Is my child's primary school pants?

[TulipVictory]

Please tell me if I'm being dramatic. My daughter had just started year two. I feel like and get the impression the school as a whole isn't very driven. Yes, she can read fairly well now but sentences/spelling and writing is terrible. She brought home some work yesterday that she had done. Some of it was wrong, I said what did your teacher say and she said they didn't look at it. They had a supply for most part of year 1 due to staff sickness. This year she has two teachers and one works Monday, Tuesday and weds morning. The other works Wednesday afternoon and Thursday and Friday 🙄 Their head teacher has been off sick since last year. It just feels like nothing is improving. She brought home last years work book. This was just before she broke up. It's been ticked, no spellings corrected. How are they meant to improve 🙄

Nothing wrong with that piece of work...doesn't look like it was spelling based anyway, more about narrative and her spellings look phonetically accurate (children learn to spell phonetically at this stage). I'm guessing she's 6 based on what a PP has said? I'm from
Scotland so different ages/stages in school.

I don't remember having spelling homework and tests until I was in P3 (age 7) - we were given 3 words to learn to spell and had to use them in a sentence each, even then, I remember my parents helping me out.

OP, I agree with others, you're being a bit dramatic here.

Have you read the school’s marking a feedback policy?
I’m currently on maternity leave but taught Y2 last year before having my baby and having also taught Y1 and my own daughter has just started Y3. Your daughter’s writing looks fine to me.

Job shares generally make for happier teachers, in my experience - there are several jobshare classes in my school - and happy teachers have much happier classes than do miserable and exhausted teachers (particularly those in schools that parents describe as 'pants' 🙄)

They don't correct everything little thing these days or her work would look a state with all the ink. Too many corrections would make her less motivated to try next time.

My kids are older but in my experience they had writing targets that they tried to focus on. For example she might be told to me mindful of tall letters like "b" and short letters like "e" being written in the correct relative size. By having one target she's more likely to be able to remember. Does she remember if the capital letter correction was after talking to an adult or self directed?

The job sharing is normal. There is a shortage of teachers nationally so job shares are a common way to retain good teachers.

FWIW her phonics knowledge is clearly sound based on toothpaist, wortor and towll. She's consistently remembered her full stops and has crossed out the full stop that's in the wrong place too.

I teach this age range. This work has clearly been looked at and discussed with the child. Some errors have been corrected. It’s considered back practice to correct every mistake as it can be disheartening for the child.
This work looks fine to me for her age.

As everyone has said above, this is perfectly fine from your child and also the teacher. I work Mondays and tuesdays as a job share, do I get an eye roll too?

Yes, you're being dramatic.

No, your primary school isn't pants.

@FusionChefGeoff

Phonetically plausible is my favourite thing ever and I'm very sad that in YR2 (not YR1 which is where this work comes from) they will start correcting spellings that they 'should' know by now.

This is one of my favourites.

I still have the book where DD battled with the spelling of the name of her friend at age 7 and came up with "Annerstayzeeyar". I thought it wasn't a bad stab at it, really.

What was the aim of the task - if its writing a sequence of events to brush your teeth then its great piece of work. If its spelling then I think your expectations are too high. If its the handwriting on the lines and pencil control then really can't be judged without knowing what it was like before - as long as its improving then hand control comes with time and practice for some kids.
You can't look at work in isolation.
Feels unfair to be criticising a job share arrangement.
It does feel though that the circumstances of your school - headteacher off sick last year and constant supply teacher is not good - but its a new school year - not sure why you are not giving it time to see how this year is panning out - unless the head is still off and there still isn't a named permanent teacher for your child...

They had a supply for most part of year 1 due to staff sickness.

If they had various different supply teachers I can see that being a problem but if they had consistency with one supply covering the majority of the year - essentially being their class teacher rather than covering - I don’t see the issue. The head and the teacher having health issues is circumstantial and just something that has to be managed - it does not make a school ‘pants’. Is a decent school simply one with super human staff who never get ill?

You'll have to clutch your pearls a bit here OP, but some schools don't write much, if anything, on a young child's work because it can't be read and is a waste of time when the feedback can be better given verbally.

Very sensible responses above!

Looks fine, good even for start of year 2

Her writing looks much better than my 6yo DS who has also just started year two. My 9yo couldn't really read properly when he was in year 2, a bit behind some of his peers but certainly not the 'lowest' ability in the class. He can now read and write really well. I wouldn't worry about this at this stage.

Headteacher here! My thoughts: writing level is completely normal in Year 1. Someone has corrected it with the child alongside. Note the underline of the lack of capital on "First" and the correction on your (6 year olds don't spontaneously self-correct, they are asked to). Child hasn't fully understood all the corrections (capitalising the other words). In general, two to three things in a piece is sufficient - they cannot remember 15 corrections and will quickly be put off trying hard next time. Corrections relate to sensible next steps for the child - capitals at the start of the sentence and spelling a Y1 key word. Would be perfectly happy with this.

Sounds like you're annoyed at people being off sick OP! Ever considered that, in part, it's overly critical parents like you who add to the stress and therefore contribute to staff sickness? And what's wrong with a job share?

As a very experienced year 2 teacher, I would be delighted to have this level of writing at the start of the year. You have ridiculously high expectations for your child and the teachers. Can you imagine how long it would take a teacher to correct every single spelling in every child's piece of work???

Also there is a list of words they are expected to spell correctly, the rest just have to be spelt phonetically correct. Also the kids have to be able to spell the words themselves, the teacher fixing every spelling for them will not enable your child to move forward. What would her move forward, is a supportive parent who celebrates her work and acknowledges her wonderful effort.

Why eye rolling at part time work? You don't sound very nice

My children have had teachers on job shares I think it's great. Should teachers not be allowed to work part time when they have young children? Please don't obsess about young children and formal learning.

In most European countries children don't do any reading or writing until they are 7 .

My son in year 1 has two teachers who job share. Both are head of the English department and I see it as a win win because he is struggling possible Dyslexia and I’m hoping it gets picked up.

Unfortunately I don’t think the OP is coming back but hopefully the replies have given her some food for thought