School Report Y5 Help!!

[Zozo1990]

Hello everyone,

Would like some advice from primary teachers, my DD finished school yesterday for summer and was provided with a school report. We've had two parents' evenings wherein the teacher was very positive and said my DD is working at expected levels and at greater depth in some aspects of maths and science in particular. She said she was expecting her to reach greater depth for maths at the end of the year.

I've got the report and it says, she's working at expected level for all subjects.

And for English she has ticked expected level and working towards. I don't understand which one it is? Why are both ticked off for English?

AIBU if I email the HT to clarify, and if she is below target, why did they not inform me earlier when in parents' meetings, the teacher has said she is doing really well. My partner and I have iterated several times to the teacher, please inform us of any gaps or struggles she has so that we may assist her at home. Furthermore, I've approached the teacher throughout the year to ask if my DD is doing okay, is there anything extra I can do for her over the holidays (half terms, Christmas, Easter) and she has always said no extra work needs to be done aside from standard spellings and multiplication practice for all children.

She's what, 9 or 10? She's happy and healthy and not failing any subjects. For her sake let it go. She will pick up on your concerns and you won't be doing her any favours. Let her enjoy the summer holidays. Read some books with her and let her pick some books she would like to read.

Channel your inner Elsa and let it go.

Sceptre86

I’m fairly sure that they can’t get higher than expected at reception. My daughter got expected last year and this year at the end of year 1 all greater depth.

These reports are a load of crap, something more to show when Ofsted come in.
My friend is a headteacher and she told me she is only encouraged to get the kids to expected and then to move on to other kids. Although verbally they can tell you the child is doing better.

Our experience is that the school got our DS to expected and moved on and we had no idea until lockdown learning that he was finishing all the set work by 10.30am. So we started giving him extra work as we were both working full time online and didn't have time to entertain him! He did the very competitive 11+ (Over 1500 kids for 150 places) and he didn't pass threshold. We moved him to a prep school for yr 7 and within a month they called me to tell me he has got 139 in his cat test and would it be ok to put him on gifted and talented?

I think you shouldn't worry one bit about that report but if you are bothered and doing the 11+ you should start topping up with tutoring or cgp books etc as they won't be pushing her

Emailing the head about this when school has finished is a bad idea.
It sounds as though she is doing fine. You need to take a breath, relax and let her enjoy the summer holidays.

This doesn't stop her doing the 11+ get some bond papers and see how she gets on.
I am also very academic and my DD is bright, but her dream was not academic. Despite 8 &9s at GCSE she pursued performing arts and is now at one of the top drama schools.
The key thing is rewarding hard work and effort so she has the skills to achieve her full potential in whatever she chooses.

“And, yes, I wanted her to do the 11+ that's why I'm a bit disappointed.”

This one line explains everything. I think you are coming across as a pushy mother.

Our primary school report’s always came with a firm the parent had to fill in to confirm receipt and also had space for comment.

Teachers are paid to get as many children in their class to the expected level. That’s the sum of their job

What an unambiguous and uninspiring view. Teachers are there to help every child reach their full potential.

To actually consistently get greater depth a child has to be working well above age related expectations. These arent just children working at the top of the norm for their age, it's the much smaller proportion of children who are far ahead.

This is where taking out the more detailed levels has resulted in a loss of really useful information - "expected" covers too broad a range, you've got everything from a child who needed support/intervention to scrape to that level, to very able kids who are the top of age related expectations but miss out on greater depth because they're not quite ticking every box. It's simply not meaningful. Its a fudge term.

Do her school know you are aiming for 11+? As a PP said if you are going from state to 11+ you will probably need more input. There is a slightly different curriculum and state schools don't tend to push that teaching as the majority of their kids don't need it. It doesn't mean she isn't doing well, it's just different teaching.

It’s not “pushy” to want your child to do 11+
OP get some of the practice books (check exactly what exam they sit in your area first). And start just doing bits and pieces at home with her, just 15 minutes a day helps.

Teachers just sometimes get confused about the middle of the road kids!

In yr1 to 5 my ds was greater depth at maths. At the start of yr 6 he was put in a group for kids that need extra help in maths, taken out of the class etc. I phoned school as I was v confused, so was he! They insisted they were right, but moved him out of the extra help group and back to normal lessons. At parents evening the message was 'he's greater depth in reading but expected at maths'. Bit weird as he isn't great at reading at home and always finds maths work easy!

Last week we got the sats results and sure enough, greater depth for maths and expected for reading 🤷 which reflects what we know of him, but not what the teachers have said this year! I think sometimes the teachers just can't get to know the whole 30 kids that well. And if child is in the middle they just get confused sometimes! He likes his teacher so I'm not too bothered. I'll be more concerned when we get to GCSE level as thats when it matters more :)

The teacher knew we wanted to do 11+ and we have been preparing her. And her teacher said my DD will be at greater depth for maths and science by end of year so that's why I'm so surprised by the report and want to query what she said at parents' evening and the report results. It's a rubbish state school, and my partner and I are from disadvantaged backgrounds but have done well for ourselves through education and academia. I wanted my DD to sit her 11+ regardless of going to a grammar school or not because I feel the learning for 11+ is amazing and useful for her to go into secondary and be more critical in her learning/thinking.

I get what you mean.

My DD is always very good, the report says her behaviour is excellent, attitude to learning, etc. That's the main thing I guess, I want her to be eager to learn and love learning forever. So I should be happy. But I do feel those kids get forgotten about. She hardly needs any help and works independently in a class that has quite a few disruptive children and children who need extra support. She just fades into the background.

The school is closed to children but if it’s anything like the school I work in there will be staff in for at least two weeks now.

I don't like the term 'Pushy parent'. I actually think parents should be involved in their kids' education, identify their strengths and help them reach their full potential.

I would be a bit miffed too in your position. You have done everything right. It almost sounds like the teacher didn't expect of her much or your dc was off their radar because she was going to do well enough.

The reports should be given out in good time to allow time for feedback.

I'm not sure if this helps, but DD when she was younger was lacking confidence in maths. I didn't want to have a tutor and in fact couldn't afford it so signed her up to mathletics which is quite playful as there are games there - and when she was bored on rainy days I encouraged her to do it. It helped. I think there is always a free trial.

She's not struggling - she's hitting all her targets. Don't push, it will effect her more than you realise.

I think the reality is, if you are totally honest with yourself, that your child is performing at expected level and you are disappointed that she is not performing at greater depth especially with your 11plus ambitions.

If you had known she was "only" at expected level you would have been "filling the gap" iee tutoring to get her to a higher level.

Yes, and we thought this because the teacher has said that she is confident she will be at greater depths for all subjects by end of year!!

It depends where you live.
In my area you have to be greater depth every year in every subject from reception, and tutored from year 5 to stand any chance of getting in.

If you need to go to review they ask to see all reports from reception to prove you just had an off day on the exam, and they look for exceeding throughout.

You can get exceeding in reception

We have had a similar experience with our year 5 son. He was expected (by his teacher) to get exceeding in maths. His end of term assessment marked him as expected. When we asked why, the teacher told us it was because they had used a new examination place and a lot of the questions on the assessment paper they hadn't covered. They aren't going to use this place again as lots of the kids got a lower score than they were expecting. It was as simple as this. I wonder if it's something like this for you too.

So, I've just had a conversation and she's said that DD is working towards expected level for one aspect of English comprehension in reading.

I asked why she didn't inform me of this when she's said in parents' evenings she's expected or working in greater depth for all subjects, and every holiday and every so often I ask you what is my DD struggling with, I'm keen to help. She said my DD doesn't struggle in class and she's been fine so that's why she hasn't mentioned it to me. Does that even make sense?! You've identified she isn't meeting expectations, but haven't remediated it, nor informed parents that want to be involved in their child's education. She said this school's policy is to not give homework even to children who are below expectations.

With maths, she's said my DD is doing greater depth but on one aspect she isn't as confident so she didn't want to give it on report and have her carrying that label to the next class.

I've also queried why they have given us reports on the last day and parents don't have a chance to receive any feedback.

Things do change between parents evening and final reports sometimes. Sometimes you expect a child to progress when actually they've peaked for that year. Often a child has done fine with everything in class but crucially hadn't retained it, which you only really discover in the end of term assessments. The difference between GD and EXP is often retention and consistency, so is rarely a case of you needing to sit down and practise a particular skill with your child. In reading, it often comes down to reading ability and general maturity in their understanding of the world. That's very hard to support beyond reading lots with your child, which presumably you're doing anyway.

Do also remember GD at Y5 is a completely made up level. There is no national standard for it. Perhaps in a different school she would have been graded GD.