well, it is parents evening tomorrow....

[blackeyedsusan]

10 minutes is not long to listen and discuss, so I wonder which issue to choose to address.

the special needs could be addressed in a seperate meeting. (iep review)

reading, well the yellow band books are not a challenge when you are reading early chapter books but dd likes the damn things and they are quick to read and get out of the way. the school seems particularly resistant to anything other than chugging through the whole lot so raising this issue may be a waste of time.

she was able to read the sight words 1 1/2 years ago, but it is incredibly easy to write a few of those on bits of paper. it is not hard to do spelling with her at home either.

maths could be an issue, though as yet I have no information on what she can actually do in school. (which you would expect to be less than when working 1:1 ) we do a bit at home to keep things ticking over.

writing is the main issue, due to her hypermobility. (spelling is fab, handwriting atrocious due to having poor strength in her fingers) which brings us back to the special needs.

she is young for her year group and enjoys school. I quite like doing stuff with her at home, which I would be able to do less of if the work was a lot more challenging at school and she was more tired. she has occupational therapy or physiotherapy to fit in every day too.

at some point during primary school she needs to develop some persistence to work at more challenging things ready for secondary, but there is an awfully long time to go yet. also, although it would be nice to say she gotlevel x, y or z at sats when confronted by competitive friend (having had to endure the comments about late physical developments) they are not a big deal in the scheme of things.

I suppose I am wondering at what point is it necessary for her to be challenged at school and whether discussing things in such a short meeting could make a blind bit of difference anyway, given that no movement has been forthcoming on the reading books despite best efforts.

susan i think you might be me!

With regards to the book band,dd has a friend at another school who is on the same band as your dd,she is also a very competent reader and if she was at dd's school she would be on at least band 8 imo.
Could it be that your dd's school takes a slow and steady approach through the bands and actually all of the dc in the class could be reading alot higher band than they are?I know that doesnt help you particularly but could this be the case?

OP I would go for how is the work differentiated to enable her to work to her ability

You get 10 mins? We only get 5 - even less to decide what to go for.
Should it be how he has settled at the beginning of term? How the actual work is? ( again special needs to discuss at IEP review) or Are they finally getting around to differentiating work as they said in the G&T letter to stop DS getting bored?

What would you choose?

oh my goodness, how do you communicate anything in 5 minutes?

can you make an appointment to see them about the g and t letter seperately? will looking at their books before you go into the meeting help to know whether they are differentiating?

I still don't know what I am going to ask. I suppose it will depend on what work she is doing in school and what the teacher says. perhaps raising a concern about her performance at home in relation to her performance at school. maybe just listen and see if the teacher is working towards finding out what she can do, in which case I may leave it longer. if the teacher is working on stuff she needs to practise (eg. say she is teaching them addition and subtraction to 10 or 20, dd would benefit because she needs to learn by heart addition facts for numbers to 20 and practise would help this) then I might leave it too as I can do extension activities at home.

mrss lots of parents at dd's school say the words/reading books are too easy.

How did you get on susan?

thanks for asking

the meeting was mixed. the teacher has recognised that dd is a good reader and has recommended that she reads library books.

maths is ok. she is doing stuff that she needs to do.

writing is terrible (considering how long we have been working on handwriting between school and home) and she will not work on her own. we have been doing a bit at home when she is left to compose and write a sentence so i can try and work out where the problem is. she can write independently at home, when she chooses so it is something to do with the having to put something down on paper. doesn't help that writing is physically hard for her. her spelling is fantastic though (take off the mummy bias and read as good)

it was definately more informative than last year and it is a relief to know what she is doing. also know more on how to support her.

tonight, she drew a really detailed picture of the things we saw after school yesterday, but then could not think of anything to write about it without a lot of asking for help. baffling.

Who has decided she is gifted, Susan?

Thats good that the teacher has recognised that your dd is a good reader,i understand the frustration with the book bands but it really is beneficial to read lots of other books too,dd was bored rigid with her school books so we read books from charity shops,library and have also joined reading chest,dd loves the non fiction books.

Sounds quite an informative meeting

Iamnot interested I have never claimed she is gifted. she is bright and some things are unusual for nursery/yr/y1.(2 professionals with 45 yrs experience between them) have always said that some of this may be because of 1:1 teaching by an early years specialist. she did come up with some stuff on her own whilst said early years specialist was wondering whether she should haul herself up into the loft to retrieve some resources. mainly post because school not recognising that she can actually read, though the new teacher has acknowledged this now. also to keep me from getting a big head because there is always someone doing better, and as a professional curiosity updating skills.

mrs shears. we have been reading library books all last year gradually progressing through book bands at about one band a month to band 10 at the end of last term. (age 4.11) we are expanding sideways improving her vocabulary and comprehension skills and the phonics. the school books are for fun and useful for reviewing setting/characters/etc. but are still the pattern books so there is little plot development. we are reading flat stanley from the library, which is a little too challenging in places (that Dr Dan uses some big words) but good for getting her to use phonics skills to decode long words. she also chooses a lot of non fiction from the school library sometimes wished a couple of the books would meet a nasty accident as we had them so often