It is quite common for intelligent children to act the way your son does out of boredom. It sounds like your son is too young to be moved up a grade, and the work his class is covering now is probably too easy for him, yet at home, he can find other methods of stimulation because he is not following a rigid school schedule. Maybe you could speak to your son's school about perhaps giving him the opportunity to try some extension/enrichment work to challenge him cognitively. Perhaps you could trial this work with him at home before introducing it to the school schedule. My guess is that he is being understimulated at school because of his abilities and he is acting out his frustration. This is not a problem that a child your son's age is likely to be able to recongise and express, so that may be why he is misbehaving. Best wishes, from Ditz

Thanks for your reply. I also believe this is the case. I give him extra work at home, he has just started showing an interest in cursive and wrote his name in joined up writing today. The teachers at his school are hopeless. They tell me they do not have the time to teach one child just because he is bored and plays up. They have branded him as naughty and it seems now that they pick on everything he does. He was even accused of wetting on the floor yesterday and she said his socks would be wet with urine, but they weren't, and his pants were perfectly clean. He is sent to sit on the 'naughty chair' many times during the day because he won't join in with the younger children. Unfortunately the new headmaster is a wet weekend and he is totally unapproachable on the matter. We live in a rural area and there is no other school for miles. The teacher has told me she has written in his record that he is intolerent of children his own age and he is anti-social. This is very upsetting to us as he is a model child at home and if we go anywhere. I am at a loss