What to I do/say about this? Primary school literacy

[CathyTre]

My son has just started year three, so first year at a new junior school. He really struggles with literacy and is way behind.

I am a qualified primary school teacher and, just to be open, worked at his new school until last year, so I do know that what’s come home is school policy.

DS scored expected at maths, exceeding at science but very below for reading and worse for writing on ks2 end of key stage tests. He’s articulate and has good ideas, but there’s a definite literacy problem. He’s July born aged seven, but is not my first child and eldest son is August born, so whilst that may have bearing, it’s not the whole picture.

Why on earth send this home? It’s achievable to him like advanced calculus is to me, i.e. not at all.

I just feel that this is an exercise in demoralising a child and will obviously not be attempting it, but how would you raise it with school? New teacher is an NQT and I don’t know her, so I don’t want to be or seem too negative.

It might be an idea to consider finding a dyslexia specialist teacher for your son. Whether he's dyslexic or not, that style of teaching may be just what he needs. My DD is mildly dyslexic, and the specialist tutor we found for her did wonders not only in terms of her literacy but also her self-esteem.

Have you tried IT programmes such as Word Shark?

First, you need to speak to the teacher and gently explain ds's problems with literacy and that he needs to embed the Y2 spellings and HF words before moving on. She is new, and probably struggling to learn 30 students' needs, so put ds on her radar now. Could she please set the Y2 word as his weekly spellings and test him on those? This gives her a practical and simple way to differentiate for ds.

If you can meet with the teacher and the SENCO at the same time, all the better. The SENCO can provide support and guidance for the NQT.

Next, push for a diagnosis if one seems likely to apply. A private ed psych is a great investment if you can afford it - it may unlock extra literacy sessions for him with a trained TA. And it will mean your school's SENCO will get involved.

As a teacher and parent I'm surprised that you and his other teacher relatives are so up in arms about something that happens in most schools I know of Hes got 2 years to learn then and school will be working on them too. Its the same as times tables, they get sent home with the ones they need to work on.

I'm a KS3 nurture group teacher and I am doing these words with the higher level pupils in my class! He will get them eventually (hey! Isn't that one of the words?!).

As an NQT, she'll probably have thought it was statutory to send those words out - probably is. No disrespect intended but being an NQT is probably a lot more complicated now than when you were one.. That sounds harsh, I don't mean it to be!
Advice:
Why don't you go through the list yourself and leave unhighlighted a few words with the same phonics patterns as words that your ds still needs to learn on his Year 1&2 sheet? Tell him that you've spoken to his teacher and they're the ones she's chosen for him - she had forgotten to highlight his sheet: silly billy! Use them as a super extra reward challenge for him when you're practicing his other words.

Let his teacher know what you've done and ask her if, in future, she could send things like this in an envelope and / or maybe look at what's being sent home for ds as he clearly needs some sort of differentiation.

Hth. X

Why can’t you divide the list into chunks op?

One of my grandsons was put under huge pressure with spellings , he would learn them at home but had severe anxiety at school and they were made to stand up and say their score.There were other issues going on at the school including most of the teachers leaving. My daughter had enough and moved them to a different school he is a changed boy

I don’t divide the list up into chunks and have no intention of trying to get him to learn any of them, as he knows hardly any of the year 1/2 list!

I know these are the statutory year 3/4 “expected” words, but he’s not anywhere near this level so why send the instruction “please learn the words not highlighted” when that’s clearly way beyond his current level? The list is not for information, it’s to try to learn!

I would approach the NQT and ask her politely: "Hi - wasn't sure if you were aware or not, but DS struggles with literacy and the list you have sent home is a little overwhelming for him. Is there anyway we could look at this just to make it more manageable? "

Give the NQT a chance to edit the list - it may be that she forgot to highlight some words for him - or the wrong list was sent home?

I wouldn't stress until you have spoken to her - it might just be an honest mistake.

This was me back in Primary School, I was so bad at reading/spelling. Me and a few others had extra sessions in the library with a support teacher - does he have anything like that?

I also think dumping this on him is too much if he honestly can't do it.

Look for a specialist dyslexia tutor for him. My DS was exactly the same, and an hour a week helped him hugely. His tutor told him that he was a wall that had been built with bricks missing at the base - so as extra bricks were put on top, he was just collapsing... She said that she was going to take all his bricks off and help him m to rebuild himself - and she did
She started with the alphabet, days of the week and months of the year (he was 10) and in a year, she'd got him up to where he should be. He's always been grateful to her - and is now a teacher...!

as a teacher you should know it a goal to work towards not a list to absolutely know by age 7! In most Europeans countries kids would only be starting school at that age. Also could your son have dysgraphia like mine? It affects reading a bit but mostly writing and spelling.

I wouldn’t worry too much about being ‘that’ parent. You are your child’s strongest advocate and unfortunately many of these issues fall through the cracks unless you push hard. I would look at a private assessment though as the sooner you know what you are dealing with the better for you all.

What does stand out about that list of words is that it’s a Y3&4 list so you are nearly 2 years away from any expectation of knowing all the words. The teacher should really have sent it home with a letter explaining that everyone is working towards knowing all words by the end of Y4. Some will be addressed in normal curriculum teaching but others may need a bit more work and sending them home just gives you the heads up and something extra to do at home as and when should you find yourselves with a bit of extra time. I think I would probably be asking the teacher how many kids knew what percentage of the words already. You might find that very few knew more than a handful.

I think that some posters are misunderstanding the OPs issue. I don't think that it is that the list was sent home per se as she is clearly aware that thesis the Y3-4 expectations. What she is saying is that the NQT has simply used the list itself as the differentiation by highlighting words that the children already know.
I think the OPs issue is that all the words in this list are beyond where her child is able to learn any of them as he can only spell a small number of words on the Y1-2 list.
I think given that information, the OP should speak with the teacher to make her aware of his struggles in literacy in general and discuss some appropriate differentiation beginning with learning the to spell the Y1-2 words that he is still struggling with. That will at least be more achievable and appropriate than trying to learn from this list that is just going to set him up to fail.
Yes, the NC says that in Year 3 he should be learning these words, but a teacher's job is to also allow all pupils to make progress from their current level whatever that may be. not just continue to give him an unachievable task because he "should" be at this level even if he isn't.
In other words, OP have a chat with his teacher. Show her the evidence of where he is currently on the Y1-2 list and get him something more appropriate to learn at home. Good luck!

Thank you hotdog74, that’s exactly what I was (obviously badly!) trying to say. I’ve made an appointment to have a chat with teacher so fingers crossed.

She's probably just following school policy. Not is in capitals to avoid confusion, (most children will have some highlighted). Give her a break , ignore the list and continue to learn the year 1/2 words until he knows them or the year 3/4 ones. Let her know nicely in parents evening that that's what you're doing as he can't run before he can walk. Stupid government lists, I'm teaching ridiculous words in year five while some children are still spelling with, 'whith' - the world has gone mad. I'm following the policy/curriculum but trying to fill the gaps in other ways.