Summer birthdays

[rosylizzie]

My 5 year old dd is 2nd youngest in her class with an end of June birthday. Her two elder brothers (Feb and Sept born) consistently sat in the top groups at school right from the start.Not so dd. I know she is intrinsically just as bright, if not brighter than them but has less good reading and writing skills than they did at a similar stage of Yr1. What concerns me most is that she is sitting the only girl on a table of what she describes as 'naughty boys' and who I know contain lower ability kids and those with behavioural issues. This table is being sent out to the TA who provides the SEN programme. What do I do? do i do nothing and trust that eventually she will find her level or do I go in and say I think she could do with a boost with her literacy because of her summer birthday but she is noe SEN? Advice please

Are you sure they won't reshuffle the tables every now and again ? Ours were randomly grouped until half term then shuffled around into more ability based tables and possibly again after Christmas , I'm not sure. dd was 5 in August and seems to fall in the middle of the class ability wise so age doensot necessarily follow.

Perhaps your dd benefits from some reinforcement of the literacy basics. If she is having small group attention it is not necessarily a bad thing, most children would respond well to it whatever their ability, and it may not reflect on her potential just what she needs now. Have you asked the teacher on what basis she has been included ?

I think the work the TA is doing with them should boost the skills you feel need improving. I assume you were informed of the format of the sessions and reasoning behind her inclusion in the programme at the beginning?
Are you sure it is a SEN programme or just one that some schools use as a booster e.g. ELS or Jumpstart?

Does she sit with the same children all day?

Sometimes children have Literacy groups, Maths groups and then can sit where they like at other times.

As you are concerned please speak to the teacher and put your mind at rest.

I had the same thing my DD1 is an end of June birthday so I decided on a January school start and she hated being in the TA's group with the other jan starters and "naughty kids". Luckily she was moved out of it quite soon. (she asked the TA if she could go into class several times) I did used to practise her reading skills everyday at home and within 2 months she was in the higher groups.