Report comments-what should we/the school be doing to help dd?

[IfIonlyhadsomesleep]

Had dd's year two report. She's made good progress and achieved well (all level threes). Five mentions, however, about how she doesn't push herself hard enough or chats in class, or doesn't work hard enough. Okay. What should the school do to help dd with this? What should dd do? What should we do? There seems to be a mismatch between a child who is praise driven and hates punishment and yet seems unable to link that to "ah well, best get on with the work then".

I think this could be a problem for bright DC's (which your DC clearly is with level 3's) that find the work relatively easy at this stage.
I think DS1 could turn out to be like this. I would be inclined to think about rewarding effort rather than outcome at home. Can school look at work they are giving- can they give something with some challenge that she might find more motivating. Is she distracted by sitting with particular friends, might she work better sitting with someone else. Have school figured out in what circumstances she gets the best work done or have you noticed at home?
I would also have a little chat at home along the lines of you've done fabulously well but your next target is to xxxx or your teacher would like you to work harder at not chatting too much. If she's going into year 3 juniors can you sell the going into juniors, being more grown up line??

You might find this stops as the work ramps up a bit in yr3.

Thank you. I find it hard to know what to say to her because I actually think the thing that is hardest for her is being criticised and she's being lauded for what's easier. I know from working with her at home that she finds organising herself to complete a task very challenging and will do displacement type activities to avoid it. We've used timers so she knows that certain tasks actually don't take as long as she thinks and breaking things into small steps. I really hope the year three thing might be true. The thing she had the worst effort grade for was maths where she apparently is satisfied with doing the class work and doesn't push herself to get onto the extension work. I'm not actually convinced she sees it as compulsory. I sound so much as if I'm making excuses. But it seems as if all the effort stuff is down to dd to self motivate. She's seven. How many seven year olds would push themselves to do work that is presented as optional, if you've finished stuff? Oh, I don't know.

I would give it a little time. We were told at the beginning of yr3 that DD was not really applying herself to her full potential, not getting enough work down on paper during class time, chatting too much, taking an age to start work etc. She was bright (all 3s at the end of KS1) but not good at concentrating.

Now at the end of yr3 she has turned a corner,concentrates much better, works harder. I think it comes with maturity, she's still only 7, and they all develop self motivation at different times.

Keep an eye on it, but try not to over think it, she's making good progress, and is only young.

dd1 was like this in Y3. Top sets, lots of praise for her ability/participation, but 'could really fly if she concentrated/tried/stopped chatting'. I think she was just a teeny bit complacent, tbh.

I gave her the feedback, and then she went into Y4 - work ramped up, the teacher was stricter, and this year dd has matured and tried harder, and been given an award as a result. Which then means she 'gets' the point of getting on with her work.

So basically, I would wait and see what the Y3 teacher/work is like, and just hold it in mind as something to flag up to that teacher and/or your dd next term - if it doesn't improve by half term, maybe discuss incentives with the teacher, or just set some yourself with your dd? She's probably a bit young to 'get it' or care much

Thanks again. Last two posts made me cry. Quite a lot. I feel that we'll watch and wait. We read her report to her without the actual effort grades but not skipping the comments. Gave her loads of praise for her achievement (which goes against the grain, weirdly, but I feel she needs to know the things she's done well even if they come easily). Not going to make excuses, but neither am I going to castigate dd when I know she finds it hard to concentrate. She's lucky. The thing she needs to work on is not the content and so next year we can gently focus on, well, focus. But I love her. She's sparky, interested in all the work, wants to please and all sorts of lovely stuff. Yesterday's report had too many buts in it to let me celebrate that.