Should I be worried?How do I motivate my DD?

[Samnella]

DD aged 7 and in yr2 has always done well at school. She finished yr. 1 on top and second top set for Maths and literacy. Now in yr 2 she has just been put in the second to bottom set for both. I don't understand how a child can go from being in top set to the second to bottom in less than a year. Am I overthinking it? I have an appointment with the teacher on Tuesday so want to work out what to say without sounding like a crank but doing what's right for DD.

I have spoken to DD in a round about way and she has said she is bored and doesn't like school. I don't think she is bored because she's sooooo bright , I am of the opinion she is average or just above but of course don't have much to base this on other than how she is with me. She said she can't always get help with explanations and can't see the white board if she is not in the front row due to people sitting in front of her. I have told her to ask for help but she said she is too shy. I know from doing her homework with her that she is difficult to motivate. How can I change this? I feel so sad that the little girl at the end of yr 1 who was doing so well and was so enthusiastic is losing her interest and appears to be slipping downwards instead of upwards. Or is this just a stage and will probably change?

The teacher has not discussed any of this with us.

She sound like my son (performance wise). He dropped steadily from yr 1. He is improving, just not as fast as his contemporaries! He is now in yr 5, and thank goodness 'tables' have been abolished and every week there are different children on each table.

I won't lie, I have been very concerned about him, not helped by his older brother being a very high achiever. He currently has an hours literacy tuition a week which is helping (he is no longer on the list for intervention as he's improved so much) We also are doing apples and pears spelling with him, as again no progress had been made for a couple of years in this area.

When he was in yr 2, we did so much reading, I almost think we put him off, and it's only been in the last year that he's started to read for fun.

My advice is to keep an eye on her, I met with his teachers often, and still didn't realise how far behind he was getting.

Would also advise getting her eyes tested if she says she can't see the white board, this was the first indication I had with my ds because he had a sudden degeneration in his long distance vision.

It's just possible that the problem is more with the new teacher than your DC.

Please do get her eyes tested. Whiteboards in school can easily be seen by all in a room if they are seated, unless a class of yr 11s were to go into a KS 1 classroom!

I will get her eyes tested as soon as possible.

Dromedary - I don't think it is the teachers fault as such. Or at least I don't want to go down that road. My friends children seem to be progressing and it sounds like its only DD going backwards. The school recently got a bad Ofsted which hasn't helped my feelings about all this along with the teacher moving DD down and not saying a word to us. The only time we spoke was at parents evening was when she described DD as lazy . Not the most constructive comment and not what we had been told previously. In fact I recall her reception teacher describing her as highly able and ahead in pretty much everything.

DD is my eldest so I don't know what's normal. Do children go up and down the sets? I know she doesn't cope with not being able to do things and gets very upset. If we are doing homework and she finds it hard she closes down. How do I get round this?

She complained last night that they don't play enough and she is bored of sitting. I can't change that and surely that gets worse in year 3. We are seriously considering going private just for the smaller classes which will mean she will have no where to hide. Luckily DHs parents have offered to help but I was going to hold off until secondary for all that.

I have had experience of my DCs going up and down the ability groups. My DC1 had a newly qualified R teacher, who basically told me that DC was thick, and passed that view onto the Y1 teacher. As she had learned almost no reading in R, I taught her to read over the summer hols. The Y1 teacher said that she couldn't recognise DC1 at all from what she had been told by the R teacher, and she shot up to the top ability group.
My DC2 was in the top ability groups in Y2. Her Y2 teacher told me that she was miles ahead of the rest of the class. Then she moved into Y3 and was put straight down into some lower ability groups. I don't have a very high opinion of her current teacher, to be honest, but it's not a big deal at that age and I'm not worried, as she's still enjoying school.
What I have found at this kind of age is that a teacher who is for instance very strict or overcritical can have a big effect on a child and their progress over the year. Their confidence can be badly affected very easily. Realising that they've been moved into the bottom set certainly won't help with confidence issues. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thing had set in for your DD. I would try to help her with academic work at home, and try to sort out the problem of not being able to see the White board.

NB, in private school they are likely to do more sitting and less playing. I had a friend with a DD in private from R. Right from the start of R they were sitting at their desks all day. In state primary my same age DC was playing with sand and water and sitting on the carpet for a couple of years! In private school there is more emphasis on the boring stuff - for instance in English they do a lot of grammar, spelling and handwriting exercises. Primary schools do far more creative writing. In a lot of ways I prefer the state primary school curriculum, and think that it is more interesting and motivating for children, also more practically useful, and encourages more independent thinking. I would save the money for secondary, when exam results are more of an issue.

Thanks Dromedary that was really helpful.

If the teacher's describing the child as lazy I'd say there's a personality clash going on. No wonder the child's not doing well. Spend the rest of the year educating her with workbooks from WH Smiths and books from the local library and treat the school as free child care.

Think about moving her. DD had the same - along with some challenging children in the class, was switching off, becoming disillusioned and just doing enough to get by.

Moved schools to private, she is motivated, reaching targets and then some. No she isn't top for everything, but certainly holding her own and most importantly, loves school.

Yes her school does lots of formal stuff, but they also do more games, music and other interesting things by way of visits and visitors that she never got to do at the old one.

Update: Thanks to you all. I went to see DD's teacher who in a nice teacher type way told me DD was too easily distracted, loses concentration and doesn't have confidence in Maths particularly. She will still be doing the same work as everyone else but will have more support by being at the teacher end of the class. I read this that DD is being a bit of a nuisance . The teacher also sent home some extra work for us to do with her which I am really grateful and I think is great she has managed to do given there are 30 kids in the class. I am fretting a bit how she will cope with yr3 as that all goes up a notch but I am going to work through some KS1 books with her to get her up to speed before KS2.

Exactly what they said about our dd. Exactly! If she was sat next ro the teacher she was fine and produced quite a lot of work.

We were even starting to think there may be some sort of attention disorder.

Moved her to a private school with smaller class sizes so she can't hide along with a bit mire steucture and with less 'challenging' children around her and she is fine. Still struggles with maths and hates it but no other problems.