Yr 6 teacher pushing child too hard-advice please.

[Green18]

Hi, my youngest DS is in yr 6 and up until now has had no issues at school. She does well in most subjects (already a 4a and 5c in Maths and Literacy tests respectively) The problem is that her new Maths teacher is pushing her with the higher level work in class. DS is finding it hard but coping. But if she doesn't complete "enough" or makes ANY errors, she has to come back at lunchtime and do it. This has been happening on at least 3 days a week. DS works hard during the lesson, does not chat and so it feels like she is doing her best. I feel uncomfortable with her missing her recreation time and she is miserable, her confidence in Maths has dropped because she is panicking about staying in at lunch time. If she was misbehaving in class and wasting her time then I would support the teacher's actions but it seems she is giving her all. Help!

That sounds like level 6 work. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing mixed numbers is something I would expect even quite bright Y8 students to find a bit tricky.

If it was over a few weeks, then I don't think that's much, to be honest. She should have already covered some of that in Year 5 and just needed revision (i.e. fractions of amounts, improper fractions/mixed numbers, converting fractions to decimals and percentages, finding equivalent fractions). We spent about a week on fractions and my lower half revised finding equivalent fractions, then we looked at adding and subtracting with like denominators, adding and subtracting with unlike denominators. Towards the end, I introduced multiplying and dividing by an integer (4/5 x 8, for example), which they don't really need, yet. We did 'finding fractions of amounts' and 'converting fractions to decimals and percentages' as starter revision activities. They are still on quite simple ones in that case.
My higher ones did all of that as a quick revision, then looked at converting more complex fractions, improper fractions and mixed numbers to decimals and percentages, as well as solving fraction problems. We then revised adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators and looked at multiplying and dividing fractions (i.e. 2/5 times 7/9... or 5/7 divided by 4/5). The last few bits are beginning to move into Level 6 and I generally wouldn't ask mine to do this on their own, yet. I've got a few, who can do this without batting an eyelid, but certainly not all of them.

Thanks, as i suspected. All of the work has involved mixed numbers with different denominators, it's a lot to remember when you have only just learnt it. I think in yr 5 she learnt how to find fractions of amounts and converting simple fractions to decimal and percentage(1/2, 1/3, 1/10) so this is all new really. It confirms what my eldest said, she is on yr 9 and has an end of yr target of level 8 and said this was new to her in yr 7 and 8. It seems like a big push for SATS then yr 7 feels easier. Does that sound accurate?

The new maths curriculum has:
use common factors to simplify fractions; use common multiples to express fractions in the same denomination

compare and order fractions, including fractions >1

add and subtract fractions with different denominators and mixed numbers, using the concept of equivalent fractions

multiply simple pairs of proper fractions, writing the answer in its simplest form

divide proper fractions by whole numbers

which is more than in the previous curriculum ( although yr 6 should still be taught the old curriculum, many schools have introduced the new as it is more advanced!) so was previously taught in year 7/8 but is now year 6 material.

Thankyou all very much x

Ok so I went to parent's eve and was told DD is making good progress in all subjects, no issues other than could be more confident in her own abilities in maths. The mtg was with form teacher not maths teacher but she had this info from maths teacher. I explained how DD felt and teacher seemed surprised at what was still going on, said she would find out so we wait to hear...