Year End Report card

I recently had a parent-teacher meeting with N's school teachers. Although i met his directress and mandarin teacher separately, they both have very similar feedback.

Both said, N is academically capable. The mandarin teacher said N's memory is excellent, being able to learn new words almost instantly. She actually gave 100% marks to N for reading and even said no one in the school has this score except him. His directress said N is beyond his age requirement. During the mid year report, she said she doesn't think there's anyone in the school who could out beat N. She also said she didn't need to present new reading activities to him. Instead, he'd read the descriptions on his own and could correctly match them to the pictures.

However, there comes a down side. Because he learns so fast, he gets bored easily. The mandarin teacher has a fix curriculum each week. By early week, N would have learnt all the new words. Hence by mid week, there's nothing for him to do except to revise and revise. This made him bored and loose focus & interest. His directress also said that when asked to revise his work, he'd present sloppy work- even though he knows his stuff very well.

The mandarin teacher said N is very hungry to learn and constantly asks for new words/activities to keep him interested. She is concern if we keep on teaching him like this, he may not have anything new to learn in Primary school (exactly what my Mother in law has said!).

I have also expressed to them that I'll be withdrawing N from Montessori school next year. Both are concern if N would be able to fit into the main stream. They notice N needs alot of hand holding/personal attention and if left alone he may be neglected. He is not one who would express his needs to the teachers and could easily be overlooked in the sea of children.

Overall, i am satisfied with the feedback. N is learning well and is not causing trouble in school. Although, i am now concern if he is able to keep focus & interested once i enroll him to the main stream. That said, i am more determine to send him to a non-Montessori school. I am curious to know if N can cope and also i think i had better send him to main stream early to give him more time to adjust for Primary school. Well, i will never know unless i try.