Missing Free Flow to complete work

[bobbycock79]

My DD is in Y1 of a very small school and is in a mixed age class. There are only 6 other children in Y1 and she is the youngest (Aug born) . I was always led to believe by her nursery teachers and others who comment that she is bright and articulate. She loves school and is very sociable but since starting Y1 the expectations seem to be undermining her confidence. She is apparently the weakest in her cohort at Maths and needs more time to complete the tasks. She has told me on more than one occasion that she is denied free flow play as she has to stay at the table to complete her work whilst she sees the others play. She is a well behaved child and really wants to do well but she is youngest by more than 6 months in Y1 and is beginning to get downhearted. Teacher says she is rushing her work to try and finish and I thought of course she is as she is desperate to play with her friends. Should my daughter be 'punished' this way ? I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable. We already do nightly reading, spellings and other project work and have asked how we can support her maths but the teacher seems reluctant to advise us.

[AllMYSmellySocks]

YANBU. I would go in and insist she gets the same opportunities to play as the others. Sitting too long at a desk is bad for children's development she'll be at a disadvantage if this is forced on her.

I'd be willing to do a bit of work with her at the weekend but nit have her miss out on playtime.

[CatWhisker]

I think she should be allowed to play like the others. My dd was very young in the year and hardly had any playtime during lessons by year 1 and i know she would have benefited from it. I know in the 70s we had free play every afternoon until end of KS1 at my primary.
To support her in getting up to speed she could do Carol Vorderman online maths or Mathletics. If i remember it assesses where they are up to and bases it on that.

[CatWhisker]

You could say "I'd like her to have the same playtime as the others and to support her maths i will sign her up to Carol Vorderman online maths." I don't work for Carol Vorderman it's just the one my eldest did at that age!

[PerspicaciaTick]

Y1 was the time that my DC2s school started expecting them to finish work at the expense of play time. However the work was tiered, with a basic piece of work plus extension work...So as long as the basics were done that was enough to play but completing extension work was rewarded.
What extra teaching support is your DD getting for her maths?

[bobbycock79]

thank you for your replies, it confirms what I thought. I will certainly have a look at the carol vorderman site. We have been playing some oxford owl maths games online but maybe need something more. I spoke to the teacher again who has now given me her maths book to look at and a note as to what they are doing this week so I can go over at home. My next step will be to ask what extra support she is giving without being denied play.

[4point2fleet]

Could you ask if they will retrospectively drop her down a year? It is your right to request this for a summer born before they start, but I don't see what difference it would make if they put her back into Reception now, especially as she is in a mixed age class.

As the mother of an August born, I can say there will always be some sort of niggle cause by being not quite ready, it's just that the niggle changes.

[ilovesushi]

I would go in and speak to the teacher very very firmly. My DS has dyslexia and it is an ongoing challenge every year trying to convince the new teacher that he should not lose time letting off steam in the playground/ art/ music etc to finish English or maths. For sure, if he is being naughty, they can punish him, but the work needs to be differentiated so he can successfully finish it in time. I am pretty black and white about it now verging on arsy but I started off calm and reasonable back when he was a Y1!