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 suspect her shyness and unwillingness to make mistakes is part of it.
My youngest son (now 12) has always been like this.
It is a benefit as well as an issue. At secondary he has never missed the bus or forgot his pe kit (unlike his brother).
He is not my PFB so we have found it easier to accept who he is and work around it.
He is still shy, still an excellent reader (reading age of over 16y at 11). He is OK at maths, but unlike his brother not top set.
He avoids big groups, but surprisingly enjoys drama lessons at school. He would have hated stagecoach though, and even refused to do swimming lessons, although learnt to swim with us.
I would say try not to compare her with others - even though school will (meeting expectations etc). Encourage the things she loves (reading etc) and remember that not meeting the narrow expectations of the national curriculum is not failing.

As a side note, an extracurricular I suggest is acting classes. Excellent for confidence and really helps in developing comprehension skills.

@roseberrycherry

In regards to reading, as a previous poster mentioned it's about comprehension on the story, not always how well they can read. We had the same with my DS who, at home had no problem with reading the text.

IMO comprehension comes when they’re reading fluently enough that they’re not having to concentrate on making out every word. Or at least most or many of them.

This was brought home to me after a training session at work, to help understand the problems of people with poor literacy skills.

We were given an A4 sheet to read, normal sized print, but all in ‘mirror image’.

Having (painfully) made out the words, we were then asked questions on the content.
We then realised that we’d had to pay so much attention to making out the words, that we hadn’t really taken in what it was about.

Must surely be much the same for children who aren’t yet reading fluently.

This has been my yr6's feedback through most of primary school really and he was 1 mark away from 'exceeding' in his SATs. The extra support will be really useful and it will all just 'click.'

An example of fluency/comprehension:

Almost all of the children could read the sentence “The man knew the road like the back of his hand”.

None of the children was able to tell me what this meant.

More importantly, none of the children asked me what it meant, and just continued reading fluently to the end of the paragraph.

I think the only thing you need to do is to make sure you are listening to her read and reading to her. Try and occasionally have a chat about what is happening / what the characters are feeling / what rhyming words she can spot / what certain words mean (if possible without her feeling like you're testing her!)
Maths - I'd leave the school to it. They sound like they are supporting her well.
Spelling - totally wouldn't blame you if you stopped focussing on these. They sound ridiculous for year 1.

Op to be clear I didn't say your dd has Sen
She sounds absolutely fine to me, however what I am trying to say is,if she needs extra support in maths for instance , that extra support Will never be worth a tutor who tailors things to your child.

Tutors are always referred to in a bad way on here , the poor child etc When I wanted to make it clear I wish I had got one for my dd sooner.

It's been the best thing for her.

She really likes them, they can tailor everything to her needs ( mild Sen) and it's totally bespoke. You wouldn't even get this in a private school.
That's all.

Keep an eye on her but if she's still not meeting expectations then please don't be put off tutor's ( if you can afford it).

My dd spends hours every night doing exactly how she pleases!.one hour a week is nothing but has helped her confidence and ability enormously.

As an aside my other DC is older and always did very well at school. But when then because they have to literally box tick stuff off it can seem like they are not doing well.

She sounds like shes doing really well.

I'd be happy if my kids were like that at that stage.

And you sound like a very engaged and supportive parent.

I think she'll end up doing very well indeed.

Don't get a tutor when she is so young (and I am a tutor! ). Just make a point of checking her maths homework rather than let her do everything independently. Get some fun maths workbooks with plenty of activities/colouring/stickers, to do in a quiet moment. Please don't panic at this stage.

She sounds fine to me.... my daughter is year 2 and we got similar feed back there still so young. I don’t think the extra support table is a worry really not at this age. As other have said maybe ask 4 some extra fun work you can to at home to support her maths.

She sounds to be doing fine. Try not to worry.

Haven't read the full thread but kimono was really helpful for my dc when they were younger and struggling with maths, only took a few months for it to sink in and afterwards they began to exceed at school. They do maths and English and a reasonable price.

Not Kimono Kumon

I’m a bit sceptical to be honest, my son in yr4 is getting the spellings you have said your child is getting in yr1. My youngest in yr1 is bright and top of her class but is in no way achieving what you say your child is. That’s a very high standard for a 5/6 year old.

Reading the feedback you got, just seems so depressing. She is in yr 1 ffs. There is so much time for her to get to grips with literacy and numeracy, unless there was something glaringly obviously wrong - they should have just reassured you that she's doing fine. Concentrated on all the positives, talked about her behaviour, etc and perhaps given some ideas of how to help with confidence. At that age all that really matters is that they are developing the tools to learn ( being able to concentrate, sit still for periods of time, eager and ready to learn) and that they are fitting in with their peers. That's all they have ever done at my children's primary schools, but I'm in a home nation that doesn't have league tables!

I’ve not had time to read whole thread but if she is lacking confidence it could be that she’s holding back in class for fear of being wrong or just not wanting to be so forth coming. My daughter (also yr1) was quite lacking in confidence (you’d never know outside school, very loud and proud) and we signed her up to a drama type after school club and it’s done wonders for her. Even teachers have noticed the difference. I would highly recommend.

Yes the comprehension aspect is a big part of it. My DS2 in year 2, I would say is average in reading, SPAG etc but does very well on the comprehension which brought him up.

On the writing, it has only just clicked with him in the last few months, his writing has come on leaps and bounds. Literally couldn't read anything he wrote until November last year.

In both my DC classes you get children who are excellent at maths but struggle with English and vice versa. Most hover around the middle.

Remember it's a marathon not a sprint.

Our DD was bright but not very confident at that age and that affected how ‘well’ the school perceived she was doing, a bit of a perfectionist which impacted on how well she finished her work, particularly maths. Roll on some years and she has just been awarded a double scholarship, one of which was academic, to her next school. Don’t worry about it at all at this age 😀

Is the school 'high achieving?'

Those spellings don't feel like yr 1

No advice OP but we bought this for our year 1 and she loves it, it's helped her understand maths questions and problem solving rather than just doing a page of sums

Seriously, this is so annoying! She sounds perfectly fine. Better than fine. My DD had a similar response from a teacher once, who also sucked the confidence from her. After a peer review by teachers from another school it turned out she'd been undermarking all the kids. Is the teacher new to the post maybe? My DD is now in yr 8 and smashing it. No extra tutor required. Stick on your child's side and they'll be fine.

Has she got your child confused with another? This happened once to one of my DC!
I noticed that the teacher was looking at results for the wrong name....

Sounds like she's doing well, especially with reading, to me! It could be that the teachers just aren't seeing it at school if she's a bit more shy there than at home? When my oldest was in primary he didn't move up a reading level for ages because even though he read perfectly well he wasn't showing his comprehension answering questions about the story as he was very shy with talking.

We also had a teacher who favoured the boys in the class. The girls' mothers realised that they'd all suffered constant nit-picking criticism and the temporary teacher did not have her contract renewed. This probably sounds unlikely but there are good, bad, and truly appalling teachers out there.

I shouldn’t worry too much at year 1. My daughter also read loads so had a wide interest and vocabulary, but was slow with spelling and writing so she was put in extra English. She’s now doing her Doctorate in virology