I have received my childs school report. It is amazing, i’m beyond proud. My child is 2 years above his class level in Maths and atleast a year above where he needs to be for everything else. His teacher advised he usually finishes his work well before the alloted time. His teacher didn’t say anything to me when i had a meeting with her but i read in his report that he is distracting other students.
I have sent her an email about this to ask if he is distracting others because he has finished his work so quickly what is he allowed to do when he is done? I remember when i was in school and finished early the teachers always told me “just sit quietly until everyone else is done” i know this use to cause me to get bored and mess around.
I also asked her if he is just distracting kids in general with conversation(i’m sure he isn’t the only kid doing it, but i can’t help the other kids) and if this is the case, what can i do at home?
I am awaiting her response but thought i’d come here and ask others what they’ve done to help their child to calm down and be quiet in class??
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17 Replies
Most classrooms I’ve been in have had books etc, that the child can go read etc.
Some teachers will give the child a special task to do etc.
My sons teachers would have a folder for him to go and pick some work from when he had finished.
Ask that he's given extension work when he's finished instead of sitting there doing nothing. This should annoy you more than him being distracting. When I was a school kid in the eighties we had to read a book if finished early. They could do this too or have challenging worksheets for him. It's a pretty easy fixed problem actually and I think this shows that the teacher is lazy.
I hate it when teachers do this. Slip a vague statement/issue into reports with no context, solutions or even follow up.
What exactly are parents meant to do with that apart from stress out?
I'd actually put it to his teacher "What strategies have you implemented in the classroom to help my child be less disruptive?"
I did put it back on her, she came back with “he knows there are more tasks he can do, he just doesn’t do them” i replied back, how about a reminder of extra tasks 🤷🏼♀️
What a cop out!
Sounds like your son needs more specific direction not just a few vague options.
Can I ask how old or what grade he is also?
His teachers expectations may be higher because he's accedemically inclined, sometimes teachers forget that intelligent children aren't necessarily advanced in terms of maturity.
so your kid knows he has additional tasks but chooses not to do them and you want her to keep reminding him. How about they build some independence and resilience? She would obviously remind him.
so your kid knows he has additional tasks but chooses not to do them and you want her to keep reminding him. How about they build some independence and resilience? She would obviously remind him.
How about telling your child to stop distracting others ? It’s not that complicated. why do they need to justify what they have done to you? They are the experts they have tried the appropriate strategies and one of the strategies would be to let the parent know about the distracting behaviour.
How do you know he works at those year levels? Is he on a gifted and talented program? Does his report card say that’s where he’s sitting? Just trying to understand how much of this is all a surprise to you.
Without a doubt his working level and fast finishing is related to his disruption, I’d be surprised especially if his teacher is meeting his needs academically that they wouldn’t be aware of that, however just setting extra work or fast finishers tasks doesn’t change a disruptive kids behaviour/attitude, that’s something you need to be open to and keep the focus on - it’s your child’s behaviour.
The work given to him is 2 years above his levels, i know this because it’s been happening for years.
His reports reflect this, but i am also kept in the loop about his academics, however him being disruptive is new
distracting others just means he is a bit chatty.
That's actually wrong. I have a gifted child who is now an adult and I will tell you now bad behaviour is very much linked to kids who are not being challenged enough. A bored gifted child can actually display behaviour similar to children with ADHD. OP, call a meeting with your child's school and ask for an IEP or whatever they call it these days. Advocate for your child, new behaviour like this could be a sign that he's becoming bored with the work given and he needs more.
so you are the parent of a child who is gifted and not worked with one in a educational setting.
Wow. That’s a bit far fetched. The poster didn’t say that the teacher has indicated a behavioural issue with her child. It could be that this child is distracting other children through conversation. If this child has completed all of their work and are not being encouraged to fill the time with extra challenges, I would assume that this child will become quite bored. We don’t know what age this child is. If this child is in primary school, perhaps a little more encouragement is needed from the teacher for them to complete extra work rather than the child “knowing” that there are other activities to do. It sounds like this child is bored.
My son too is ahead with his learning. He hasn’t become a distraction yet but I can see that as he gets older he may start to become quite bored. He has asked his teacher for challenges and she has honoured it. My parents were primary school teachers and always made sure to challenge the advanced children. Other teachers who weren’t proactive with this would often refer to these children as “naughty” or distracting to other children. My parents were able to challenge them and keep them occupied. They always found that these children just needed the extra work and generally didn’t have any issues with them at all.
A child being a distraction doesn’t necessarily mean that child has behavioural issues.
We had to supply extra work for our little girl to be getting on with when she had a relief teacher for a week last term. The sub wasn't willing to let her do anything that would give the sub more work, it was a case of just go and sit quietly for the next half an hour, for every lesson. After the second day of having the sub, our little girl started the whole school refusal thing and it took a bit of work to find out she was just bored.
You've done the right thing by bringing it up with the teacher first. If the response isn't up to your satisfaction, take it up the chain until you get the best outcome for your child.
umm this is quite common and I don’t think you needed to send the teacher an email about it.
You don’t say how old your child is. The teacher would not ask the child just to sit quietly, there would be specific tasks to go on with for fast finished which would either be extension or things to go on with etc.
Distracting others means he’s a bit annoying. Probably just talking to other kids etc It is not cause he is bored it’s cause he wants to distract them cause he is probably having fun. If the teacher didn’t mention it at interviews it’s not a huge issue just something to be aware of. Tell him to listen to his teacher and stop talking when he is not supposed to.