How are your grandchildren getting on at school?

And, I'd add, a child will learn what it wants to learn.

DGD has been lucky with her primary schools although it was traumatically interrupted in year 4 and we had to change schools as we had to move abruptly,and she also had to have an interim period in another school whilst we found somewhere to live,the experience at the first and last where very positive the interim school was good but didn't stay long enough.I don't think that GD's attitude to learning and homework is the schools fault,she did well at primary level but now in year 8 will do the absolute minimum to get by,she has someone else said also has the attention span of a gnat,must admit am worried how she will cope at GCSE level as she has just chosen her options.
We are supported by the school for her needs and background,and have been at all stages [all bar one different story which I have spoken about on another thread].
I would say that if a child wants to learn it will.

Same here, annobel. I didn't 'get' how logs worked until after I'd left school, and I wasn't even bad at maths! How easy it would have been to become disheartened about my maths ability. I empathise with kids (yes, kids as young as six and seven) who have already decided they're "rubbish at maths". It is a great shame.

Nowadays, quite rightly I think, more emphasis is given to encouraging mathematical thinking rather than just teaching kids arithmetic algorithms. Next step should be to keep reminding kids that professional mathematicians get their sums wrong all the time, but because they can think mathematically, they can usually see that something is wrong and keep at it.

Pure maths is art of the highest order

cheerleader, hat off to your dad!

I remember using log and antilog tables, but didn't know anyone was expected to remember them. Obviously if someone had explained the principles behind logs I might have been able to work them out. This did not happen.

Bags my dad knew log tables. He was a toolmaker and used logs for working out various measurements, I think. I remember coming home from school one day, after trying to do logs, moaning about them and asking who on earth would ever need them in real life. It certainly shut me up when he said 'I do.' I don't think he can remember them now, though.

When we moved house, therefore schools, my children had to read Janet and John when they were reading Enid blyton and later the hobbit at home!

I was told that my son was 'having a below average IQ'
In fact he has an IQ of over 140, may have some autistic spectrum disorder.
But managed to get A* in maths, further maths,physics etc: and has a degree in computing with electrical engineering!
He was bored!
Also his teacher had lost her husband and was very anti doctor!
He was a doctors son!

Was it the teacher who wrote that, or a classroom assistant, or maybe even a parent?

[shakes head in despair] emoticon.....

Not related to the recent posts but out of interest - looking at my grandson's reading record book today (he's 5) his teacher had written - 'He read lovely this afternoon'!

www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report

Have you looked up the Ofsted report on the school? It's available on the internet.

I like the considerate way you are all helping, thank you.

The problem is we have asked other parents about this and it appears their children are at exactly the same level of education as my GC. Some other parents have indicated they are a concerned also but are hoping all is O,K, as the teacher and Head are really lovely people and their children are happy.

We feel it is best for us to see if it improves but go it alone at present. Hopefully if we will speak to her teacher after we produce work she is doing with us without upsetting the teacher.

Most schools operate an open-door policy for parents. If they don't, find out who the parent governors are and ask for it to be discussed at a govs' meeting.

Yes, but if you are worried about something and there is no parents' evening for a while, you can speak to the child's teacher between times. Best time to speak about problems is as they arise. That way they, hopefully, won't get worse.

That's what parents' evenings are for. Since DS2 told the teacher that his DS was reading much more complicated things at home than his school reading books, he's had more interesting ones to bring home.

POGS, have the child's parents told the child's teacher of their concerns? Or the headteacher? I would.

Annobel.

That is preciesly my point. She may have the attention span of a gnat but she is not slow as I have said.I accept your mentioning it.

To me her school day is not giving her enough to concentrate on. I have her after school mondays and tuesdays and I have started a 'homework book' with her. Last week and this. I now know she is in my opinion bored at school. She copies sentances, 15 spelling words and adding and taking away. She has told me that she enjoys doing nan's book, I don't know how long it will last, fingers crossed. We have started playing a game with a ball and doing OUR two times table and it is going well and I shall make sure she is not just reciting it but showing her reasoning for it.

Why can't her school be doing such trivial things with her though?. My daughter and I are working together but now we are taking her to an advanced stage to her classmates, that in turn could mean school becomes a bigger problem. Can't win!

Yep. Just so.

Oh I see - you just mean mathsy things....not everyday life things!

Lots of mathematical things! Calculus is used a lot.

What are they useful for? (Just out of interest!)

Bet nobody know the logarithmic tables, which are just as useful.

I'm not saying multiplication tables aren't useful, just that they come as an adjunct to multiplication skills, not as the be all and end all.

I'm a maths teacher and I still have to think about tables. It's because I work from first principles and just do the multiplication every time. If someone asks my age, I usually think of the year I was born in and work it out. Not having multiplication tables at one's fingertips, so to speak, is NOT a sign that one is bad at maths. Wish non-educators would stop going on about them! If a child learns how to do multiplication, it can do its tables, whereas a child who can recite tables cannot, necessarily, do multiplication.