DD’s School Report

[LucyOCS]

I’m trying to think of a way to write this without coming across as a pushy dick. I’m not, I’m posting this as I’m interested, and how children are doing at school isn’t discussed amongst the parents at my school, so I genuinely have no idea how DD is doing relative to others.

DD is 7 (summer born) and in Year 3. She is doing well at school but seems to have gone backwards in her achievement, but I have no idea if this is due to missed time due to Covid, whether the school could be doing more to support her, or whether actually she’s just not as bright as she seemed initially.

In Early Years and Year 1 she was rated as working at a “greater depth” in about 50% of subjects. In Year 2 she was rated as working at the “expected” standard in all of them, and in year 3 so far again she’s working at the “expected standard” in all but PE, in which she excels. DH and I didn’t take the Year 2 reports too seriously as DD1 is exceptionally talented at sport, but exceptionally not talented at art, yet got the same grade.

Year 3 still, apart from PE, she‘a not showing the promise she initially showed. She tries so hard at everything and cannot be faulted for her effort so we are very pleased with her and cannot ask for more from her.

In her class there are a number of children who are very behind (I know this as the book bands many of them were on were in full display in the classroom) and as DD is not, tries hard, causes no issues, I wonder if she is perhaps a child that is not given any focus and is therefore not fulfilling her potential. Or maybe she is, and in fact it is just really really hard to get a “greater depth” rating and she’s doing great.

So it would be great to know from those in the know whether actually it’s really hard to get an overachieving rating. Am I being unreasonable to think that is what she should be achieving in the subjects she showed early promise?

If you would like a conversation with your DD’s teacher without her present, e-mail
the school and ask whether that would be possible, either in person or by phone.

Be reasonable and efficient in your time expectations, and as flexible as possible in terms of when might work for you.

I don’t know of any primary that would refuse such a request and have had what must be many hundreds of such conversations over the years as a teacher.

Thank you all for your really supportive replies. You’ve made me realise we probably could do more to support her learning at home. School sends home an overview of what they will be learning each term and I’ll admit I only read it for my own interest. I’m going to make a real effort to find the time next term to talk to her about what she’s learning and do some further research with her on the subjects (in a fun, casual way). I’d not really thought to do much of that if I’m honest.

We did a lot of homeschooling during Covid which incidentally happened during the years when she got the overachieving marks. Maybe our homeschooling wasn’t so bad after all 🤔(although her writing came on immeasurably when she went back to school each time so evidently we weren’t great at that).

I have a summer born 7 year old year 3 and she is exceeding expectations in reading, writing and maths. However academics is her ‘thing’, and she isn’t very good at any sports at all, so we put quite a lot of effort into this area! We don’t do any work with her at home bar her weekly spellings and times tables (and music practice as she’s learning to play the guitar).
Im a governor at the school and know that there are a large number of children not meeting expectations in her year group (I have no idea which children obviously). I think they were a year group particularly hard hit by the covid school closures.

She's 7, why the need to emphasise effort at all?

Why not be emphasising the fun and the learning in general?

Yes, try hard and not be lazy etc, but that's just a general attitude to have.

I didn't even discuss school reports with my lad through primary.

My son was 8 in January. He got working at greater depth on his Yr 2 SATs in all subjects. Parents evening was last week and he has the reading and comprehension level of an 11 year old. He's good at maths too. We encourage him at home and he is our only child do obviously our focus and he gets a lot of attention. We make sure he does the challenge level of homework too. He is a strong swimmer but not good at any other sport and dislikes organised team sports. Academia is his thing!

Grades in the run up to SATS at the end of y2 may have been inflated, or y2 may have been drilled for SATS success to exceed expectations. Y3 is back to normal curriculum teaching. If she's meeting the expected level then there's actually less pressure on her to perform and she can enjoy learning.

I'm a teacher and just wanting to reassure you a bit. I've written reports for these age groups before. Annoyingly, sometimes we may want to put a child higher as we know that's where they really are, but we have to have the evidence in their books to support this.

Eg, for expected and greater depth, for each subject there will be many specific points outlining what they should be capable of and there needs to be this evidence in their books. So if I know a child is capable of GD in maths, but for whatever reason the evidence is not there (they work slowly, they often miss parts of maths for music lessons, etc) I may not be able to mark them as GD.

It's annoying, but it's in case we are inspected by Ofsted. So I just want to reassure you that if your perception of them is brighter than their report suggests their teacher may well agree with you and it won't necessarily impact their future.

Something to consider is that whilst some children can quickly learn to recite numbers and recognise the numerals for the number from a young age, it doesn't mean they've necessarily got a secure underinvesting of what the number is mathematically.

E.g. A child might count to 50, but not understand what each number is. Sometimes people talk about understanding the 'oneness of one'.
Same for times tables. A child with a good memory might be able to recite the times tables and recall the facts, but that doesn't always mean they understand the maths behind it.

It's one reason some children can present as 'ahead' at a young age and then seem to slow down. As the work gets more difficult, they've got to grasp the concepts behind the facts they can recite.

This might not be the case in your situation but it's something I suggest people consider when they're concerned about whether their child is going backwards.

At DDs Primary school they only seemed to do 'greater depth' for English and Maths and not other subjects.

DD has recently been diagnosed with ASD and through that process we found out that she is highly gifted in several areas but 'only' has a high average on her working memory and processing. This means that although she often knows the answer she doesn't always express it in the right way or speedy enough and she feels like her WM and processing hold her back. Her ability masked her disability this means that her fluctuating between 'greater depth' and 'meets expectations' through Primary also makes sense.
With WM and processing its tricky to improve even when you are trying your hardest.

Thank you. This is really helpful and very relevant for DD. Her year 2 teacher commented that there’s a big difference between her oral and written work in that her ideas / question answering etc is way ahead of what she puts on paper. DD loves nothing more than rushing and finishing first and so the content and accuracy of her written work doesn’t demonstrate her knowledge.

I don’t know if DD has the intelligence to be working at a greater depth but if she has it won’t be evidenced in her books at present.

You haven't mentioned if your child is an autumn born/ summer born - this can make quite a difference to their progress in the early years. Later on it evens out somewhat - though not entirely.

We discuss effort as we are so proud of how hard she works and she’s so happy when we tell her she got a great report and loves receiving the praise…

Yes she has, it was in the OP.

Thank you…you’re right. I don’t know how I missed that!

From the sounds of the reports it seems like she's doing well overall. She's doing what they expect her to do at her age. Could you be interpreting them in the wrong way?

If the teachers were saying she was actually struggling with a particular area then you could investigate a bit more, but at the moment I don't really see what worries you have.

She tries so hard at everything and cannot be faulted for her effort so we are very pleased with her and cannot ask for more from her.

I think this is the bit that matters. If she is trying her best, then you have nothing to worry about. The curriculum in Key Stage 2 does ramp up significantly from Key Stage 1, particularly in terms of how much independence is expected and how much their work is less scaffolded (read - spoon fed) by their teachers. There is a jump in maturity in Year 3 which often has a huge impact too. But it sounds like she is doing great to be honest, and progress isn't always linear.

One of you do parent teaching meeting and other has dd then you can discuss her without her hearing.

Children have peaks and troughs. Many children seem very able in reception and nursery but the end points are very different as you go through school and more and more is expected. Many kids seem to excel younger and then level out as they get older

In all honesty, greater depth has very little meaning. You will not know objectively how academic she is until she is judged against an actual exam.
You could ask at ten different primaries for their criteria of what is greater depth and they would likely tell you ten different things. I really would not worry.

So talk to her about what her favourite and least favourite subjects are (and why) and make an appointment to see her teacher without her being there.

No, the ‘effort grades’ are no the most important thing.

Is she happy? What is her Dad doing to support her?

Hi OP- I would ask the school about the assessments they are using. Common ones are the New Group Reading Tests and the GL Assessments for maths and English. They are externally marked and give a score against students across the nation of the exact same age as your child, rather than against her cohort where there can be nearly a year difference. This is useful data, because you can see how your child compares nationally rather than just within their class. 100 is an average score on a GL Assessment. Below that would suggest support may be needed, and about 115 upwards would suggest they may need challenge work.

Good practice would be for students to sit these tests at the start and end of each academic year, so progress can be measured and any inconsistencies from previous tests identified. Along with class work, assessments like these can give a good indication of where your child is working and what potential they have.

If the school is not assessing students like this, I would question their approach and want to find out how they are assessing. You can Google GL Assessments for Primary students, if you want more information. They can also take a GL in science as they progress.

I would add, as others have mentioned, that student development is not a straight line and your child is still very young so all assessment results should be taken with a pinch of salt and certainly not used to write young children off from future academic success.

Your child sounds like she is doing well so I would worry too much about it. If she is putting in a lot of effort that's all you can ask.
To be honest, I'd say, if you have to ask, then she probably isn't excelling. Not to be mean about it, but I think if she was really exceptional you would know.

I would definitely try to attend the next parents' evening with your DH but without your DD. You might be able to swap favours with another parent, so you look after their DC and they look after yours.

With only 5-10 minutes to speak to the teacher, I want as much info as possible. I don't want the teacher speaking kindly and gently to my DD about how lovely she is to have in the class and how she is kind to others etc. I want the teacher to tell me, very clearly and honestly, how DD is progressing (academically and socially), what she needs to work on, and what we can do to help.