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Level this year 2 writing please!

10 replies

SweetElizaRose · 09/04/2016 10:57

I know levels don't exist exactly but I'm worried about ds's writing. He isn't 7 until June so a summer born and he has had very bad problems with his vision (partially sighted in one eye, other eye less affected but not brilliant) and is left handed. All of these things have meant his handwriting isn't great. It's legible but still big and it's nowhere near as neat as many of his classmates. As I understand it this means he will be stuck in the bottom assessment tier at sats because handwriting now counts for a lot. His teacher is going to see if she can get less weight put on the handwriting in ds's case because she says - handwriting aside - he should be in the top band. I'm not so sure... He wrote this independently this morning:

The Sports Aliens

A 100 miles away the Sport Aliens were playing goo ball. 1-0 2-1 4-3 went the scores. At full time gall city had 5 and hands team had 6. Hurray! went the crowd.
Chapter 2
The next game of the FA cup started. Let the game commense said the ref named Gong. It was the Heppees vs the Hangwaars. Peep! went the wisel. Pass hit throw shoot save hit! The Hangwaars were up 1-0 but the Heepees shot and and scored!
Chapter 3
Half time. When they got back on the pitch the Heepees played well but the Hangwaars won 18-15. They were given the golden cup. They were delighted but the Heepees were very upset. "Grang" they said.
PS grang means oh poo in alien speek.

I'd say this is average / below average even without the handwriting?

OP posts:
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Catmuffin · 09/04/2016 11:20

I can't help with levels, but it looks like he's doing well for a 6 year old to me and that he enjoyed it.

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sleeplessinderbyshire · 09/04/2016 11:28

My daughter (y2 August born) is apparently working at upper end of what is expected at y2 and whilst her work would be a bit more complex than your son's, what you've shared is well above the standard of the majority of her classmates (I am not a teacher and dd is my first child do nothing to compare to)

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mrz · 09/04/2016 11:33

His teacher needs to look at the latest assessment information. His handwriting won't prevent him achieving expected standard.
It isn't possible to assess a single piece of writing as children are now expected to demonstrate that they can use techniques across many pieces.

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 09/04/2016 11:51

The handwriting shouldn't prevent him being given the expected standard. It would only prevent him being given the greater depth.


The writing criteria are so ridiculous that I'm not sure what level they are given is really worth paying attention to. Even if you could give a judgement based on a single piece of work.

I don't think he's that far off either the expected or greater depth standard based only on that piece.

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mrz · 09/04/2016 11:59

Unfortunately for expected standard the child has to demonstrate questions, exclamations and commands (there aren't any in this piece although I'm sure he could use them), there isn't evidence of prefixes and suffixes etc etc ...which just goes to show you can't judge writing using a tick list.

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tobysmum77 · 09/04/2016 11:59

I had a comment at parents evening about dd's handwriting needing to be consistently neater. As long as it's just for greater depth that's reassuring. Tbh being too obsessed/ perfectionist about neat handwriting can hold dc back later on when they have to write fast so I refuse to get wound up about it and deliberately didn't tell her!

Op that's a lovely story Smile. And I've learnt a new word Grang Grin

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 09/04/2016 12:17

Which is why I don't think he's far off. Assuming he uses the features he's shown here in other writing, it's a case of using the different types of sentence and a few question marks. It might just be that it isn't evidenced here but is in his other writing.

Which does make it totally ridiculous that he could end up with working towards whilst being only a couple of criteria under both the expected and possibly the greater depth standard.

It's certainly not a piece of writing I would worry too much about. He's got the beginnings of being a very nice little writer I think.

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Iamnotminterested · 11/04/2016 21:55

Handwriting schmandwriting. DD2 has a very distinctive 'scrawl', for want of a better word, that didn't stop her achieving well above the expected last year and on to her secondary school's G&T list this year.

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Mimiloup80 · 11/04/2016 22:24

I'd say that this piece of writing is at the expected level for year 2-perhaps higher if the teacher takes previous pieces of writing into consideration that may better demonstrate a mastery of other skills.

What stands out the most is the lively imagination, range of sentence structures and some great vocabulary! These composition skills can be hard to grasp. I think it's a lovely piece! I've been teaching for a while.

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 11/04/2016 23:50

The problem is, unless he ticks every one of the specific criteria in the writing exemplification he can't be given the expected standard however good the rest of his skills are.

As an individual piece it's missing at least 3 criteria, but I suspect that those may be covered in his other work.

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