School reports results came as a surprise

[Mumisconfused]

AIBU to be upset the teacher didn't provide enough feedback at parents meeting, around Easter time, and now the report for DC, who just finished YR1, mentions 'working towards expected' in all areas? We were not aware of this!

We did ask her specifically to let us know if there was areas dc needed more support back in April, and she said dc needs to work in the presentation of his work (which is true). But she only mentioned that! She said maths and reading was fine.... in the phonics test dc got 36/40 words, which I think it's very good. DC reads long sentences and has a good understanding of what dc has just read...

I understand dc's concentration is not great, and we also asked the teacher since the beggining of yr1 if she thinks dc's concentration is as expected for a 5/6 years old, and she didn't really noticed anything. DH thinks she doesn't pay much attention on him because he is very well behaved and she's too busy dealing with not so well behaved kids.... I am starting to think he is right.

How can she have not flagged this to us, when we asked in April? She removed the chance of us giving him extra support at home....

I think the OP is more concerned about the failings of the school and the teacher than her son.

But they should be worried if their child is being overlooked by a teacher. The low standards people have come to expect of uk state schools and teachers is downright worrying.

Just a message of support to all the mumsnet parents that are engaged with their child/ren’s school education and do want to understand the approach of their child’s school.

Communication is key, and if you want added clarity, you should feel able to approach the teacher and work with them to support the school and your own child’s happiness and confidence- and ultimately the best learning experience for them.

The negative comments here show so little imagination and understanding of how a child can be encouraged at home by their parents.
Do they think that parents set up a mini Victorian classroom, and ruin their child’s free time/school holidays by hot housing and long repetitive exercises?

Learning should always be fun as many people have said ‘little and often’ especially when very young.

Loads of online information and guidance is available today - more so than was available 3 decades ago when we were at this stage and W H Smith’s was almost our only resource.
Interwoven with fresh air physical exercise, of their choice and interesting days out it doesn’t need to be an intense chore for anyone or expensive.

In our case it had a very happy outcome - but in any case, if they are engage, happy and confident at school you will have massively boosted their life experience.

People expect superhuman standards from teachers. Nurture, pastoral, coaching, toileting, manners, giving special attention, personalised plans and that’s before you get into actually educating them.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. Talk to his teacher and let her know your concerns. The chances are he is almost expected and the evaluation is taking into account how he performed in end of year tests where perhaps he did not apply himself as much as he could. He has plenty of time to catch up in year 2.

This can sometimes be a sign of neurodivergence, or it’s just that your friend’s child developed later.

Boys, especially, seem to find it harder to sit down and listen. It’s not because they are understimulated geniuses- just that they haven’t developed the executive function to sit in a class environment and do lessons.

its why some countries don’t start kids at school until 7 years old. They learn in different ways when younger.

to be fair to the Yr 1 teacher, it’s possibly the system at fault. Regardless of how bright your kid’s friend is, it’s likely he’d never have thrived in a class environment at that age.

People telling you that WTE "doesn't mean anything" in Year 1 have no idea what they're talking about.

It's not about putting pressure on children or expecting them all to be geniuses. Progress is tracked from Reception for a reason. If a child is not making expected progress in Year 1 then unless they are given the right support the gap between that child and their peers is likely to widen in Year 2 and so on. Learning is like a series of building blocks, the early foundations (particularly in phonics and Maths) need to be there in order for them to be able to build on and develop their understanding.

At my school, a child who was WTE would be receiving support in the form of small intervention groups, pre-teaching, adapted work, fine motor skills intervention if they struggled with handwriting etc. If they were WTE in all areas then the Teacher would also be having conversations with the SEND team to rule out any unmet cognition and learning needs. If there were no learning needs identified then staff would be curious as to why the child was not making progress. For example, is their attendance low? Are they struggling with concentration?
Crucially, their parents would be fully informed of the above and there would be no surprises in their end of year report.

I agree with this. I’m not a teacher, but was school governor when kids were young.

truth of the matter is that teachers are teaching 25 kids. They don’t have the time for 1-1 attention to every kid all day.

parents have around 1-4 to look after, so their expectations are skewed.

OP- would also say that the teacher has told you how he is doing in his report card- you now know how to target your efforts at home.

It takes time for a teacher to evaluate progress- maybe when you last spoke he was doing fine, but had dipped recently?

the report is not an exam result, it’s a progress report with plenty of pointers for you over the summer.

he is only yr1. Save you stress for exam years

This is really good point - my DD had someone else’s name on her primary report and the teacher said ‘oh, well we often copy and paste stuff’.😩

I meant they shouldn't be worried about their son's abilities ...
Agree about overlooking ...I wouldn't be happy with the school.

The problem is that I think that is close to what most 5 year olds need/is best for them...just not possible with current system.

Most children at the end of Y1 are ‘working towards’, as the measures are for what they should be achieving at the end of KS1 (end of Y2!). Unless your child is a whole year ahead of where they should be, they are ‘working towards’.

Most schools measure against year group objectives though, not end of key stage.

Not when they’re using the term ‘working towards’.

? WTS in Year 1 would be not quite at the standard expected for that exact age group: Year 1. Measuring to the end of the key stage makes no sense?

Then 100% agree with you 😀

Bloody hell - that’s sums up the current state education in the UK. It makes my blood boil about the lack of investment in education.

What does 'working towards expected' mean there? Here it means on track for age and expectation and isn't a negative thing? I think there are only 3 options on the report here.

It means exactly that at the school I work and at my children's school. It explicitly says so on their reports.

Just saying teachers aren’t superhuman is not the point. Education should be properly invested in by the Government and these threads, which often appear on mumsnet just show children are being let down every day in schools in small ways - which adds up,

DD1’s teacher told us (after a similar school report in Y2) that she never noticed if DD1 was in the class or not! She was also bored. She was on the G & T programme in Y1 and her Y2 teacher simply didn’t bother to continue it. Y3 and a different school made all the difference.

And I agree with you. But it’s the accusations against individual teachers and insinuating they are incompetent that’s actually corrosive. It also deflects from the systemic problems in education, and the lack of funding.

I’m sorry but this makes no sense! If they master it easily at 7 or 8 then this would mean most children if not all would be on track and they aren’t. Teaching children in reception and year 1 isn’t a waste.

Can you point where the OP described her child as a prodigy? I may have missed it. Or were you just trying to be unpleasant for attention?

Take it up with the teacher who'd taught reception and year 1 for years and felt that. It certainly worked for my son.

I think you misunderstood, she was saying all the stuff she and they worked hard to learn in reception and year 1 was easily learned in year 3 in a matter of weeks so why teach it before they are ready? Doesn't mean they would be on track for year 3 although my son certainly was by the end of the year. Which is probably why they start later in other countries and achieve as much if not more than out kids.