Moving schools

[Minismomo]

I really don't know what to do for the best my DS in year 4 is reporting that the disruption in their class means that a lot of the school day is spent managing behaviour and not learning. They are a fairly bright child and now say they hate school as they are just sitting waiting for the class to behave before the teacher starts teaching. They are also missing some of their playtime regularly due to the behaviour of others. If feel that he is not being stretched academically because so much time is spent on behaviour issues.

I have spoken to the school they say it is early days coming back from summer holidays and things will improve. I am unsure about this as it was on ongoing issue last year and I hoped a changed in teacher might improve things but he is complaining of the same issues.

I have investigated other local schools (and have some visits booked in) but I am concerned about moving him and just having the same issues. Although he says he dislikes school he has good friends there and never has any actual issues going to school he just finds the disruption frustrating. I could stretch to private school for the 3 years prior to secondary but I don't know if it is worth it.

Has anyone been in this situation and got and advice or just experience of what they did and if they would have done anything differently?

My experience is that this is common behaviour in state and private. One persons chaos is another person's normal.
My DC (ASD) struggles with classroom disruption and we've had to work on coping strategies. She has pod earphones to reduce outside noise. She also advocates for herself and will tell her contemporaries to be quiet. That said, it's not ideal for her socialisation and she's an outlier.
Missing playtime owing to others poor behaviour is not acceptable.

Unfortunately it is pot luck if you end up in a class where there is a lot of this kind of behaviour so you may be lucky if you move him but no guarantee. Some classes do just take a few weeks to settle for a new teacher and will then be much better but some are challenging and need constant management all year even with a strong teacher. It’s easy to say that whole classes shouldn’t miss breaks but sometimes it’s very hard to pin down the noise/fuss to one or two children which doesn’t leave many options. If they are going to settle then this should happen in the next couple of weeks so if it doesn’t then a change may be a good idea.

I have three DC. They all went to the local primary school and it was good for DC1 and DC2, but DC3 was unlucky and ended up in a disruptive class with lots of tricky kids. We eventually moved him to private school for the last 3.5 years of primary school. He's now at state secondary school and doing well.

It worked well for us and it was worth moving him. You do need to check the admissions policies for the local secondary schools if you want to go back into the state sector for year 7. Around here there is a feeder school policy, so DC would have been bottom of the list coming from a private school, except that he had older siblings so he got a sibling place.

We’ve had similar conversations re our DD - she’s in year 3 and since going back has complained of being constantly disrupted when she just wants to learn. She’s also mentioned they miss out on rewards due to the behaviour of others.

There are some other factors at play for us but just want her to be in the best environment. If she didn’t have good friends it would be a much easier decision!