Teachers - please, how bad is this?

[CinammonAndCaramel]

Could any teacher please level this recount for me?

I am talking to HT this week and want to be prepared.

(DD is in Y5. I know the work is very bad for Y5. I need an idea of how bad)

---

Dire Dire
we have aried at the Camp. it was a long gerne mast of the way we cam by ship then We all aot a camel to rid a and then we cnowd dawn the rive nils
oun we got the the camp sit it was mid day and we were agsorst Matthew mad diner he dernt the fish but it dint Mate bacusme We We hungry ruffle 10 o'cklo we go to in aw slepping bag and Quickly Went to sleep

[notnagging]

That does seem below for year 5. Do you have any idea what level your dc is on?

[scarlettsmummy2]

As in secondary school?

[Badvoc]

Op said year 5.
I would say 2c at a push but I am not a teacher.

[scarlettsmummy2]

Yes- but what does that mean? In NI and Scotland it would be P5 for primary and 5th year for secondary.

[BabyRoger]

Scarlett - Year 5 is like Scottish P6.

[Badvoc]

Ah, sorry year 5 is age 9-10.
In most LAs the dc go up to high school in year 7 (age 12-13)

[cazzybabs]

no no higher than 2C but yes it is weak. I would want to know what they are putting in place to support her and what they have been doing before now. The school should have been monitoring her progress

[newname2012]

I'm assuming you mean Yr5 in Primary.

I would say this is certainly Level 2 writing, some of the vocab is good, e.g. 'exhausted', and a few language features, such as the sentence opener 'Most of the way' and the adverb 'quickly'.

On the other hand, the lack of punctuation brings the level down. Also he's using phonetic spelling but clearly doesn't know his sounds confidently enough to use it correctly.

So overall, probably looking at a low 2. Have you been given any idea of his levels before?

[scarlettsmummy2]

Ok cool, I have many sixteen year olds at work with worse than this level so firstly I would say that while it obviously is not good, there is still plenty of time to improve things. I would be wanting to know exactly what steps the school will be taking to get her up to the required level. What measures they will be putting in place and what targets they will be setting within a specified time scale. Also, have they assessed her for a learning difficulty?

[GraceGrape]

I'm a Y5 teacher. I would say that this would probably be levelled around a 2c/b. The particular difficulty your DD has seems to be with spelling and punctuation. The sentence construction is ok (just needs some more sentence punctuation and less use of "and"). She has some good language (long journey,most of the way, exhausted, roughly) but obviously needs some support. Can I ask what help she gets - is she having any intervention programmes?

[newname2012]

Sorry, misread dd as ds.

[numbum]

Don't you need full stops as a minimum in punctuation for a 2c? (genuine question, I'm not a teacher)

OP, have school called the meeting or have you? Have they already told you they have strategies in place for her or is this the first you've heard about it?

[newname2012]

Numbum - it's more of a 'best fit'. If full stops are the only thing missing from an otherwise higher piece of work you would level it higher, but it would affect the level and obviously that would be an issue for the teacher to take up if a more able child wasn't using any punctuation at all.

[GraceGrape]

For a 2c you need evidence that the child has some understanding of sentence construction. As the child has put in one full stop and left gaps where a sentence ends this should be ok, although it is very lacking in punctuation. Even at the top of level 3, children do not need to have every sentence correctly punctuated.

[slipshodsibyl]

It isn't a 'bad' piece of work, despite the levels. Your Dc has, I think, tried hard and been successful in choosing vocabulary and the story flows and makes sense. This child needs specialist support with the nuts and bolts of writing. If spelling can be made less effortful for him, better punctuation will then be easier to develop too.

(I am secondary and not specialist in Spld)

[slipshodsibyl]

I am trying to say that for me, the level is irrrelevant here as there are things going on that need addressing.

[CinammonAndCaramel]

Thanks for the opinions. It's very helpful.

The meeting is just a regular IEP review meeting. Nothing special. Just trying to get an idea of what should be in the IEP.

[SJKenyon]

As a year 5 and 6 teacher, I would say your child has problems with phonics and possibly needs to be on phonics recovery programme such as Sound Discovery. Possibly dyslexic? Hard to tell from just this little bit and not knowing child. I would agree that it looks like about a level 1a/ 2c. The lower you get with levelling, the more difficult it becomes because there is less to base a judgement on. The sentence structures, despite missing punctuation, suggest more ability than at first glance - using 'when' to start sentence for example and use of adverb quickly. Hope that helps.

[CinammonAndCaramel]

So, assuming this is not her best work, because it was done at home when she'd rather be playing, you think I can assume she is a level 2?

School want to use stile spelling and stile comprehension with her - though I'm not sure if that's what they use with the whole class or if it's actually an intervention. Does anyone know if stile is any good?

[bigTillyMint]

Has she been assessed for dyslexia? The spelling mistakes and reversals look consistent with a spld. What is her maths/science like?

I'm not familiar with stile.

[CinammonAndCaramel]

Oh yes, she has a dx of dyslexia. And she gets extra support.

[maizieD]

It doesn't look as though she's getting much phonics support!

This is Stile:
/www.ldalearning.com/Netalogue/downloads/Fact_sheets/LDA_Stile.pdf

I used it years ago. Not at all effective. In fact, I had one lad who had 'done' Stile so often at his primary school that he knew all the 'patterns' and could complete the exercise correctly just by knowing which pieces went where to get the right pattern! It did nothing for his spelling

I agree with SJKenyon, she needs a good phonics programme, one which involves learning to automaticity how the sounds are spelled and using them to write words. Spelling has a strong kinaesthetic memory element to it. Making patterns in trays won't supply that; she needs to be writing the words.

[mrz]

I agree stile is not effective and so bliddy boring

[CinammonAndCaramel]

So what kind of thing would you put on her IEP?

[mrz]

I would want a detailed assessment of phonic knowledge and a high quality phonics programme delivered by someone who knows what they are doing.
What is her handwriting like?