Nine year old coming home from school in tears of boredom

[TheDullWitch]

My ds, just started year 5, is a well-motivated, happy kid, loves learning, very good at maths,loves a challenge. Until he started with his new teacher. She is doing maths so easy, basic column addition and tables (which has known for two years now) he finds it very easy. He is so frustrated, says he hates school, does all his work quickly then has to sit on the carpet reading. Tonight he was sobbing his heart out.

I am really concerned. This is a very important year, SATs next year. And in any case, I find it awful that a teacher has to only teach at this lowest common denominator level and risks alienating a bright child. What should I do/say?

I don't know what you can say that will make a difference but I am watching this thread with interest as I have a son, same age as yours, also good at Maths, also bored at school (and also not able to relate to most of his classmates which is adding to his misery). I have lost count of the number of times I have been in and asked for something to be done. He was assessed as exceptionally gifted (educational term, not mine) at Maths last year but still I see no difference to his education.

I will read your responses with interest.

Ah yes. We had this, tho' in dd1's case it took the form of getting extremely lippy and difficult so that she seemed to be spending more time outside the classroom door than inside (see countless threads passim). Year 5 was the year I finally lost the will to live.

Tis a tricky one. You need to arrange a meeting with the teacher and sound her out. Once you've seen which way the wind is blowing, teacher-wise, you can make your next move, viz.

if she is receptive to suggestion, wait and see if things improve;
if she is defensive and hostile, you will need to move onwards and upwards, ie. head/deputy head blahdiblah. But this is a slightly fraught path, as they may end up all hating you.

Find out also if the school have G&T provision (hideous name, but there you go) and if so what it consists of. But ultimately, if the school are not prepared to play ball, there's a v. limited amount you can actually do.

You have my sympathies. Feel free to CAT me if you want specifics.

My son is not even "gifted". He s just good at maths. Previous teachers have "set" them so the bright children were given challenging sums. But she is treating them like infants.

Are they in sets? Ours are streamed by this age, and that helps everyone as far as I can see. If not, perhaps that would be a way of bringing it up, suggesting sets?

Thank you Frogs. I can see him heading into bad attitude-ville. And who can blame him. I shall go in tomorrow. We have a very nice head, so I may have a quiet word with her if this doesn t progress.

Oh whoops, cross-posted. I can't imagine how you can teach adequately at that level without sets at the very least. Could you ask the Head what the policy is, do you think?

Is it possible that the teacher is just finding her feet, getting a feel for who can do what? It would be pretty surprising if there wasn't a plan involving some kind of differentiated work, though not all schools sit children in ability groups.

Are there other children who used to be in his ability group feeling the same way? If so it might be worth teaming up -- strength in numbers and all that. Having a supportive head should make all the difference.

I hope it sorts itself out for him -- it is miserable when things are like this, so I do sympathise. But sounds as if there might be grounds for cautious optimism?

Your poor ds, it doesn't sound like much fun. His teacher should be differentiating at least three ways, I would give it a little bit longer and see if she starts to do this. If things don't improve by this time next week I would talk to the teacher then.

I spoke to two of his friend's parents. They are going to send in notes in book bags tomorrow. But I m going in for kindly word. It has been almost 3 weeks now. I think that is enough with the boring baby work. If she demotivates my very motivated child who has previously loved school, I will be really fed up.

Ds had a disastrous time in Y5 last year - he too complained of being bored and unfortunately in his case it led to him being v lippy and disruptive and ending up spending most of the year outside the class. The school eventually addressed the issue of him not getting challenging enough work, but the damage to his attitude towards school had already been done ... He's now changed schools and is bouncingly positive about school again. IME schools tend to back up the teacher to start with, and only then address the problem

I think they often do start the year going over the basics so just maybe things will improve. Ds (yr9) is also complaining his maths teacher is giving them far too little too easy stuff (& not bothering to mark it) & he has been just sitting about idly. Last year his teacher was good; gave the faster ones more stretching problems which kept them busy, but I don't hold out much hope for changing the new one unfortunately.

Anyway, I thought I should report I went to see ds's teacher, who was very nice and understanding. She said she was sorry, that the range of abilities in this class is huge. SOme not being able to add two two-figure numbers etc. But she felt sorry for brighter kids having to listen to all the basic teaching.

Another parent of a bright boy sent in a letter saying same thing as me. So she has started a "top group" of about three children who get much harder work, particularly in maths. And ds is cheery and motivated and proudly doing hard homework sheets.

So just to say, it can be worth going in and teachers can be responsive.

TDW, that's a result! Congratulations, hope he carries on being happy with his work.