Year 2 - focus/concentration

[Grinchinlaws]

We had parents evening for DC1 who is in year 2 yesterday.

The teacher said that he needs to focus and concentrate more generally - he will chat when on the carpet so miss explanations of tasks, won’t read the question, will only do part of what is asked and get distracted. She said it’s not a problem yet but wanted to raise it before it becomes one.

His birthday is early May so he’s youngish in the year. He got “exceeding age related expectations” in all areas except writing at the end of year 1 and reading is good (he is on White band with only 1 other in his class) so I was surprised to hear this.

She did say Year 2 was a big step up with more learning and less playing. Will his ability to focus come with more time/maturity, or do I need to work with him on this?

He does need to work on his attitude to learning generally I think - he tends to think he knows everything already and doesn’t take instruction well (from me, anyway) though is quick on the uptake. Any tips on how to improve this as well would be appreciated.

It's not untypical for Y2 (or indeed Y3) children and is often related to general maturity. White reading level is good for this stage of Y2, particularly with a May birthday, but far from exceptional and he will probably find he needs to step up in his efforts if he has generally found schoolwork very easy up to now. I wouldn't worry too much but I'd make sure he understands chatting on the carpet during teacher input is a complete no no. When I am teaching I stop talking altogether if a child is, and would go down whatever the school policy of warnings is.

Thank you for the reply @Trigraph - I hope it is a maturity thing. There were no behaviour issues raised at all in reception or year 1 so it seems like a deterioration but maybe expectations are just higher.

I didn’t say that he was exceptional at anything, btw, but thanks for clarifying that he’s far from it…

I'm sorry you read the exceptional comment that way, I really didn't mean it and I did point out that he was doing well, particularly with a May birthday. I only said it because you said he was one of two in the class, which wouldn't be the case everywhere. Sometimes children really click with reading early on and it's a bit of a surprise to them that with the rigours of the current curriculum they have to work pretty hard to stay at Expected/GD (not as a conscious thought I mean, just that they ne d to step up their efforts). Anyway, as I said I didn't mean it in a negative way, was trying to offer a perspective from the classroom.