Confused by call from school

I'd have to see the details of this study.

Typically, the teacher teaches to the middle group of kids. The higher end get given extra/harder work and expected to teach themselves with a bit of extra help from the teacher if they need it. The lower group work separately with the TA because they need adult support to access it.

The group with the TA are already making slower progress which is why they need the TA. Unless this has been accounted for the study results are obvious.

OP- Has she been meeting ARE all through school? It is strange that she would suddenly be put in this group for extra support if she's met expectations in maths previously.

If not, you may have misunderstood previous reports. When I was a new teacher I had a few occasions sitting in front of a parent and talking about their child and the support in place for them only for the parent to suddenly ask why their child needed support. I'd incorrectly assumed that the parent was aware that their child was miles behind and needing significant support in class, when actually, they'd read "Working towards expected levels" as "About average" and had no idea.

The offer of an intervention will not be from day one. The teacher will have their assessment data from last year and will have spoken to their teacher from last year to who may have flagged it. Either way it's brilliant they are being offered so early.

This.
OP if you are worried about her needing help just practice maths at home too, ask her teacher how and how often you should do maths at home. Maybe 10 min every day after dinner?

They put the higher achievers in one year with the lower achievers of the year above together when my step-daughter was at school. If she's being taught with the year above take it as a compliment.

It sounds to me like this has to do with a mixed class. So say Form 1 and 2 are together. I am in lreland so may not use the correct terms. That teacher has to cover 2 maths programmes so the 10 of one grade is being taught by some kind of support teacher. This is good so both grades get the full attention of a teacher. But she needs the approval of the parents. No issue!

They didn't say that the group was down to ability. It was the classes being split wasn't down to ability.

Deliaskis is right i think in saying that there prob happens to be some extra time/ staff/ resources available to provide this intervention and the new teacher consulted with the old teacher to come up with a group of children likely to benefit. I expect as it's a morning intervention, it'll be pre teaching of that day's maths work so the group gets a little head start.

Ask for a meeting and clarify what is going on? Is she behind or is it to do with taking longer to grasp concepts this sounds most likely when she is still being taught the same concepts. If just finished ks1 possibly previous teacher was asked to identify children who may need further consolidation before moving fully into ks2 work

Who is with the other 20 children?

@scorpiogirly but you said you are raging about it?!

I'd be a bit annoyed too, OP, but I probably wouldn't say anything yet. You could have been working on her maths over the holiday if it was a concern.

I wouldn't worry though, I'd just get a book of those 10 minutes Maths challenges aimed at her age range and work though two or three a week reinforcing the key concepts.

I think there are some studies which show that children taught by TAs make less progress than those taught by teachers. I would get her some support at home - there are good online programmes as well as workbooks you can do (I always like CGP).

I wouldn't be overly worried. Maths has always been my weakest subject. But that's because I'm arty & creative. We can't all be the same! You never know your DD may catch up when she is abit older. She is still only very young.

I think op meant the mixed age classes weren’t split by ability, not the intervention class?

I can think of a few reasons why there was nothing mentioned earlier. Your DD was probably doing 'fine' but at the start of the new year they find they have some extra resource they weren't expecting and thought these few children might just get a boost from some time in a smaller group with more personal attention. It doesn't mean there's an issue or that she is struggling with maths, just that a smaller group setting can help some children build confidence and ask questions. I know my DD for example at that age would wait for ages to put her hand up and ask something and then everybody else had moved on, so this kind of thing was great for her. It was very little to do with maths ability.

There doesn't always need to be a slow burn of from a tiny challenge to a bigger problem before an intervention is considered (and then people would complain that nothing was being done for weeks and there was now a lot to catch up on), it's more likely to be 'oh look we have a few hours of this person's time, let's see if this group might benefit in a smaller setting'.

Her previous teacher would've identified a group of children who woukd benefit from this type of intervention. They would have communicated this with the Y3 teacher at the end of last term I imagine. It should have been her Y2 teacher that suggested it to you at end of year parents evening or in her report so you and your daughter would've been both prepared.
At the start of term teachers are expected to produce action plans identifying intervention groups using recommendations from the class's previous teacher.

My daughter is the same - it's a symptom of her dyslexia, according the the ed psych. She is also a very bright girl who scored extremely highly in other areas - but her processing speed was in the bottom 5%. She too was given additional maths support in primary. I, too, freaked out about it because it is wasn't explained to me very well. (And she is now doing very well in an academically selective secondary school - but maths remains an area of relative weakness. She gets by in it though - her dad and I may seek extra Maths tuition for her before GCSE if necessary, but hoping it will not be).

Don't worry OP, your response is natural. None of us actively want our kids to be struggling in a subject, and if they are we would of course like this to be properly explained to us.

But on balance, as others have said, it's probably a good thing she is getting this help.

Maybe request a phonecall with the form tutor, so you can get an overall picture of how she is doing in all subjects, what you can do to help etc.

If I had known we could have worked on it over the holidays.

many will have done

so it’s just trying to get everyone on more of an even keel

I wouldn't think twice about it, there's nothing wrong with your DD getting a bit of extra support. You do sound offended by it, don't be, it's not a slight on you or your child.

This happened years and years ago with my DD.

I was a bit bewildered but let it play out.

I was bewildered because I had watched her use Scratch on Kahn academy and after basically aged 8 come up with algebraic functions to write code to make a ball travel in various linear directions and also her party piece was factors and multiplying very big numbers in her head.

It actually turned out she was and is extremely mathematical, top grades in school, Engineering in Uni but she had difficulty with the way questions were worded at that age due to what turned out to be dyslexia so taking it slower set her up extremely well until she got very bored and they moved her up again.

Apologies, it was your second post. No difference really though, you still said you were raging.

I'm raging about it

Why?

My son is one of these children he's in 2nd class & his resource teacher is amazing,& it has helped him so much. It is suspected he is dyslexic so hopefully will be tested this year. He is a real visual learner & remembers facts really well but he does need that little bit of extra help & honestly I'm so grateful he gets it