Dd4 getting work wrong at school

[MelThomas1]

Hi,

Just wanted to know if anyone has been in a situation where their child can do the work at home but isn't doing it at school.

My daughter is 4 years old and she's been struggling with her phonics. She's in the higher ability group but the teacher said she isn't keeping up with the pace of the group. She has a spelling test twice a week with two different lots of spellings. She's been getting 1 or 2 or 0. But we haven't been practicing, tbh, as reading and other homework takes up enough time. But the teacher says she's getting simple spellings wrong like black, crab, train, etc. But at home she writes these words in a sentence with me just emphasising the letter that she can't hear, c-r-ab, b-l-ack.... She's writing amazing sentences at home using her phonics knowledge. But at school the teacher says she's not hearing the sounds and I've told them she has glue ear and is under a consultant for this, in the meantime she needs to lip read as well as hear.

What makes a child do the work at home but not in school? They keep saying they can't help her more. They've already put her next to the teacher and she's still getting the words wrong! I've uploaded photos on class dojo of the work she's done at home but they haven't said anything back.

What do I do?!

My dd says she doesn't want to make her teacher sad because her teacher gets sad if she gets her words wrong and she has a panic in the morning saying we didn't practice our words enough. And I have to tell her that it's okay to make mistakes and nobody should be getting sad by you getting your words wrong. We learn through mistakes.

I feel so sad for her. She's a capable girl and I know she has trouble with distinguishing between th and f and if a w word begins with wh or w and she will ask me to repeat again but aside from that I don't see the problems at home that they're mentioning.

Oh the poor little scrap.

It probably is her ears and as others have said testing 4 year old twice a week is ridiculous. As is too much homework. This could result in severe anxiety or disengagement.

I would move schools. She will easily make friends because most 4 year olds mix well.

At that age my DS could read and write but he was never tested. His homework was maybe a little bit of writing or colouring.

Far too much pressure for a reception age child. It’s probably the teacher putting her off and making it stressful, poor kid.

Don't do this.

Children with hearing difficulties need time to process sounds properly.

Doing it under time pressure is pointless. If she can't hear the sounds, she can't hear them.

This thread is so sad, 4 year old under pressure and even the thought of having a "top set"

Our poor children.

Exactly....and I can assure you from experience that whatever 'set' they are in in reception doesn't have much bearing on which set they will be in come year 3, and by the time they get to year 7 it will all be different again. Hearing aside this is because children's brains develop at different rates. And they all have different skills and interests, which can also change along the way......

There is no point in her doing these tests if she can't hear the sounds. Because it's testing her hearing, not her spelling. A reasonable adjustment might be to give her the test 1:1 in a quiet space if she manages better at home with you. DS was offered hearing aids while on the list for grommets - have you been offered them? Grommets made a big difference to DS's speech, he hasn't started school yet so not doing phonics but we have all noticed a difference in his speech and hearing.

@MelThomas1 unfortunately this is all going back a long way, as she's 15 now. Even then we had to pay for a private diagnosis as GP was hopeless. After private consultation things moved very fast and within a month she had tonsils out, adenoids out and grommets fitted.

Didn't do much to support her speech. She had learned baby sign language, so we started a bit of sign again if she wanted it. When GP first diagnosed it i whipped her out of her very noisy nursery/ preschool setting and placed her back with her old childminder for a while. Thank goodness for the magic of grommets.

Also @MelThomas1 I should have said I completely empathise with blaming yourself. It's just awful when you know something is not right, but you don't know what or how to fix it. I hope your DD gets what she needs fast. And if the long view helps my DD is now absolutely thriving. Good luck.

Thank you for your replies. I may have to take the plunge and move her. They really don't want to help her. I talked to them today and they said they can't do anything for her and I have to wait for the speech and language referral. And I said if my dd started the school knowing her high frequency words and how to spell them, but she remained stagnant until the other children caught up, how do I know if you move her to another group that the same won't happen again? Will she get the differentiation that she needs? And the teacher said we can only put her next to us as we're not professionals in speech and language, you must wait for further guidance with referral.

Honestly I'm not a fan of phonics in general. I feel its teaching them a method that doesn't work for the vast majority of words. If she can't even hear the sounds anyway, I'd be inclined to go old school and teach her whole word recognition. Look Cover Write Check style practice.

Spelling tests for 4 year olds though! Fucks sake.

Phonics works for the vast .majority of English words. Research shows that it works well for most children.

Phonics works for most children who have a hearing loss.

She does not need speech and language therapy. (Salt will usually not accept referrals for children with glue ear.) This is all time-wasting.

She needs to be able to hear.

This means asking the hospital for a hearing aid.
This means the school ensuring that she is always at the front, next to the teacher.

The school is legally required to make sure that children with medical conditions are properly educated.

https://www.ndcs.org.uk/information-and-support/childhood-deafness/causes-of-deafness/glue-ear/^^

I understand they must provide a proper education but they're saying we already are by putting her next to us. I have a meeting with the HT tomorrow. I will relay to her what has been said and that I want the senco to recommend strategies for the teacher to adopt in daily phonics lessons.

How did you get on OP?

Have you had a referral for her hearing at all? That's what really needs sorting. Can you afford a private appointment?