Lack of work in class

As others have said, the assessment to classwork contrast indicates an issue with busy class environments, definitely something I remember having a lot in school. Classes suck if I'm honest. They're always noisy, they're always distracting, and they make work really difficult. How is his homework writing? That may give an indication of lower stakes but calmer environment work?

If it is the classroom environment then this is some stuff I suggest looking into

You may want to discuss with teachers having the ability to leave for quiet spaces if things get too much. Library maybe? or they may have a specialised room or set of rooms for this purpose, I suggest talking to your SEND team about it. 

Outside of leaving the class here are some of what I considered essential for most of my school career:

Some kind of noise reducer, I was undiagnosed at school but like your son I scored extremely highly on assessments so staff had no basis on which to prevent me from using earphones, ear defenders, ear plugs and headphones unless they were unreasonable despite it being massively against the typical behaviour policy. Some staff are unreasonable, you may or may not have to push for this. I think for me, I wore them so openly, all of my teachers assumed someone else had given me permission. And as I said, I performed better this way so there was no evidence for them to tell me to take them off. 

Another really important thing for me was the ability to avoid or reduce group work. I was an incredibly unsociable child, particularly in class. When class sizes allowed it (which they mostly didn't until a-level) I would sit in a corner with a clear seat to as many sides of me as possible (usually ended up being by the teachers desk) and if someone was sitting next to me I wouldn't talk unless addressed and often not then. Many teachers did allow me the option of working alone, some did not, again this may be something you have to push for. 

An additional accommodation to think about, is access to written versions of the lesson. For maths this was often a textbook (coupled with the fact I had a special interest in maths so was often working on something else to the rest of the class). I had a very tech based school, iPads were considered core equipment and every student was provided with one, so most teachers lessons were whiteboard based. By GCSE and for some subjects earlier, pretty much every teacher of mine sent me the PowerPoint before class started, or early in class once prompted, so that I could work through it at my own pace. It is quite possible this may be a difficult thing to get, especially if, as it seems, they have decided to label his struggles as a deficit in learning behaviour. It may be your child learns from videos better than reading, there are videos on certainly every maths topic up to a-level and many for the other subjects too, particularly at GCSE. 

I hope some of this helps and your son gets the support he needs to thrive. 

It might be the environment making him less productive in class. If he consistently scores the best in his cohort, that suggests that he is able to concentrate/ think more clearly under test conditions i.e. clear instructions and a quiet environment. Classes of 13 year olds can be quite distracting and chaotic. I would tell him that no one will care about his learning behaviour score in future and he's clearly going to get good GCSEs etc if he's top of his cohort :) 

I can tell your son is an inteligent kid and that it may just be the enviroment affecting him in class. Good Luck :]

Hi,

when I get my reports I am always easily upset by the smallest of things even if I get high grades but just a little different to what I expected. I hope your son isn't worrying too much about the reports because they are just based on the teachers perspective on your child by simply looking at him which says nothing about how he may be struggling inside. A lot of these silly reports focus on the amount of work kids are doing withought looking at the amount of effort or help which may need to be required.

The likely cause of the difficulty writing in class will probably be the classroom enviroment being too overwealming to concentrate and focus. It may be easier to see if the staff will allow him to write and submit work on a laptop insted. Lots of kids have done that in my school before because it is a much easier way to produce work. 

Teachers have an almost impossible job of understanding and thoroughly getting to know each child in each class because of the amount of children they get through each day. If he is having behavioral difficulties in class then it may be because of the huge responsabuility of maybe masking his feelings / Autism [If I am correct to say your son is on the spectrum]. It is never just as black and white as 'Misbehaving' or being 'Difficult'. Usually the behavior in need of improvment may be as of stress and anxiety therefore covering it up with some inappropriate behavior can sometimes be a resolution for young kids. I think talking to some of the SEN staff within his school would benifit him as they should be able to give you different educational options and maybe get to the bottom of his situation.

I hope those reports don't get your sons mood down too much because I know how it feels and I hope you get to the bottom of everything and I have helped a bit. 

MJFR :]