teacher says able 5.5yr old is not completing work, how to respond?

[brakespeare]

Our amazing dc1 is reportedly not concentrating, easily distracted and not completing his school work. I think he might be bored but I a) do not want to say this to the teacher and b)believe that even if he is bored he should do the work and then day dream/chat, iyswim!

We have a similar problem with the homwork, on that he gets it perfectly right on day one and then has to do the same thing every night for the rest of the week. This is ten spellings and one jolly phonics type book.

I've been getting him other books from the library and he can read a new one each day. He doesn't enjoy writing but loves word play and being read science facts and things, so we do that to keep him engaged with learning as he's seriously unimpressed with the school stuff.
We have no issues with his attention or concentration in other areas-his spare time is spent in deep concentration on creating Lego marvels :)

Any ideas of how to address with him or the teacher gratefully received!

Do we

If he's not behaving in class it's the teacher's problem to resolve not yours.

Just ignore.

Madness but my child is allowed something to fiddle with when she has to concentrate. It's like she can't function unless she's doing at least two things at once. If your child is actually perfectly able to concentrate when interested this may be a solution. It's been the solution for my very bright child and I am so pleased the teacher suggested it.

Maybe request a meeting with the teacher to sit and unpick the problem together. You could constructively ask whether he engages better in more challenging tasks. A shared plan could then be drawn up depending on what is decided to be the more likely cause of the issue.

If he's not behaving in class it's the teacher's problem to resolve not yours. This, of course, is nonsense.

Haven't you ever been bored in a long term situation? Like a boring job? It is hard enough as an adult to keep motivated in a boring job, while being paid. What do you think could be keeping a bored child motivated?

I'd raise the boredom issue with the teacher. Your DS should be being challenged at school to enable him to reach his potential.

Nonsense? If your child wasn't behaving at home do you blame the teacher?

If the teacher isn't engaging the child are you allowed to mention it?

No. If you suggest your child is bored they hate you. If you suggest the work is too easy they hate you.

Parents have no influence at all on what happens in class.

There is nothing the OP can do that the teacher won't take offence at.

'Sit and unpick the problem together' ha ha ha.

Have you ever ever had a teacher who wants to work with parents? Who listens to parents? Who doesn't kick you out after nodding politely for 10 mins?

I'd have two questions for the teacher immediately. What are they doing to help the problem? And can we do anything at home to support that?

And maybe also ask about having more reading books if you want more reading books. Or does he prefer the library books?

I don't really believe in spelling tests so personally speaking I wouldn't be bothered about those being easy. Check them once or twice to be sure and go on to more fun things.

If your child wasn't behaving at home do you blame the teacher? If my child was difficult at home I would indeed question whether they were supressing anxiety, getting overloaded/ overwhelmed or had a problem that wasn't being addressed at school and releasing the tension at home. I would not blame the teacher, no. I would talk to them.

I think you have had an unfortunate experience of teachers Naïve.

My DS2 is similar to your child and the teachers did work with us so ignore the negative IMO goady comments naive maverick.
The teachers told us about not completing /lack of concentration etc from my bored not challenged child.

I do a reward chart at home for 'trying' as its effort that's an issue not attainment. And the teacher sets him challenges to do after the essential school work which are great fun and stretch him. They let me know if he did them. Sometimes might just give him the challenge to do. And teacher reports back to me if there's been an issue that day but always updates me weekly.

There's ways and means so I would get a mtg with the teacher and get an action plan devised and do revise it regularly. My child is much more proactive at the moment....

Thank you for your thoughtful replies!

We're going to ask to meet the teacher. The impression she gave DH was that telling him off a bit would do the trick. My opinion is that he responds way better to praise (surprise!!) So I like the reward chart idea, for trying. It's now emerged that he's had some of his Friday play time removed today, for speaking loudly in class, so I really want to address this now as he's not been entirely keen on school to begin with.

I'm not quite sure how to say he gets like this when he's under stimulated, which now I think about it, is what happened at nursery the one time they had an issue with him being not-the-usual-good-boy.

I think the issue is that they are all different and schools have standard systems. I had a few issues with dd playing up at the start of y1. It definitely was the case that she needed a good telling off and the emphasis on praise at school was too far the other way.

And surely parents need to support teachers. Yes the teacher is responsible for dd while she's at school but dd understanding my expectations for her helps to back that up.

Why does he have to do the same homework everyday?

I could have written your post. We had the same conversation with our teacher on Thursday. I think it's the time of year when teachers are starting to feel the pressure. Couple this with a ridiculously demanding curriculum and you get stressed teachers, stressed kids and stressed parents. We have parents' evening coming up. I will ask teacher if she thinks dd should see the Senco. If she says no, I will suggest that we let her develop in her own time.

We take everything teachers say with a pinch of salt! (Dh is a teacher!)