Meeting with ks1 head and class teacher! Please help prepare

[Faz2015]

So my dd is on yr 2.. she is bright for her age... although the school doesn’t want to admit it.

Last year her maths ability and English was year 3-4... she wasn’t challenged much but she coasted along with the higher ability group. There was no extension Work given to her for her ability.

Last night we had parents evening, and i saw dds writing books... I was flabbergasted at the drop of standard in her writting. When i questioned teacher ( nqt new to school) she was shocked to hear that my dd works at a much higher level at home and in year one.

So today I went to see the head of ks1 and they have agreed to see me tomorrow. They keep on saying we are challenging her...I saw her work and it’s way lower than what she is capable of. They have stuck her in the higher set and that’s it.

Do any of you know where can I find the information about what the school is meant to do for a child according to their own abilities?

What should I challenge them with?

my dd has told me she feels invisible.

Plz help

[sirfredfredgeorge]

If your DD has never worked at the standard, such that it shocks the teacher - then surely that is the first thing to address. Can your child really have felt invisible since the first meeting with this teacher?

What has your child talked about her school lessons for the last half a term?

You need to talk to your child, find out why she's so under-performing "feeling invisible". Then you can take that to the school. Certainly the first step is to get her performing at her level, that won't just be you and your daughter, but if she's working at a low standard, then they are challenging her - it's just the challenge is her completing the work to her own standard.

[grasspigeons]

The first thing I would say is to take some examples of work she has produced independently at home and also bring in last year's school books if you have them, so you have them there to compare.

I don't really understand what you mean in the drop in standard of her writing? Is she being asked to do easier things so is performing accordingly - could she have had more support last year so now they are expecting more independent work.

[Witchend]

If she's not working at her best then you do need to look at that. You also have to be aware that they can work much better at home anyway.
Why isn't she working at school? Is she being distracted by someone or something? Does she not like the subject matter? If it has been since the start of term then it's nothing to do with the teacher not challenging her, it looks like a decision on her part.

But also working at 1-2 years ahead isn't uncommon. I'd imagine that there are others working that sort of level and beyond, so I'd be surprised if she'd not being challenged up to that level along with the others.

[jamdonut]

Did school tell you she was working at year 3-4 , last year, or is that your assessment because you've got her doing that level workbooks at home?
Maybe she can do these things for you at home, because you give her one to one attention, but finds it difficult independently? That doesn't make her any less "bright". If she is capable of good independent work , her teacher will know to stretch her, (especially an NQT who will have the up-to-date training, and mentoring from an established teacher.)

Perhaps she thinks "I've already done /know how to do this" and can't see the point of doing it again? That's one of the disadvantages of getting too far ahead of yourself.

[catkind]

The first thing I would say is to take some examples of work she has produced independently at home and also bring in last year's school books if you have them, so you have them there to compare.

This. Seeing is believing. And do tell them what your DD is saying to you about feeling invisible. Aside from anything you may be speculating about what level she can work, how she is feeling is a fact that will impact on her work.

We had the working down thing with DD last year, very similar situation went in to parents' evening and was shocked at the sloppy work. Luckily her teachers spotted it and were on her case telling me they knew she could do better before I got the chance to tell them.

I checked in with them a couple of weeks after this parents' evening, DD still wasn't working properly. But - that check in seemed to be enough to kick her into action, and she was brilliant after that. Something to do with knowing that all her adults were noticing?

They also sat DD with a lower ability group for a while. It seems the top group had figured out she was a walking dictionary and were making use of her, which she was finding distracting. So worth looking into whether there's anything in the environment which may be putting her off. They can be very able and for example distractible too, which you wouldn't necessarily see at home.

[user789653241]

Agree it's easier to work at higher level at home than at school.

I heard from TA friend, the child who is exceptional in literacy always produce way higher level of work than expected in the class, and for homework. The child is getting exactly same work as others. Just that she self differentiate and work at the higher level at her own will. For example, if the child is expected to write 3 sentences, she produce page full of work, using way more difficult words than expected level.
Maybe you can encourage her to do something like that?
Literacy is easier to self differentiate than maths, imo.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Not a year two student but we have worked with our child on further maths and reading with our son through reception and will have to continue to work at home with him to sate his natural curiosity.
For us we have to provide these materials though as we know that what he is curious about will not be covered in year 1.

[Pud2]

Why would the school not want to admit it?!

[MrsKCastle]

Why would your DD be hiding her true abilities? If she is a good, confident writer, that should be showing no matter what the task. Things like spelling, punctuation and handwriting are fairly automatic once they have been mastered. Could it be laziness, distraction or not wanting to stand out from the others? Have you had a talk to your daughter about it? Which specific aspects of her writing have dropped in standard? I think to tackle the problem, you need to get to the root of what has caused the change. It can't all be down to the teacher.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Very possible for an intelligent child to hide their abilities to make them fit in with their peers though.

[BubblesBuddy]

The new teacher would have had records of attainment from Y1 and have had a handover meeting with the Y1 teacher. The curriculum is set for Y2 so the school will be assessing her against that. She won't be set targets for Y3/4 work.

What children do at home with Mum isn't the same as at school. They won't assess work produced at home but it is an example of what she could do. You need to establish why she isn't doing her best at school. I would concentrate on that. How is her behaviour in the classroom? Is she settled and working well? Is she distracted and not motivated to do well?

[catkind]

If she's already mastered Y2 syllabus she should be set Y3/4 targets. Mastery is a high target as they have to be able to reason around the subject not just tick boxes, but our SENCo was clear it is something that can be achieved and moved on from.

Sadly any handover that happens at our school does seem to be ignored in favour of "we're still assessing them" for the first half of the new school year. Every year we seem to find ourselves pointing out at the first parents evening that DS is saying the work is too easy. Second parents evening is yes you're giving him extension work, no it's still not challenging him. A bit of something might happen in the summer term before getting lost in sports day/reports/assessments/end of year wind down. And then we start again.

[cansu]

I think you would need her books from the previous year to show that there is a significant dip. How do you know she is so bright that she needs extension work? Many people think their children are bright and many also feel they are more able than other children without really having much indication other than their own gut feeling about it. As another poster has also said you can't really judge her independent ability based on what she does when you work with her on tasks at home. I can sit with a child and prompt them and help them to answer comprehension questions so that they end up with all the right answers. This does not show that they are capable of this independently.

[catkind]

How did the meeting go OP if you're still around?