What would you do - end of school year report

[LostittoBostik]

I have a child in Y2, late summer born (not yet 7). Was an early talker, always confident with reading skills.
At Easter we had a parent teacher conference saying that she was borderline exceeding expectations for maths but not meeting expectations for reading and comprehension. This really confused me as it wasn't what I recognised but we threw efforts into supporting comprehension at home. She reads independently at home for 1 hour+ every day.
We've just our end of year report saying she's meeting expectations in everything except maths. Now she's not meeting expectations.
I knownY2 is a sudden escalation in ideas about numeracy etc but this is frustrating. I knew this was her area of struggle.
I have a feeling we were being given someone else's feedback at Easter. It just didn't fit with the child I knew.
Would you bother to meet to talk to this year's teacher about it? Or just work on it with next year's?

@LostittoBostik in your shoes, I would want to know one way or another whether the Easter information was accurate or not. If the teacher has made an error, as seems likely as the change over three months doesn't really make sense, he or she would want to know. I would not make too much of it - a quick chat at pick-up time rather than a meeting, on the pretext of asking for guidance on how to support your DD with maths over the holidays then the query about what you were told at Easter not really making sense.

This is great advice. I’d do the same. It’s not great from the teacher but mistakes happen and in Y2 it won’t have much bearing on her progress going forwards. Your main question should be how to help her achieve expectations in Y3. I’d be non accusatory and non confrontational - just a supportive parent who understands not everyone is perfect!

I had this with DS, flagged with school that he had gone from exceeding to not met, they told me that I was wrong and he was never exceeding according to their records. I found the report about 6 months later and I was right.

Needless to say this isn’t the only issue and we are now leaving the school.

I think I would sit on it till dc starts in Y3.

In September, ask to have a quick meeting with the new teacher and show them both reports and ask if they could monitor DC for a few weeks and then confirm what is really happening.

Thanks. We don't have any other issues with the school and she's really happy there. I am just a bit disappointed with this as I really felt her teacher this year connected with her. Maybe I was wrong? Or maybe it was a slip up on the evening.
Anyway I will book the chat, as you say to find out what to focus on during the summer to help her. I'm guessing she got a lot score in the SAT.

@Createausername1970 unfortunately I don't have anything in writing to show. It was verbal feedback at parents' evening.

*a low score

Weirdly had this with one teacher in Y2 as well, fed back to me that on school report that my previously exceeds expectations in reading summer born child was suddenly not meeting expectations. I had the chat with the teacher, her reasoning was that she didn't want (ND, quiet) DD to 'get too full of herself'. Needless to say that teacher didn't last long at the school and my now adult DD resumed her exceeding expectations for the rest of her school career.

I would say don't take one teachers view as gospel, have the chat to see if it's a simple mistake and if not just see how it goes in Y3 without making too much of a big deal about it with your DD.

I'd want to check with her current teacher - even if just to get proper feedback on which areas she needs to concentrate on. It may well be that they've taken her scores from any end of year tests they do (do KS1 SATS still exist? - our school does PUMA and PIRA maths and Reading assessments every terms and I know they link the end of year report 'grading' to those at our school).

We have a parents' evening before the end of term if wanted though to discuss anything that has come up in reports, so not an issue for us to raise it there.

I don't see how a child could be exceeding expectations at Easter and not meeting them in the same subject a month later. Unless it's something specific like they've been covering time. Some children who are generally great at maths can struggle with time.

@Mostlycarbon Exactly. But also she was never, in my view, not meeting expectations in literacy. It was an upside down report. But it made me think I didn't need to worry about maths when clearly there is an issue there (there is, she's struggling in ways I recognise from myself in primary too - understands the problems but struggles with numeracy to solve them)

Do check what they are basing their comments on. Is it a rounded consideration of her work in class or single test results? Any child can have a good or bad day on a test.

Thanks @testing987654321 - that's a good point

A possible explanation...some schools use Pixl test papers. A bell curve is generated from the results of all children who take the tests (not just your class or school but any child who is entered for them.) Threshold levels are then generated for teachers to read off and decide if the child is below, expected, or exceeding. The problem can arise that sometimes there are only two or three marks separating levels. Any teacher who reports levels based solely off the results of those tests could have this happen.

An apparent dip could be just one mark due to a "fell out with my friend" / "don't feel well" day , or equally if a big improvement might be due to a lucky guess on a multiple choice question pulling them into the higher band.

Our school takes a more nuanced approach and allows teacher assessment informed by the tests, so we can factor this in.

I would ask for a meeting to explore these changes further - especially looking at her raw scores for the last couple of tests and where they fit in the bands.