DD is 6 and in year 1. She is very bright (taught herself to read at 3 blah blah), has the most phenomenal vocabulary and a fantastic imagination but hates writing and refuses to do it. She is doing no work at school on this basis. She gets the top level homework, but getting her to do it is like pulling teeth. She produces very very little written work in the classroom and spends most of the time staring off into space. Her excuse is that she doesn’t like writing, or that the work is too hard. She says she should just be able to tell the teacher the answer.
I also regularly get told by her friends that “oh DD doesn’t ever do any work at school”. (I might mind this particularly today as she didn’t make the Mother’s Day card the rest of the class made because she ‘needed a nap’). She has just started going to Rainbows which she loves, and interestingly participates in all the activities there and comes home buzzing with excitement.
She has been on the SENCo radar at school since she started in the nursery there and has seen the EP on several occasions. They were first involved because of her failure to socialise. This is now starting to improve and she has several friends and there no longer seems to be concern over this. The concern is now her failure to do any work. The EP has said that she is simply very very bright and very very bored and disengaged with the work presented to her and that by the time she gets to Year 2 or 3 she will naturally become more interested as the teachers will be teaching her more things she doesn’t know. The EP says no one is to worry until then, even if her report says everything is ‘emerging’ rather than ‘exceeding’ and that they can teach her everything she needs to know in year 1 in a week if they have to.
I can sort of accept this, but am increasingly worried about the lack of physical writing practice she is getting and whether I should do anything about this. Also we don’t know whether to take a punt on it and hope it works out or whether we should move her to a different kind of school where she could work more to her own interests. There is a Montessori school near us which is lovely and a possibility, but part of us is reluctant to move her now she is settled socially.
She doesn’t seem to mind going to school. At home she is generally lively and funny, definitely quirky and unbelievably stubborn (beyond a normal level of stubbornness). It is difficult to argue with her as she is usually right, and wise in many ways beyond her years. She does come across as socially immature though, though, as I say, improving. She reads and understands books at about a year 5 or 6 level, but as she won’t write it is very difficult for her teacher to give her appropriate extension work.
Has anyone been in a similar situation and come out the other side? Or going through it now? Or have any useful advice on how to deal with the frustration of seeing your child refuse to jump through the hoops and appear to underperform as a result? (perhaps latter most difficult!)