The fact that he has difficulty writing is a red flag to me and I would make sure that it's not a question of his capability. If that isn't an issue, I wouldn't sweat too much about his dislike of school and not working to his potential as long as he doesn't sabotage his placements. Both of my rising 5th graders have "disliked" school since 1st or 2nd grade. My DS has consistently gotten into some minor troubles since 1st grade, but as he has gotten older he has learned what he can get away with and just really irritate his teachers occasionally but not enough to be labelled one of the problem boys. He is also good at controlling the quality of his work to achieve maximum results with minimum efforts. I let that go as long as he doesn't hate learning per se, which can be and should be nurtured outside of school. By that I don't mean afterschooling, which we don't do, but simply providing the opportunities and resources for him to discover new knowledge and skills on his own.
