Should I be concerned? My 6 year old under performing in a few areas

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying not to stress too much as lock down will most definitely of had an affect on a lot of children.

My 6 year old (ending year 1) started off the school year under performing in all areas, reading, writing and maths. Mainly because she just wasn't interested in home learning. We started the school year on yellow books, but she quickly caught up and now is turquoise and probably should even be higher. She's learning to read at a rapid rate.

Writing she's getting better at. Her school do joined up writing which she struggles with. But her print seems to be fine.

In maths she can count to 100 etc but she seems to need a bit more help in this area, I think a lot of the kids are probably the same. I hated maths as a child 🤣

My daughter is a confident, happy little girl with lots of friends so I'm not overly concerned and the teachers haven't mentioned any issues.

However I'm wondering if she will always be on the lower end of the side in education? I just get the impression my daughter at 6 isn't interested in maths in the slightest. She would rather be outside playing with her friends or catching bugs. Trying to get her to sit down and study is almost impossible. Though she's more than happy to read.

Maybe she is a slow learner?

Given the disruption of last 15 months I'd give it another year or more before being over,y concerned.

Have you told her that you hated maths? Did you catch up eventually?

This may not be the case for you, but children pick up on their parents' attitude to school and people seem perfectly happy to say "I'm terrible at maths, ha ha" in a way that they wouldn't say "I'm virtually illiterate, isn't that funny".

It doesn't sound like she's particularly behind - what did her report say?

Btw, yellow isn't behind at start of Y1.

The teachers said she was behind in phonics/reading at the start of the year. They scared the living day lights out of me 😂

The school report just said she's struggled a bit in a few areas of the curriculum. She's behind in hand writing (not worried about) and maths.

That's about it 🤷‍♀️

She's on track in her reading now x

I'd say that Year 1 is probably the worst affected by covid - they've missed 2 out of 6 terms of school. I doubt many children are where they should be.

Whilst I don't think you should stress too much, gaps tend to widen with age not narrow.

At six its not about engaging with formal learning at home but having them learn through parenting and play. Accepting underachievement is not necessarily helpful to her when she reaches adulthood. I suspect she may have picked up your 'rubbish at maths' attitude too.
How are you supporting her outside of reading her school reading books? Are you baking, doing pattern work, counting and money games like pretend shops or using coins for real shopping? Are you talking mathematical language like fractions - chopping fruit into halves and then each section into halves again to make quarters.
Are you counting and multiplying in everyday tasks like laying the table? I thing those are the ways to get mathematical thinking embedded at a young age, rather than worksheets.
Are you reading stories at bedtime and encouraging a wider vocabulary through your conversations? telling her to find a different word to describe things etc?
Does she play an instrument - that can really help with maths? Might be worth investigating.

I don't ever say she rubbish at anything. I always praise her, we read a book at bedtime and cut play doh into halves/quarters etc but I probably could do more mathematical play.

Does her report say she's underperforming in reading? When she's on turquoise level? That doesn't make sense.
Other than that I wouldn't worry - current y1 have had a lot of disruption to their early years and many will be a bit behind

She's 6!!!!! Children in other countries haven't even started school yet.

Seriously; don't worry. Work on a positive happy attitude towards learning for its own sake, and not linked to levels at all. Don't push "catch up".

@Sunbelievable

She's 6!!!!! Children in other countries haven't even started school yet.

Seriously; don't worry. Work on a positive happy attitude towards learning for its own sake, and not linked to levels at all. Don't push "catch up".

I am so sick of people saying this about other countries, the difference is our country starts at 4 and the vast majority learn from 4. The other countries start at 6 and all start together at 6.

OP it is not you saying she is rubbish it is parents usually without shame and in front of their children and teachers saying I was rubbish at maths when I was at school. Children then get into the mindset that maths is hard. It is just like anything else, it can be learned.

Over summer do fun maths activities, it isn't about sitting down with a worksheet. I am sure some yr1/yr2 teachers will be along to help, I haven't volunteered in yr2 for some time, I am in KS2 so cannot point you to specific resources.

And yes this is about catching up to where she should be. The school day is jam packed, there is little time for a teacher or an LSA to catch up an individual student. Doing fun stuff at home to bring up her level, improve confidence and engage in learning is all worth while.

No they said her reading is where it needs to be. I have no idea if turquoise is a decent level or not at her age.

It's just her handwriting and maths.

I used to get mine to do summer holiday diaries.
At that age I bought small exercise books from Smiths that were top half plain and lower half lined.
They wrote what they could about the day (1 sentence - 1 paragraph depending on ability) and drew a picture to illustrate.

For maths, if necessary check what her next steps are, and as others have said build them in to everyday life/play. My guess is that if you don't like maths you don't naturally do this as much as you could.

You should be concerned, but not panicked. 6 is very young still, but for me it is important that the gap doesn't widen.

Teachers and TAs are very stretched and there really isn't enough time to help everyone, so it would really help if parents can do their bits too. It is not to do with pushing, but more to do with keeping in line with what is expected.

Don't give an impression that Maths is difficult or being bad at it is an option, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course not everyone can or want to become a mathematician, but at primary level it is too early to be bad at it.

There are Maths games online and apps that are quite fun and doesn't require studying.