How can you truly know how well your child is doing in school?

[fqueenzebra]

This makes sense in the context of the following conversation, with DH's cousins (they are librarians, very bookish... but I have a PhD, so you wouldn't expect my kids to be complete turnip-brains, either).

We were talking about expected standards of achievement, and she said "I only just found out that by Year 2 they should --"

"Oh no!" I said, dreading that it would something that my own DS has no chance of achieving.

"-- only be able to count to 15", Cousin finished. I was very relieved, DS1 can almost do that now (tends to miss out number 13). Cousin was clearly taken aback, thought I should be appalled to, and said that she worried that her own boys would be very much too bored in school.

Am I not being ambitious enough for my child? How do I know if he truly is making satisfactory progress? Given the previous discussions when it was agreed that school reports don't usually tell parents the honest truth about low-achievers. Do I have to wait for the SAT results to get an objective comparison?

And if DS is so behind (which he seems to be, compared to many NT children discussed on MN, & by this Cousin), then why did DS's teacher tell me that she had "no concerns whatsoever" about his progress?

I honestly don't know if we are too unambitious for our children or getting it "about right"....

This also links into extra-curricular activities; how important are they to overall development? My kids are just too tired to do school/preschool and structured activities outside of school; I honestly don't get how other people's little kids do so much (gymnastix, swimming, multi-sport, drama, etc.). I am afraid though that my kids are going to fall far behind on extra-curricular stuff, too....

No idea I'm afraid. However I feel under great pressure on ds' behalf that he is entering a different system into Year 3 and may /may not be behind the others academically. In his last school he mainly "consistently met the objectives " whatever that may mean, which even his teacher couldn't satisfactorily answer ! If what you say is correct may be I should relax just a bit.

Don't think mine will do much out of school either - it is a long day already.

Nowedays tachers are expected to assess children in terms of how well they have met their objectives, rather than saying X came 15th out of a class of 30.

What matters is that your child is making satisfactory progress, and that can mean anything from reading War and Peace to understanding the basic phonic sounds.

In general we are advised not to give grades, as children have been shown to do best when they are give comments alone, so 'You have written an exciting story, to improve make sure that you use capital letters at the start of sentences', the idea being that they are give a target to aim for IYSWIM. Whe children are given grades they do least well, and if you give a grade and a comment, they just look at the grade and ignore the comment.

If you want to read more on this sort of assessment (formative assessment rather than summative) have a look at this website

www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm

Hi fqueenzebra

Is your DS in year 2? Have a look at this link for the National Numeracy Strategy which gives you the objectives which will be taught in Year 2.

I'll have a look and see if I can find the literacy ones too.

Here are the objectives for Year 2, term 1. Schools don't necessarily follow the term by term guide but it should give you an idea of the level.

National Literacy Strategy

Thanks hmb, that is the interpretation we and ultimately the teacher put on it. However the school principal maintains that the assessments are based upon overall objectives and thereby the children's grade cards should conform to a statistical bell curve at year group level - he is way out of touch with what is actiually going on at class level ! The difficulty is that this style of reporting is not very informative for his new teacher, although perhaps it is better for her to assess him for herself with no preconceptions.

Sorry, should have said. DS is only going into Year 1, but I guess the links will be useful for next year.

What you say about judging the child's progress relative to their previous/current standard is interesting hmb, i think I will have to mull that over. Is that the current main philosophy in education? Is this a difference between private/state schools; are private schools more ambitious in terms of children meeting group standards?

I would rather my child were treated as an individual, btw!

This is very possible the edicational hot topic of the moment. Formative assessment is showing to imporve standars in quite a big way (more so that say, VAKI multiple intelegences). The idea is that you get the children to assess their own work as well, the idea being that you train them in setting objectives for themselves.

Formative assessment is very much based on an education for the idividual/ self learner style rather than comparisons to the norm.

In the end it doesn't realy matter if your kid is top of the class or bottom....as log as they are all making progress!

BTW older kids hate this style of assessment!

They are all interested in who came top of the class rather than making progress per se!

This is firmly in place in the comprehensive school I work it....we try to link it to ks3 grades, ie you are working at a 4 a the moment, to work towards a 5 you need to.....

We also set objective as we assess them against the targets. We discuss this with parents in Progress day when the childs progress is discussed with the form tutor, child are parent/carer. We set 3 targets which everyone agrees to work towards, flag up any issues to discuss with other members of staff at parents evening, and it is very helpful for all paries. The consultation takes 15 minutes and everyone gets an appointment

FQZ - the Yr1 objectives are on the same site too.

Like HMB, we also use formative assessment/assessment for learning to help children make progress. It means that we have to set clear criteria for each piece of work e.g. in Year 1, if working on sentences in literacy, we would write up that that a successful piece of work will show capital letters, full stops and sentences that make sense. The children are then able to judge themselves whether they have met the objective, have partly met it, or need to continue working on it. We teach the children to indicate this by putting a green spot (fully met), orange spot (partly met) or red spot (need to keep working on it) at the top of their work. We would then sit with them when we write a comment on their work which helps them move forward. e.g. asking them to look at a sentence the teacher has written, and show the teacher where the capital letter should be. Children are very astute at self-assessing at a young age as long as the criteria are made clear to them. It helps them take responsiblity for their learning. It's been really effective in my school in raising and maintaining standards. (I work in a state school).

If your DS's teacher has said that she has "no concerns whatsoever" then both she and you are doing a great job at school and at home.

Some children enjoy doing extra-curricular activities but for others, it's much more important to have time to relax at home and unwind after a day at school. I don't think there is an issue of falling "far behind on extra-curricular stuff".

God forbid cousin's kids turn out to be thickies .

we get regular phone calls asking us to go into school.

i phone the secondary school at the end of everyterm for a meeting either with special needs or head of year or both and the ambulance driver - oh no that was only when dd got suspended for accidentally pushing a boy off a wall for calling her names.

i do ring up end of everyterm and request a meeting - to show i really do care how my scallies are being treated and how they are being educated and how hard they are trying in school. its as much a chance for the school to prove to me they are doing their best as it is for me to protest that i do give them all a pen every day - i do!

My dd1(5.8) has always come out of school bouncing and ready for clubs, play etc and dd2(3.11) is even more lively and is on the go until she drops straight to sleep 6.30 -7 ish
My problem at school is that dd1 is already way past the objectives for her age group and isn't challenged though I have spoken to the staff before and they gave her harder work.