RedPanda wrote:
KB wrote:
Agree, first step should be to talk it through with his teacher. Its their job not to 'leave anyone behind'.
Almost agree

Just to add; children are very good at assessing where they rank
according to their peers and every class has a range of ability. There will always be a top and a bottom. Most higher ability pupils put in more effort. There are exceptions of course. This could be one.
His class teacher is the person to talk to in the first instance and then the rest will be down to him.
More difficult issues arise with pupils 'hot housed' through the 11+ but I don't get that impression from the first post.
I actually disagree with this - it is more obvious in primary where there tends to still be the "top table" differentiation, but, with a few exceptions, less obvious in secondary as the work becomes harder and there are more subjects. A child may be very good at English and History, but less able at Maths and Chemistry, for example. Most children in Secondary are "ok" at most subjects, not so great in one or two and pretty good in one or two, rather than being stellar in all of them, therefore their peers cannot easily "rank" them, nor understand the nuances of ability, in thw way you describe. In the same way I don't think students are able to identify how well they have done in an exam or test - they might come out thinking it was awful, but not realise that if everyone else found it very hard, they could still get a good grade (for example in GCSE/A levels), or vice versa.
OP your son may feel he is not good at maths (or it may be you that feels he is not good at maths - I am not entirely sure!), but get him to go and see his class teacher as he may be doing better than he thinks or there may be a simple fix that the teacher can hep with but they will be the best person to advise and help him!