would you raise this issue with the teacher?

[froubylou]

DD is 9 and in Y5 at school. Doing very well and always has done. Never any issues with her behaviour, never been in trouble, always loved school. With regards her work she is very bright. In Y6 for maths and top of Y6. Top set for reading, english etc. Always 10/10 spellings. Reads for fun, likes school work blah blah blah.

I am very proud of her academic achievements but know that although compared to the class she is in she is bright, she is not a child genius or anything like that. But she does very well.

Since being in Y1 the main thing she has always been targeted on is the speed of her work, in particular written work. Her handwriting is beautiful (even though she is left handed) and she is always the first to get a handwriting pen. She always tries to do everything she is asked to do. Such as use Wow words, extend her sentances, use joiners etc etc etc.

This does tend to slow her down a little compared to the other children. They may be asked for 5 sentances and all do the 5 sentances, it's just DD's sentances will be 3 times the length of everyone elses.

As 'issues' go it's not a major one. Her speed will pick up in time as all the new skills she is learning, as well as things like spelling become automatic and she can do these things without having to think about them.

In the meantime she has always gone to the 'behaviour room' at break times to complete work. Even if it has take all of a break to get it done, and last week she missed 2 breaks.

I don't have a problem with this and neither really does DD. She just accepts it and when I've asked why she has to make every single piece of work perfect she just says that's the way she is.

However, since moving into the new class at the start of term she has also had to miss 4 Golden Times. Golden times are the friday afternoon 'fun lesson' that all the kids, including DD look forwards to all week. It was introduced to give all the well behaved kids a reward for being well behaved. You miss Golden Time if you haven't done your homework OR you have been naughty and gone through the behaviour scale ie warning, time outs etc etc.

She has missed them as she has been sent to the behaviour room to complete literacy work they have done on a Thursday afternoon. So although she may have already missed her friday morning break she hasn't got it completed and has to miss her Golden Time.

DD upset about this and TBH so am I. Missing Golden Time is a punishment, and as far as I can see she is being punished for not completing work which is very different to being naughty. She won't have gone through the behaviour scale for it. If she was missing out because she was chatting when she's supposed to be working or messing around etc then I would accept it. But not for caring a bit too much what work she hands in.

Its Parents Evening on wednesday. WIBU to raise this issue with the teacher and ask for her to bring any incomplete work home rather than miss golden time. And to ask what support DD is getting to help her manage her time more effectively? Its been raised since Y1 and I have never met a teacher who can give me solutions yet to the issue that she has, and all have said they would rather her hand in work she does at the standard she does than rush it.

But from DDs point of view she won't always be able to do the work at another time. So I think they need to help her with this rather than take away Golden Time?

And FWIW normally I would just go in and say all this BUT am 31 weeks pg and I really don't like this teacher and find her ineffective at best so don't want to be 'that mother' if it is just me being unreasonable?

Sorry for epic post, maybe I need to miss some gold time too lol.

DD1 was your dd she used to waffle on and on I think she couldn't help herself her work was great just she said far too much and she was spoken to about it it took her till high school when she had to make deadlines that her English teacher taught her how to write what she was supposed to in the timescale, I think it is so unreasonable your daughter is being punished they should help her and not keep her in , maybe she has been told and is just doing it anyway it is tricky I think you should say something and ask for help not punishment

I think you did really well (hope that doesn't sound patronising).

"Teacher then said it wasn't that serious an issue and she would rather her carry on doing the work to a very high standard rather than rush!"

Well, that's interesting, OP. Before I saw your post, I was going to make a similar comment. I felt a bit despondent at all the posts saying your DD should learn to write fast and be less of a perfectionist. We're all different, we all work at different speeds, and some people like to take their time and do a good job. Look at Donna Tartt - she produces one novel every 10 years, and I don't suppose anyone ever tells her to hurry up.

I know what you mean hackman. I think that there has to be a balance between the two.

But I don't think it's fair to DD to be in effect punished for working at a high standard. So if it isn't a serious issue then it isn't serious enough to miss golden time iyswim?

hackmum - As much as I'd like to agree with you, streamed classes of 30 children aren't very accommodating of the fact that 'we all work at different speeds, and some people like to take their time and do a good job.' Nor are the markers of the Year 7 CAT tests, or the examiners of the GCSE papers, etc. It's fine when you're working to your own schedule, but not when your progress and workload are dictated according to somebody else's timetable.

The OP's DD is clearly very bright, engaged in her learning, and unusually conscientious about the quality of the work that she's handing in, and it's just her time management and confidence in her writing that needs some attention. That's great - the things she's struggling with can be fixed very easily, whereas the qualities she already possesses are much harder to coax out of a student. It would be a real shame if her as yet under-developed (but very easily improved) time management skills weren't addressed until she reached secondary school, because there's nothing like falling behind the class to make standards and enthusiasm slip (especially in students who really care about doing well). Similarly, the only way to become good (and therefore confident) at writing higher level sentences quickly is to practice lots and read as much as possible (without impairing enjoyment), so it's a case of "the earlier, the better".

At this point, neither issue is more than a minor inconvenience as long as the DD isn't being punished unfairly at school, and therefore the skills can be built up in a gentle and enjoyable way by using games and setting micro-targets for her to work towards. It doesn't have to be arduous or a big deal - everybody in her class will have targets for improvement, and it's much better to deal with this (currently very minor) one now than to wait and see whether it becomes a big deal in the future.

Oooh, and frouby: I meant to say that it sounds like you handled the discussion with the teacher very well indeed - I'm glad you didn't let her fob you off! It doesn't have to be a case of either writing to time or producing substandard work, otherwise nobody in the class would be able to complete it to the desired level. From what you've said, it's clear that your DD is very able and knows what high quality work needs to contain, so it's just a case of learning the necessary strategies for cutting out the fluff and getting the high level stuff down on paper within the specified time limit.

Thanks nom.

I am not overly impressed with this teacher to be honest. Ineffective would be being generous I think. But we have until July to get to yet so would rather give her a chance before I start being a pain.

DD won't melt if she isn't pushed massively in year 5 but I do want her to enjoy school and I do want her to go into y6 witg the right skills to do well enough in her sats so that she is well placed in y7 with the rest of the DC who have her ability. I think it is too easy for kids to get overlooked in these large acadamies that she will be attending.

Definitely raise this with the school. They are using a means of punishment/reward inappropriately. I would ask the question why children are being excluded from golden time if they have not done their homework as that is not even a compulsory requirement of primary education? Also, if your daughter is writing 3 sentences that are above average in terms of language and grammar etc used, they are excluding her from golden time as a) surely quality is preferable to quantity, b) the very carrot that they are dangling is becoming a stick that they are beating her with and they are, basically, encouraging her to write 5 sentences requiring no effort on her part than the 3 of a high standard she is completing and c) why can't she finish work at home?

Fuckwits. This is the sort of shite that did my head in with my DS at primary.... Go for the jugular!

Well done in the meeting.

It's outrageous though that the teacher recognises there is an issue, dismisses it as not very serious, likes the work that is being done even though it takes your dd time to do it, wants her to continue doing it as she is but still thinks it is appropriate to then make miss golden time (no doubt whilst accepting much shorter and lower quality work from others with no problem).

Thank goodness that TA was there to point out that your dd does qualify for golden time - really hope that the teacher doesn't make her finish the work there any more.

If your dd is doing much more complex sentences than most of the others, that are going to take longer to do, would it be worth coming to some sort of agreement that for these particular exercises, if the class are told to do 5 sentences in class, which for most kids will average say 15 words, then your dd should do 4 of her typical sentences that are more complex and longer. That way the balance between length of work and quality of work might be shifted to something more reasonable for your dd. And if she is able to get a fifth sentence done in the time, then she gets an extra bonus - something that really is a carrot to strive for, in order to help her really speed up.

I work in infants/KS1. We often use the '3 sentences' guideline for their writing, to get them to expand and add detail, otherwise they'd just write something like 'I went to the park.'

However, if at the end of the session one child has written 'Yesterday I went to the park with granny and grandad and it was really fun because I went on the swings and they bought me an ice cream.' then although they've technically only written one sentence, we'd look it over and realise that they have written the same amount, and the same sort of detail as the others, so they wouldn't be punished for it. If the children proclaim that it's unfair because x only did one sentence, we just point out that x's one sentence is longer than their 3 put together.

Why can't the teacher just check your DDs work over and if she has written a similar number of words/lines to the others (regardless of the number of sentences) then let it go?

Or if she really isn't producing as much writing as the others, she needs extra handwriting practice to help her speed up.