New Teacher - Questions

[Hannahmum35]

First of all i am new ;) so hello and thank you in advance for your help.

My daughter has just done into year 3 and a new teacher joined the school this year and it teaching her class.

Her class is very much made up of half Sept/Oct/Nov childeren en the other half summer childeren, just the odd few in-between - they are all lovely childeren but the abilities are still very different.

Last year the teacher was very good and set different spelling for each - one group with 10 a week and my daughters group 20, which worked perfectly and she always had very good marks. The same with maths, it worked and challenged the older childeren that little bit extra.

This year the entire class have been given 10 spellings a week. My daughter doesnt even look at them and knows them of heart, the homework in general is so much easier than even the beginning of year 2. After 10 min of homework (if that) my daughter asks me what she can do next?<br /> <br /> Next Wednesday all the parents are meeting the new teacher and i feel i would like to address this but in a nice manner. <br /> <br /> What questions to ask her? <br /> <br /> I know the teacher is new and i dont want to be the "pushy mum" but i hope you can understand my concern a little.

So far no mums seemed to mind the "easy going" homework ... but odd one out me really does and i can see my daughter is getting bored with her easy homework.

Hannah ;)

[ruddynorah]

The meeting will probably be to tell you she's assessing where the children are, then she'll adapt work to suit their needs.

Dd also has a new teacher and has had spellings she already did last year as she was ahead. I told her this is to check she remembers them and show the teacher what she already knows. This week she has new, much harder words.

Also there's nothing to stop you stretching her with other spellings or reading other books etc. Dd really enjoys homework and often asks us for more.

[redskyatnight]

DS has also just gone into Y3. His homework so far has all been much easier than that he was doing last year.
We've been advised that the teacher is assessing the children and "breaking them in gently". DS has very much appreciated this approach and I suspect will not be happy when the harder work comes along in the next week or two.

Just wonder if something similar is happening at your school?
Perhaps you could ask about how work will be differentiated for different ability children? I'd be surprised in Y2 if that correlated exactly to birth month btw.

If your DD is really desparate for something else to do, couldn't you think of a way to extend the homework, get her to write a sentence for each spelling word etc?

[henry84]

Agree birth month doesn't seem to follow with ability. In ds's school they have composite classes based on ability; There is one child in this class for is 7 and another who was only 5 in July.

[Hannahmum35]

You are right ladies - the groups were split up accoring to ability - but it was equal to age, all the older childeren into one and the summer into another. But yes the term should be "ability" not age.

[blackeyedsusan]

a teacher new to the school will still be trying to assimilate some of the school policies (there are an awful lot) and probably fine tuning her assessment of the children. I suspect that generic homework has been issued and will change in a week or two. if not then pop in and have a word/write a note asking what the teacher suggests you do to extend your dd's work. (after you have asked about differentiation at the meeting. )

[aries12]

Firstly birth month has nothing to do with ability, if it had my Dd would be the bottom of the class! I very much doubt if the class has ever been working in birth months.
There is a lot you could do to extend the work ...simple things like putting each "spelling word" into a full sentence. I have got my child then to write a liitle story using the spelling words. I have folded over a few sheets of A4 paper and made booklets. She loves writing in these. My Dd gets 12 spellings to learn in five days but she never actaully learns them as she seems to remember them straight away..again they are easy so I give her extra work to do.
You can also get her to research a topic and write about it in the booklet....I did this last year with Florence Nightingale and she made a booklet on her...completing a few pages and drawing a pictures and writing every night. This she presented to her teacher and my Dd was delighted with her work.
If you are short of ideas, use the books in Marks and Spencers or WH Smith..plenty there to keep her going for the year!
As for Maths, there is also plenty you can do similar. My Dd is also in Y3 and I do a lot of work on time, money and times tables. I use Mega Maths (Marks and Spencers) Collins also do workbooks.
I suspect the teacher is still getting to know the children and it's hard for the teacher to please everybody...some parents want no homework and some want extra homework!