Tutor for 6 year old

[Domino06]

Hi everybody
Not sure if I am in the right place here as it's my first time but here goes:
My daughter is six years old and has been in Year 1 of our local school for almost a year now. She went to nursery at 4 months wherein there were no problems the staff assessed her as being advanced for her age. She was doing ok in the reception class too but somewhere, something went wrong. Her reading is very, very behind. She can manage Oxford Reading Tree level 2 but sometimes struggles with this. Her writing is bad too and she sometimes just writes nonsense.

Her teacher is completely inadequate in my opinion. I have complained about her many times but the school's response is to get the woman to ring me.
She now tells me that my child has a learning disability and is getting the SENCO in to assess her. This really upsets me because I don't think it's true. She is extremely articulate and can present reasoned arguments. She can relate the entire content of the day's lesson and is very creative as regards drawing/making etc. Her behaviour is not great - she seems to lack concentration. I will admit that she is spoilt but this should not impact on her learning surely????? I have been reading to her since she was born - I do her home learning with her and try to engage her in educational games. Sometimes she is quite recalcitrant.

Please does anyone know a good tutor in the SE13 area? We think that this is the way forward.

The school has an outstanding Oftsted report but it was formerly a sink school. The catchment area is not particularly desirable (smoking mothers fighting outside the school gates) and the vast majority of parents do not work. The teacher seems to have a problem with the fact that I work and suggest that this is why my daughter is having problems. Also, I am a single parent but live with my sister and her partner, both of whom help me raise my daughter.

Sorry this is long.

Difficult to judge, but if it's reading and writing, could it be dyslexia? It certainly wouldn't prevent her being very bright, in fact could explain some of her creativity and her ability to communicate so well verbally.

At a nursery a child's intelligence is judged in ways that don't involve reading and writing. All the ways that you describe with memory, creativity and articulation would make a pre-reading child 'bright'. If that same child then goes on to struggle to click with reading & writing, despite being in a high-scoring Ofsted school & given the same or more attention than members of the class that you regard as being from socially inferior backgrounds , it is not unreasonable to check for dyslexia. If she's having difficulty making sense of reading, that would also explain her bad behaviour and lack of concentration.

I think you should work with the teaching staff's recommendations in this instance rather than dismissing them as incompetent.

Do you know what they are assessing her for? If she has specific difficulties with reading and writing, then a proper assessment would be a good idea because she will need specific help for her to progress.

Please don't regard the involvement of the SENCO as a bad thing- it means the school has picked up on her difficulties and are looking for solutions.

Another one thinking of dyslexia. A friend's son sounds very similar to your daughter at that age, my friend was despairing that he would ever be able to read and write. She got help through the school, and although I'm not sure how it happened, they helped to solve the problem.

I saw her son last week at Oxford where he is studying physics, having achieved 4 A* at A level

Don't get side tracked by the other issues around the other parents at the school. Do see if you can have her assessed by an educational psychologist for dyslexia.

The involvement of the SENCO is very positive and it is good they have picked up on it early and not waited until about 8 yrs which is a bit late. Work with them.

Perhaps I should have supplied more information about the incompetence to which I refer. This teacher concentrates on a small group within the class who are high achievers and pretty much ignores the others. She tells the children that they are useless and calls them 'twits'. She has threatened to throw them out of the window and chop their heads off - clearly that is her humour but if you are six years old, you might just take it literally. One child is so traumatised by this teacher that she has been drawing pictures of her with horns. The mother has complained to the Head who denied that any shouting or abuse took place. She has also accused my child of being a liar and a bully when none of this can be substantiated.

As to whether or not the parents work, the point I was trying to make (unsuccessfully it would seem) was that in my view the school seems to have issues with mothers working full time. Therefore I am the one being discriminated against - not the other way around.

The SENCO did indeed asssess my child and told the class teacher that she was amazed she'd referred a child who is clearly not dyslexic and appears to be bored and understimulated.

Next stop, a discussion with her Head about changing schools.

Wow, that's terrible. It appears that having the Senco assessment has been beneficial anyway, as it has proved what you are saying.

Is there another school which you would like your DD to go to?

Intrigued to know how you found out about the SENCO's comments to the class teacher...

The class teacher told me!!!!!

Yes, there are a couple of schools I'd like her to go to, but one, I've been told is 'gold dust' and you can't get a place there even if you live next door and the other I'm waiting to hear from. Other than that I have hit a brick wall.

So the classteacher herself has told you your child is bored and under-stimulated (by her).....she must indeed be an unusual teacher....

She said that the SENCO indicated that the teacher was wasting her (the SENCO's ) time and that there wasn't a learning difficulty but more likely to be a bored and understimulated child. Who knows, the teacher is inconsistent and contradictory at the best of times and I am not the only parent to feel disatisfied.

Not sure what to add re the strange sounding teacher. With regard to bringing her reading up - can your sister and her partner help out a bit with some after school reading time? My DD1 also did the Oxford reading tree and never really got it to be honest. It was a struggle even to make her sit down and read them with me. By about half way through yr 1 she was on level 2 - 3, but still didn't really seem to be getting it. She didn't see the point and was so far behind most of her friends that it made her angry and despondent. Most of her little friends were reading those Rainbow Fairies books (formulaic girly things by Daisy Meadows which they all seem to love) and she was desperate to read them too, but obviously her reading wasn't anywhere near up to it. But I started getting them out of the library anyway and would read her a couple of pages and then at the end make her sound out a sentence or two (with lots of help and input), she LOVED doing this and after a couple of weeks we were up to her reading a short paragraph after I had read to her. Another couple of weeks and I would tell her to read a paragraph on her own after I had finished and then I would start reading from after that the next day. Anyway - this strategy really worked. Within 6 weeks or so her reading just took off. She ended up missing out most of the rest of the levels on the Oxford reading tree and progressing to free reading. It was as if something had just clicked and she went from basically going C-A-T 'is it dog?' to reading chapter books in what seemed like no time at all. So i'd say if you can find some simple stories that she is interested in and between you put some extra (and fun) time into it literally 15 mins a day at bedtime was what I did - i.e. my bit of the reading was her bedtime story, then you might be surprised at the results.

Thank you, that is really helpful. I read to her every night before bed and during the day too. I sometimes wonder if she is so reliant on me reading that she does not feel the need to do it herself. We've got loads of Rainbow Fairies books but she doesn't seem to like them because they aren't picture books as such. I have also tried her with Enid Blyton books like Mr Twiddle but she doesn't like those either. I'm sure it will click eventually though.

Her uncle reads to her sometimes but she says 'You don't read as well as Mummy'. Oh dear!

It is heartening to hear of another child who has gone through the same kind of thing and is now progressing! Thanks again.