Deliberate ‘failure’ with Year 6 school work?

Hello!

My son is in Year 6. Up to the start of Year 6, he was consistently achieving very well in all aspects of his school work right from starting school. In the last few months, however, his scores in English have dipped considerably to this week not even an age expected score in SATS mocks. He is a capable student, and often achieves perfect scores in maths. He claims to not to be able to read, that he can’t spell, yet his prior achievement in school and when doing homework or reading with me, does not bear this out. He’ll go from using more complex language with a high degree of accuracy, such as ‘spherically’, to consistently writing ‘tabel’, even after I’ve corrected this.

His teacher, the SENCo and I all think that there’s an element of him deliberately trying to almost ‘fail’ in all other aspects of written school work apart from maths. 
None of us have come across this before - his dad and I are also both highly experienced teachers. We’re at a loss of how to support him.

I’ve been trying to find something online which discusses this but with no luck, so am wondering if anyone else has had this experience or can point me in the direction for support?

Thank you for reading this.

Parents
  • I wondered four things:

    1. Is he due an eyesight / eye health exam with an Optometrist (physically struggling to read lately)?
    2. Could he be associating SATS with a reluctance / worries / change and uncertainty around the impending transition to his next school (if I flunk this I might be able to be kept back to repeat a year)?
    3. Sheer, debilitating exam nerves creeping in (the mocks making it seem all too real)?
    4. Could he be starting to struggle more with the social environment and expectations of peers at school (up until around age 9 the concrete or black-and-white thinking with which Autistic children may feel at ease - the early adolescence of age 10 onwards of his peer group will have been starting to challenge that previous way of thinking - along with this territory of growing up; arrives increasing self-consciousness and perception of being judged by peers)?

    As a society we tend to think of the last year of primary school as still being populated by "primary school" children. 

    However, for some of those children, they will have started to feel almost as though they are somehow being "punished" - as though they are the cuckoos - having already outgrown coping among the younger students - and yet still being required to confirm as an obedient "primary school student". 

    Pre-teen rebellion may be the attempted communication of so many confusing changes and thoughts.  

    Has he offered any suggestions, himself, as to what he thinks might be happening and what help he might think would be worth exploring?

    Sometimes, the child's own ideas / concerns might be a bit short on clarity of reasoning - even if they are accurately on topic.

  • They’re really good ideas about the developmental changes which he’s starting to encounter. I know that SATs and transition to high school are both worries he has, and I do think he has mentally moved on from being at a primary school. 
    Rebellion is a really good point which I hadn’t thought of, as with the peer relationships.

    Thank you so much for sharing these ideas - I am very appreciative of you taking the time to read and reply.

Reply
  • They’re really good ideas about the developmental changes which he’s starting to encounter. I know that SATs and transition to high school are both worries he has, and I do think he has mentally moved on from being at a primary school. 
    Rebellion is a really good point which I hadn’t thought of, as with the peer relationships.

    Thank you so much for sharing these ideas - I am very appreciative of you taking the time to read and reply.

Children
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