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[mad house]

Im having a rant!!

 

Going over maths with ds as he is sitting his year 6 sats in May....Either he is completly thick or our school is doing nothing to help him!

 

I seems they do little bits at school and we as parents are expected to do the teaching

 

IF I WANTED TO BE A TEACHER I WOULD HAVE TRAINED TO BE ONE!!

 

Please someone tell me we are not alone, but also tell me how to cople with this cos Im beging to loose the plot, im either going to blow a gasget or sit in a corner and cry

 

Told oh he has to be able to come in to school this week to see teachers with me. (not that hes much use) but it might calm me down a bit!!

 

 

Thanks for listening guys

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I have to agree with you.

 

LMW has always struggled with maths, when I mentioned this at various parents evenings the teachers didn't seem to think there was a problem but LMW had told me she was struggling and getting very little help. So in the end I got some age appropriate maths books off the 'net and she has been working her way through them with a little help and using the BBC maths website and hey presto she got moved up to the next level maths group at school. This has given her a real confidence boost and she is determined to try to get moved to the next level.

 

I think that if you are middling at a subject you get very little attention because the teachers are too busy trying to cope with the less able pupils or the very bright ones.I noticed this trend when I was at school ( many years ago) and it seems to have got worse. Afterall how can one teacher and one assistant give each child the attention they need when there is 30 kids in a class.

[Seagazer]

My son is in year 6 too and in his words he has a horrible maths teacher so every time he has maths homework he automatically says he doesn't know how to do it.

 

But the other week he had some homework that neither me or my 17 year old son could fathom out. I showed it to my accountant husband and even he struggled with it I'm not sure if they just make them more confusing now or if my brain cells are too middle aged. We got there in the end but couldn't explain it in a way that he could understand. He got really upset and I had to write a letter to the teacher saying that he had tried but could not finish it because he didn't understand it (the basis of it was algebra). I asked if she had said anything to help - apparently she kept him in at playtime to do it. Well done teacher - put the lad off for ever why don't you! Sorry my rant over now.

[Cinnamon]

We have had a constant battle with maths too, & this year both my girls have the most dreadful teacher,who many parents have complained about.

He seems in particular to have it in for my youngest, & when she puts her hand up to ask a question,he ignores her.So she doesn't do the work & gets into trouble for it.

He gives them homework that they have not covered in class, tells them to 'get on with it', then when they can't do it he then explains how they should do it & gets them to do it again - what a waste of time

The pupils get frustrated & he is having to cover stuff twice. It fair makes my blood boil.

 

One thing I will say is that the school (secondary school) has regular maths nights where parents are invited to come along,voice their concerns & are shown how & why the pupils are taught certain methods of maths,which often seem so vastly different from the way we were taught as children.

[Willow]

I went into my YS school last week to talk about maths (and bullying )

 

I've raised my concerns (about both) before and got nowhere. He is in Yr 5 and I don't believe he has made any progress in maths since he has been in junior school.

 

Both OH and I have 'maths' brains as have all members of our respective families so whilst I don't expect him to be a genius he is a bright boy who should be able to do simple sums and he appeared not to be able to. Like you I've found he can do it when I do some tutoring at home - so the problem isn't him. I do know one problem is he finds too many techniques confusing and I have explained this to the teacher but to no avail. I find it frustrating that just because he isn't bottom in maths my concerns were dismissed.

 

I don't know whether our experience is different but the most the teachers have ever done for either of our boys and any of the other bright children is allow them to select their own books to read at guided reading and one wonderful teacher sorted harder spelling words for my eldest because he could spell every word in every sheet they already had (he didn't get that from me But for everything else they have been bored.

 

That said I am more unhappy about the bullying since I can teach him maths at home whereas I can't discipline the bullies

 

Edited to add I do know it is hard to balance time across a large class as a teacher

[jlo]

I agree with a lot of the comments on here - especially how the "middling" students seem to be abandoned for much of the time.

 

Sometimes it is not the best mathematicians who make the best teachers. When I was at school, the maths teacher simply couldn't understand why I couldn't understand where she was coming from. My DS looks at me with the same expression as that teacher when he tries to explain some mathematical function to me. He gets maths - I don't. DD is quite bright but she has difficulty following maths as well.

 

I could never be a teacher - the responsibility is just too great and I have the utmost admiration for the good ones. Sadly, as with every profession, there are a few out there who just don't seem to understand how to pass their knowledge on!

[Guest]

From a secondary perspective Maths teachers are as "rare as hens teeth" In some cases even a bad maths teacher is better than no maths teacher!

 

As for dealing with a class of 30 mixed ability kids - usually its the ones who bounce off the walls that suck up all your attention and there seems to be more and more of those. The able ones can be given worksheets and a little instruction - the middling ones can so easily be ignored when the teacher has to struggle with the behaviour issues. Lower ability kids are not the issue but the behaviourally challenged can be. Many of them have such an attitude that they respond to nothing - their parents will phone the school and complain when punishments are issued!

[Happy chickens!]

Going to be a bit contentious here, but generally feel it is better to let them 'fail' in their homework so their teacher knows it's a problem. I am always available to help my kids, but if they don't get it, have been known to write a note on their homework for their teacher.

 

On the plus side, they are now very independent learners, doing their best, and I think those are life skills that schools/parents don't teach enough these days.

 

We have also been lucky in that the primary school they attended, held evening for the parents so they were taught the methods they were introducing to the kids to avoid some of that, 'when I were a lad we did it like this' stuff that is so annoying for everyone!!!!

[Seagazer]

I think with my YS it is purely the teacher that he is not responding to as he has had no problems before and actually used to enjoy maths. He has a home tutor every week just to give him a little help and it is lovely to hear them talking and laughing (they do maths and English).

[Ana's flock]

This is all too familiar... my 10 year old maths homework time turns invariably into tears (him) and (me).

 

I try to explain the concepts in many different ways until it 'clicks' in his brain. I have even used story-telling (to explain how to work surface measurements and perimeters - we used the example of building things with Lego and having won the lottery and bought a small holding so we had to calculate how much land we needed to fence off for X amount of hens and goats and how much fencing we would need... well, it anything it does sharpen my imagination! )

 

What I find most frustrating is that I explain something in the way I know and when he has obviously understood it the goes: 'Yes, but that's no good, because the teacher wants us to do it in the 'Bungaloonga' method...' Well a multiplication is a multiplication, and 3 x 3 is going to be 9 whether you write them side by side, one on top of the other or in little purple circles with orange spots!

 

Someone mentioned the 'discovery learning' method (when they tell you to 'get on with it' and then after you've and turn up to school frustrated, in tears and minus homework because you've just given up, the teacher explains the method and you have to do the 'bleep' work. I had that experience as a child and was one of the reasons why I lost hope in maths and gave up on my dream of becoming a vet ('A' level maths compulsory...) Luckily I have a wonderful uncle who helped me by explaining things in a logical and realistic way so that I could understand why those things could be useful. I also learned to think and work things out, possibly the most important skill, and not only in maths.

 

That's what I'm trying to do with my sons: teaching them to 'learn and think'.

 

My year 6 boy is now on the top table - I'm proud and it also means his homework is getting a tad tricky... which reminds me... I've got to go, switch the TV off and get them over here with the homework books...

[mad house]

Thanks everyone for your replies, at least im not the only one!

 

We have for a couple of years now left ds to do his homework on his own but obviously he can ask is he has a real problem, we hoped that this way his teacher would see if there was a problem, but guess what NO!

The children mark there own homework so the teacher rairly gets to see their work

 

I just despair, if i try to help i get it wrong, if i leave him to it he gets it wrong then we both end up shouting and crying.

 

I really want to rant at the school tommorow but lets face it what good will that do acept make me feel good

[lizinsa]

As a child I HATED homework and went to a school that gave FAR too much but as a (trainee) teacher I can see it's usefulness and it is not just to stress out parents and kids!

 

At my current school, we've asked parents to allow their children to do it independently but if parents help them out for them to make a note where and when they needed support. Homework is a way of assessing how much children have actually understood the work they've done that week and not be able to copy from their friend!

 

As for teaching different methods in Maths, some of the 'old' ways of teaching multiplication and division have been phased out because although they help you get the right answer, they don't help with the understanding of the processes involved or of number value, which inhibits their mathematical knowledge and understanding.

 

I would go into school and voice your concerns, I would hope that the teacher could take these on board. When the children mark their work do they just get told the answer or is the method explained too?

 

Good luck with it all!

[Shirl]

E is still evry much early stages of school but we have signed her up to Educationcity.com which is £30 a year but you can get a free 10 days trial. It has been great for improving her maths. Considering she is not yet 4 1/2 her maths is fantastic and we've only been using it 6 weeks. Obviously we are still teaching her what she needs to know but it does give instructions. It is used in schools and it also has practice SATS on there if you decide you'd like to try them.

 

IMO as parents we are expected to help our children a lot and you they go through school it is harder. We forget some of the less ofetn used terminology and schools do different things. DD attends an independent school and other parents think it means we don't therefore have to do anything with her. I would argue we have to do more with her because the school expects it.

[sadietoo]

Can I just say...don't worry about year 6 sats...they really are a waste of time and effort. Remind yourself frequently they are supposed to assessing how well the school and the teachers are doing not your son.

 

That said, we resorted to extra maths help at year 10 for DD and will be getting extra maths help at year 12 and 13 for DS (dyslexic). Seems really good Maths teacher are very few and far between(and quite expensive privately ). DS is in top set for maths despite the dyslexia but teacher was teaching to fastest one in class until I went in and pointed out his grades in Physics and Chemistry weren't really a problem so must be the way the subject was being presented.....amazingly he has now gone up two grades in maths and finds his maths teacher very helpful. tbh I don't think she realised that he was struggling and because he was doing OK (ie he was online for a C grade) she didn't think it was a problem. So let your concerns be known...but really don't worry about SATS... just look forward to the time when they will be abolished!!!

[Seagazer]

I'm not worried about sats - been there before and know that its the school really that is being assessed.

 

I just think sometimes teachers don't realise that they can damage how a young person responds to certain subjects. I had a couple of teachers over the years when I was younger who just put me off of maths completely. I would hate it to happen to YS. His favorite thing when he was younger was to have a page of sums to do I thought he would take after OH but I don't think so now.

 

I have to add that I always stick up for the teachers first and then at a push my kids. I don't go charging in thinking that they are in the wrong and my child is always right. (Much to the chagrin of my children) Its just that YS is not very keen to go to school on certain days now and I think this might be why. I'm going to see his form tutor and see what she thinks. She has had him before in previous years and I have no experience of his maths teacher so I just don't know if its the way she teaches or a clash of personalities.