to be pissed off with this school (and myself)

[lola88]

Dniece has jus moved schools 2 weeks ago as Dsis has moved to the area i live in we live in a village with a class of 20 old school was inner city with a class of 28.

Her old school said she is doing well and has no problems she is where she should be for her age (5) however at her new school her teacher told us she is quite behind her struggles to read and write and can no complete anything without the teacher constantly standing by her telling her to consentrate. I had never done home work or anything school related with her before as i only have her fri-sun but now since i get her from school i do.

I took her 45 mins to complete her reading book and math work sheet one day and the next an hour to write 3x make made and like plus 3 sentences including the words. Her old school was over run with 2 teachers job sharing and over 1/2 the class having no or broken English to start her new teacher explained that often the children who don't speak good english need a lo of extra attention so take a lot of teachers time otfen leaving the other children with less attention so fair enough he teachers have a hard job.

I'm really annoyed tbh i understand that her old school had to many kids and no enough resources but how the hell could they say oh she's doing great when she can hardly write 8 weeks away from Primary 2. I'm so annoyed at myself for not doing more to check on her my sister suffers depression i should have known she might not be on top of it. I feel like he school have let her down and so have i :( now her summer holidays are going to be cathing up with what she's missed.

"In England, any child who has been to school for 2 years and is not picking up reading is in trouble" this qote indigo is simply not true. some children just arent ready,my own boys were an example of this and i know many many more who just werent ready for some aspect of formal education in reception and yr 1, its not that uncommon and yes they can and do catch up.

She is still so young at 5 and there will be plenty of time for her to catch up. Look at the positives, you have been informed early that there may be an issue. You are in the perfect position to help her. Her new school sounds on the ball and I'm sure will give you some guidance on how to best help her during the holidays.

By catching up what i mean i want to do is get her to a point where she doesn't feel like she's behind everyone else i know she can do it she just needs lots of attention. I know at the moment she feels like it's to hard and i don't want that to continue to the point she hates school and doesn' want to go.

I think my sister had a tendency to get fed up waiting on her reading or finishing her homework as she had something better getting pissed with her friends to do so would give her the answer or read the book to her so she's go used to not having to try :( I just don't want her to struggle when some input will help her.

I don't care if she's top of the class i just want her to do her best which she isn't doing just now through no fault of her own.

It is great that she has some family support, she doesn't sound massively behind, although 45 mins is too long to be reading for, either split the book into two chunks, or ask for an easier book, right now she needs confidence not to struggle with that. It may be too that if your dsis was on her own with her she wasn't able to read to her or listen to her as much as she might otherwise have done. I would try to put the past behind you all, try to create a fun, but more importantly supportive learning environment, and reassess in 6 months.

Quoting stats about Finland can be a bit misleading. Children can go to Kindergarten before school and many children will have come from a home environment that is rich with literature.

I do think it is unimportant that a child cannot read at 5. I also think, having read the research, that actually children have until they are 7 for it to "click" as 5madthings said. What is also important to remember is that what really helps small children is confidence building rather than catch up activities IMHO these are the same as your sister reading the book to her (which is actually beneficial anyway). She will come to reading in her own time and she will be a better reader and learner in the long run if you tell her this instead of making a fuss about her being behind.

Another thing to remember is that education is best when it is broad. Our school wants the infants to read their school reading books every night and I deliberately refuse because we want them to read our books at home as well and don't want them to feel under pressure to perform/from schoolwork. We read school books once a week, the school aren't keen but I am firm it is better in the long run so they support it, some teachers are better than others. Ds1 went into y2 on age 5 reading books, he is now on age 8 and young in the year, really enthusiastic about reading and reading everything all the time. Dd1 is more interested and therefore getting along well in her reception class but if she were "behind" at this stage I wouldn't worry at all.

I worry more about her feeling she is behind she keeps saying it's to hard and everyones better than her. When i get her 'in the zone' she can do it so i know it's a matter of helping her learn to focus.

I do not want her feeling stupid and i think she does right now no matter how often i tell her how smart/creative/funny and all the rest she's stuck on i'm the only one who can't finish my work.