Y5 - adjustments to curriculum - what should I expect?

[GretchenWest]

My eldest DC is in Y5, and it seems that she cannot cope with the demands of the curriculum. It's in all areas, really, but especially in maths.

She's just about managed in previous years, but this year she is struggling more. I don't know at the moment if it's the content, the way this years' teacher teaches, or if she's given up, or if the years of only just coping have caught up with her. Or something else.

I just wondered if anyone could advise what (if any) adjustments it would be reasonable to expect the school / her teacher to make, and if I should just let them get on with it or intervene. She's often upset at home, and is getting increasingly anxious about going to school, although I think she hides this when she is there.

Thanks for any advice x

(Name changed for this)

Is there a pastoral or elsa person she can see about anxiety?

DD has vacillated with regard to wanting to fit in. For many years she just put up and shut up, but in the last 12 months she has become very firm in her opinion that she wants to learn something. I think the proximity of the end of her time at this school is perhaps playing on her mind - she has said that she feels as though she's learned very little at school so far. School mention greater depth a lot, but in maths, for example, they're doing multiplication and division, which she can do, and has been able to do for quite a while. What greater depth is there? The extension challenges are just multiplying and dividing larger numbers, but if you can multiply and divide, it just takes slightly longer. It's not any more complicated. Writing is not so bad for her because she can just write what she wants, and be as 'good' at it as she wants, whereas with more prescriptive subjects, like maths, you can only do the question you are given. Again, I don't want to be accused of 'bragging' but the tests that have been done on her suggest that she is beyond the normal definition of 'good' or 'gifted' at maths, to the extent that it would be a significant statistical anomaly if there were another child of a similar ability in her school.

Coping with the stress of school takes up so much of her energy that she is unable to do after school clubs anymore; she just wants to come home. Similarly all her out of school activities have dropped off one by one because she just doesn't have the emotional reserves to cope with them.

The school could work with a local secondary maths department for extension work. What does the lead teacher for maths advise? What about using the maths in practical situations? I’m not a maths teacher but as a governor I know where our school gets advice from for our very talented mathematicians. The school should be able to tell you what greater depth looks like but I believe it’s not doing more of the same, it’s exploring concepts and using the skills in a different way. Can you ask about this because schools can extend knowledge if they have good enough staff and want to do it!