Six-year-old offered catch-up tutoring despite teacher saying she is on track

[Floriaflan]

I work full time in a pretty full on job, as does my husband. We both work long hours. My child is just turned 6 and goes to an offsted outstanding school which has quite the emphasis on academic results.

Child has 5 different types of homework per week including spellings, reading, maths etc. Each one has a different platform or portal, including submitting homework sheets via teams, and then weekly she has a spelling “test” (they say it’s an assessment, not a test, but it’s a test). Plus 3 x reading books per week.

we do as much homework with her as we can but it’s difficult as she does after school clubs and then we have about 90 mins at home which is dinner, bath, bed. So to cram in homework is often short time. She tends to do it over weekends.

we got an email today saying she had been chosen for some free school tutoring as she has been “identified as someone who could benefit from catch up”. we had parents evening about 3 weeks ago and her teacher told us to keep reading with her but she’s exactly where she expects her to be

i feel a bit blind sighted by it tbh. I am quite overwhelmed by the sheer volume of school admin including all the various homework requirements, and also quite sad that she’s falling behind. There doesn’t feel like much more we can do given work hours etc.

husband does his fair share, we are very even

has anyone been through this?

Where did you imagine that from?

Ok. It sounds like a clerical error. You weren't unemployed or on benefits for even part of the time?
As pp said, I'd just decline the tutoring.
From now on, just do reading with her, it really isn't necessary to do all the other homework, certainly not and that frequently.

While you are correct, it’s normally in the case of using the money to benefit the whole class, not individual pupils who are not PP, since there is no way that will benefit PP. I can’t see how they can evidence this will help PP in this scenario.

6 year olds get universal free school meals.

What phonics scheme do they follow and what colour/level is she on?

Pupil Premium funding doesn’t just go to those children, a portion of it is to benefit all children.

It will be booster sessions ahead of the phonics check.

I would definitely take them up on the offer.

Maybe they have identified that she’s working very hard/possibly struggling to stay on track And they could help him make it a bit easier.

Definitely don’t pull her from gymnastics, exercise and fun is way more important than extra tutoring that isn’t needed at 6.

Is she a very quiet child in a boisterous / somewhat challenging class?

Might it be that they are aware she's at risk of being overlooked/ not getting the attention she deserves (because it’s being commandeered by other) and have decided to give her this extra small group time?

That is a lot of homework for a six year old and why does so much of it have to involve screens?
Schools advise parents to limit screen time then set homework which is mainly screen based - at 6.

Make it make sense!

That is a lot of screens. Do the other parents have similar concerns?

If she's genuinely on track for her phonics screening check, sticking with gymnastics club will be far more beneficial for her in the long run!

Ask for some details on what her phonics results are showing at the moment and WHO she did them with. You've already identified she can be shy - which can end up looking like massively underperforming, but isn't the same. If the outcome is that it matters WHO she reads with, that will benefit her (and the school's results, which let's be honest is all they are actually bothered about here 😔) far more than hours of extra study with yet another adult she doesn't really know.

Make sure they know when she goes up next year that she needs time to develop/move on her connection with her primary classroom lead to get the best out of her (((like most 6 year olds!)))

I would fail the phonics test!. What on earth are the first pages supposed to be/do? I have sympathy with younger people having to live in the world we are creating and especially with kids if they have to pass that nonsense at 6 years old. We had no homework at all in primary school, but had to remember our gas masks.

Either she is on the PP list or it's an error. You don't have to be poor to be PP. I have a friend who is on £140K a year and her daughter is PP because she was made redundant several years ago and had a few months out of work. During her period of unemployment, she became eligible for PP. Now her daughter has ski trips subsidised! Just contact the school and ask if they have your daughter down as PP. Chances are they have done mock Y1 phonics tests and she's a tiny bit behind so they are going to give her some boosting to make sure she passes. They have to get 32/40 to pass (based on pass mark last year). Ask them what they are currently predicting for her.

She can choose to pay the whole lot for the ski trip... They shouldn't be funded by PP anyway, I know they can, but you would have thought there were better things to do than fund children to go on ski trips...

There is ridiculous pressure in this country to push literacy skills on young children who should be playing. At 5 my son was placed in a 'catch up' (ie remedial) reading group. The group made no difference; he was just not developmentally ready, yet by 9 he had a reading age of 13 years as his reading just took off at 7 years of age. Funnily enough, in Scandinavia, this is the age they start formal education. He has lots of negative memories of infant school as a subsequently diagnosed ND but bright child. It affected his self esteem quite badly and I still feel sad about it years later.

Someone might have asked already, but is this an academy school? The reason I ask is because they have reasons, other than the welfare of their pupils, for this amount of hot housing. I would be thinking of finding an alternative. They are asking too much of a child who has only just turned 6.

The child isn't behind at all... We have kids in y1 that still can't read words like "stay" ... they're behind!

When i had a very full on job and used an after school club, their homework had been done by the time I picked them up at 6pm. They also had been given a proper cooked meal. The lady who ran it was our saviour! Just playing, talking, bath, story, bed at home. Plenty of time for parent engagement with reading and some homework at weekends. Expecting young children to have to fit in homework and evening meal after wraparound care is ridiculous. What is the world coming to? If you need to drop them at a breakfast club or minder so you can even get to work, that's a 10 hour day for the child. It has to include tea and homework, no question. They cannot be on top of a 10 hour day. I'm sure you are doing the best you can. Maybe ask if homework can be done straight after school.

Has this post originated from a UK Poster..I don't think a UK school could get away with this much homework.for a child so young.

Or somebody has gone over overboard on ticking report measurement type boxes.

If cohort in general are doing particularly well, they it might that they just offer it to whoever needs it most. That could mean she’s in the lower X% of a very able class. But we also had interventions for children who showed promises of being exceeding but who needed more guidance in technique than they could get in a full class lesson.

The amount of homework is nuts for an infant school age child though, I agree with that.

The deputy head teacher called us off the back of my email. She said it’s a standard email and can see how it could come across, but what they meant is DD isn’t clicking so quickly with the alien words for the phonics test and that’s why the offer is there. She is doing v well otherwise.

i politely declined the place in favour of gymnastics and she was fine with it - I did raise the volume of homework and she also said it’s optional in year 1, not compulsory

That's often an issue for stronger readers, who try to look for sense in the alien words or match them to a real world word they know.

Make sure you explain to your daughter there will be plenty of gobbledygook words in there, as well as a few normal ones, and just slowing down & sounding out it all she needs to do for this slightly daft test.... particularly if she's a fluent reader who has mostly moved beyond sounding out already!

Enjoy the gymnastics & pick what's useful from the homework.

They are offering you free one to one or small group tuition. It's not mandatory. I would just email back and say thanks for the offer but my daughter does extra curricular gymnastics at that time to help develop her gross motor skills so it doesn't suit us at this time

Edited: just read your update good decision. Kids will reach burn out with this much academic pressure. Most kids in other countries are only starting school at 6

Northern Irish ones

Surely the best option here is to cut down on the after school clubs and focus on the homework if her teacher has identified that she needs extra tutoring. She’s not in clubs everyday after school, surely?

She's 6 that is quite literally the worst thing the OP could do. Her child isn't behind, they don't need to complete hours of homework each week.

Lots of children do have clubs most nights after school, some even do wrap around after school clubs and then another club on the same night.

Stopping a child of 6 doing something she enjoys to do pointless homework tasks is madness.