Poor academics at prep school, which books to use for catching up

[mamatothreebunnies]

My dd in year 2 goes to a less academic (more sporty/creative) and we’ve noticed the quality and standards of the teaching is quite poor. We are looking into moving her to another school but in the meantime we want to help her catch up. What workbooks do you recommend? She (along with many in the class, other than those with tutors) are quite behind and still lack very basic maths and phonics / writing skills. We didn’t choose the tutor route and relied on the school to do the teaching but it has proven to be the wrong decision.

any help or guidance on how to catch her up ready for year 3 in a more normal standards of academics school would be appreciated.

I feel like there is a need for an assessment of where she is relative to expectations - where are the gaps and how wide are they? You seem to think she is behind in all areas, but do you have a sense of what specifically she needs to work on? my dd are y2 and some of the supplemental resources we use include Cubie workbooks for maths and Mrs. Wordsmith for English, but there are lots of games and learning strategies to address specifics deficits.

Catching up by September might or might not be reasonable, though- don’t put too much pressure on fixing in a few months a problem that was years in the making.

I teach year 2. Can you explain their current attainment level please.

Find a good state primary and they will make sure she meets age related expectations. You can download the Year 2 SATS papers for free to see what she would have been taught in most state primaries. KS2 SATs in England are no longer compulsory from this year but many schools are still using them voluntarily. This time of year in Maths they tend to do fractions and time, for example. Can she work out 1/4 of numbers and then 3/4 kind of thing?
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-practice-materials

The Collins Year 2 workbooks are quite good. If you get her to work through them then you can hopefully identify the obvious gaps!

@Labraradabrador @Sherrystrull basic addition and subtraction even up to 20. Time telling, simple fractions. All the “basics of year 2” she is struggling with. In phonics, her writing and letter formation is still pretty much how she was writing in reception. I’ve raised all this with school since September to ask to keep an eye on her progress as I noticed in year 1 there was no real improvement or change from reception. her reading was awful until I intervened and used materials to teach her to read myself. She always seems to improve during holiday breaks when I’ve worked with her and then she goes back to school and almost regresses really.

in November parents evening they told me she’s behind in maths and English. So I went to school asking what will they do to help her? How will they help her catch up? Their response “we will continue to ask her what she doesn’t understand during class”. I’m not a teacher but is this the “help” that should be provided for a child behind?

also, for any teachers out there, genuine question, why does a child fall behind? Surely if the teachers are on it and providing the teaching and support all the children should progress at a stable level? She’s not stupid and is very bright, but of course if you give them paper plates to play with all day then those basics of academics will fall short.

maybe this is just the norm of private school? I wouldn’t know as myself and dh went to pretty rough state schools so assumed private was best.

Private schools do not have to employ qualified teachers. They are not accountable the same way that state schools are. Not all private schools are the same. I agree that a good state primary would absolutely ensure that your DD caught up and made progress. You’re doing the right thing by moving her but if it is to another private prep school where the head teacher is also the proprietor then I would proceed with caution.

@Tristar15 absolutely won’t be moving to another prep for sure. How naive of us to think private was best. Breaks my heart when I think of the sacrifices we’ve made to afford to put her there to now end up in this situation. All the extra hours working when we could have been being present with her. Anyway you live and learn but very sad.

To be fair, you yourself describe the school as not academic, but creative/sporty. You chose that, so perhaps their ethics are more relaxed, play based. What are their results by year 6??

I think there’s just so much in the private sector that is dodgy. Anyone can set up a private school! I visit a lot of small, independent schools as part of my job and often see quite well meaning people just doing a terrible job as they don’t keep up to date with educational research. They can’t believe it when they get told it isn’t good enough as all of the children are lovely and happily getting on with an activity but there is no rigour to what they are doing.
Your DD will catch up and it’s great that you’ve noticed this and not been fobbed off by the school. Keep chipping away with her catch up and be really honest with her new school about your worries. They’ll assess her and get her into intervention. My DD has had some maths intervention in Y2 as the school noticed she wasn’t quite keeping up.

Not all preps are the same and also not all teachers in prep are the same.
DD was behind all the way through infants, then had a leap in year 3 helped by an amazing teacher and by us, we did sums and spelling whilst driving places and minimum 10 mins reading every night.
School only listen to reading once or twice a week. Every day triples that, and it does get easier as they get better.

As an example, OP, my year 1 is struggling with reading and has some speech difficulties, in his state school he gets three extra 1:1 sessions with a TA each day (of about 10 mins at a time, any longer than that isn’t effective at this age).

No, not all children will progress at the same rate with “just” good teaching. You and your DH must have had strengths and weaknesses throughout school?

Unfortunately your post doesn’t overly surprise me. Amongst my friends there are more issues with the quality of teaching in private schools than state. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that one might expect a higher quality of teaching in private given the costs. The only ones that are finding them good are using really specialist schools.

I teach year 2 in a normal state school.
For children who are behind age related expectation they receive (in addition to daily phonics, English, maths, maths fluency and the rest of the curriculum).

• 3 times a week group reading of a matched phonetically decodable book
• daily individual reading with flash cards
• support in every lesson from the teacher or TA.

I would be asking what their phonics scheme is. I would be asking what intervention she is receiving and what support she receives in lessons.

she's in year 2! she's a baby. let her be

@hangingonfordearlife1 it’s not how it works I’m afraid. I’m here to help her be her best and achieve her potential. I can’t just watch the system fail her. yes she is only in year 2 - and she has a wonderful childhood with lots of play and adventure. Academics is equally as important.

I agree, she is in Y2 and should have age appropriate maths knowledge and her reading and writing should be progressing in line with curriculum expectations. Nothing wrong at all with needing additional help or intervention and one PP outlined what her school does (which the vast majority of state primaries do) for children who need extra support. Trust your gut.
My DD in Y2 needs extra help with maths but has just read The Twits by herself. Children do vary a lot in what they can do but it does sound like your daughter’s school hasn’t done enough to ensure she is making progress.

OK OP but current curriculum demands for KS1 are quite difficult for many young children. Lots struggle with time and fractions, for example. At this age, you should make sure reading and comprehension is really secure and phonics and I agree subtraction and addition to 20 and all the various number bonds within it and some general awareness of measuring, real life maths etc. But the time and fractions are onerous. Some children get very confused with letter formation if schools switch to cursive, for example. And many children do catch up later when they mature. I always think comprehension is very important so audio books and listening skills are great. I can imagine some preps focus much more on imaginative and gross motor skills which incidentally a lot of European countries do as well. So it is quite difficult for us to tell if they really are letting your DD down or just have an ethos separate from the national curriculum. Plenty of critics out there, including teachers, vis a vis the current curriculum.

My child gets a bursary for a private school and it has been amazing for her. She is in streamed sets for maths and someone hears her read every day. She also gets to play so many sports. The main thing is how happy she is - she loves school!

Have you had your daughter screened for dyslexia? Could there be any other barriers to learning. The school could be at fault but there may be other issues at play

Sorry, as an educator totally disagree. There really shouldn't be any "academics" at that age! It should all be play based learning without pressure and pushy parents buying workbooks and all that palaver.
My daughter didn't learn to read until she was 8 or 9 she's now hoping to study medicine after A levels.

Trust me, what they do in year 2 has absolutely no bearing on what potential they will reach later on. Just let her be where she is happy.

All children do not necessarily make progress in a standard, linear fashion, for a range of reasons. My DD for example was behind in Year 2 in most areas apart from reading. Later an ed psych diagnosed dyslexia (though she does not have all the typical traits one might associate with dyslexia). She is also lucky enough to be very bright, and now she is secondary age comes top or near the top in exams in most subjects in a selective private school....

And that sounds like I am showing off about her a I don't mean to! (I am massively proud of her yes, but because she is lovely, not because she is fortunate enough to be good at academics).

But I would urge you not to panic. I was beyond stressed out when my daughter was little, and bought all these work books and things and would spend hours doing them at home - it made no difference to her learning in retrospect, but actually damaged my relationship with her at the time I feel! She certainly remembers them with horror. Luckily we got over it and are very close now.... And in terms of learning, after a few years, things just came together for her! Well more than came together - she is now absolutely thriving....

OP, there is loads of time for your daughter to catch up, if she is indeed behind due to poor teaching, as you feel. Learn from my mistakes, and please don't stress out over it, as that stress can easily communicate to her as well. If you start her on a good state primary next year she will catch up I have no doubt - and if there IS a specific learning need such as dyslexia holding her back (and I am in no way suggesting this is the case - it's one of 100s of possibilities) the teachers there should be in a strong position to identify and support.

Good luck. And don't blame yourself. If she has been happy enough in the school for the first two years, emotionally well adjusted etc, I would say that is the most pressing matter at this stage.

There are children in my daughters year of about 60 children who vary massively in ability despite the same teaching. Some have standardised scores of 136 and others less than 80. What the school does well is supports those who have barriers to learning and pushes the more able. I think the OPs school might not be doing this from what she says

Private is not always best and not all dc catch up at any school. I would choose a private school by destination of dc. This means parents have academic expectations. Play and exploring indicates less attention to destinations. Therefore I would ask what the strategy is for her to catch up. I'd also get her into another school for KS2 - year 3. I'm not sure I'd trust your school to improve anything.

Good teaching means everything. It's vital, and great teaching benefits all dc. Hearing all dc read every day is besides the point if they are poorly taught. The dc all should be assessed and their work set accordingly. What seems sweet and cosy in YR isn't always good enough 2 years later. What about music, drama, sport and clubs? Does the school offer high quality all round education or is it a haven from state education?