Y1- I hate school

[Robindrama]

Why do you hate school? It's boring.
Now in Year 1, ds.
Achieved reception expectations, feedback: bright and able. Started school as a confident boy, enthusiastic. No social problems.
First signs of being bored end of reception.
Oct parents evening no issues raised by the teachers.
March parents evening, written report:

• attitude issues: does not want to follow instructions- he says he knows it
• has not gasped that school is about following instructons/ completing tasks
• a risk of not achieving y1 expectations
• attitude to learning poor so outcome does not reflect potential.

End of year prediction:

• reading : exceeds y1 ( he is a boy with lots of interests and reads a lot at home)
• spelling: will not meet expectations
• maths: will achieve, great mental maths but does not follow instructions
• phonics- unlikely to pass.

How worried would you be? He constantly asks us lots of different questions, his general knowledge is amazing ( teachers confirmed that) but school? Big no.

I should add, I didn't turn out to be a car thief or some other horrible fate either. Went on to get three degrees, nice career, etc..

On a longer view, I found all of school especially hard but my upper was shockingly bad (think special measures/bottom of league tables) so it's a different context. It's actually a miracle I went to uni, and once there, after a rocky first year of unlearning the boredom/disengagement, I flourished.

Anyway, point being, perhaps your son is really super smart and/or finds different ways of learning much more accessible to him? I've seen little bits about Montessori schools that sound like they may be the kind of thing where he might flourish better?

All previous caveats still stand. [shuffles quietly back out of the thread]

"I don't think anyone was making excuses for the lower than expected phonics test results for some children but were having a conversation as to how it might happen"
It's the classic excuse ...absolute nonsense of course unless you are naive enough to believe six year olds have a receptive vocabulary that includes every word in the English language.

Can you talk to him about how to communicate with his teacher when he finds something too easy? My daughter's 6 and pretty average across the board by the way, not super bright like your son, but in other situations we talk about how she can communicate with her teacher (and in life in general), we use role play for instance, and it's really helped her.

If he can communicate to the teacher that he has done the task set and found it easy then surely they could then give him something else to work on? Hopefully something he find more challenging and therefore interesting to him? If he just refuses to do a task that's been set then he'll most likely get told off, as it'll be viewed in the same light as a child who is misbehaving / being rude I would have thought.

What exactly is it the teacher thinks he won't achieve in year 1 phonics, is it the screening test for real and nonsense words? My daughter is finding the work they've started doing on this confusing, she can identify the nonsense words as being unfamiliar to her but then starts questioning whether it actually is a real word in another language, or just a new English word that she hasn't leant yet, then she'll debate it for hours 😐

"My daughter is finding the work they've started doing on this confusing" why do they need to do work on it? Surely they can teach children to decode any word they meet. It's that simple!

If it is so black and white it seems incredible that some children still struggle to read! No 100% of children reading to the required standard and there never will be and it won't matter what method is used. It's not that simple. If it was it would have been done for the last few centuries.

Many schools are achieving 100% reaching the expected standard (some in very deprived areas) so no need for excuses there.

"It's not that simple. If it was it would have been done for the last few centuries." Since we were discussing a child being confused by the pseudo words in the phonics check your comment isn't relevant in the slightest.
To pass the check a child needs to be taught to read words accurately. They don't need to be taught to read pseudo words because they can and do apply the same effective strategy to read any word they encounter. They don't assume they know every word in the English language so they actually read what is there. The children who change words to familiar ones are the children who also misread words in text for the ones they know (guessing not reading) the silver moon rather than the sliver of moon ...yes it is that simple!

Sally the pseudo words are meant to be types of imaginary creatures.

gerenuk
mara
dugong
fossa
colugo
tenrec

Incidentally the above are real creatures would she have the same issues?

I know that this is coming from my dc's experience but I would revisit the behavioural issue in the class. Yes maybe most MN children can ignore low level and not so low level disruption but one of mine was in a class with similar b/g ratios and lots of disruption. Moving to a class in a different school has transformed her learning experience. It wasn't the only reason to move but two years on she is still finding gaps in areas which should have been covered (only minor ones now).

I would ask your child who he finds are the disruptive children (plus him possibly if he is feeling the need to compete in that arena). We had a list of ten. Assess whether the school is planning to do anything. Do they mix up classes - assuming that there are other classes and the other classes are better. Consider whether their behavioural management plans seem effective. What is your impression of the class at class parties etc? Does the teacher seem as if they have control of the class. I think some classes are a challenge to manage and I think that a teacher might be able to control 95% of classes, but that isn't much help if your child is in the 5% of disruptive classes. Generally yr1 teachers are lovely but not always as naturally strict as junior ones. Unfortunately by the time the class reached junior school in our experience the behaviour was already deeply ingrained.

I know that children should 'learn to manage their distractions' but not every child is destined to work in an open plan office with a bunch of lads who want to just have a laugh at work. I can't see my dd in that sort of environment at all. Finding a calmer class has transformed her experience of school.

fossa

Completely tangentially, is that pronounced as they do in the film Madagascar, I'd spell what they say as foosa, or is the normal local pronounciation what I would have done reading it rhymying it with bossa?

Mrz, we haven't really had the phonics screening check explained to us yet, we were told it would be happening in June when dd started in year 1, I'm sure we'll get more details when they go back to school after Easter.

This confusion from my dd came about the other day when we sat down to do some of her Easter holiday homework - one task was to spot which words were real and which were nonsense words out of the 20 on a sheet of paper, some were easy for her like donkey, girl and lake, but others she would sit and debate, like "zea" she was saying that's how they would say "sea" in Italy so I think it's a real word! Then with "briem" she said oh that is a fish Grandma likes to eat so it must be real! I explained it is meant to be just the words she already knows / has come across that are real, and in English only! 😳

sallyssecret that is just terrible homework I think.

Also OP have you tried phonics flash cards? We've just got some for dd because she's still getting certain sounds wrong, like the other day with "treat" she is not remembering the sound that ea makes in a word, and saying "tre-at" instead, we're going to be doing lots of work at home in the run up to the screening check.

For her phonics has been a great way to learn to read and spell, I wish we'd had phonics when I was at school because it's so engaging and fun for them in Reception with the songs etc, and you can get so many different work books and tools like the flash cards to help with doing work at home. I honestly can't remember how I learnt to read 30 years ago but I think phonics is a great method. Saying that, if your ds is a free reader and has taught himself to read his own way at home I can see how he's not doing so well with phonics, it must be confusing if his brain is automatically doing one thing at home and then trying to learn a different way that doesn't come naturally at school, I would definitely have a meeting with his teacher to try and come up with a plan to help with your concerns. I do feel for the teachers trying to work with 30 children at once, teaching at the same time as disciplining and crowd control when needed, but also trying to help each child with their learning individually, not to mention their emotions, personal and social development!

Sally I despair of teachers sending home this type of homework. It's totally unnecessary.

The phonics screening check consists of 40 words (20 real words and 20 pseudo) the child is asked to decode the words 1-1 with a familiar teacher (it can't be administered by a TA). A good reader can complete it in under 2 minutes.

The real words won't necessarily be words she knows they try to avoid everyday vocabulary.

Haven't rtft but you may do well thinking of home educating?
Post up on the home ed board for some advice and look at sites such as 'education otherwise' or home education UK.
Sounds as if he's be better going at his own pace, and not held back by the 'system'.
Good luck

When I asked ds why he does not do what he is supposed to do he gave me an example: they had to write even numbers in maths, starting from 2. Some kids went over 300. My ds stopped at 20 and said there was no point for writing more as it is the same pattern.

I think he sounds brilliant, OP. He has already worked out that some things we have to do are absolute bullshit. It will now be a case of learning the very nuanced skill of when we speak up about it and when we should just plough through.

I'd also ask the teachers whether they commonly do tasks like writing down lists of numbers as I can't see that is a particularly engaging or effective way of teaching odd and even numbers.

There was a worry that the deeper thinking children didn't see why a made-up word would even be on the page, it was illogical, "*
It's a great excuse isn't it.^

Or maybe, you know, kids don't all think and learn the same way, and education shouldn't be one size fits all?

Of course children are different but our written language isn't.
Kids don't make the excuse that it's illogical. They don't claim they know every word in the English language because at age six they are very aware that they meet new words all the time ...adults (teachers/schools) make the excuse to explain why children they believed were good readers haven't got an effective strategy for reading unfamiliar words.

I remember getting very cross with the phonics screening then pulled my head out of my arse and realised I was being silly. But this was because of how ds was being taught in the lead up. I then relaxed. He passed fine.

OP, my ds is a bit like yours and found Year 1 "boring". He'd also do cheeky things with his classwork like yours did with writing 2s.

He missed play based reception.

We then switched schools after moving house and he found things hard again because he was switching off and missing things.

My dd is very bright but his brain is a bit like mine - I'm quite intelligent (high Mensa etc) but my concentration levels are terrible. Ss is the same. He reads like me - his visual memory is scary and he can remember words as a whole. So phonics for him was a bit more challenging. Even now he's in year 2 and there's a big gap between his reading (very good) and spellling (poor). His teacher claims this is fine. I however am worried about dyslexia and keeping an eye on things.

He much prefers learning about the real world (science and history are his favourite) or hands on activities. He doesn't like sitting down and writing.

At home we've upped the reading again and slipping in the odd maths questions because I'm not convinced he has the basics yet. Again teacher says it's fine but I don't agree.

As a parent I was told year after year not to worry because my son was a great reader (how I wish the Phonics Screening Check had been around). I was right to be concerned just as you are right to be concerned. Don't accept their platitudes they should be acknowledging the problem and providing support to address it.

Believe, great memory + strong phonics + use of dictionary(electronic one in my ds' case) = nothing to fear, ime. So, I would make sure he get phonics, if I was in your position.

For maths I'd recommend things like nrich and wildmaths.
My ds is a very advanced reader, but we still do daily reading aloud, along with some online comprehension work.

Mrz - thanks for the advice, will have a look online for some actual screening check examples we can work on at home!

I do think at age 5-6 in year 1 they are still so little and need guidance and almost coaching in my daughter's case on how to approach some situations. They are changing and growing constantly and they all mature at vastly different rates with things like behaviour and coping with various things at school (and life in general!). You never know op, working with the teacher or at least discussing your concerns with them could really help, I'd be inclined to give that a go first on the offchance things could really turn around for your ds. Maybe yes ultimately he would prefer a different school, but they're still so young and it's just the beginning of their school lives, leaving one school you've started the year before and settling in at a new one is a big thing for any child. It could also potentially teach them you can just - switch (not give up but I can't think of the right word, sorry) rather than try and solve a problem first? If it was my dd I'd work with the teacher and with her to try and improve the situation over the summer term, if it's no better after that then yes maybe looking at a different school is the right way forward if he's really unhappy.

My advice would be to work on reading and forget the check it takes care of itself