Worrying year 1 parents evening feedback

[catsheepteacher]

We recently went to parents' evening for our eldest child, who is in year 1.

I'll probably sound a bit PFB here but I was expecting pretty positive feedback. Obviously I'm biased, but to me DD seems to be getting on really well:

• She loves reading and sails through the books she brings home with no issues.
• We go to the library regularly and she chooses "chapter books" (90+ pages) which she reads at home independently.
• She gets 12 spellings to learn every week (which seem pretty challenging to me - words like adorable, eighty and applause) and gets close to full marks in her tests.
• She does her maths homework in no time with very little support.

However, the feedback we got wasn't glowing at all. We were told that she is meeting the expected standard on reading (but not exceeding) but below expected standards in both maths and writing. Apparently she doesn't use finger spaces and full stops consistently in writing, and often needs help to come up with ideas for her stories. But more worryingly, in maths she's apparently on an "extra support table" as she needs help to understand the questions and work through them, and they are not sure if she is on track to meet the expected standard by the end of the year.

This was a total shock and I'm really disappointed that nobody has mentioned before that she needs extra support with maths. I'm also confused because it doesn't match up with what I see, which is a bright, able child (accepting that there's probably some PFB bias going on there).

I'm not sure what to do next. DH thinks I'm overreacting but I would like a second opinion to properly understand what the issue is so am considering getting a tutor who can assess her and give us more feedback on what exactly she is finding difficult. I'm also going to push for more regular catch ups with the school to keep track of her progress. The teacher mentioned several times that she lacks confidence and needs to build her resilience so I'm also wondering if I should sign her up for something which might help her develop her skills in this area e.g. a drama club.

Feeling that I've let my DD down by assuming she was sailing through with no issues. And really disappointed that her school don't seem to be seeing what I see

I'm amazed at those word's also!

Wax on Wax off.

I wish sincerely I had got my dd a tutor sooner.

Op I got to page 3 apologies but is She comprehending what'she's reading?

I'm also baffled.

I've got two DC with different need's and one I realised quite late was struggling at school.
Teachers And ta's usually don't have any Sen training, no understanding of sensory needs or how to teach in a more creative way, for want of a better word.

They don't have tips or tricks to hand.
.as we can see from this thread their hands are also firmly tied by the curriculum and having to storm through work even if some DC area not picking it up.

Then we have to factor in large classes, other DC with needs not met and no time to tailor each child's needs.
Of course the most sensible thing to do is hire a tutor... who for the grand total of one hour a week can tailor what your child need's!

Support them And stop them falling behind.

Putting pressure on a child does not come in the form of paid for help, one hour a week.
. it comes from a child who realises they are behind And different.

I'd have a go at Numbots (maths game online for primary) before looking at tutoring. It's cheap, scaffolds well and is engaging!

Twinkl have this checklist for year 1 expected standard of writing. If your children's school don't share something similar with you, you need to ask why. This is what the vast majority of children should be achieving. It is not hard to understand.

Oops that was greater depth! My mistake. Expected standard attached here.

My school send out interim reports in the autumn term stating whether children are meeting the expected standard, working towards it or working at greater depth. We write oersonalised targets for each child so that by this state in the year they have moved on. We expect parents to take an active role in facilitating their progress.

Is it a large class. Perhaps they've mixed her up with someone else. This happens. Fret not.

I find it very hard to believe that any school publishes zero guidance on what children should be able to do at their age- related level. Does it not bother you tat you have no idea what they're learning? Or is school just childcare to you?

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

If you are all think you are so good at teaching please feel free to apply for teacher training and fill the gaping hole left by thousands of highly educated and trained professionals who have worked exceptionally hard during their careers only to be screwed over by ofsted, the DfE and in the biggest sense by the tory government.

I'm sure you'd all do a great job

During covid lockdown parents who complained about home schooling were told they were selfish for not wanting to spend any time with their kids and that caring parents would teach their kids. I didn't realise we still needed teachers now.

Quite a variety of responses on this thread - some saying I'm massively overreacting, others saying this might be an indicator of SEN. And some saying I should chill out and leave the teachers to it, others saying I should have read the entire national curriculum 😅

Anyway, to answer a few questions...from this thread, I do think that reading comprehension is something I need to look at with her. But to be clear, reading has not been raised by her teacher at all as an issue, although lots of posters keep coming back to it. She is on the orange book band I think.

They don't have differentiated maths homework, they all work from the same book.

I certainly do not make her feel like a failure and tell her she needs a tutor at home if she makes mistakes, although thanks for the vote of confidence in my parenting there!

Overall though this has been a genuinely interesting and enlightening thread and I've learned quite a lot about the expectations and how to find out more, so thanks to those posters who have been constructive.

I remember DDs reception report. I was told she was arty but will never be academic. I was confused myself because she read way above the expected level for her age. Next year different teacher totally different report. She a young adult now and is extremely academic and intelligent!

@catsheepteacher

This may be of use and is what some of us meant by comprehension.

www.icommunicatetherapy.com/child-speech-language/child-speech-language-hearing-literacy-communication-disorders-delays/language-difficulties/receptive-language-disorder/

My daughter had this all through primary apart from year 6, when the NQT recognised her potential so put her in a small group to push up to the higher level of maths work.

I was under no illusions that she was a genius, but thought she was probably slightly higher than average, so parents evenings were always a disappointment.
She missed out on the 11+ by a few points on maths and English, and smashed the non verbal one. School said she wouldn't get through on appeal so we chose a high school.

She's doing amazing at secondary - in the top 20 for nearly every subject. Current predictions for GCSE are Bs. Glowing reports from teachers - 2 of whom have asked why she didn't go to Grammar.
I'm pretty sure that if the primary had focused on all the children, instead of just the obviously very intelligent, very sporty, very musical or really struggling ones, she'd have left school with more confidence.

I cannot praise 'extra table support' enough! My kid is now an above average reader for Year 1. We started the year in phonics intervention/extra help. Just work with the school, if they're any good they will adjust as soon as she makes good progress. But more importantly, you know your kid. Mine is quite bright, but aren't they all lol. If there's no SEN, most kids will get where they need to be in good time. In fact, the best thing I did for DS was to just follow the schools recommendations, and NOT do any extra worksheets or tutoring. There's more things for a 5/6 year old to be spending their time on than maths and English imo. If you say she's advanced, then I would absolutely indulge her interests, and follow the schools guidance without overreacting and trying to add pressure to the situation.

@catsheepteacher

Quite a variety of responses on this thread - some saying I'm massively overreacting, others saying this might be an indicator of SEN. And some saying I should chill out and leave the teachers to it, others saying I should have read the entire national curriculum 😅

Anyway, to answer a few questions...from this thread, I do think that reading comprehension is something I need to look at with her. But to be clear, reading has not been raised by her teacher at all as an issue, although lots of posters keep coming back to it. She is on the orange book band I think.

They don't have differentiated maths homework, they all work from the same book.

I certainly do not make her feel like a failure and tell her she needs a tutor at home if she makes mistakes, although thanks for the vote of confidence in my parenting there!

Overall though this has been a genuinely interesting and enlightening thread and I've learned quite a lot about the expectations and how to find out more, so thanks to those posters who have been constructive.

Not the entire National Curriculum, but the part relating to Year 1 would be useful.

@WeRTheOnesWeHaveBeenWaitingFor

A child at my daughters school got a C in French. She was born in France and French is her first language. My point is sometimes a snap shot assessment when the teachers is watching doesn’t fairly represent a child’s ability.

At one school I worked at, they had a mass walkout from native Spanish speakers when they were given lower grades because their accents 'weren't Spanish enough'.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Never heard of a school not having an SEND register. That's weird. What if the SENCO (who has it all in their head) gets hit by a bus tomorrow? No good having info on children's files if no one knows which files to look in.

Every school I've worked in has had a register!

@SpringsSprung a quick google shows this. You'd better get your register sorted!

For the reading comprehension, if you go to Literacy Shed they have detailed questions for lots of real picture / chapter books. You can obviously get lists of generic questions but I found it much clearer to help work through what I needed to ask with proper examples. They have some free bits here www.literacyshedplus.com/en-us/browse/free-resources (both under 'reading comprehension ' and 'vipers') that might help.

For the maths, would you consider an app? We have doodle maths, which does a baseline assessment of where they are against the national curriculum. It will show you what centile she's on, and also which topics she has got right and which bits she's struggling on. The idea is she then does 2-3 min questions a day on it, gradually upping the difficulty.

[quote PurpleFlower1983]This thread is a real eye opener as to how little some parents know about the National Curriculum!

It’s here if anyone is interested:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381344/Master_final_national_curriculum_28_Nov.pdf[/quote]
To be fair not everyone on the thread is necessarily in England. The Welsh expectations at this age are definitely different - very few, if any, schools use spelling tests in my local authority at this age.

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

I find it very hard to believe that any school publishes zero guidance on what children should be able to do at their age- related level. Does it not bother you tat you have no idea what they're learning? Or is school just childcare to you?

Is that directed at me? If so then no the school doesn't publish this and yes it does bother me that I don't know what they're learning and no school isn't just childcare to me as otherwise why would I be posting this thread?

@CrabbyCat

For the reading comprehension, if you go to Literacy Shed they have detailed questions for lots of real picture / chapter books. You can obviously get lists of generic questions but I found it much clearer to help work through what I needed to ask with proper examples. They have some free bits here www.literacyshedplus.com/en-us/browse/free-resources (both under 'reading comprehension ' and 'vipers') that might help.

For the maths, would you consider an app? We have doodle maths, which does a baseline assessment of where they are against the national curriculum. It will show you what centile she's on, and also which topics she has got right and which bits she's struggling on. The idea is she then does 2-3 min questions a day on it, gradually upping the difficulty.

Yes I would definitely consider an app for maths! Doodle sounds great, I'll take a look.

@TheBearAndThePiano

It sounds more like you just aren't familiar with what children should be able to do (academically) by this stage in Year 1.

Yes, your dd does sound like she's behind but if you put in the right support at home and they're doing the right things at school, she'll catch up.

Reading - Focus on comprehension. Does she understand the story? Make inferences? Talk about characters feelings and why they might be doing something?
If you use colour book banded books (Oxford reading tree etc.) She should be on at least green by this stage of year 1 and reading at 90% fluency i.e. reading 9 out of 10 words automatically and only needing to sound out 1 in 10 words.

Writing - Does she know where to use finger spaces? Does she know the difference between letters/words/sentences? By end of year 1 they also need ! and ? so it does sound like there's a lot of work to do with writing.

Maths - what kind of worksheets do you get for homework? The expectations are quite a big jump from eyfs to year 1. Words problems for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division included! Comfortable with numbers up to 100. Telling time, money, reading scales for measurement, 3d shapes, direction...

And on top of all of this, learning how to actually work independently, at a table!

Sorry your post is confusing me.

Reading - no issues raised with reading and she's on the orange book band (assigned by the school not me)

Writing - what makes you say it sounds like there is a lot of work to do? I've said that she doesn't use finger spaces consistently otherwise what else have I said that suggests there is a lot of work to do?

Maths - we've done adding, subtracting, dividing arc using words. Not done time, volume etc yet. She's on the same maths worksheets as the rest of the class.

If a year 1 child isn’t using finger spaces consistently, they are not working at the expected standard. It’s as simple as that. They are a key element of punctuation and writing. Spelling complex words means that a child is good at spelling; it doesn’t mean they are good at writing.

You have had lots of people on this thread telling you that your child sounds advanced. They haven’t met your child and only have what you have told them to inform them. Please listen to the teacher who works with your child daily.
If you went to your doctor they diagnosed you with something, would you post a thread on Mumsnet to find out what random people thought based on a small amount of information that you gave them?!

@STARCATCHER22

If a year 1 child isn’t using finger spaces consistently, they are not working at the expected standard. It’s as simple as that. They are a key element of punctuation and writing. Spelling complex words means that a child is good at spelling; it doesn’t mean they are good at writing.

You have had lots of people on this thread telling you that your child sounds advanced. They haven’t met your child and only have what you have told them to inform them. Please listen to the teacher who works with your child daily.
If you went to your doctor they diagnosed you with something, would you post a thread on Mumsnet to find out what random people thought based on a small amount of information that you gave them?!

Not sure where I said I'd decided to ignore the teacher because I've concluded based on a MN thread that my child is actually advanced?