school has surprised me!

[blackeyedsusan]

last week I asked for harder words to read... one (or more) groups have been given spellings!

I also asked for more challenging books as the yellow band books were a "little easy." given that we are reading easy chapter books at home they have put her up one band. I am shocked as we normally play a little game every couple of months where I say the books arer too easy and they ignore me and we carry on doing our own thing in our own happy way. once pmt has passed

ok so she could spell the words first time at home and green band is not a big leap, but i do not know whether she will cope with spelling in a test and at least the green band books are a little harder and we can get something out of it now. she has been asked to practice adding numbers in the teens as she doesn't use the number line to count on. (tends to do these things in her head) well we have practised and introduced a strategy of using number bonds of single digit numbers to check teens+ addition (ie if 2 and 4 =6 then 12+4=16 and 22+4=26 etc) doubt that will go down well! I hope she talks about her strategy at school.

I think I want to push for more, but not until she has had time to try out/prove herself for another month or so. (after all she might go to pieces under test conditions and we have a lot of work to do on handwriting) anyone fancy sitting on me and administering the duct tape for the next month?

(disclaimer, i know she is not doing some of the stuff other really bright children do at this age, though she is the top end of normal and I post mainly because i as fed up of the lack of progress ith reading in school compared to home)

ps, sorry about the lack of capitals, intermittent shift key!

Susan, I think it's brill. Why shouldn't you show them what she's done, especially as it's in line with what they were asked to do for homework. Dd decided to do her own & brothers homework a couple of times last year & insisted on handing it in with his & she came away with a couple of deputy head stickers. Surely most teachers are impressed with a desire to learn more on a topic & produce work. Good for her & you!

Sounds lovely Susan and really impressive. It is her homework and she has worked hard on it. I hope she enjoys handing it in.

susan - I think it sounds fab and exactly what the homework was in the first place iyswim and tbh I am going to shamelessly steal borrow your idea as I think both DC would love to make a book at home.

Saturday afternoon activity sorted!!

Never thought of it before

DS did not get any spellings this wk so I have used the time to practice his writing (which he loves doing anyway, and actually begged me to ask him to do more!!) He is starting to learn joined up writing (yr2) but is finding the pace rather slow (in the classroom) so I have been doing extra work on it.

Hello all - have just seen this, hope you don't mind me butting in!

A friend of mine volunteers in our DC's class to help with the reading (year 3) and said it was a very good idea to write everything the child reads in the reading record book - it really gives the staff valuable information on how much/little the child is reading outside of school. (Apparently there was one little child who had two entries in their book for the whole term and my friend was thinking they probably couldn't read yet - but then the child told her that they read lots of books at home every day, just in a different language!)

As soon as I started writing down DD's extra-curricular reading at home ("another 100 pages of HP at bed time" ) they changed her reading level at school. Wish I'd cottoned on ages ago!

I will send in the homework, with the extra bit. she was finally well enough to go back to school today but I forgot to pack her homework in the rush to get out the door this morning.

after doing an enormous amount of research over the weekend,(wwhilst sniffling into a hanky and stopping children attacking each other) i have written dd a star chart in an attempt to get her to include stuff in her writing that she knows about and can do but doesn't because writing is such a physical effort. she is still at the age here she can be very motivated for a sticker! her spelling is very good for a young y1 and she has mastered the use of commas in a list and her verbal compositions are very interesting however, if you can't see the commas because her writing has wandered all over the page and she opts for a nice short simple word (eg big instead of enormous) or she forgets to use a full stop or capital letters, the good stuff gets lost/discounted which annoys the hell out of me! it is more frustrating than the stuff I know she can't do and needs to work on.

Fuck, fuck ,fuck (sorry for swearing )

Just found a note in DS's school bag to say that his teacher is leaving in December He has a new teacher from Jan (a man) so need to go through it all again

Gaaaaah, that's so unfair! You have my sympathy, I'm already dreading going through it all again at the end of they year.

The only consolation I can offer is that DD has had a male trainee teacher in her class this term, and all the boys adore him, it really has made a difference for tehem.

he had a male teacher last yr who has now left (went back to Oz) WHO WAS FAB AT BRINGING ON HIS CONFIDENCE ETC. oops sorry caps.

but not so good with the kids who are ahead iyswim.

Don't know if its a NQT or just a new one for the school, will ask some of the mums whose kids are in the junior school (separate building) if he is from there.

But soooo pissed off about it

Oh simpson.

on the bright side, the records will be in place. there will be records of which books he has read. if he has been put on the g and t list there will be records of that. the teacher will have to explain why ds's targets have changed if they do change.

the targets will still be there somewhere. (keep a copy yourself to show the new teacher)

I feel sorry for the teacher coming in because the parents will be grumpy about the change of staff, and he will have to pick up the class mid year.

I just feel sorry for DS as he is having to come to terms with not seeing his dad anymore due to bad break up 2yrs ago and his dad being a bit of a tit tbh.

Also he was v attached to his yr1 teacher so found it hard saying goodbye to him too H left the school to go back to Oz.

Susan - Have told DS our plans to make a book over the weekend and he is beside himself with excitement!!!

Going to be a very crafty day as DD(3) has to make a fan for nursery show and tell on monday

He

I can see exactly why you're so cross about the teacher, simpson, it really is the wrong thing at the wrong time. If his current teacher is as sympathetic as she sounds, she might be happy to have a chat about the handover etc, which would be a bit of reassurance.

Meanwhile here, DD and school are continuing not to understand each other. I'm quite cross about the fact that they are still making her eat bananas when she's told them she doesn't like bananas, I've told them the same thing and still she has to 'try' them. No wonder she's not a fan of speaking out, given that they don't seem to listen when she does say something.

However I'm not as cross about that as I am about the conversation we had at bathtime last night, in which she told me that she could only count up to 20 beause that's all they learned at school. This from the child who was counting to 100 in the back of the car at least six months ago. So we had a long chat about it being OK that she could do different things as well, and that it is really important to tell the teachers what you can do ('but they tell us off for talking so how can I tell them') and after 10 min persuasion she did then count up to 50.

But it really does upset me. I can almost handle the idea that she might not learn anything academically this year, and I could nearly deal with the fact that her writing has got so much work because of their insistence on cursive. But if her maths is going back too, really I have had enough. I will try not to rant on Monday morning but it is going to be hard work.

She's not blossomed at all at school, instead if anything she is diminished, trying to make herself less and that is really, really crap. We will keep trying a bit more, but I am starting to think that this just isn't the right school for her at all.

She's definitely bored this half term too, now that the thrill of learning about school is waning. She's only been enthused about two things; the Christmas play and a whole-school assembly they had about their twin school in India.

Any suggestions for what we do with this mess much appreciated.

But I was cheered this morning, because DD sat down at the computer and wrote a poem about Christmas, so she's not been entirely crushed by school yet. What was interesting is that she did it after reading poems written by other children; I'm wondering if that - seeing children do things - makes it less scary and gets rid of some of the perfectionism problem.

one sandwich, can't remember off hand how old your dd is and can not find it in the 3 threads I have scanned. sorry.

i think she is in reception? reception is odd ( i definately remember typing that before) I found dd went backwarrds in reception in maths as she was so tired with full time school (august baby) that i did not have much time to teach her during term time. she did learn a lot in the summer holidays though, mainly from games on the internet. I tried to tell the teacher that dd could do 1 or 2 more or less to 100 when she as telling me that they were doing one more to 10 in school. it did not make a blind bit of difference, hoever, in year one she seems to be doing maths that is relevant, even if not stretching her to her far limits. (then I get the fun of stretching her) i even reread her nursery report which said she could do one more and one less to 10 and the teacher did not take on board that either. the nursery records were returned to me.

if I had reception over again, I think i would have tried to keep things ticking over a bit more. I tend to introduce concepts practically and earlier than I expect her to understand them just to introduce the idea really. we did lots of sharing grapes out between 2 or 3 people and counting out groups of things for 2 or 3 people to introduce the concept of x and division.

I did go and see the head to ask for help with increasing her confidence with reading given that she as reading gold at home and red at school. it did not seem to help at the time but she has been assessed by the head this term and given harder books so maybe it did have an effect.

what can she do in maths? can she count x objects to 50? find one more one less to 50? add small numbers to 10 or further? take away by counting back? count in 2s 5s 10s forwards and backwards? count groups of/share into groups? name 2d and 3d shapes, say how many corners and edges? (sorry just guessing things she may or may not be doing, not trying to say she can't be gifted if she is not doing quadratic equations!)

onesandwhich i spoke with DDs teacher about cursive as she found it very hard with visual memory issue to decipher some of the letters shapes, such as cursive 's' and 'f' which frankly look like a bloody mess. Yes there are lots of good reasons for cursive and learning cursive will help her in the future. BUT there is no real sound educational argument for teaching it right from the start. Many schools don't teach cursive till a few years down the line. Luckily for us, teacher agreed that it was more important to build her confidence in, and enthusiasm for, writing than it was for her to start with cursive from the start. What I've noticed now after just a couple of weeks of this is much more willingness from DD to try new letters like 'k' or 'B' which she did not have the confidence to attempt before, and also she is trying cursive with some letters. Sorry, new here so don't know all your DDs story to date but I have the impression she has a particular physical difficulty which makes the writing especially time consuming and physically demanding for her? If so can't you get the SENCO to advise the teacher on why she should not be insisting on the cursive just now and why you would rather they focused on the confidence and enjoyment of writing. Teachers sounds a prat if they can't accept your reasoning tbh. as for the maths, what helped us I think was taking the report printout of her current levels in all areas of maths off the mathswhizz site; good, detailed and impartial way of showing the teacher what she is accomplishing at home. perhaps doing something like this would give you the point of entry for discussing not only her ability in the subject but also how her confidence is being eroded. Re the bananas: why the hell are they still feeding your child something you have told them not to? That is outrageous. I'm all for making my (fussy) DD eat new foods and try things several times but I would not force her to eat something she detests - and I bet the teachers aren't being forced to eat things they detest. Just because DD is a child doesn't mean she has less rights than an adult to avoid foods she really dislikes surely. Tell them bananas cause her to become constipated or she is allergic, and she shouldn't get them any more! hope that helps.

HI onesandwhichshort
I feel your pain ,its so frustrating isnt it, there is a poster on here called dadatlarge and his posts talk alot about his belief that all state schools fail gifted children(i'm beginning to buy into this theory).
Dd had lots of issues with writing in reception,she taught herself to write before starting and then had to learn all over again a different way i.e cursive
it really knocked her confidence and she needed lots of encouragement to even attempt writing activities,but we got there by doing lots of fun writing activities at home and lots of praise for effort and dd is now a 2b in writing!
with regards to maths we have the same issues here,we started dd at kumon today and she loved it,although it was only the enrolment today.
The lady who runs it has a gifted son and it was amazing to talk to someone in the same situation,i have never met another parent of a gifted child in RL,we had a lovely chat about all sorts of things including cutting out the labels in clothes which funnily enough i had done that morning!
Dd showed what she could do and prompltly started firing off times tables and number bonds,on hearing these and other things i was told that something is definatly amiss between home and school as dd obviously has an ability in this area,which was nice to hear.
With regards to the bannana issue i'm with adoptmama i would be furious about this,i went to school in the 70's and was repeatedly forced to eat things i did'nt like and also with my knife and fork in the 'correct' hand,to this day some foods give me the willies and i could'nt touch them with a barge pole.

I need a lie down and a strong talking to. just googled sats papers for ks1. they look so hard (well they did go up to l3) I have to remember that dd is only in y1 and she has a year and 1/2 to go before attempting them.

it is a good idea to get a look at the type of thing they ask though. it helps to practice reading I am faffing about trying to find out what reading questions we should be asking. they were very old papers though. I expect the school has more up to date ones to practice with.

mrs s wow 2b in writing is really good. not sure what dd is. can't remember if I have highlighted the relevent number of boxes for l1 yet (at home of course) and even if I had then would she do it at school?!? I am trying to fill in the gaps. she can do some l2 stuff, even one very teeny tiny weeny miniscule less than 1% of the whole thing statement in level 3 but has stonking great big holes in the bottom layer at level one

adoptamama my dd is the one with hypermobile joints that means she can not grip a pencil very well and has very little strength in her fingers which make writing bloomin hard work for her. she seems to have improved a bit though and i am bribing her to include interesting words!

you have told them about the bananas and they still give them to her?

susan - is your DD hyper mobile??

Having a bit of a nightmare with DD (3) atm who has just been diagnosed

Her nursery school teacher mentioned her problems at parents eve the other wk and although i have known she is hypermobile since she was 18mths (she did not walk till 2) it was quite upsetting to hear what she struggles with iyswim.

School have been fab and employ a OT who came in last wk and assessed her (although hard to read list of what she cannot do )

Am in the process of self referring her to child developement centre. She seems fine with pencil control but is hyprmobile in her hips and knees mainly.

DS (yr2) is a 2b in writing and loves to write but I am impressed with your DD as he would not know where to put a comma etc although seems good with full stops, capital letters and exclamation/question marks. He is getting a bit frustrated with the pace of learning "joined up writing" ie too slow and his teacher (the one who is leaving gave me a photocopied sheet of how all the letters join which he is happy to practice at home.

I bought a SATS practice paper book in the pound shop ages ago but have not braved it to try DS yet as it looks so hard

actually don't know if he is a 2b in writing now, he was at the end of yr1

runs in with wet fish for susan

hang on, (this may take a while have about 50 tags open) just going to whizz to the other end of the list of tags to fetch a linky!

here are some free tests, a bit old and scary

No, Mrsshears, don't worry about boasting, it's really good to hear that your dd had the same thing with writing and came out the other side. At the moment DD is mostly typing things out, which gets round the grief for now.

To answer your qs and give you an idea of where we are, DD is just 5, and so in her first term of reception. She's not necessarily gifted in all areas - as far as we can tell. In particular she's not showing any signs of being more than 'top set' ability in maths, which I am fine about. I just get cross that she is regressing to fit in with school. I suspect, though, that if I stuck her in front of MathsWhizz for a few weeks, she would pick it up pretty quickly, but for now that would only be making more problems. Which we don't need.

Her main ability is reading, which she taught herself, and she entered reception with a reading age of approx 10y, which I can see is at a level that is very hard for school to deal with (esp as they only go up to year 4). I have no idea what her writing level is, but she can do sentences and question/exclamation marks, and even surprised me with a hyphen the other day.

And Adoptmama - I do agree that taking in evidence of work is the way forward. I'm going to give them some more book lists, and the poem, on Monday.

What fascinates me more and more though, is how similar our DDs seem to be. DD has never been diagnosed with hypermobility, but I have always thought that she has elements of it in her legs esp. She walked very late and has quite poor co-ordination in running and climbing (not helped by the fact that she has no depth vision). What this means, though, I don't know.

And yes. I told them about the bananas. And the oranges and raisins. Added to that, they forgot to mark her birthday a couple of weeks ago. All of which almost makes me more cross than the academic stuff.

Pass the fish, will you?

wow thats a great reading age!
DD isnt doing as well as she should be with reading,currently band 9 at school,when she had her assessment her reading age came out at just over 7 years and peter congdon said he would have expected that to be higher especially as she had been reading for quite a while(memory reading at about 2 1/2 and sounding and blending at 3).
She lost at lot of confidence and interest in her reading in reception as she was kept on the same bookband for 4 months to allow everyone in the top reading group to be on the same band .
I'm not too concerned about her reading though as she reads for pleasure and has good comprehension etc.
I would be very cross about the birthday too,schools really annoy me that they seem to have little idea of how such things have a huge affect on our little ones!

grrr i typed a long reply to one sandwich and it went pffft. humph!

just 5? when was she 5? [excited and cross emotion]

excited because I would like to compare the experiences of a summer baby (mine) with a autumn baby (yours)

yours will look more spectacular? (now that says a lot about my competitivness which I am trying to keep in check)

thats a bit better. get cross because she is ahead in some things but because she behaves like the youngest/is the youngest in the year it does not seem to be recognised by her ex reception teacher. think that is why I am cross and muttering about spectacular... more to do with the she is compared to children almost a year older and her behaviour is the thing you see first. that and having a competitive friend who now and again causes a little niggle. oh and having to endure lots of comments on herr walking and potty training which were decidedly not average in the wrong direction! wHy the hell is it ok to boast about potty training/walking but not about being able to read!

mine will probably get a better chance at having work to match her abilities if she is working with the older children in the class.

sorrry, after that moan, I will get back to the response to simpson

dd has hypermobile joints. she finds it difficult to run and walk and balance, but is managing okish(looks uncoordinated.) she can't sit still at all, which drives me insane when trying to do homework with her. we lie on the floor to wwrite so I can put one leg over her legs to keep her lying down, she props herself up on elbows to increase upper body strength, and there is less of her body to keep under control and less to make wobbles in the writing. she has to have a pencil grip to help her hold the pencil correctly. it is worth persuing. ot is the way to go. it gets it recognised formally and although does not get a lot of extra help, the use of a pencil grip, exercises and a cushion to sit on.

mrs s you were stating facts. you were not using the fact to put someone else down, so why would we see it as boasting? it is interesting, and it reminds me that in the scheme of things dd is not that spectacular and reduces the risk of me needing to do diy on the flat to widen doors to allow my big head to get through! I find it facinating to see what children are doing at a particular ability. I suspect though that your dd could do better, if she had been taught at her level.

wow, 10+ did a home test using burke(?) and dd came out as 8.1 when she was just 5 (and about 2 days) just did it for my own interest, knowing that some tests are better than others and only show one aspect of reading but a useful comparison of like with like.

You are so right susan,that is what i always say about dd and the message i'm trying to get across to school,although dd is doing well she could do so much better if she was taught at her level,its nice that someone else thinks the same as me.