and holidays.

I am taking it with a pinch of salt as she always comes out of school saying she has had a great day. (usually the boring complaints come when i am asking her to get dressed and she is dragging her heels)

It may be something or nothing, but the clue might be in the 'quite bright' comment from the teacher, as are they challenging him enough to keep him motivated and interested at school? Sadly I had to move my daughter out of a state school very early doors (at 5 & only because we couldn't get her into any of the outstanding state schools in our area) because she started by saying she was bored, then started not wanting to go and then went mental (screaming every time she was taken in). I was at my wits end and finally got the answer when I visited the school and they mentioned to me that she was brighter than the other children and they were struggling to keep her engaged. She was finishing work ahead of the other children and they actually said they couldn't keep up with her. They would never have told me about this ordinarily, it's only because I went to them to find out what was going on that they mentioned it. Since we made the decision to move her, she's never looked back (now 13) and is excelling at school. My son was just the same (he is 7) and is at a cracking school The Phoenix School Cambridge in Willingham, where I don't think I've ever heard a child say they are bored (aged 3 to 11) and they all come out buzzing about what they've done during the day. His school also acts on parents input, because when I said I felt my son's Oxford reading scheme books weren't really capturing his imagination enough to gain a love of reading, they immediately moved him onto children's fiction books for children about space/aliens and stuff boys love and his reading has come on no end. We are however fortunate enough to be able to stretch our finances to do this (we chose to cut back on everything else) and I'm not sure whether this would be an option. But maybe a chat with the school, to find out how he is in school, what he likes best/dislikes and you know what captures his imagination/what he loves outside of school - so try and bring the two together. You could then explore how they could work with you to use these interests to engage him and challenge him so he doesn't get bored at school? - for example, my son's school used Star Wars to engage and enthuse boys in their maths lessons last year as it was the in thing at that time. If the school has his best interests at heart they will help you with this, I'm sure. Just a thought.

What LittleMissGreen said.

DD is quite bright but rarely bored at school because she has such a great social life.
DSs are more ordinary & often quite bored because they miss me & get quite tired. It's boring when you don't understand how to do the work, too. The least clever children can be the most bored.

Totally agree LMG and great point. That's why some schools teaching at the assumed mid-range can leave children at either end of the spectrum completely disinterested and it's such a shame. That's why bringing in some social interests and passions that the children can relate too, as part of the learning process can help, but not all schools have the resources or the time to do this and sometimes parents have to step in and get a bit more involved in their child's education to help make this happen. Parent power!! It's alright I'm not burning my bra at the moment.......

Thanks.

I'm happy that the teacher will be challenging him a bit - he clearly has to concentrate hard to do what work he has at home. She's experienced and I have confidence in her. I think he's just whining because he finds it hard to apply himself, and also because he's really whiny.

I'm hoping it'll get better once the mechanics of reading and writing are less effort.

I don't get it, what sort of school can't keep up with the learning pace of a five year old?

I agree learn, there are 23 in his class, it's not that difficult for the teacher to spend enough time with them to work out what level of reading book they'll manage, or whatever. I'm sure that can't be the problem at this stage.

My suspicion is that the Reception teachers in question have a system, a sausage machine, if you like. And they're putting all the children through it regardless of their qualities. And some teachers it seems are hugely resistant to changing the system for this child or that child, because if they did that they'd then have to worry about keeping the changes up for this individual child. So, I think it's not that the school can't do it (it's a school for Christ's sake!) it's that some Reception teachers don't want to do it.

D'you have any forest schools in your area? These are state schools that believe in spending as much time as possible outdoors. My 3 DD's all go to one and love it-they get very muddy but gain so much from the activity led stuff they do in the great outdoors
www.forestschools.com/

howling his school has a new deputy head who is extremely pro-outdoor schooling and they now have outdoor classes for some of the older pupils. So that's coming soon.