DS bored in year 8 because he says it's too easy

[beingabanana1]

DS is at a selective grammar school. Despite doing minimum homework etc, he always exceeds in tests. He is in top sets for maths and languages ( they don't set in other subjects yet). This is all great except every day he moans that school is boring and yesterday informed me it was too easy. I don't really know what to do about this. I am not one to interfere at school and ds wouldn't want me too. He has some lovely friends at school and goes to a couple of lunchtime clubs which he enjoys. He also has interests outside of school which we encourage.

How was year 7? Is this a new thing?
My son at a school with a lack of academically able due to more popular nearby schools. However, homework is set in a way that can be accessed at many levels and depths. This may not be the same at a grammar as perhaps does not need to be.
One thing I do say to him if he comes 'top' is that it is irrelevant as he needs to compete with himself and noone else.

He was getting bored towards the end of year 7 but I think enjoyed the challenges of starting secondary, making new friends etc. This year he has his established group of friends and is settled at school so we just get the moaning about how bored he is! I'm pleased he doesn't struggle but I worry he will disengage. Do things normally get more interesting when they start GCSEs?

I think I would have quiet (discreet) word with the head of year. It is OK to interfere, both you and his teachers have your sons best interest at heart.

Maybe they are really traditional / when I trained we were encouraged to use different methods with gifted and talented children.

I think he needs something else to really focus on. Does he play an instrument and if so could he work towards getting into the NYO? Does he have a particular sport, if so could he work on getting into the National youth team? When he comes to university applications top flight universities will look for these sorts of things.

If he was doing something else at that sort of level he'd be glad of not needing to take much time over homework and the chance to zone out a bit in lessons.

My son is year 7 at a selective grammar and has been doing very well, yet always seems to do minimum homework and finds it naturally easy to score well.

Does the school have academic reviews? Bit like parents' eve onlybone on one? At this the teacher set DS challenging targets which are now encoraging him to do things he might not naturally do to push himself like read a set amount of books, write a review/keep a diary etc.

I don't know as my son also in year 8. My ds took a while to a get like minded group of slightly nerdy friends and have had problem of the boys that aim to be 'cool. [This includes ex primary friends].
Have a word with his tutor. Perhaps send an email on the quiet asking for their discreet perspective?
My son once said maths boring and too easy in year 7. Went on a bit so contacted school. That very same night I saw his maths book for the first time and realised that method -from simple to mastery/ enrichment stuff. So embarrassed, as 'challenge' well challenging and clear ds not giving me a true reflection as to what was going on. Got good reply from maths department though as I cringed away!

Ds is having music lessons through school and does go to clubs. Clubs help with friendships in year groups apart from your own which has been good.
Also realising school friends are just part of life and keeping in touch with old friends who went to other schools. Keeping school in perspective important [hard though I know].

Thanks for the replies. I think he needs to probably needs to start focusing on his outside school interests more and I'm going to look into stretching him more in these.

I would have a word with head of year about this and find out what they suggest. My son is in Y9 at a superselective and in my experience, Y8 was a bit of a coast - but the pressure has really ramped up this year.

I would make sure he's actually doing his 'independent study' and reading more deeply into his subjects, encourage him to get involved in other extra curricular things (drama, public speaking, mock trial etc?) as well as sport and music and tell him to enjoy the 'leisure' time - it gets a lot more serious this year and into GCSEs (certainly at my son's school).