At the end of Y2 she was a level 2B in maths, but level 1 in Literacy, as she is dyslexic (then un-diagnosed) and as she was going from and infant school to a junior school her teacher wanted to get her as much help as possible. So although she is brilliant verbally, she still struggles with her writing.
But I don't mind that too much
The thing is she won't meet "age related expectations" in maths. The school like to have "booster" sessions after school in Y6. Anyway, the time has come for her to have these booster sessions. The thing is, they are at the same time as she attends the highlight of her week; wind band.
DD isn't very good at many things, but she's reasonable at playing the flute. She's worried that if she doesn't go to wind band this half term she will be demoted to second flute, and another girl will then be "promoted" to first flute. Which obviously would be completely fair.
Except DD needs all the self esteem building she can get.
So do I accept DD will flunk her SATs anyway, and keep her confidence up by going to wind band? Or do I throw everything we've got at getting DD to understand maths?
(DD does have a maths tutor, but it's not working out well, as tutor doesn't "get" that DD has very, very poor working memory, as DD over compensates for this by acting incredibly confident and giving any old answer as though it is absolutely the right one. But sometimes it is the right answer, because DD does understand, making it difficult for the tutor to know where to "pitch" the maths. That makes DD sound horrendous, but honestly she's not, she's actually lovely.)
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Y6 DD isn't going to meet "Age Related Expectations."
DatsunCherry · 06/01/2016 21:45
Wind band. The booster lessons are for the school not for your dd. They might let her scrape another sub level or two in SATs but it'll just mean her secondary won't understand her real difficulties with the subject until she's been there for a while.
Music is good for maths. And general happiness 
Music is good for maths and the soul!
If her private tutor doesn't "get" working memory issues then s/he is a bit crap. Either save your £ or find someone else. 
DS is in bottom 1% for processing speed. I found that in year 5/6, the 11+ bond books and the GL assessments were absolutely brilliant. I was doing it with my DS for 11+ but if i were in your position i would get the maths books and work through them with your DD for 30 minutes every Saturday. 10 minutes tests, then marking, then discussion. Kids do 'number bonds' and a couple of other things these days that are different to how i was taught but that wasnt a problem and i didn't need a tutor. The repetitive stuff really helped cement everything with my son, and he got very good and spotting what they wanted and drafting the workings then looking at the question content. You can do that in a more focused way 1:1 than the group lessons. DS went up into top maths stream at school at the end of the year that we did this and has stayed there ever since (languishing toward the bottom of that set, admittedly 
). I'd ditch the tutor and go with that approach if it were me.
And let her do flute, of course. But think about making a 'deal' to ensure she knuckles down at the weekend (well, you may not have to. Depends on your DDs attitude).
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