Is any other parent glad it's coming to the end of the school year (2 weeks to go in my part of Scotland) and hoping for better things next year?

[TheScottishPlay]

Two years ago at this time we were delighted at DS progress in all aspects of his schooling, he appeared to have hit the jackpot with his first three primary school teachers.
After two successive years of probationer teachers and countless contacts with the school his writing is horrendous, he hardly knows his tables and he subtracts using his fingers (age 10). We have a tutor lined up for the summer holidays to reinforce times tables etc. DH and I try to help him as much as we can but we are not teachers.
His HT has all but admitted to us and other parents that his teacher this year has not been up to scratch but the onus of support seems to be on the school to the teacher rather than to the pupils.
I am not expecting brilliance from DS just for him to be taught in the 30 hours he spends at school each week.

Just over two weeks to go here, I'll be glad when they're over. DD is 7 and has had a rough few months, we adopted her a few months ago (slightly more complicated than that as it was within the family, but don't really want to go into detail) and she's really struggled to settle into school. She's selectively mute and pretty much refuses to speak at school, managed to convince her teacher she couldn't speak any English when in reality she's pretty much fluent. Refuses to use the Latin alphabet at school and writes in English with Cyrillic (which looks at a glance like she's writing in another language), but will write properly on her homework at home and based on that is apparently working at the level of a second grader (she's grade 1 and has missed a lot of school this year), bar some missing vocabulary. But we can't for the life of us get her to do it at school. Ed psych has been useless and thinks it's an adjustment period, DP and I aren't convinced. We're seeing how it pans out at the moment.

I'm no expert, but do you really need a tutor for times tables? They honestly just need to learn them, DD knows hers from a CD her aunt has on in the car for her older cousins when she picks her up from school. She's never thought of it as learning her tables, hasn't done them at school yet, but she's listened to the CD enough times that she knows all the ones her cousins have to know for school by heart.

12 days and counting. My P7 dd1 will be pleased to get to academy, and my P3 dd2 is switching schools - biting the bullet and going private. After two years of waiting for the school to take action about her handwriting, the school have just admitted there is nothing they can/are prepared to do about it.

Terrible year here too P4 can only hope next year better... Roll on holidays. Hope to rebuild DS's confidence in himself over the summer ( and that the next teacher does not destroy it again)

Dont rely on others to teach your child basic skills like times tables........do it yourself. Children spend more time at home than they do at school.

That was me last year. Ds3 had the one teacher in the school that had problems with his brothers and yes, she found problems with ds3. According to his report last year he had lost a lot of ground.

This year he has had a very young teacher, new to the school and with very little experience. I had hoped he would get one of the older teachers I knew well but she has been great. His school report was actually about him - she knew him to a tee. He has made up all the lost ground from last year and more. Hope you have better luck next year.

I would love to find a times tables DVD with the Scottish version on it. All I have been able to find is the English one. If anyone can recommend I would be greatful.

Clearly I mean CD. I still live in the world of tape recorders!

Me too!

8.5 days to go.

They're just so tired.

Dd1 is in S2-3 transition and is doing well, loving getting into her new subjects for N5, actually thinking the holidays might be boring at home!

Ds is exhausted - he's P7. His teacher commented at parents evening that he's just fed up with primary and very ready for High School. He's the oldest in his year, and this is the first time ever I've seen him so lethargic about school - he doesn't have to try, but secondary will perk him up.

Dd2 is on the P6/7 boundary. Basically can't wait for ds's year to leave so she can be one of the top-dogs!

I was saying to dh this morning, I'm really looking forward to not having to do all the negotiations about lunches/uniform/shoes/pe kit etc .....

Yay! 7 weeks off!!!

Yes. DD's (Yr 1) teacher this year just doesn't seem to get her. We had a 100% negative report on her at last PE with no warning whatsoever. Since then negative notes home. At home this is a little girl who loves reading, writing and maths and will choose to do these as activities. (unlike her older brother) It's just not translating to school with this teacher and I just don't know why? Onus completely on us to 'fix' her. No suggestions of how we can work together. It's been a very frustrating year

Provencal my DD is Grade 1 in the Canadian system and we're having the same problem :( At home she is quite happy to do sciencey stuff, is reading books aimed at 9 year olds (in her third language!), generally does math homework without difficulty. There are holes in her English vocab but at home she will ask if she doesn't know what something means, and she's reading grammatically at a high enough level that her language is constantly improving. At school she just won't do any of it, rarely speaks. We've basically been told judging by what she does at home she's doing well, so leave her to it . Frustrating doesn't cover it. It's so difficult to know what to do with her really.

Oh do they do times tables the other way around in Scotland?

DS1 had an NQT this year (p2) who has been great. I've been ill and there's been a lot of disruption for him and she's been very supportive.
Academically he's doing ok but we've just found out he'll be one of a very small number of p3s in a 2/3 composite. I have no idea if this will be good for him on not as I have no idea how composites really work.

Weebarra, composites can be good if the teacher is good.

Only dd1 has been in them.

Her record is
P1 - (very small rural school) in an 11-pupil 1-7 composite!
Moved house!
P2 - P2
P3 - P3/4 composite
P4 - P4/5 composite
P5 - P5
P6 - P5/6
P7 - P6/7

I honestly don't think it's held her back. She's great at getting on with others, has a secure friendship group, is achieving at above her predicted level and is being fast-tracked in Art, her incredible strength. She's confidently bilingual (Gaelic/English - at a GM school), doing well in extra curricular stuff like music and is popular, liked by teachers and content in herself.

I think the composites gave her more confidence, and her P6 teacher was frankly brilliant.

Cosmic the teacher decribed her as 'bossy'. It made me seethe. I had to stop myself from asking her if she hadn't seen any of the articles about taking back this word.

Your DD sounds like she's doing incredibly well. DD is nowhere near at that level but she's reading books aimed at Year 2 readers and given that she's an end August kid I'm pretty pleased with her progress.

It sounds like the teacher just isn't on her wavelength provencal :( DD's class has a different teacher for music who only takes them for an hour a week, from her we had a blatantly copied and pasted section on her report card saying she's enthusiastic and joins in well in class . We're letting that one go. Academically we're really not too worried about DD though (although she really does need to start writing comprehensibly!), but her social interaction at school is just non existent. But again, outside school she gets on well with her cousins, which makes us think it's more of an issue with school in general. Should add though that Grade 1 in Canada is the age equivalent of year 2 in the UK, so she's 7 rather than 6, only reading two years ahead rather than 3!

Maybe she's intimidated by the class cosmic? Some people hate speaking out in front of a group of otheres.