Unhappy and bored 8 year old.

[middleoftheroadlife]

My youngest is 8 and last year he was in a split year 3/4 class where he was doing year 4 work. He is now in year 4 and keeps saying he doesn't want to go to school because he doesn't learn anything new and he covered it all last year.
He did well in the National Tests as he has in previous years ; Reading 129, Maths 131 and 131 as did one of his elder sisters whose teacher told me was MAT. He does work hard generally but he's become very grumpy any time I mention school.
I am a TA in the school in question and so I am familiar with the setup but I am not in his age group, nor do I see him at school really. It makes it a bit tricky for me to talk about it with teachers though. The school is in a deprived area with a lot of interventions needed and there quite a lot of behavioural issues.
I really want to move soon to try and get them into a better school but I do need to finish my contract this year (which runs until next August).
I think he just feels unmotivated and unchallenged but I don't know how to address this without sounding like the 'difficult' mother.

I don't want to sound precious or gloating as I was very 'average' at school and quite lazy. Their academic ability and work ethic definately comes from their father but we separated some years ago.

Why not speak to your child’s father and ask him to deal with the school?

I don't know how to address this without sounding like the 'difficult' mother

You won't be the difficult mother if you approach it as conversational rather than confrontational - approach the teacher, ask for a chat, say that your DS doesn't want to go to school because he is bored and unmotivated, he says he has done it all last year as he was in a blended class so he is effectively repeating Y4. Ask if this matches what the teacher has observed regarding his attainment, and if so what are they proposing to extend his learning. And then ask what you can do to support the teacher as well and come with some things you're doing at home too - Atom Learning, CGP extension books, Code combat, BBC bitesize, books from the library every week, all sorts of resources out there. That will give them an idea of what level of stuff will engage your son and that you're not just sitting back and criticising them.

Sago, he's not very involved at the moment and lives ina completely different area.
Xiaoxiong, thanks. I think I need to do more at home too. It's tricky with me working FT but I guess trying to do a little each evening to give him a workout might help. We use Kahoot as well sometimes at home and he does read.

You think he is unmotivated and unchallenged based on the fact that he is grumpy and moans he knows it anyway. How about getting him involved in some new challenges such as a new sport or an instrument? I would also seek to find out how he is getting on and also how he presents in class. Some kids moan to their parents but seem perfectly OK in class. In other words is he just a moaner who likes to wind up his parents? There are lots of kids who do this!