Ja9 and other Scottish Primary Teachers - Please!

[hannahsaunt]

Ja9 - ask your sil if you don't know who I am... We're in Australia until the end of July and ds1 (5) is in grade 1 which he started at the end of January. He'll go into P2 with the new school year in August. He's in a 1/2 composite class and despite being the very youngest is ahead of most of the class inc the g2s esp with reading and writing. E.g. g2s are still learning the concept of blended sounds (th, sh, ch etc) whilst ds1 leans over the desks and gives handy hints on which words they could use as examples... Clearly the education system here is very different from home and I would like to know what will be expected of him as he enters p2 - what should he be reading, writing, able to do maths wise? (His number work at the moment is learning how to write numbers up to 10 and be able to paint the correct number of dots beside the number). I have no great plans to do any extra work with him at home; I think the benefits of his fun extra curricular activities (tennis, music etc) far outweigh a bit of catching up he may have to do at home...unless he's going to be miles behind in which case we may think about it. TIA

bumping because ja9's around...

In p1 now most children are adding up to 10 and being able to write and recognise numbers up to 20. If he's coping very well( which he certainly sounds like), he will have no problem slotting in to p2 when you come back, and just have to familiarise himself with whichever reading scheme his school is on. He sounds as if he's having a great time( and I bet it's sunny!! )

Not a teacher, but I have a list of words that a child should be able to read, write and spell by the end of P1.

They are:
a
and
he
I
in
is
it
of
that
the
to
was

Would be expected to be able to write all the letters, and know their sounds. With numbers I think writing the numbers, and knowing their value would be enough. Might be expected to add and take away using objects.

I think you are right not to do extra work at home. He is not going to have too much catching up to do, and the way he is learning in his current school will probably give him a good grounding of the basics :)

Really Wallace are you sure? That is all they are supposed to know - can't believe it, nah...

DD1 is in P1 and that looks like one weeks learning.

Sorry for the hijack Hannah - but to echo what others have said and based on the work DD is bringing home, and what work is on display around her class I would think you son will be fine.

You might get some info here

\link{http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/guidelines/index.asp\5-14}

Great site Seb - thanks.

To clarify - that is a list of words they should be able to write and spell. There is a bigger list of reading words.

Thanks for these. Think he'll be absolutely fine. It was the maths side I thought he may not be doing enough of (they don't do much until the second half of g1 by which time we'll be gone) but it sounds like he'll still be quite ahead come August. His Scottish school does ORT so we are very familiar with Biff, Chip et al.

You might find this useful too

\link{http://www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk/\parentzone}

just seen this hannahsaunt. would you mind emailing me if you're still wanting my thoughts. i don't really like posting about school things here. hope you don't mind.

as i've already given out my email address tonight anyway.. janineandmark at hotmail

Wallace but even to write and spell those words don't seem 'enough' some how! DD1's homework requires more complex writing and spelling than that at the moment and they still have a fair bit of the school year to go. I am just really surprised TBH.

Hannah DDs class uses ORT and I think she and her friends currently range from level 3 to level 7 - so quite diverse abilities in even 1 class. I am sure Ja9 will have sorted you out with some professional advice by now thou'!

You're right, it doesn't seem much does it. I did think that when they gave me the list - it goes up to P3. By then they should spell only 100 words. I wonder if it is a minimum, rather than an average.

Your school must work diffently to ours. Ds is in P2 and finishing stage 6 ORT and he is a whole stage ahead of the next group in the class! His year did make a slow start as they didn't have a permanant teacher for most of the year in P1. Also they work through every single book in each stage - the trunk books and the extra books A and B

Ah the mysteries of school Wallace!

On the ORT levels they do work through whole of each level and to be honest there is a small group (well 2 ) who have just moved onto level 7. I think the majority of the class are on 3 or 4. They have slowed right down on reading/English at the mo and are concentrating hard on numbers. I am sure it all evens out over the first couple of years.