“Working towards” in writing

[Writingquest]

DD (Y2) is “expected” in everything apart from writing, which is “working towards” in her school report. How can I help her during the school holidays? I’m spoiled by her sibling who’s older and has always been “exceeding” in every area of learning according to school reports with no help at home whatsoever. DD’s teacher never mentioned she’s struggling (I’m quite cross about it), although I can see that spellings is not easy for her. She doesn’t have a problem with putting her ideas on paper and her fine motor skills are great (handwriting neat) but she’s not motivated enough for the correct spellings. If her writing can be read by others, it’s good enough in her world. Is anyone in the same situation? She did pass all the phonics screenings ok and her reading is average.

If she's Y2, writing is down across the board and largely being attributed to time missed due to covid. I'd buy her a couple of those KS1 writing books and get her to practice for 5-10 mins a day. It doesn't have to be a lot. If she's exceeding at everything else I wouldn't worry much at all. She'll likely catch up but there's no harm doing a little extra with her at home.

Working towards doesn't mean struggling, our school sent these guidance notes

Below (1 year+ below age related expectation)
Working towards (working within the year group for age related expectation)
On track (on track for age related expectation)
Above (above age related expectation)

At year 2 I really wouldn't worry, she's within the usual levels for her age, and maybe she'll pull up a bit in yr 3 but maybe she won't and writing will be fine but not something she particularly excels at, that's ok.

Perhaps partway through the first term of yr 3 you could check in with the teacher and see how she's settled into the yr 3 writing work and if all is ok, but that report is fine.

I’d probably just encourage her to read as much as possible, and to write for pleasure. You can play some fun story writing games if writing isn’t something she’d ever choose to do. Spelling can come later, it’s not really important when you’re 7 imho

@RNBrie
Thank you!
Her older sibling is exceeding in everything despite Covid, and DD is expected in everything except writing. I know her foundation years were tough because of Covid and I’m grateful that at least she managed to maintain reasonable progress in everything else, but it’s the first time we had something below “expected” and I feel a bit sad, blaming myself a lot. I do see she’s not so motivated as her sibling though.

My yr 2 ds is also working towards in writing. He’s at age expected as everything else, exceeding in reading, but working towards in hand writing.

Honestly though, his hand writing is atrocious.

@CurlsLDN
thanks! It’s nice to see things in perspective. Our school sounds a bit more critical about “working towards”. In their words it means she didn’t manage to secure all the target skills of the year group, but she’s not “below” yet.

Working towards doesn't mean struggling. However if you want to help her, read with her, get her to write stories, keep a diary write about places you have been. You can also pick up the KS1 writing books in most supermarkets which are quite useful for beginners.

probably not a good idea to compare siblings either?

@Soubriquet
My DD produces some neat joined handwriting but is making ridiculous mistakes… sometimes really funny. Country would be cuntri in her writing, school would be skool. You’ve got the idea :)

It doesn't mean anything about her other than that she is working towards the expected level. It's not failure.

As a pp said lots of reading and talking about stories and even talking about the stories you watch on TV/movies will help. Don't push her to write boring stuff every day, that'll just make it worse, but you could play nonsense rhyming games, do treasure hunts and spy messages, reading and making comics etc. But start with reading and stories.

@godmum56
in my mind I compare but never say anything. I praised her efforts and never said a word about her report. It’s more like a blame myself for not helping her enough, I know I’ve made a wrong judgment about how much I should do at home.

Teacher here: whilst working towards isn’t a massive red flag it should raise some level of concern that your child isn’t meeting expectations of a child her age. Does the re sport specify areas. If you really want to help and gap fill you can Google Ks1 TAF writing and see what is expected of a y2 child - eg handwriting, consistent punctuation use, coherence etc. see where the issue is and if you want to, try writing regularly addressing these gaps.

Ds does really bad writing. You can’t even read it for what it is half the time.

I like the suggestions of the exercise books. I might do that myself

Our DD was working towards in writing at the same age. She progressed massively when she started reading lots independently, and now in Yr4 she’s above expectations in almost everything, including writing. It was Harry Potter that got her going, she read the books compulsively, then moved onto others, and she is a real book worm now. We’ve seen a massive improvement in all areas since she started reading seriously. Her teacher commented that it’s the reading that’s the key, and we haven’t done anything else at home so it must be!

Its not something you need to feel bad about, children learn things differently and co id was very disruptive. If its spelling that is tripping up her writing, I would focus on sight read words. At seven when you are learning spelling, the way she is writing things like skool and thort are logical spellings, its just not the accepted spelling, but that only comes with practice and having seen what the word looks like a lot.

If she watches tv, maybe put the subtitles on, it helps with making the links between what words sound like and what they look like.
Encouraging reading in a fun way, magazines, books about tv shows etc
We used to have a sight read words poster (wipeable) on the wall opposite our toilet. Just as its somewhere that is easily seen all the time and does help familiarise you with the shapes of common words.

Found the TAF. The working towards/meeting/GD are national descriptors. In order to be going into y3 meeting at ‘standard’ she should be doing all of the statements for expected standard. It’s a high bar. But these are what the ks1 team would have been assessing her against.

My year two is working towards too. I've bought I'm a summer journal, with pages in that guide her to write what she's done each day. I thought a few sentences every day just to practice.

This looks massively helpful but very blurred on my screen. Could you please share what the name of this doc to google or a link please? I'd be very grateful thanks!

Thanks for everyone! @Sailingovertheedge i appreciate your help, I managed to find those targets and they do seem a lot.
I agree @ToadiesCouzin, reading seems to be the key. DD made an amazing progress this year with reading but she’s not yet reading much for pleasure, it’s not her first choice so to speak. I’m sure it’s all about the amount of exposure to the written word and frequency of reading. Maybe we can go on a reading spree this summer

My DD wasn't that bothered until she discovered Harry Potter, then she became obsessed (as lots do, I don't understand why myself!). She's also really enjoyed everything by Maz Evans, and the Cookie books by Connie Huq.

My trick with reading (ds really dragged his feet with reading the school sent home books) was to find stories and stuff he was really interested in.

So we bought a load of dinosaur fiction and non fiction and his reading jumped up. Now he is incredibly fluent in reading. Just needs to work on his writing

Taf is here

Thank-you so much! This is massively helpful

I can't see if anyone has put this, but a white board that can wipe away errors helped with confidence in giving it a go.

(DD didn't want to commit to paper in case she got it wrong).

I would definitely focus on reading for pleasure as a way to help develop her exposure to written language and spelling. If she will sit and read that’s great, but if not then you read to her with the book in front of you both so that she is still able to see and follow some of the book. Or take it in turns to read a couple of pages each. Although a lot of writing at that age is about being able to compose and structure sentences and texts so if she really isn’t one to read for pleasure or gets frustrated by it even having you read to her or listening to audiobooks will expose her to language and the format writing can take. If she’s not used to enjoying stories you may also find that if you start with audiobooks or reading to her that she gets into the enjoyment stories can bring and over time has more motivation to read books herself.