Shall i get my dd1some extra tuition??

[HotTrouserCough]

dd1 is 6 nearly 7,she is very articulate and bright.We have been reading books to her since she was a baby and she loves books.However she is really struggling with her reading and writing and is behind the rest of her class.I expressed my concerns when she was in reception but was basically fobbed off as hysterical.
When she started Y1 she was given the Biff and Kipper books but when i spoke to her
teacher and voiced my concerns again,she changed her books to the (?)Red rooster books i think .
She progressed slightly but is still not grasping this reading and writing lark.
She is getting very frustrated and is not keen to practice writing when asked.
She does often write little notes on her own but it can be complete gobbledey goop or sometimes words are readable.
She gets B ,P ,D and S mixed up.She still isnt understanding Capitals and she will try and write a word how it sounds eg Whosh is Wash.
I dont know how to explain this to her??????
She still often gets her name mixed up too.
Dp reads with her every night after school and does storytime each night as i am out at work mon-fri evening.
What else can we be doing to help her?

Is it worth getting private tuition after school 1 or 2 days per week?
Cost would be an issue for us but my parents have said they are willing to help.

Should i just look in the yellow pages or is word of mouth better?

Thanks in advance

sorry - meant attaining average range for her age - not her class.

Yes i agree i need to establish that.
There was no mention of national standards as i recall,i will dig it out in the morning though and check.

Thankyou for your help

sounds like my DS. He was like this going into year 2 and just wasnt interested in reading or writing, although loved having a story read to him. It was compounded by having a bright sibling so his teachers just kept saying he would catch up.

I do try to do some work with him at home but TBH he isnt bothered and often doesnt want to do any so he is learning to play a musical instrument which is something totally different but helps with his development. We have noticed, for example, that his numeracy ability has improved and so has his self confidence.

She sounds dyslexic tbh, and like she would definately benefit from an assesment and extra tuition, taylored specifically to her.

My mum asseses children for dyslexia and other learning difficulties, and does one to one tuition and always gets positive results. Make sure they are properly qualified if you do go for private tuition, and that they will assess your DD first in order to tailor her classes specifically to her. One hour a week is the norm. I'd do some online searches rather than yellow pages tbh, and those magazines that get send home termly in kids bookbags.

HotTrouserCough , I've beent through something similar with ds who was struggling with writing and reading in yr 2.
I was fed up with 2 yrs of teachers shrugging and implying 'must try harder'

As a parent gov I manage sometimes to dig out the reasons for some of the ways a school can behave with slow learners or children with some kind of arrested development in literacy.

They can't really assess dyslexia until yr 3ish - I'm told
(But there are many conflicting views about dyslexia, some academics are very sceptical about how children are assessed)

They don't want to stress child and parent out so much that they make the problem worse.

There are clearly a group of children who simply catch up.

BUT - we now have a reading recovery expert in school who assessed ds and gave us her assessment and explained it to ds saying he's missed out on certain things and just needs to catch them up.

Now it's VERY hard, I know, as you want to know if there's a specific learning difficulty or not! But I suspect there is a grey area where it's hard to know for sure, and the problem then is the limbo you're left in and the fear that your child is just going backwards.

I would get a meeting with the Head and very positively and supportively of the school ask for a plan of action for your child given that it may not be clear for some time what the reason for the slowish development is! Make the school take it seriously but approach the positively and helpfully (is the best approach in my experiencew!) I always begin all contact with ds's school with praise first and then onto 'asking advice' and always try to show them respect too.

Good luck! ds is doing better now that we have specific things to work on!