My 6 year old son child is struggling in school

andycarmi

You asked your son a verbal question, the test may have been written questions?

See the teacher but remember all children will have targets!

prettypennies

Iwork with year 1/2 children and my own children are now in year 3.

According to my children's teacher they barely speak in class, yet at home they never shut up!! Also as they are twins, she doesn't quite seemed to have worked out which is which yet. The other day she was telling me how DS1 was struggling with number lines and daydreams alot when it was actually DS2.

I definitely agree that children can flourish with one teacher but find another teacher's style less suited to their learning style.

Try not to be too upset about the teacher's comments. Children at this age and in particular boys, can be quite inconsistent when assessed. As you have said, he is quite capable of meeting the targets when at home. Classrooms can be very hetic places and some children find it difficult to focus on specific tasks when put on the spot.

With the children I work with on one day they may have no problem counting on and back in two's for example and the next day it's like swimiming through mud! I went through a SATs paper with one group today and they didn't fair too well, but I know from working with the children they know a lot more than the assessment would suggest.

It sounds like you are doing everything right, so keep supporting him at home but down feel you have to push him to hard or you may find him becoming more anxious and losing interest in learning.

Computer based activities are always popular with boys. The full marks CD's are good fun and based around year two level sats.

There are also loads of good educational websites.

These are popular with my year 1/2 class.

https://www.starfall.com

https://www.ictgames.com

The Ruth Miskin reading scheme is very good.

Fizog

My eldest son had a personality clash with his year 2 teacher and I had a tear inducing parents eve over him, but I went back later in the week when I had calmed down and talked about my son and his apparent 'struggles'.
This cleared the air the teacher found ways to give him confidence he never became a high flying academic at primary school ....BUT he flourished at secondary where the stimulation of different subject teachers and new friends created a different child.
He passed 9 GCSEs last summer all A*-C and is now studying 4 AS GCSE subjects! Not bad for a struggler.

I remember how awful it felt to have your beloved boy seemingly a failure... even if he does struggle at school find ways to boost his self esteem outside... exams, SATs are not the be all and end all in life. A well mannered kind individual who is prepared to work hard gets my vote every time over a super confident uber bright arrogant git!
All he needs is love and guidance, give him that the rest will sort itself out.

grey_lady

I think Becles is spot on with the confidence issue - children might know the answers but because they are to shy to speak up in class teachers might not realise what they know. Personally speaking i was the youngest (always) in my year and as an only child + very shy / introverted, many times teachers wouldnt have the greatest of expectations for me
and use words like 'will struggle come exam time' :-) only for me to prove them entirely wrong without extra effort and more than once i came top in my year come exam time when there were more than 200 children in my year. Work with the teachers, but your instincts are probably spot on.

yus786

Thanks everyone for taking time and replying - it means a lot.

Savvy_Sue

andycarmi wrote: »

You asked your son a verbal question, the test may have been written questions?

that's a very good point: also there may be timed targets.

DS1 only achieved level 1 in Maths in SATS at KS1 (age 7). His teacher was very surprised, but said that part of it was his inability to put the answer on paper in the time allowed, but it wasn't possible to extend the time.

So we had a problem identified ...

When he did KS2 SATS, he achieved level 6 - which needed an extension paper that they don't offer any more because so few children were reaching it. :mad:

There may be all sorts of reasons why the teacher thinks he's barely coping: you seem to have identified some of them. The main thing is that they ARE identified and that action's taken to address them.

bylromarha

Thoroughly agree with above. Did you know that children (little reception 4 and 5 year olds) are asked what their targets are by the nice ofsted inspector and the school is criticised if they don't know what they are?! Well that was one of the things on our schools ofsted a few years ago...

anyway!

OP-having taught year 1 it really does sound like DS2 is one of those who is a thinker, then a writer. About 25% of my classes were like this. mentally, on a 1:1 basis, they could do the stuff if left to meditate for a time. But lessons these days have to be fast and pacey, so no time to stop and smell the roses! And writing numbers is a thinking process in itself. So 3 written answers in a 20 minute session seems a small amount, but applying the thinking behind it, time to think of answer, time to write answer, time to check answer. Children like this I used to spend time with giving skills to gain confidence and fast paced number games where you have to think quickly.

At home, why not try speed trials where he improves on his own score...writing numbers, you hold up 6 fingers...he holds up 4 to complete to 10, shouting out the backward patterns he's finding hard to remember together as quick as you can, chalk writing on the path in your garden etc and measuring him against him, no-one else, so his confidence will improve as he sees how much better he's getting.

And another thing about parent evenings...the time is limited so I would often want to start the meeting with "so how do you feel your child is doing pairing numbers to 10?" when in actual fact I had 5 minutes for that parent on parents evening, so I had to say "hi, this is where you child is with x,y and z, bye." So it probably could have been phrased better, but no time to do it in.

Also, is your teacher a relatively new teacher or experienced? Just curious.

GrumpyLittlePrincess_2

Having had a similar experience, and working in a school, my advice would be to ring the school and make an appointment to see both the Headteacher and the Class Teacher.

You could then spend more time discussing your concerns and getting some valuable feedback. Children behave and react to situations differently in a school environment than at home. They can be the most outgoing, chatty person at home, but quiet and shy at school.

Hope everything goes ok!

ITeach

Going back to your post yus786, as an infant and junior teacher of 20 yrs and also a Dad I can confirm your observations from both perspectives! It never ceases to amaze me how children perform so differently in the home and school environments respectively. You are obviously doing the right thing to support your boys in their schooling. There are some good links in the above postings. With a view to the future you may want to look at the Key Kids site which has links to free sats papers for year 2 and year 6. The good thing about this site (apart from the great learning toys and games) is that the teacher mark schemes are also included for download and it is very clearly set out unlike the QCA to which it links! Look for the SATS Papers box on the left.
http://www.keykids.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=3&chapter=1
http://keykids.co.uk

beefcarrot

I'd agree with a lot of what has been said. Speaking as a teacher, I find it useful if I am warned in advance what you are concerned about. This gives me time to think about how I can help your child make progress, as well as speaking to the previous teacher(s) about any problems if I feel it appropriate. I'd give it 2-3 weeks so that your son's new teacher has got to know him
As for resources, I would recommend Coxhoe School's site. It is a brilliant resource for teachers but also has links for sites aimed at children in each curriculum subject. The link is
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Curriculum.htm