I hope someone can offer some advice. I have a DD finishing up year 3 at an outstanding state primary. Her end of year report has come back to indicate that she has not met any of the objectives for the year but is "working towards them". I read that as failing the year - ... in my day you would have been held back. I know that the curriculum has changed and become much more difficult but am very worried about her progress. She has struggled in Maths and reading since reception and has only almost kept up through loads of extra work at home (reading a book a day for over a year, and maths factor every day for the last 16 months). We are not expecting too much of her. We are not neurotic, nor are we pushy parents - I would be quite happy for her not to have to do extra work at home and be able to spend her free time playing sport but feel that without the extra work she will never stay within any striking distance of her classmates and some point will not be able to catch up.
We have had her assessed by an Educational psychologist (last year) who has said there isn't anything they can put a label on as such in terms of learning difficulties. They reckoned that we were comparing her with her very able older brother and that she just picks things up a bit more slowly. I know however that there is an issue with her understanding new concepts as well as memory day to day.
There are no behavioural issues - she is, by teacher accounts, an attentive, polite and well-behaved girl. It isn't that she is too busy chatting to learn or not paying attention. I have asked all the questions about attention, behaviour etc. We have had learning interventions in the school and have met with the SEN co-ordinator who also looks after kids who struggle. Their view was that she was doing OK and had roughly caught up. We last met at Easter but clearly she is NOT doing OK as she hasn't met any of the targets for the year. I have asked for another meeting to discuss the end of year report.
Her older brother is currently at Whitgift and so we are potentially thinking of moving her to an independent school near Croydon in the hopes that she will do better in a smaller class, where she can ask questions that someone will answer (often, at the moment, there is no one available for questions as they are helping at other tables).
DD is an incredibly social, sporty and very artistic child and so would benefit from a school where she could do sport every day and develop her art skills but that would also offer small class sizes and some kind of extra support (as part of the fees - not in addition to them!!). We would be looking for a school that would take her from Primary into the senior school as I believe she would struggle with the 11+.
One of the schools we are looking at is Royal Russell as it has great sport facilities and is a relatively easy commute on the tram from where we are. Some mumsnetters have indicated that it isn't as academic as some of the other Croydon schools which is fine as we are looking for somewhere that would nurture her talents but get her up to scratch in academics as well.
Can anyone provide any guidance on what RR is like for a student who struggles in terms of support provided, how difficult it is to transfer from the junior to the senior school and whether this might be a good fit? We plan to visit the school asap. If there are other schools that you know of that might also be a good fit and commutable (we are in Wimbledon) grateful for any feedback on them. I don't mind mixed or single-sex - it is the academic support, art programs and sport co-curricular that are important.
Sorry for the rambling post - grateful for any advice.
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Royal Russell for a struggling Child...
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ALittleLess · 05/07/2016 12:52
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