Year One targets

[Jellyboobs]

Hi everyone.
My DD is is year one and I was told last term that she was doing fantastically and was possibly going to “achieve above expected” for her age at the end of the year if she worked on certain aspects like phonics.
Now, because she is not yet writing in cursive, and her spelling goes out the window when she is writing sentences, (very good otherwise) she is predicted as achieving only “working towards expected”.
I would like to know how this will affect her as she goes through school. As far as I can see she is bright and keen and loves reading, maths, and school generally. If she doesn’t add these elements to what she can already do, will it affect how she is treated as she goes into year 2?

[FlameOutTeacher]

Whereabouts are you OP? By year 1 do you mean first or second year at Primary school? Because honestly at this stage as long as she's happy at school and working where they expect I really wouldn't worry.

[Jellyboobs]

Hi Flame, she’s in year one, started last September, and she’s age 6. We’re in the north west uk.
I did think it was less pressured in these earlier years, and then it got more serious in year 2 with the SAT’s but her poor teacher seems under pressure to get the children through at the “working as expected” level by the end of the year.
I’m worried that if she doesn’t tick these last two boxes she’ll be labelled in some way as underachieving at age 6.

[Naty1]

I would be surprised if it's the cursive writing.
When you say about the spelling, is she spelling phonetically? Or is she struggling with the irregular words?

[Jellyboobs]

She spells well if it’s single words, but when she’s writing a story she’ll start to spell phonetically like “dade” for daddy and switching c for k,
words she can easily spell as a one off.

[LoopyLoo92]

Yr 1 is a BIG learning curve for children. Until now most of their schooling and nursery has been play based, it can be a big shock to the system. My dd is in yr 1 and its taken until now for her to settle and start asking the teacher when shes struggling....last year she was very outgoing and top of her class.

so try not to worry too much.

I would speak to the teacher and ask what it is exactly that is holding her back from achieving "working at" or "secure".
If it is just the cursive writing...Then I would invest in a whiteboard and practice at home. It doesn't have to be "sit and do a page full of cursive letters", let her draw a picture and write what it is in cursive or label it in cursive...make it fun.

[Jellyboobs]

Thank you LoopyLoo92, I hadn’t thought of a whiteboard, that’s fab. I will definitely try that out and have another chat with her teacher.
Thank you everyone.