School reports results came as a surprise

It sounds like your son is a quiet child who is overlooked by his teacher. I wouldn't worry at all although I might ask for an explanation as it shouldn't be a surprise and it might well be wrong as based on what you have said he is doing really well at reading so the issue is the school. It doesn't matter too much at this age anyway.

I don't think 5 year olds should have homework. Would just try and spend summer doing things he enjoys and reading.

Did you mean to post this from your main name in a different thread or is this a NC fail?

Just had the same, although mine is working as expected in reading and maths, but not in spelling or writing. This was never communicated to me at any parents evening throughout the year . Last year I was made aware that my son was struggling with reading and phonics so I put extra focus on reading, and I wasn't surprised when his school report said he a little behind with reading. Again I have focused a lot on reading/phonics this year and he has made amazing progress, he's now exactly where he should be and passed phonics with a very good score. Had I known about the spelling/writing I could have done extra at home, on top of the homework. I wish the teacher had told me, but I am not that bothered, he is one of the younger ones. One of the best things about his report for me they commented on how kind he was to everyone, I loved that.

Based on my DS (also just finished Year 1), I suspect that there’s been a mistake somewhere. For context, he’s a good, accurate and fluent reader and got full marks in his phonic screening but he’s not reading chapter books or anything like that and he got GD in reading. A child who can read well and got a solid pass in their phonics screening should surely be at least meeting expectations?!

I also agree that this should have been flagged much earlier. Last term we were told where he was and what he’d likely to get at the end of the year. We also have had to be quite proactive though - DS teacher had no idea, for example, that DS could do all his times tables until we told her. I think intelligent and easy-to-manage children can definitely easily get overlooked.

But he is working to where expected.

You are obviously doing all you can OP. National targets for educational attainment at key stages are set at a national level.
Our children are not nationally uniform. They are individuals who progress and learn in different ways and at different rates . That is what is so stifling and limiting about education. No criticism of teachers or schools per se but it isn't a child centred system. Mostly the complete opposite of that leading to too many children 'failing' to hit targets when in reality they are not failing at anything. Being failed more like it by the adults around them often.

It is the summer now. OP your child is so young. Enjoy him, enjoy the time off if you have it too, make sure he enjoys it.. Let him pursue the things he loves including just playing and being a child for a few weeks. He is very young. It will all be fine

Homework? At 5-6years old?? Should just be reading at that age.

If DC's attention isn't great OP then i would ask for him to be sat at the front of the class/near the teacher for any input. It made a huge difference to DS who it turned out had ASD. Some kids can't filter out distractions, miss input as they are distracted and then struggle with the work because they've missed input. If he is quiet and well behaved though you might really struggle to get this put in place, we did even with a diagnosis.

You have the whole summer now OP to read and do fun activities with your DC, just find out what they need to work on and do a little bit each day over the hols in a fun way. No matter what your child's report or teacher says I would be constantly looking at ways to keep your child progressing. You can make learning much more fun and individualised to your childs interests, with 121 support at home than a teacher with a class of 30 can.

Agree 250%

I’m sorry but Y1! The poor lad is only 6 - most countries don’t even start formal education until Y2. Give him some space to develop at his own pace. Y5/6 is when you really need accurate reports imho.

@Mumisconfused

I’m Year 1 and have also just had end of year report. We got 34/40 - measured as working at expected. So - no this doesn’t sound right.

However, whether they will change it if not is another thing.

They’ll usually come up with these chestnuts : ‘oh but DC doesn’t always understand the text’ - or - ‘needs to do more problem solving’ for maths.

With my other DC, I often felt things were woefully inaccurate on her report, she often got ‘working towards’ for science but I knew she loved it at home, and now excels at secondary school.

It’s all a bit ‘non specific’ tick a box, plus the next year teachers never like it if a teacher has overestimated their upcoming class.

I’d focus on the phonic score which is great! On our reports it said anyone less than 32 would need extra support, so I’d assess that as ‘working towards’.

My first thought was check that it's not a clerical error of some sort. As you say, it's surprising that a child is still 'working towards' and hasn't been flagged to you at the parents evening that they're a little behind targets. A report shouldn't be the first you hear of it. How were end of Reception reports? If those were at expected, there's also a question of poor progress.

It's great you have an opportunity to talk to the teacher and find out what's going on. Just go in neutral and see what they have to say. And if there is an issue keep being a squeaky wheel next year, if he is behind school should be providing extra help and should welcome your support.

"National standard" is pretty robust these days. "Working towards" can be borderline. It's not unreasonable that at Easter the teacher thought he was likely to hit the target by the summer, but when it came to it, he just fell short.

Your child is one of probably one or two to you, but one of thirty to the teacher. It is right and proper that you care more than she does (that's not to say she doesn't care! But as a teacher, it's heartbreaking when I feel I care more than the parents do).

If you want your child to thrive, you need to be doing small bits and pieces consistently at home, no matter their current level, and whether directed by the school or not.

I agree and disagree with this. Yes you’ve had the opportunity but the teacher should have made you aware that he is struggling. Either there is a mistake and the report is wrong or your perception of him doing well academically isn’t accurate and the school should have kept you informed.

completely this.

Yanbu, but if I were you, I’d draw a line under this year and this teacher, and put your efforts in to speaking to next years teacher and getting next year off to a good start instead

I definitely don’t think you’re unhinged. You sound like a great Mum and the school should be doing more to keep you informed. Every year of school is important.

The school has to show progress though, and at yr 1 I really really wouldn’t be too worried about this at all.

Are you replying to your own OP?

Came here to say the same thing- as a mum of teenagers!! Yr1 is insignificant in the grand scheme of things as they are still very much working at different abilities!! and it surprises me that the school are doing reports like this for working towards/expected etc.

if there is something going on where you child is struggling academically it is recommended not to test for learning difficulties until after yr3 as there is still so much movement in learning ability prior to that.

if your child needs more challenging reading books however then I’m not sure why they are ‘working toward’ so you could ask the teacher for more information- I used to work in education and one of my colleagues copied and pasted a number of reports… so if you think there could be mix up then you are entitled to ask, although try to not to come across like you have a genius of a child who can do no wrong…

I was referring to my own post.

Also bear in mind that the summer term assessments take in all topics from the year, and children are given a little less support to see what they can actually do on their own. I’m a year 1 teacher and we do a writing task each term. The first two I gently supported, gave ideas, modelled how to write etc, but in the summer term, the task was to write a ‘story’ about where a magic key would take them. IT f course we talked about ideas and planned but it’s good to see what they can do without my support (to focus) (to remember full stops) (to use adjectives) so working towards will be something that happens. I agree with others though. I would have reported the ‘grade’ but in the report written how hard they try, what are their strengths, and not compared to the other members of class.

Sounds like you are doing a lot to support him at home. Some kids just aren’t academic though, but equally some are just late bloomers. I would bet he isn’t the only one in the class with a similar report. The working towards category exists because lots of children across the country fit into it.

@Mumisconfused

I think there's a learning curve here for parents and yes, I do think it's possible with class sizes and the behaviour of some children today that their middle of the range achieving, trouble-free classmates don't get such detailed scrutiny by the teacher as to learning style and ability.

IMHO you can't treat the school report like an MOT on your car. Car passes its MOT, great, nothing needs fixing at the moment. School report is a progress report and there's always additional stuff parents can be doing to boost their children's primary school learning, particularly as we know our own kids better than the teacher can in so many ways.

My two were both high end achievers and I was solo parenting with an extremely full-on job too so really I could have taken a completely hands-off approach as far as primary school was concerned.
I didn't do that however, I supplemented their learning when time permitted with additional reading material (my first suddenly got to skip 2 levels when school realised their reading ability was substantially beyond the books being sent home), puzzle books, board games, cooking/baking (great for concentrating on words/measurements in a recipe), the local libraries Summer Reading Challenge and other stuff.

I saw it as a partnership between school and home.

Sounds like you are doing a lot to support him at home. Some kids just aren’t academic though, but equally some are just late bloomers. I would bet he isn’t the only one in the class with a similar report. The working towards category exists because lots of children across the country fit into it.