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....

What nonsense. You clearly do not know what a loving concerned mum of a young child looks like.

The best option is to find the associated books to their curriculum. My Y1 daughters school does Little Wandle for reading and White Rose Maths, and there are associated homework books for these. Which I don't think is really necessary in year 1, but her older sister had them and my just turned 6 wanted them too. The schemes teach things in quite different ways, so it's important to be doing an extra learning in a way which is consistent with school schemes.

All children develop at different rates. My year 1 child struggled in reception as one of the youngest in her year, but something just clicked mid year 1 and she went from working towards to greater depth in space of 4 months, 40/40 in phonics test. More than anything it linked to her focus level - you said your son struggles to settle into their work, so it may be worth looking at strategies around that - if he is taking say 5/10 mins to get into an activity, and they are in 30 mins blocks that a chunk of learning he is missing.

100% agree. My just finished year 4 daughter is bright, but really missed out from missing most of reception due to covid closures. I only really realised how important this year was after my youngest went through reception. Both my girls are reasonably smart, but the youngest at 6 has a better grasp in spelling unfamiliar words than the oldest at 9 due to oldest missing the basic phonics building blocks in reception

I think it is worth being bothered. Schools assess children against age related expectations and progress against prior year attainment. This can mean that school will accept a child being below the expected levels, as long as they continue to make the expected steps of progress. So a school can "lock in" to accepting a child underperforming related to their abilities. We had this with one of my DDs and we were able to demonstrate to the school that she was more able and more should be expected of her. But I worry about similar children without invested parents.

Jeez all the angst over reading levels and ‘age related expectations’ on a cut and paste end of year report for a 5 year old. 🙄

Genuinely I could not have given a flying fig what the teacher wrote on my kid’s report as I was the judge of their ability and I was confident that they were good readers, they were articulate and could do their times tables. That’s virtually all they need to know at primary. Anything else is a bonus!

Stressing over these things too early can actually make children lose a love for school because the expectation weighs too heavily on them. Just let your DC learn and explore at their own pace. Your job is not to harangue teachers but to encourage a sense of play and curiosity and reading in your child. If you do that, the rest will naturally follow.

The school failed to communicate properly with the OP about where her son was at - so she is annoyed as she was unable to support her son during the year. At no point did I say the OP was not a concerned Mum- I was saying she wanted to support her son rather than focusing on any perceived failing as he was not meeting expectation.

Surprisingly at my daughter’s school the teachers do manage to provide all that and take the time to engage with her so all work is tailored to her ability and interests. Class sizes are maximum 10 children to 1 teacher plus assistant. It is amazing what teachers can do when properly funded and supported. The issue is the shoddy funding of the schools in the UK and teachers are not able to teach as they should - so kids are failed daily in small and large ways.

I don’t think it is individual teachers they are being failed by the system themselves, hence the mass exodus from the profession. But as they are being failed so are the kids. Education funding should be a key priority for the government regardless of political stance of the government of the day.