Bad teaching or a coincidence?

[Strangetimess]

DD is in year 1, summer born. She has been struggling at school, not where she was supposed to be and quite far behind.

Over lockdown I’ve been working from home so have only done about 45 mins a day max of work with her and have just bought workbooks off Amazon as no online school provision. She was getting very basic things wrong, once I explained it to her - she got it straight away and has wizzed through the books and is now doing a year 2 one independently.

She’s been back at school for 2 weeks and the teacher spoke to me to say she has far exceeded expectations and is now doing very well.
I am obviously happy she’s now doing well but I’m concerned about the school and teaching she’s received to be so behind and unaware previously. The sort of things she was getting wrong were very easy to explain (e.g she didn’t understand that 2x tables were counting in 2s, didn’t know the difference between + and -, didn’t know about when to add capital letters etc) once I took about 2 mins to explain the concept to her, she could do it all independently.

I’ve had concerns about the school previously and other parents have said similar about this experience highlighting flaws with the teaching. I have to work so would never home school full time, plus i’m certainly no teacher! I just wondered if others thought this was worrying and could be worth changing schools over? She will have the same teacher next year, they’ve kept teachers the same except from R,1,5,6.

Any comments appreciated! Don’t want to think badly of the school if it’s likely she would’ve come into her own anyway... thanks

If she was behind already, it is likely the school had interventions in place to support her based on day to day and ongoing assessments and observations. Have you asked the school?

Summer born chn often 'take off' with their learning during late spring/summer when they are more ready to 'get' a concept, particularly in Y1! The age gap within younger year groups has a massive impact on readiness for learning! Like you say she would've come into her own anyway, but your dd has also had the benefit of 1:1 support for 45m a day during lockdown, that's a lot! She has also had no distraction from peers or general busy Y1 classroom life. Also timetables are not on the Y1 curriculum, but counting in jumps of 2,5 and 10 are, so unlikely she would know or make that link as she wouldn't have been taught it yet necessarily!

Speak to the school if you're concerned, starting with class teacher, it sounds like you might have other concerns anyway...

Nearly all children thrive one to one with an adult to themselves and the spring and summer term is when things usually click for them.

45minutes a day teaching 1on1 teaching is a lot for a year 1 child achtuly more then enough at this age.

DS is year 4 and only needed 2 1/2 hours a day. It's to intense otherwise.

It takes a lot to pick up concepts in larger groups and also being summer born makes a big difference at this age. DD who is now year 8, struggle with some things till year 2 so you've done a good job in helping her catch up. So I don't think it's just the school's issue.

I think it’s indisputable that one to one teaching is more efficient than group teaching. That’s not to say that all children would thrive being home educated. There’s lots of other elements to school which are potentially beneficial.

It’s hard to say whether you’re just seeing the benefits of one to one or there are also issues with the teacher/school. One thing you can do though is keep up a bit of one to one after school or at the weekend.

I sat with my kids when they did homework during most of their primary years. It let me know how well they were doing, what they were doing, and allowed me to highlight any concerns I may have. If you can, keep working with your child, even if just 20 minutes a day. I also think most teachers are very happy to meet with parents so if you think there's an issue. I'd wait and see (probably too late t o change anyway for next year). She is still young and may just be adjusting to the school environment.