Here we go again with the sending home and testing

[WeNeedToGetThroughThis]

DD back to school on Thursday just gone. Came out Friday fine. Developed a cough and temp on Sunday so off I go to get tested.

This happened in the autumn term last year and she ended up with less than 60% attendance, any cough, cold, or virus going round she gets a temperature and or a cough, always has. This time of year it feels like she’s off school more than she’s in without adding covid to the mix. I haven’t sent her in as school would only turn her round at the gates. We've had times where she'll be in for a day or two and be out again for another test because her coughs got worse or her temperatures risen again, school won't let her back without a negative test so it's test or nothing.

I’ll do what I have to do to get her back into school but I just feel defeated by it all. My work won’t be happy and I’ll have to take the day unpaid as I’ve literally gone back after using Annual Leave to cover the summer holidays.

Seriosuly considering pulling her from school but she’s already behind; can’t read, can write but it doesn’t make much sense (letter formation is perfect but the words are unreadable as even when told spellings she gets it wrong), can’t count above 20, can’t do any times tables etc.

She’s 7 and year 3, it just feels like she’s never going to catch up if she’s never in school.

Imo as she sounds significantly behind the school need to be able to provide books. So they should be able to give you a block of say 10 books for a week that you return at once.(if it is still their worry about covid) certainly before an echp and before assuming there is a learning issue.

My dc school only reads with them about 1-2 a half term it makes virtually no difference as learning to read is mainly practised at home. (And i do feel.my dc y1 now year has been more disadvantaged by the lack of ,phonics books during lockdown than the actual learning itself. As its taken until end of summer term to get to where they should have been my march. Our library doesnt have those books although yours might do.

Even my 9yo is reading more than 1 book a fortnight! Some of her year read 80 books last school year.

We haven't had a reading book home since March 2020 either. Ds is in y3 so it's not just your school, op.

I've spent a small fortune on books since but I think the e-books the school link to are a poor substitute for new readers.

Remember if the child is at home for covid, the school has to keep providing remote learning it's not "you're at home sick so we can ignore you", they have to keep teaching, and teaching in a way accessible to the child, if the school is failing to do this (and I expect they are, it's very difficult to provide individual remote support for a child who can't read whilst still teaching a class) then you need to push for that, they are required to, if they don't they are failing.

You need to push completely for your child, ignore any blackmail from the school or other parents about budgets and not having resources, it's about the schools responsibility to your child. It's possible that the more you make the school pay to support the child anyway, the quicker they will be in supporting your EHCP too.

It would actually be best if your child could get a positive test ASAP, isolate fully taught by the school as required when isolating, and then you cannot subsequently do any PCR tests for 90 days, so your child would only be off when too sick for school.

@Frazzled2207

I would def be trying to get a meeting with teacher to discuss Might they accept negative LFT if it happens very often? Has she actually had covid? If she had had it then unlikely she'd get it again soon which would offer some reassurance Feel for you and people in similar situations as a single working parent - sounds very tough

PS not sure what you mean by tier 3 areas, are you in England?

Yes England, we have a 3 school system, so for YR to Y4 in First Schhool, Y5-Y8 in middle school, then Y9-Y11/13 (depending on school) in high school.

@HSHorror

Imo as she sounds significantly behind the school need to be able to provide books. So they should be able to give you a block of say 10 books for a week that you return at once.(if it is still their worry about covid) certainly before an echp and before assuming there is a learning issue.

My dc school only reads with them about 1-2 a half term it makes virtually no difference as learning to read is mainly practised at home. (And i do feel.my dc y1 now year has been more disadvantaged by the lack of ,phonics books during lockdown than the actual learning itself. As its taken until end of summer term to get to where they should have been my march. Our library doesnt have those books although yours might do.

They only have 60 books per set apparently, 2 classes per year so don't have enough to be giving out more often. I do have a set of ORT home readers though so will see what book band they say she's on.

@sirfredfredgeorge

Remember if the child is at home for covid, the school has to keep providing remote learning it's not "you're at home sick so we can ignore you", they have to keep teaching, and teaching in a way accessible to the child, if the school is failing to do this (and I expect they are, it's very difficult to provide individual remote support for a child who can't read whilst still teaching a class) then you need to push for that, they are required to, if they don't they are failing.

You need to push completely for your child, ignore any blackmail from the school or other parents about budgets and not having resources, it's about the schools responsibility to your child. It's possible that the more you make the school pay to support the child anyway, the quicker they will be in supporting your EHCP too.

It would actually be best if your child could get a positive test ASAP, isolate fully taught by the school as required when isolating, and then you cannot subsequently do any PCR tests for 90 days, so your child would only be off when too sick for school.

They have offered but by the time its in place and ready to go she's back in school. So not much help. She's only been back 2 days this time so not even had any information about how it works this time.

What a nightmare for you. I'm a teacher and parent. Maybe you could get her some extra books to use at home? On eBay search Year 2 abacus workbook, these are obsolete but would be fine. Books 1,2 and 3 all good and fairly cheap.
Try and spend 30 mins a day on something like this and it will really help.
Also, can you add some vitamin supplements to her diet and look at what she is eating/fresh air/ exercise etc? My son was terrible for temperatures and caught everything going. After years he is now fairly robust 🤞. Hopefully your daughter will have a much stronger immune system soon.

@sunblue

What a nightmare for you. I'm a teacher and parent. Maybe you could get her some extra books to use at home? On eBay search Year 2 abacus workbook, these are obsolete but would be fine. Books 1,2 and 3 all good and fairly cheap. Try and spend 30 mins a day on something like this and it will really help. Also, can you add some vitamin supplements to her diet and look at what she is eating/fresh air/ exercise etc? My son was terrible for temperatures and caught everything going. After years he is now fairly robust 🤞. Hopefully your daughter will have a much stronger immune system soon.

We walk to and from school everyday, she does swimming and Brownies as Extra Activities after school. I drive but rarely use my car as I like walking and it's cheaper. We go the park 2 or 3 times a week after school. I literally can't get any more exercise in if I want to.

Only thing she doesn't do is play in the garden because I don't have one.

They have offered but by the time its in place and ready to go she's back in school

No, they have to provide it from day 1, they do not get to say "oh we'll do it for a few days", if they are using X code, they have to provide it, they need to have school work prepped ready to give, stop letting them fob you off. When you phone to provide the "we're testing", ask when there will be work on "google classroom" or whatever for her, and if it's not by 10am, then keep pushing. Get the information on how it works now, so you're ready to just say "where is it?"

Have you considered changing her school? This sounds like a bit of a disaster for her - not enough reading books?? - she needs somewhere properly resourced and to be given a lot of extra input. I would also consider that she may have some kind of processing difficulty if she can't remember numbers or word spellings. I would definitely speak to the school about your concerns about this but I wouldn't expect them to be experts as they generally aren't especially if it was dysgraphia or something more obscure. I don't find primary schools are good at picking up any SEN unless it cause a great deal of behavioural problems to be honest. If you could afford a private assessment by an ed psych then that would be my recommendation - but likely to be dreadfully expensive.

I would also recommend reading to your daughter everyday, taking in turns to read books at her level, you read a page then she reads a page. I would also work on counting in tens with her - once she can count 10, 20, 30, 40 etc it's much easier to fill in the numbers in between.

@sirfredfredgeorge

They have offered but by the time its in place and ready to go she's back in school

No, they have to provide it from day 1, they do not get to say "oh we'll do it for a few days", if they are using X code, they have to provide it, they need to have school work prepped ready to give, stop letting them fob you off. When you phone to provide the "we're testing", ask when there will be work on "google classroom" or whatever for her, and if it's not by 10am, then keep pushing. Get the information on how it works now, so you're ready to just say "where is it?"

They don't have the online platform anymore (seesaw I think it was called?), they send packs of worksheets home but it requires a TA to drop it off so it's finding that. Most of the parents have someone to sit with the child while they go and get it or have other children in other year groups the stuff can be sent home with, but I can't do that. I can't leave a poorly 7 year old while I walk to school, it's a 20 minute walk so I'd be gone an hour at least.

I do do workbooks with her, read everyday. She does try to read but she gets frustrated.

@Tal45

Have you considered changing her school? This sounds like a bit of a disaster for her - not enough reading books?? - she needs somewhere properly resourced and to be given a lot of extra input. I would also consider that she may have some kind of processing difficulty if she can't remember numbers or word spellings. I would definitely speak to the school about your concerns about this but I wouldn't expect them to be experts as they generally aren't especially if it was dysgraphia or something more obscure. I don't find primary schools are good at picking up any SEN unless it cause a great deal of behavioural problems to be honest. If you could afford a private assessment by an ed psych then that would be my recommendation - but likely to be dreadfully expensive.

I would also recommend reading to your daughter everyday, taking in turns to read books at her level, you read a page then she reads a page. I would also work on counting in tens with her - once she can count 10, 20, 30, 40 etc it's much easier to fill in the numbers in between.

I don't really want to change her school now as she goes to Middle School for Year 5 so only has 2 years left, the upheaval might do more harm than good, plus I need ExHs permission to change her school which won't be easy to get.

No behaviour issues, in fact the opposite. She will sit and not say anything when she's struggling rather than ask for help so she's had to be put near the teacher or with the TA in groups in previous years so she can be spotted when struggling. TA has been with the class since Year 1 so thankfully knows her very well so picks it up but only have TA support in the mornings in Years 3 and 4, and none in middle school unless she gets 1-1.

We managed 3 days this week which is a miracle but her coughs got worse again so looks like it'll be another test before she's back in school again sigh

@WeNeedToGetThroughThis

DD back to school on Thursday just gone. Came out Friday fine. Developed a cough and temp on Sunday so off I go to get tested.

This happened in the autumn term last year and she ended up with less than 60% attendance, any cough, cold, or virus going round she gets a temperature and or a cough, always has. This time of year it feels like she’s off school more than she’s in without adding covid to the mix. I haven’t sent her in as school would only turn her round at the gates. We've had times where she'll be in for a day or two and be out again for another test because her coughs got worse or her temperatures risen again, school won't let her back without a negative test so it's test or nothing.

I’ll do what I have to do to get her back into school but I just feel defeated by it all. My work won’t be happy and I’ll have to take the day unpaid as I’ve literally gone back after using Annual Leave to cover the summer holidays.

Seriosuly considering pulling her from school but she’s already behind; can’t read, can write but it doesn’t make much sense (letter formation is perfect but the words are unreadable as even when told spellings she gets it wrong), can’t count above 20, can’t do any times tables etc.

She’s 7 and year 3, it just feels like she’s never going to catch up if she’s never in school.

At that age my kids were always getting nasty viruses, high temps and coughs. Never forget the many middle of the night out of hours or a&e visits we had at that age! I was keeping them home and working out childcare between DH and I. This was precovid. I don’t know many parents that would send their child into school with a fever, covid or not. As for right now, I wouldn’t want my child in the same class as someone with classic covid symptoms unless they had a negative pcr. If I was a teacher I also wouldn’t be comfortable knowing a student had classic covid symptoms and not tested.

Op, money for a tutor is without doubt worth more than expensive holidays!

Definitely!

I say expensive holidays because holiday is going away and there are plenty of cheaper options out there like youth hostels.

Op... Have you ever tried flash cards? For the first 100 high frequency words?

I did that when dd was struggling, I guess you must have done eye tests?
Then we went back to to non phonics reading.
We got a magnetic spelling board for spelling with foam letters and she pulled words down from the rainbow to spell.

This helped to make sense of letters and words.

Reading chest was our savoir in lock down. It carries most school reading schemes and you can choose the books and levels.

I'd also join that ( 3 pay bands most expensive is £20 a month I think) and go back to the basic books.

Obviously reward heavily...

Finally, a white board and printed off word lines.

If you try the above...

And its still not working and her regular eye test is OK, I'd try behavioural optometrist.. It's expensive but incredibly in depth... Nothing like the usual eye test. It will look at tracking, focus.. All sorts.

Hi op, I feel for you, it must be so hard.

Regarding the books our school say kids should read 4 times a week but my 2 dds often forget to change their books so I get them library books at their level and make them read those if they don’t have school books. Could you try getting some when she’s well and you then have extra books to read? Maybe just a page or two a day if nothing else so your dd doesn’t get frustrated but she’s practising every day. That hopefully won’t take too much of your time too. We can renew online so no need to worry about going in to change/renew if she’s unwell.

I hope your school can help you sort something out so she doesn’t miss any more.

Book band she's pink 2 but school use 3 or 4 different schemes, we've had ORT, Songbirds and Collins Big Cat, they also use some different ones in Years 3 and 4. So I'm not any closer to knowing where she actually is.

They've said to use Level 1 home readers.

Eyes are all fine, she had a squint operation as a toddler but no vision issues or recurring muscle problems. She has a yearly eye check in July every year (she's a July born so it's usually just before her birthday) and her latest one showed no issues or problems.

I read every morning before school with her, school told us to read a double page at a time and no more. She mostly doesn't recognise the words, she remembers them or guesses them but doesn't blend/decode.

I read every night before bed with her, we go to the library every other Saturday (she's with her dad on the other week) and choose new books, I take out at least 5 books every time and we do also have them on the shelves that I've bought.