Confused by call from school

When you say 'teacher who helps out' is this a qualified teacher, employed by the school or a teaching assistant working under the direction of the teacher? I would be a bit unhappy if my child was not getting any input at all from the teacher for maths for the whole year. Maybe some pupils are progressing faster than the rest of the class and your daughter is being taught at a more normal pace? I would feel wary if the school is focusing more on the high achievers who are getting more of the teachers time.

Splitting the classes sounds like it is to do with ablilities, but could also be to do with staffing and how to accommodate the number of pupils? Is it to do with behaviour or special needs? Are they repeating a years work if they have two year groups together?

Speculation aside, the only way to resolve this really is to go and have a chat and ask lots of questions!

This exactly! It's well known that a child's progress can regress over the summer holidays. She may have regressed (perhaps forgotten times tables etc) while other children have progressed more (eg my son did maths workbooks to keep on top of his skills). Thus, the gap widens.l and becomes more noticeable.

Exactly. And also, she might have the ability but not the attainment (they are different things).

To be fair, there's always going to a first time you hear about it. You're always going to wonder, at any point, why you weren't told sooner. It's possible that they had a start of year maths assessment the first week back (though first day back does sound admittedly harsh) like my Year 2 son had (maths and reading for him) and gaps were identified or confirmed.

Also, at the school my sons are at, most parents do work with their children on maths and reading and writing over the holiday - we did. So it may be more than other children are leaving ahead. I remember one holiday when my son went from one of the worst in the class to one of the best at reading, so naturally the teacher's attention for additional support moved elsewhere.

If I were you I'd just be glad that the school is doing something 'extra' and perhaps ask for more info on how she is going, and what you can do to support from home. Working WITH the school rather than against it will serve your daughter best in the long run!

It’s not necessarily about ability, it could be, it could also be about the learning styles of the children v how maths is being taught to the majority of the class, one size does not always fit all. Anyway, sounds like a good intervention to fill gaps and build a strong maths foundation!

In my opinion any opportunity for more focused, smaller classes should be grabbed and received wirh thanks,, regardless of ability.

And this is why as a teacher I hate parents like you!
If you think your able to do so much more than us why don't you just home school her after all you know that she's a maths genius because she's done a bit of maths with you in the car and are therefore much better than any teacher out there!

Of course there does. You have to be below a particular centile or have a certain number of scores below a certain centile. I think the test y son did was Weschler but there are others.

Unfortunately, due to time, resources & money many children who might benefit, never get tested.

You can’t just say “oh my child is a bit slow with processing so give her another 30 mins”

There has to be some kind of professional opinion and diagnosis confirming extra time required

IN fact there were quite a few children at my son's selective school who had slow speed of information processing. Possibly a higher percentage than many other schools as the school screened for these things.

A child with slow speed of information processing would get extra time for a grammar school exam

Extra time is to compensate for specific disabilities which slow students down though, for a range of reasons including processing speed.

Exams like the 11+ are designed especially to test speed and accuracy as part of suitability for Grammar stream.

There are different factors which affect academic potential and a child who is highly skilled in other areas might be able to compensate for a slow processing speed, but being able to take information and process it quickly is definitely one factor.

I'm assuming it's vertical grouping, where the children stay with the same teacher for two years. This is how I used to teach, and I loved it. The first year, the yr4 children help yr3 settle in. The following year, they are confident and settled and help the new yr3. Transitioning to a new year is easier, and the teacher gets to know the children better, With a wider age range, children who need support or who need extra challenges can be catered for. The two parallel classes probably work together, making for a more interesting and rewarding experience.

Children move in and out of needing support, and the nature of the support varies. If your child needs a different approach now, that may change later. It doesn't mean that they are less able, just that extra support will help them now.

Pause
Think about it
Slowly

Hmm well a lot of people would argue that processing speed is an important aspect of ability and intelligence, otherwise tests and exams would not be time limited

A lot of people would be incorrect then, which is why there is such a thing as extra time in exams.

Well what I do know is that you didn’t do anything over the 6 weeks holidays.

So a reasonable assumption surely that you don’t do anything maths with her post school.

and for the 100th, she wasn’t behind LAST TERM

On day one they do lots of little tests to gauge the child’s current level. And clearly not having done anything over summer perhaps was evident compared with others that had regularly done, let’s say 15 mins 3x a week.

So give her a few weeks and if ability isn’t an issue, she’ll be out of the godforsaken! Group.
if you want to expedite the process, sit down with her a couple of times a week and once at. Weekend

Gosh, what an overreaction. It often dosen't become apparent until the start of a new school year that there is a need for support. It may be that she has lost some skills over the summer holiday or the move to year 3 has highlighted a few gaps in her learning as they move on to more difficult work. To be furious is the complete opposite reaction to what you should have. Your child is in a school where the have picked up on this and are putting measures in place to help. To be furious is bizarre.

I would imagine it will be activities developing times-tables and word problems skills with games etc. Not a criticism of her ability, as you seem to have taken it, but consolidation to enable her to progress in class. If you engage and ask you can better support her.

Good lord op

sitting down with her regularly and doing something school work at home

The ability comments are not related to the maths. They are related to the mixed classes that OP questioned.

It was the mixed classes that they said wasn't to do with ability not the maths.