Child ahead in maths at school

[ilovewinterpansies]

My son (year 3) is distinctly average at everything at school apart from maths.

He's very good at maths and has always been top of the class. Sorry this is not a brag, bear with me.

My problem is he's bored as he finishes his maths quickly and has to wait for the rest of the class (30 kids, local state school).

I'm very happy with the school but his year 3 teacher doesn't give him extra tasks/harder work. He's just left to help others. I appreciate she's spread very thin but I worry that she's not making the most of my son's ability.

Any tips on how I can nurture this love and ability of maths? Extra classes/tuition (it won't be a chore for him, he loves it!) or maths club etc? I do bits at home when I can but it's hard as my DH and I work full time and have two younger kids too.

I live in SW London in case it helps to know where we are (for suggestions).

Thanks 😊

JustRichmal
They don't analyse the difficult texts, just get exposed to them by reading them and then try to tell us at secondary their child has "done" the book. What they actually mean is 'we've raced our child onto books beyond their social and emotional ability because that way we can say they've read the classics'. It's an unintended consequence of always wanting a child to be on the next reading band/colour, the next year group's texts and so on. There comes a point where just because a child can decode words doesn't mean racing ahead is appropriate stretch and challenge.

In maths there's a difference between being able to reproduce a method and developing mathematical understanding. One of my friends teaches maths and says onof her colleague's classes get amazing test results, but anyone who picks up children after this colleague realises they're great at mimicking method to tick the boxes but haven't got the application or understanding.
Before taking the approach of acceleration it needs to be established whether the child is completing all work accurately and that they have an understanding beyond mimickry of method. Going for breadth is entirely valid in terms of developing broad understanding and application (but should be more than sudoku puzzles).

There's a place for acceleration, but too often people seek it as a first approach rather than consider all the options.

@LolaSmiles

Glad to read your comments (especially from an English teacher - as English is not something I feel confident to comment on!). As an aside admittedly I've never read the book and only seen the film but the boy in the striped PJs actually drove me mad - the entire plot was farcical.
I'm surprised anyone would think a child had "done" a book - I'm sure they've read it but how could they possibly have covered every possible aspect of the novel, leaving nothing more to talk or think about?

I also massively agree about acceleration from a non subject specialist which is something my son's school have said they will do (he's doing Y5-6 work in Y3 and they say they'll just ask for advice from secondary schools from now on). I'm not sure what I should ask them to do instead as the teacher (who is absolutely wonderful and has helped my son enormously in many areas so definitely not a criticism of her in general) has said maths isn't her favoured subject. I've also noticed that while conceptually my son is very far ahead - he's somehow taught himself algebra, fractions (dividing, adding mixed fractions etc), probability (he can answer GCSE questions god knows how) etc firstly he does everything in his own weird method and doesn't lay it out normally (e.g. he does long multiplication in his head and doesn't know the standard way of laying it out) he also doesn't always have the fluency to go with the concepts especially as he's doing it all mentally. So he'll use the correct method but sometimes make little slips because he's tried to do 47*63 in is head. His writing is also awful so it's difficult to make out his working when he does write it down.

IceCreamFace
For people who are big on "my child is so much more advanced than everyone else and therefore nothing other than acceleration bragging rights is worth considering" we get the "but they have already done it" quite a lot.
E.g. they already did grammar in y6 so you aren't stretching my child. (Me - I teach grammar to 6th form and it was part of my degree do I doubt your child has "done" grammar)
Eg. I want my child to do a different text because they "did" a Christmas carol when they were 7 (me - oh really, so what's their understanding of Dickens' personal life, political idead the era and the influence of the Christianity on Dickens' view of wealth and poverty? ... Oh... So they haven't "done" the text. )

I think your approach and your school's approach is good. It sounds like they're balancing acceleration in some areas and getting specialist input from secondary staff in others. Most core departments at secondary will have a KS3 coordinator who'd be able to talk to primary colleagues and advise. It'll be really important for him to get used to showing working as he moves onto more difficult maths, and also because there's marks for method. The other thing is that showing working out or planning (depending on subject) allows the teacher to see if there are any misconceptions and support if need be.

Definitely entertain and nurture this interest. My son was a little maths geek from a similar age and is now studying maths at uni. You are doing the right things. Good luck!

Wow, what a coll thread! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/3769295-child-ahead-in-maths-at-school

I teach Year 4 and follow the Mastery approach. My fast finishers are challenged in a number of ways but the key is always to try and foster fluency and flexibility in their understanding. I use something called 'variation theory' to do this - everyone is exposed to the lesson and base task and then I will have ready a varied selection of work for children to challenge themselves - the variation comes in making small changes to scaffold understanding eg changing the context, changing the area of mathematics etc. I also challenge mine to write and solve their own problems in different contexts - this really sorts out the ones who really understand the concept. Explaining things to their partner also helps to develop fluency and mathematical vocabulary so I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.