Bored bright reception child

[Rox19]

My child is Autumn born and was quite far ahead by the time they started school. Her pre school teacher wrote in her report that she had completed eyfs maths and was ready to count to 100, number bonds to 20. She knew phase 1 and 2 phonics too.

Well school v laid back and she didn't get a reading book until 2nd term. After first pink been moved to red stage 3.

None of this would be an issue.. Except she has been saying she is bored since Dec and now every day. Almost at the stage of refusing to go.

Has loads of friends, v popular. Excellent behaviour.

Teacher not interested, fobbs us off really. Said she is top group for number work, no other differentiation. Arranged to call me next week, but she told me face to face today there is no problem.

Anyone had similar or have any advice?

As so much of Reception is free play, there should be no need for a bright child to get bored. I'm wondering if she needs more direction?

For example, when in Reception my DD and some of her friends

• wrote out a play and then acted it out (writing and reading)

- played shops and banks including use of money (maths)

• did lots of role playing (speaking, vocabulary)
• worked out how to "share" objects around a group of other children of varying numbers (maths)
• build a structure using bricks and then investigated what weights it could hold and how they could make it bigger (science)

This all came out of them starting on an activity and the teacher/TA suggesting ways it could be extended.

Well, that's terrible.
The teacher should be differentiating work for your dd.
My Ds is also an autumn born and since going into year 1 he know goes into year 2 for maths work and is top group for phonics.
I would be making an appt with the Ht as the Ct has been so unhelpful.

I was thinking pretty much what redsky has said. Can you try to elicit what it is that is boring her? ds uses the b word when he cant get his own way and in reception just wanted to play with the construction bricks all the time, which obviously wasn't possible. The rest of the time he was 'bored' apparently.

Our DS was the same when he left preschool. He is now on Orange bookband, reading fluently, and doing maths with Yr1.He loves school and is full of questions. I would talk to the school.

Sorry, Autumn born, just finished term 1 of reception.

I would be worried about a child bored with playing.

Children often say they are bored when they actuall mean something else- could you dig a little deeper? And if the teacher fobs you off, ask for q meeting with the Head.

MIne had similar met most of her reception targets by the end of pre-school, however I was delighted taht meant she could learn through play at reception and she learnt so much. I certainly wouldnt be pushing for harder" work" and just looking at book levels/maths targets. Mine learnt about van gogh through painting some pictures (knew he lost an ear, etc) and about melting ice through a frozen topic with a penguin in an ice cube.... lots of story writing...

Really a bright child should be having a whale of a time through learning through play as they have so many options of things they can do - can't she create a world out of lego? See what happens in the sand and water tray etc?

What Hak says! Does she play ok at home? Is she not hearing/seeing/listening and missing cues for changes of activity perhaps?

Yes she plays fine at home.

Very bright and inquisitive, was told by various professionals she should be on g&t list when started school but apparently it has been scrapped.

At school seems to colour all the time )this is what she says) and not much else.

This is so depressing as the pre school we especially sought out as it had an actual teacher who turned out to be amazing and dd was so happy there for 5.5 terms.. Never ever said she was bored or didn't want to go. I thought it would get easier at school! It's not like she is at the end of the primary curriculum or they don't have learning resources there.

Teacher has said to other parents behaviour wise that this is the hardest class to manage for over 10yrs.

Does she struggle to play without adult input at home?

Maths and phonics work with an adult in Reception will be quite short, maybe 20 minutes of each, so even if she finds that boring I'd wonder why she isn't enjoying the rest of the day.

My DD is bright and breezes through phonics and maths. She can easily do what they are doing in reception now. She says she is bored. She isn't, she just doesn't like sitting still at carpet time. She wants to make and build or just play outside all the time

Can you ask the teacher to look at her learning journal and see what kind of things she has been working on? Also how does she get on socially? Are there areas she does need to work on? Can she tell you things she does like doing at school?

My DS (Christmas birthday) finished nursery at the end of August having meet all the EYFS targets for maths. His teacher quickly picked up that he could work with numbers up to 100 etc and gave him year 1 targets which he's working well through. Luckily his reading and writing isn't as advanced so he has plenty to work on there and socially he needs to mature more.

The teacher should be making sure she has tasks that are challenging for her to do.

Reception for those who any like colouring can be trying, I found

Rox i have the same issue with ds he comes home saying he is bored and the work he gets to do is too easy. He is not fussed about the arts and crafts they do in class but loves science and technology but finds it limited in reception. The teacher would not entertain me mentioning it and just said he is fine. His behaviour starts to slide when he is bored and not being stimulated and there is a risk he will start acting up. Other parents had told me his teacher is not keen on letting kids get ahead of the class but other teachers are happy to allow kids to do harder stuff if they are able so i am keeping my fingers crossed and counting down the months till he finishes this year and moves up to P2.

My dd struggled in reception and began refusing to go. She enjoyed the formal phonics and numeracy in the morning, but the 'play' in the afternoon was more difficult. She only liked a few of the play options available and found the 'choosing' process stressful. After some discussion, the teacher provided her a box of different work sheets she could go to and work on, if she didn't like any of the available play options. She is now in yr1 which is much more structured with greater differentiation and is noticeably a lot happier.

Agree you need to find out what sort of ' bored ' is going on. Is she unable to occupy herself at home? Bored meaning I'm not getting my own way I think is common as per the child who wanted to spend all day with Lego.
I wonder if this is the same sort of bored that I see on the " my child has to have an iPad they won't play with toys" suggesting they haven't learned to play and watching and fairly passively interacting with the iPad is the less stressful option for all concerned.

My dd is pretty bright and like a lot of bright children, is self-motivating. And she is summer born too. She started reception able to read chapter books (they moved her straight onto white for a term but then took her off the reading scheme entirely), could do simple maths (including multiplication and division), was writing well, knew lots and lots of information about the world. I might be slightly different to you as I deliberately picked the only local school that doesn't have mixed age groups as I wanted her to enjoy the brilliance that is the Reception year and not focus on formal learning. Everything she knew, she had picked up outside of formal learning tbh. And she thrived. That freedom to choose was perfect for her. She used to write letters to imaginary overlords (and the terrifying replies), set up experiments, wrote plays and acted them out with friends, invented ridiculously involved games with other children, composed songs and on and on and on and on. She doesn't get bored because she's bright. Once she was in Y1, they started to differentiate for more formal lessons and at 7yrs old, she's pretty much working to a Y6 level. Her best, most imaginative and most impressive stuff still comes from her and her alone.

I don't really know what I'm saying. Maybe that at such a young age, formal learning shouldn't be the only thing preventing boredom. I'm not sure how you teach a child independence but it's one of the most valuable skills they will develop; the ability to stretch and entertain themselves. Because the teacher might be able to provide some formal work a couple of times a day, but the real learning at this age and the real lessons lie in learning how to navigate that world and enjoy it without it all having to be adult-directed.

And there is always the distinct possibility that if the behaviour is excellent and the teacher is seeing no problems, your child's misrepresenting the reality of the classroom. My friend's dd came home every day saying she had no friends and nobody played with her. Behaviour was exemplary, work was fine but she was adamant nobody liked her. The teacher said this was simply not true. Child started to say she didn't want to go to school. In the end my friend went and peered through the hedge every day for a week. And saw her child happily playing with lots of children and having a brilliant time. Turned out she just preferred being at home and was trying it on. They aren't always good at representing the truth at that age. Not saying they 'lie' because actually it's not that simple. They tend to use the words they have to describe the thing they're feeling and we interpret it and somewhere along the way what's actually happening is missed iyswim.

I'd go along and speak to the teacher in a proper meeting and see if you can establish exactly what is happening, whether your child needs more input (surely she does, whatever form that input takes as she is expressing a negative opinion of school) and see if you can work with the school. Keep an open mind though. It might not be as simple as she needs harder 'work'. She might just be settling into a new environment whose rules and patterns are sometimes quite boring.

You knew she was very developed before she started school.

I'm wondering whether you were concerned she would be bored, shared your concerns with family and friends and she picked up on your concerns and is now merely repeating what she heard.

A reception child should not be bored, unless the classes are unimaginative, in which case all the children would be bored.

OP that profile sounds exactly like my DD, except she has never said she's bored. In fact quite the opposite. She loves school and witters on to the teachers about Greek mythology and for the most part they humour her.

She is often allowed to extend the lesson with her own knowledge if appropriate and doesn't take too much time away from the others demonstrating their knowledge too (It IS a class of 30).

I just cannot imagine, however advanced you might be, how anyone could find the Reception Year boring unless there is a difficulty with imagination and role play (or a tendency towards rigidity and literal thinking) because quite honestly the world is your oyster in that year group.

My daughter sometimes had trouble with relationships due to the other children not being on her wavelength yet, but you say your daughter is popular, so I can't see that being boring.

'was told by various professionals she should be on g&t list '

Why? What is a 'list' going to do? Genuine question.

Surely she can just finish work quicker and play?

My ds1 is also in reception. We have daily timetable. It's basically 10min learning, followed by 20mins playing. Then 10min learning, 20mins playing. Plus outdoor play every 2 hrs. He basically spends the majority of the day playing with various building stuff, or with torches/ scales/ drums/ paint etc depending on 'lesson'.

He can read well, no idea what level as they don't do levels in his school, but say the Julia Donaldson book type he reads fine. He is learning, but takes things in quick. Therefore I think it's great he gets so much of his school day to socialise and play. He's 4, so that's what they are supposed to do.

10 minutes learning/20 minutes playing sounds like a bizarre way to run a reception class.

Art, thats how our reception do it too, or something very similar. Seems to work very well.

Why BMO? Sounds good to me. What would you suggest would be better?