Expectations of 6 year old in UK re Literacy?

[nothomeless]

DD, born Sep 2004, started school and learning to read in September. She is educated abroad and the majority of her peers have English as a second language. English is probably DD´s dominant language.

What should she be able to read/achieve at this stage? I have absolutely no idea what is normal and I can´t easily compare her to other children.

[nothomeless]

.. please?!

[bran]

Are you moving to the UK, so she will be starting school there in Sept 2011?

[SE13Mummy]

Although I'm a teacher I've never taught KS1 so it would be unhelpful for me to put forward a standard 'this is what Y1 children can do'. However, my own DD is an Autumn 2004 child too so I can tell you where's she's at...

Reading-wise she's a keen and avid reader, currently reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory plus James and the Giant Peach, an Usborne 'See inside' book about space/planets and a book called 'Atticus the storyteller's 100 Greek myths'. She reads to herself out loud and in her head but also to us and uses lots of expression. Her comprehension is good as is her inference. She has a good memory so retains a lot of the information she reads and uses it in her own writing or in conversations with her peers/adults but few of her girl friends are that interested in the solar system so those conversations are saved for a couple of boys she's friendly with (and who are ultra-keen on space).

In terms of writing she uses complex and simple sentences, punctuates using capital letters, fullstops, exclamation/question marks, commas (in lists mostly but occasionally to separate clauses), apostrophes to show omission and possession and is beginning to use brackets and speech marks. She also uses a wider range of connectives than many of the children in my Y4 class (at the same school). Her writing reflects her spoken vocabulary so she often sounds like a child from a bygone era with her, "oh my goodness!" phrases. Her spelling is fairly accurate which I would attribute to her good memory and the systematic phonics teaching she's had at school.

DD loves reading and writing and spends hours of every day playing games that involve writing lists/stories/instructions so she gets a lot of practise.

That's only my DD though, I don't know what the others in her class are up to though.

[magicmummy1]

There's a huge range of normal, so not sure if comparisons will be helpful. What sort of thing can she read at the moment?

If you're familiar with one of the reading schemes, perhaps google what level would be average for her age?

[theITgirl]

My God, I am depressed at reading SE13Mummy's post. My DD was 6 in April (so in the school year above).
She is doing well, so top table for Maths, reading well but her writing lets her down but still expecting to exceed targets by the end of the year.

Writing: She can do capital letters & full stops and uses them well. When she talks she uses describing words and connectives and knows how to apply in written work. But you will probably only get one per paragragh.

Spelling: Imaginative, I can read what she says, but she is my 2nd child & I work in a primary school so I have had the practise. So recent christmas words are hollee, leter, presnt, qween, underware.

Maths: She can do her multiples & divisions for 2, 5 & 10 - this is expected by end of her academic year. Also seems OK with shapes 2D & 3D, this evening she found a tape measure and has been measuring everything she can.

Reading: She can JUST read the 'New Wishing Chair' adventures by herself, these books are about 100 pages, with maximum of 9 lines per page. The most important thing with reading is comprehension, so she can talk about what has happened and how the characters are feeling.

[nothomeless]

Thank you all for responding! Perhaps I should be in a total panic at this point?

BUT, DD has been in school for THREE months! Is she then in the UK equivalent of reception year? I suspect this hasn´t been taken into account and you think she should now be in her second year of primary school?

I think about the first month was spent on Jolly Phonics - becoming familiar with sounding out and blending letters together. At home we read basic phonic books of 2 sentences a page, up to 15 pages long. Her comprehension is always spot on but reading speed is slow. We have a WORDS box - including vocab taken from the phonics books and she can read at least 100 words easily, those in the stories themselves and those thast use the same letter combinations. This box doesn´t include the words covered in school.

SHOULD I be concerned? I value your input!

[Littlefish]

Are you planning to move back? If not, then all you need to know is whether your dd is currently working at the level expected in the country where you live. It really isn't helpful for you to try and make comparisons with children in the UK who have been at school for a year longer.

If she's only been in school for 3 months, then her phonics knowledge sounds spot on.

Have you spoken to her teacher?

[Blu]

Don't be depressed, don't panic.

Very very few of the children in DS's class could do anywhere near what SE13DD seems to do when they were in Yr1.

6 is the average age for learning to read, nationally, I think. Many many children are not free readers by Yr 1, or even by half way through year 1.

DS wasn't, his writing was 'emerging'...and he still got 3s in his Yr 2 SATS.

[maktaitai]

NO I don't think you should be concerned at all. My ds is in the year above yours, also born in 2004. He's not exactly a reluctant reader, it's just at about 100 on his top 100 activities I think my questions would be, what is her attitude to reading and books - does she basically quite enjoy them, whether it's for entertainment or for finding stuff out or looking at pictures? Can she read functionally, things like street signs and anything she is motivated by? (It is pulling teeth to get ds to read sometimes but then he read out half the school play script to me in order to tell me who was doing each part). And has she progressed in the recent past? My ds tends to stagnate in reading books during the term and then make visible leaps in the holidays when I get my hands on him. I think tbh that this is because i don't see all the normal reading they do during every school day - they don't do all that much focused reading of reading books, but they do use reading as a skill throughout the day and that's good enough for me.

[Jaycie]

sounds like shes doing brilliantly for someone who started school in september! you should be really proud.
My son is in Yr1, and top of his year for literacy, but not up to the level se13 said. Some children in his year are only just starting to be able to write their names!
My daughter is in Reception, so started at same time as your dd, can read simple books like your dd, nothing more. She can write ok, can't spell at all though, writes things like "I luf yoo mummy" etc. some letters are back to front, and some capitals in middle of words etc.

[SE13Mummy]

Sorry! I'd somehow failed to notice the fact that your DD has only just started school . Mine has been at school since September 2009, she couldn't read chapter books or write complex sentences 3 months into Reception.

Thinking back to this time last year, she did lots of 'writing' but it was very much a case of her thoughts spewing onto paper in a very phonetic, but not that logical, way. She did use capital letters and fullstops correctly a year ago but no other punctuation. She could read high frequency words both in and out of context but wanted to be able to read real books.

I wouldn't worry too much. There is a huge range in any class. My own Y4 class range from children who struggle to string a sentence together (verbally or on paper) to those whose writing is fluent, well-structured and fascinating.

[nothomeless]

Thank you! I´ve understood there´s nothing to be worried about!

It´s especially reassuring to compare my DD with yours Jacie! But great to see what the top achievers are up to SE13!

DD and I have always read a great deal and she is keen to read independently. I´m trying though to strike a balance between pushing her too hard and letting her slide well below the UK average (I know this is not entirely rational) There is also "competion" from her second language - I am basically her only English language input except her teacher. She mixes socially in her second language. (Her classmates speak their own home language and tend to group together according to which one). Our local environment uses a third language.

I wonder sometimes how living in this strange language bubble might impact on her. Perhaps I should just chill ; )

[maktaitai]

She's normal, you're normal, it's normal to be multilingual in the world. The monolinguals (like me) are the ones in the language bubble.

There is a patch apparently between 5 and 7 or so when children who are bi/multilingual may slow down in their progress. Then off they go again. I may have more info when I've caught up with this week's lectures!

[nothomeless]

Maktaitai, that sounds very intriguing! What are you studying?! Why might progress slow down at this stage in development?

[mummytime]

SE13 sorry but your daughter sounds very advanced. My extremely bright DD wasn't up to Charlie and the Chocolate factory in year 1.

OP there is some research to show that kids who learn to read latter learn to read more quickly than in the UK. The key thing is are you going to bring her back to the UK? If not then maybe you could look around, or even start an English mother tongue group. In my town in the UK there are ones for: German, French, Swedish and Polish, and kids also sit GCSEs in Punjabi among less well catered for languages.

Don't stress too much, most educational differences even out as time goes on.

[maktaitai]

speech and language therapy. i'm not too good really. and i don't know the answer to your question, because i haven't read that bit yet

[CharlieBoo]

Yes I agree, SE13, you must be really proud of your dd (I would be), however just for posters reassurance, this isn't the norm for 5/6 year old year 1 pupils.

Your dd is where she should be, I think it's great that in other parts of the world the children start a year later. The most important thing is that she's happy, they're all going to be able to read and do their 9x table at some point.

[SE13Mummy]

Proud, but rather embarrassed that I've posted on here to be helpful and have just worried everyone! I'm sorry!

My disclaimer is that I've never taught small children and clearly have a skewed idea of 'normal performance', probably because of where I've taught until very recently.

[lovecheese]

(My DD was very similar to SE13daughter in yr1, apart from the interest in space)

[jamaisjedors]

My son was born in Sept 2004 and is learning to read here in France.

I have also signed him up to "headsprout reading" - an online programme recommended on here to help with his English reading.

He is only just starting to read here in France (has been doing it for about 3 months too) and is just starting to try and pick out signs in the street/words in books or on TV.

I do worry a little when I read posts on here (and I myself could read fluently at 4.5) but he's not behind his French peers, despite his bilingualism so I will try not to worry and trust his teachers.

I don't think the French as a whole are less literate despite learning to read at 6+!

[MotherSnowyMountainGoat]

Nothomeless - I don't think you should be concerned at all. Both my DC were 6 when they started formal schooling here in Germany, and they learned to read and write (in both languages!) incredibly quickly by comparison with UK kids. They knew their letters when they started school(from us and from nursery), but not much more. DD1, who is admittedly a bookworm, read her way through the entire Harry Potter series two years later, and can read at an equivalent level in German. Most of her peers can do the same, and they are all now at a bilingual grammar school. It's important that she is being taught English formally though, at an international school (even if that is not the language of kids's interaction), because otherwise she will grow up with fluent verbal English but appalling spelling.

"There is a patch apparently between 5 and 7 or so when children who are bi/multilingual may slow down in their progress."

I've never heard of that or noticed it in kids of that age. What has been apparent is that bilingual kids often take longer to start talking fluently, or resist talking the minority language, until they are more certain in both.

Best of luck with it all.

The situation you describe with the three languages is also something kids can cope with fine. We have kids in our school who are being brought up with 4 languages, although 2 or 3 are more common. As long as you're consistent in your usage (not mixing languages within sentences) they won't get confused.

Best of luck with it all.

[MotherSnowyMountainGoat]

Ooh, how did that sentence get in there twice? Now you'll have twice as much luck.

[coldtits]

se13mummy's child is unnaturally good at reading - that's an abnormal standard of reading for a 6 year old.

Most 6 year old's in ds2's class are still on Biff, Chip and Kipper! 'Reading in their head' is srarting to turn up. spelling not particularly accurate unless they are specifically learned spellings.

[thanksamillion]

Have to say I'm quite relieved that you're all saying se13's child is super advanced. DD1 will be 6 in March and she's definitely still on the Biff, Chip stage. We've done Headsprout which was really good but I'm trying really hard to not to try to compare with what similar age children would be doing in the UK (although clearly failing or I wouldn't have read this thread!).

We've already put DD in school a year early for here but they are only now learning how to write 1-10! I know that lots of countries start formal learning later but it's so hard when you hear what friends children in the UK are doing.

[lovecheese]

thanksamillion - I would say that yes, SE13's DD sounds like an able reader but would not say super advanced or at an "abnormal standard"; In any class you are going to find one or two children who read as she does, a vast majority on Biff and Chip etc and a few who are emergent readers.