Broaching the "work is too easy" question

[redskybynight]

DD is in Year 4. Her school has totally reorganised the way they teach this year - ostensibly to cater for the new curriculum. This means that (amongst other things) they now have maths taught in classes (rather than sets) and have a whole class reading session (rather than guided reading in ability based groups).

DD is a stereotypical MN child and is at the upper end of the ability range for her age, without being a genius (low Level 4s at end of Y3). Initially she quite liked the change in teaching methods but she is now complaining that it is all far too easy and she is getting bored. Parents' evening is coming up so it seemed a good time to broach the subject but was looking at ways to do this in a constructive way without the teacher getting defensive.

Examples of DD finding work too easy are:

• in maths they are given different levels of problems and can choose the level to work at. DD completes Level 5 (the hardest). She then has lots of time left so she also completes Level 4 and sometimes Level 3, as otherwise she would have nothing to do.

• they read a passage together in class and then have to answer questions on it. DD says that the questions are all very easy, and she does them quickly. She then tries to think of harder questions to amuse herself.

The spiel from the school about moving to more mixed ability teaching stresses that children who are able to do the work easily will be challenged with "rich content" rather than moving onto other topics. I am (I think) happy with this as an approach but it is clearly not happening. I've let it go so far because I realised that it would take a while for the new teaching practises to bed in and the teacher to get to know her new class etc, but I do think a strategy to engage DD (and other higher ability children) needs to be developed for the rest of the year.

Any suggestions as to how to best make my points without seeming accusatory? Would also be interested to know how schools are meant to measure progress in the new system - presumably the school still needs to show that DC are making progress, and not sure how they can do this if everyone is taught at the same pace.

If your DD was only assessed as a low level 4 at the end of year 3, then I guess the teacher assumed that giving level 5 questions would be a good extension. If she is getting them all right easily it sounds like the teacher has done a very good job of raising your DDs maths level very quickly. Assuming her work is being marked then the teacher will soon realise that she is 'time filling' with the level 3&4 questions if they are done after the L5 questions and start stretching her further. Equally if she is making silly mistakes in the L3/4 questions because they are 'too easy' it is good practice to have to keep doing them.
With the English is she writing down her questions/answers?

Sorry for confustion - the "Level 1/2/3/4/5 questions" she is given in class don't correlate to the old NC levels (which the school is not using any more) - they just indicate levels of difficulty! With the questions I've seen, I don't think even the hardest level questions are even at NC Level 4 difficulty.

As an example, her homework this week was a number of questions where she had to add a 3 digit number to another 3 digit number. DD has been able to do this for some time, but to "extend" the work she was asked to do each question using 3 methods: number line, partitioning and vertical column method. DD did not find this any harder, just longer, and complained that she had to do each question 3 ways!

How about asking the teacher if your DD is completing work ok as she's saying it is easy. Say you are concerned she may be missing something. (But of a fib?!) Perhaps look at a piece if work with the teacher?
When the teacher says the work is completed really well you say "why could she be saying it is too easy then?" . Teacher then has to admit it is too easy and do something about it!!

In that case, I would check her books before I went in to be sure your DD's account is accurate and that the work is marked and she is getting everything correct and then be honest with the teacher. Say she has been complaining that she has been finding the work easy and filling in her time by doing the easier questions and rather than finding it motivational that she is getting everything right easily she is actually not enjoying it.

Asking to do a task by several means may be annoying but it is to see if a child understands the several ways to do it. It may be repetitive but necessary.

If the teacher marks the work correctly he/she should find out fast that your DD can work at a higher level. Can you ask to see the work marked? Do you have a parent evening coming up soon?

You could ask what extension tasks are available for early finishers. She shouldn't be expected to do easier work because she completes the hardest stuff. There should be more open ended challenges building on the skills used or transferring them to another area.

In reading is there an extension challenge of thinking of their own questions or is she just choosing to do this as she is bored? This is a good way to show understanding of the text and for children to practise good questioning skills (which should have been taught beforehand).

I think the problem is there is no extension challenges available - and I think there should be. In reading, thinking of her own questions is something DD chooses to do herself because she is bored. Equally in writing, she develops whatever she is asked to do in ways that are not asked, because she finds the task set too simple. I think it's great that she is finding ways to extend the work herself - but she is only 8, and I don't think it should be up to her to think of how she can amuse herself for any time she has left - she should get more direction from her teacher - and the work should be a genuine extension, not just a "think of something to keep her busy", which my example maths question very definitely was!.

redsky:

This is going to be tricky - the school are clearly making all sorts of changes and working hard to adjust to the new curriculum - but it is a battle worth fighting - not just for your DC but any current/ future DCs of higher ability who also are entitled to be challenged/ stretched.

First issue is what does the school see as their ceiling in achievement: NC L4/ NC L5/ NC L6 - yes, yes NC Levels are disappearing - but this is a real 'culture' issue. St. Mediocre were adamant that NC L4 was a 'good' achievement and NC L5 was very hard to achieve and unusual. Despite national statistics demonstrating 50% of pupils in England achieve NC L5 in English and nearly 50% achieve NC L5 in maths.

Second issue - is to assure them this does't mean 'work' for them. If a child finishes - let them play maths games on the computer - as a reward for their high achievement. If everyone knows they get 'game time' for doing well - maybe everybody will work that bit harder.

Have they considered NRICH maths puzzles? nrich.maths.org/primary-upper - these could be the MEGA CHALLENGE for those that are finishing work - and bright children can work together at the side trying to solve them. Cambridge University have set out all sorts of maths concepts puzzles to challenge and extend mathematical thinking - so the teacher need only identify the suitable topic corresponding to that unit/ lesson.

Finally - I think that in general schools need to be challenged to have a working policy to deal with truly gifted & talented mathematicians/ English students. Moving them up to a higher school year/ letting them access NC L6 materials via on-line maths tutorials (My Maths/ mathletics/), etc...

I think this will be tricky - but their are options which won't involve the school in a lot of effort, but do require a bit of serious thought about how to support more able pupils adequately.

Schools are required to support & challenge more able pupils - and too many chose to ignore this (sometimes because they have other battles to fight - significant proportion of pupils performing below expected standard for example) & because a relatively neglected able pupil is no threat to their Parent View Performance Statistics.

You could be writing about my DDs' school. I think you will be banging your head against a brick wall. Differentiation for more able students seems to always work better in theory than practise.

I think you need to have a clear idea about your plans for your DD. If its some sort of selective schooling then I would start lining up a tutor for the start of year 5. Possibly now, if it is a super selective grammar school. My very intelligent and savvy neighbour has decided to do nothing with her capable DD. Her thinking is that they don't have the money private school, and don't want the local super selective grammar for social reasons so there is no point in making sure her DD is pushed forward academically as it will only lead to more frustration and boredom as time goes on.

I think the trick is to start of by being positive about what you do like about the system, and then add the 'but...' eg "I like the idea that they will get more rich content when they have finished the basic work, it seems like a very positive way of approaching working as a class... but from what DD's been telling me it doesn't sound like it's quite working out yet? She was telling me that she's had to fill in time doing easier questions after the ones she chose at level 5. What's the plan for making sure there is plenty of more challenging work available?"

Smile and look interested... wait to see what the teacher suggests...

If you don't feel you're getting through, then you can get a bit more specific and sharper, but most teachers do want the higher achievers to have something suitable to do so it sometimes just takes a nudge to make them realise they haven't put the bar high enough yet.

I do sympathise with your daughter - I spent a lot of maths classes waiting for others to catch up, and finding ways to keep myself occupied,but that's more practice in 'being a nice quiet little girl' than academic achievement

The annoying thing is that I don't think I want anything the school can't give me - I have an older DC and some of the things I would expect DD to be exposed to are opportunities he routinely had. Very frustrated that the school seems to be using "new curriculum" as an excuse not to bother.

Example of things school used to do - nRich materials referred to by PSBD routinely used with most able mathematicians in lessons and for homework.

• extension lessons in reading/writing for group of most able students.

I don't misagree with the mixed ability teaching approach in principle, but it does need to cater for everyone, not just the "average" child.

AMuminScotland - thank you, that sounds like a good approach. I do need to make sure I don't go in ready to moan. On positive days I even think the teacher will be telling me how well DD is doing and what they will be doing after half term to keep her interested.

The school is very bog standard juniors, it has diverse intake and they hit pretty much national average for KS2 results (so did have a spread of Level5 and Level 6 in old money). No grammars here, so she will go to bog standard comp (which does have a good reputation for bringing the best out of every student and doing well in progress measures).

it could be that this teacher isn't very experienced with children at the top end of the scale, it is that classic thing if they don't assess them high enough then they never know what they can actually do. we have had similar at school but my children are younger. a definite approach of 'oh this is the extension work' in Yr1 when my child could do it when they started school.

I'd be really interested to hear how you get on! I'm having similar problems with my DD in Y3.