How do I deal with this without sounding like I'm telling the teacher how to do her job?

[HousewifeOfOrangeCounty]

DS is about to finish in year 2 and move up to year 3 in a junior school, he will be taught by the existing year 3 teacher. He has struggled with his handwriting ever since he started school, but this year has made a huge improvement. A lot of this is I believe down to the teacher he has had this year who has really helped him. One of the things he does is correct any spellings on any work ds does and often asks him to re-write anything particularly illegible. This approach has worked very well.

DD2 is about to finish year 3, she has brought home a lot of her school books today and I've noticed that spellings are not corrected. I am concerned that this approach isn't going to work for ds and that he'll slip. They are different schools so the approaches may be down to policy or the individual teacher - I don't know. I'd really like to ask the yr3 teacher to ask ds to correct any errors - he loves to tell me how many corrections he's had and tries to beat his last score. I appreciate that the teacher may not be too happy with me telling her how to do her job. Should I talk to her or just let it go and see how it pans out?

i don't think there would be a problem if you said "ds has had problems with his spelling/writing and he seems to respond really well to this approach" and just see what they say

I would leave it tbh, since it would be telling the teacher how to do her job.

just because he's been corrected a lot this year and has improved a lot doesn't mean the two things are connected (though it does sound like the teacher has helped). a lot of children become de-motivated if their work is corrected too much, which is why some teachers do not correct everything. your dd probably makes few errors - I imagine the teacher would correct some spellings if there were many.

actually I guess you could see how it goes for half a term without saying anything, and then mention the other teacher's approach if he starts to struggle (which I think is unlikely)

It is true that dd is very good at spelling/writing etc so it could be that the teacher doesn't correct her for that reason.

It's been such a relief to see ds making progress finally I'm worried about him losing momentum.

I always mark to the Learning Objectives of the piece of writing and don't correct every spelling mistake as it is VERY demotivating for most chd of this age where their vocab just soars but their ability to write these words doesn't! Having said this..... if you can to me with the above tale I would certainly adapt this general policy to fit the child (every child matters after all!). Perhaps I would pick the 5 most important spelling errors from a piece of work and these could be the ones your son conentrates on learning. They could be noted in a "word book" and he could be rewarded when he has shown he knows them in a new piece of writing?
Now it would be insane to try and impliment (sp?) this for every child but the odd one would be ok and he could manage the administration of it himself aside from the origial corrections.

see how it goes for at least a few weeks, I reckon.

Hello OP, I think this would be literally telling the teacher how to do her job and for this reason, it wouldn't necessarily be a hugely successful or comfortable approach.

As hinted by another poster, It may be a deliberate policy not to correct spelling at this age. Some children's work would be virtually entirely crossed out if every spelling were corrected. This may even be the case very high in KS2.

It is perfectly possible for the correct spellings to be taught separately and tested without being corrected in every/any other piece of writing.

I'm a teacher, and would be more than happy to be told what strategies work for your child. This is not 'telling her how to do her job' it is sharing something that will help her.

If you don't say anything, it could take her until Christmas to figure it out!

We've been given next years set lists today, and all afternoon in the staffroom it's been 'So-and-so likes lots of praise'; 'This boy responds to the threat of detention'; 'Jonny will do anything for a sticker'; 'Sarah likes her work marked after every paragraph'

Why re-invent the wheel? Every child is different, and we deal with them differently. If your son's teacher has a strategy that works for him,I'm sure his new teacher would love to hear it!

Are the two teachers in the same school?
Tell the Y2 teacher what a fantastic job he's done and how effective it was, and ask him to liaise with the Y3 teacher to ensure that your son's progress is continuous and doesn't dip.
The teachers should have had a handover meeting anyway, and discussed all the children individually.

Thanks all, the two teacher are in different schools so no point in asking them to talk.

I think I'll hold on for the first few weeks and hope there's a parents evening in October.

I would speak to the teacher. Listen to abbierhode, I think she's talking sense! It's obviously not demotivating for your child to be corrected. He's obviously benefiting to say they aren't linked is stretching it a bit. You and his previous teacher know him and what works and also you sound very tactful and too sensitive to offend.

ahh thanks backtotalk.