Yr 2 Settling in problems? or just a rant?

[omydarlin]

I don't think my Daughter is settling very well into her new class and tbh don't think the class teacher is helping - these are my issues - guess i'm asking if i'm just being hysterical about it all?

Home School Link Books - these were not given out until the beginning of Oct - which also meant DD wasn't bringing books home and if she did (from school library ) I could not write/talk about what she has read - this is important because we really struggled with her reading last year and now she's flying with it and writing comments in the book give her confidence and keep her wanting to read.

Since they started bringing their link book home half the time the Teacher has had it so yet again could not write in it - although DD says Miss X forgot today - and i'm not sure this is entirely true - I wonder they are just keeping the books to write the comments in but for half the week?.

"home learning" has been sent home but it's all a bit vague - there are no hand in dates etc , the work says things like "research Arcimboldo"

Research AND write down what you've learned? Look at pics on the internet, print them off?.

There is no Maths home learning sent home at all - in fact I was promised targets as DD is below the expected level (probably because we- ie school and home- worked so hard to get her up to the reading level). I read on MN about children getting times tables etc to learn - she has none of that which I find odd.Is this odd?

DD doesn't seemed to be supported in her learning as much as she was last year - she has concentration problems and needs to be reminded about things yet her homework, reply slips etc remain in her bag sometimes - i'd have thought they'd be watching out for that kind of stuff as she was notorious for it last year . Makes me wonder if they are just letting her be the dreamer at the back of the class.

I'm also really peeved that they keep on cancelling PE lessons i'm sure its linked with DD deciding she does not have to go to dance class any more if she does not want to.

Im happy to give the school time to assess my DD needs blah blah but I know next term for half of it they'll probably be "busy" preparing for the nativity to do any proper work sigh .

I will be having a quiet chat tomorrow if I can but I don't want to come across as "precious daughter mum" or "clueless mum" or whatever other stereotypes on that thread.

Any opinions/ideas how I can be tactful? In raising these issues or should I let it lie till parents meet after half term?

oh bloody hell that's long!

Does your dd have an IEP? If so then speak to the SENCO as well as the class teacher.

If ds's homework diary doesn't come home I send a note in if it won't wait or send an email. If I want to speak to the teacher about something (like sending reply slip etc) I would call the school and leave a message if I wasn't able to have a quick word at drop off or pick up.

no she doesn't - there has been talk of her needing "additional support" since nursery but she always seems to catch up (and more) with the rest and last year the learning process was adapted for her and I was happy with that ie active listening sessions etc.

I don't drop off and only pick up 3 times a week - but your'e right I will call the school tomorrow to make sure it ok to chat to the Teacher after school.

Big deep breath

I think most Y2 don't get times tables as homework yet. We didn't start them to Y3.

If she's not on an IEP than I think it is reasonable to expect her to hand in reply slips etc. I know it's hard for children to do it - but school are trying to help her be more responsible and this is one way they have to learn to be responsible for themselves. Hopefully as the year progresses she will learn how to do this.

Fantastic news that she has made such good progress with her reading. I think you just be proud and enjoy that.

Homework sounds dire - I'd definately ask (politely) for more explanation about what is expected. I bet it's 'deliberately open ended' so that children can do different amounts depending on their abilities. Which is great for you because then you can effectively choose what she does....

Agree with Indigo (I have a yr2 dreamer!)

Yr 2 is when they start to HAVE to do stuff for themselves so yes she'll soon learn that if she doesn't hand in stuff there will be consequences.

Times tables are more end of yrs 2-yr3 work

Re reading dd likes to have comments as well..I'd make my own book up out of loose leaf paper and tack it into the original .

Open ended homwork I think is a good idea, far better than the write 3 sentences using words from this list (endlessly every frigging week) [bitter]

Good luck. Ds gets times tables work now but he is at a private school (if that makes any difference).

I had to fight to get ds tested at school and get an IEP. It was suggested at the beginning of year 1 but ds was too young to be tested. By the time he was old enough (beginning of second term) the teacher didn't think he needed it. I insisted and it revealed that ds has memory problems which affected his reading, spelling and concentration (and therefore had a detrimental effect on his classroom behaviour).

We got an IEP but I found it a bit vague. I am waiting for his revised one and now, 10 months on, I have more of an idea what support I expect to see. I thought ds's issues would be a quick fix but that hasn't happened.

This week I've had to fight to get an Ed Psych referral - SENCO wanted to leave it until ds wasn't making progress. I turned in to the pushy parent from hell and said that by then it would be too late. I said I wanted to know now whether he was working to his potential and if not what strategies could be implemented to help him achieve this. The SENCO didn't think it was necessary as ds was within the average limit for his age group (he is one of the youngest in his year). However now ds failed his spelling re-test yesterday the SENCO has agreed to the referral.

I'm like you OP and have limited opportunities for face time with the teacher. I only drop off one day a week during school time, the rest of the time ds is at before and after school care. Makes it harder so when I didn't see the teacher on my drop off yesterday I emailed her. Emailed the SENCO too as I only ever see her at parents' evenings.

Sounds very like my DS's year 2 (apart home school link books are only given to children who to to breakfast/after school club).

Have same open ended homework. you tailor it to your child's ability/interest really. No proper "maths" but I wouldn't want to sit and do formal "maths" with him anyway - count money, measure things, do baking. He's not doing formal time tables but they are counting in 2s,5s,10s at school.

DS's school uses Y2 to get the children prepared for junior school so the children are definitely expected to be more responsible - DS is now verbally telling me things that once we would have had a note for (for example).

PE lessons are notoriously things that go when you are practising for assembly/harvest/christmas play/you get behind. (not a Y2 specific issue IME).

Ds gets sent home one or two new reading books every night, spellings every night with spelling corrections on Monday night, maths about once a week and writing practice to do over the weekend.

The do PE 3 times a week but like redsky says this gets curtailed to make room for practising for different events.

I would also push for an IEP in order to get her learning properly supported.

IndigoBell - thanks for making me see that issue in a different light _ maybe I was emotional about it as DD got really upset. It was a reply slip to confirm her Gran was going to the Harvest festival morning (this morning) she was scared her Gran couldn't go and we did actually have a little chat at the time about how important it was to try and remember things - I didn't have ago at her as she was genuinely so upset and annoyed with herself so lets hope that's a lesson learned.

I can see the benefits of the open ended homework but still feel maybe it is just a bit too vague but ill give it a few more weeks see how we get on - I don't want to comment on it at school just yet - I do feel strongly that some kind of Maths needs to be in there even if its just "play shops with only 10ps " ( I'm in no way suggesting this would be actual homework but you get the gist - something to reinforce at home what they are learning at the school.

With regards to an IEP - I just don't know what i think - last year she had "support strategies" e.g always sit in the front which I was really happy with it seemed to work well without making me feel like she was being labelled - but Mollie O all sympathies to you you sound like you had a really tough week.

Teacher was not in today but I am hoping to get an appointment next week after school. You're all so right she moves on to Junior school soon (i went to see it Tuesday- oh its so lovely)and she will thrive if she can learn independently.

It did occur to me that she hasn't been taking her omega 3 vits for a while - i swear to god they make a difference in her concentration levels.

Thanks everyone will report back next week

An IEP doesn't mean labelling but it does mean that the support is more formalised. For example if it is better for her to sit at the front of the class then this would be listed in the IEP. It isn't a long document. Ds's is a page with abour 5 things on it. Just means that he has set targets to achieve and focus on.

My view of it is as a temporary measure to help ds rather than a permanent fixture.

I will ask about it and get more of an idea as to how formal they are MollieO next week promise. I guess im just in a foul judgemental mood this week!

MollieO "The SENCO didn't think it was necessary as ds was within the average limit for his age group."

This attitude in school really annoys me. I'm often seeing children who have some learning issues ( probably things like mild to moderate dyslexia) but schools are reluctant to do anything because the child is within average levels! They are then oh so surprised when the DC actually turns out to have dyslexia or whatever! It usually ends up with the brighter DCs who have some sort of learning difficulty being overlooked because they are bright enough to develop some coping strategies, but they can also still become very upset and frustrated. IMO we should be considering each child as an individual so that all children who have potential SpLDs are assessed and offered appropriate help!

I do wonder whether ds is dyslexic. He still reverses b and d and reverse words like 'was' - he'll read that as 'saw'. He can sound out words but has difficulty blending. He's on level 5 of ORT which is some way behind at least half the class.

A friend's daughter managed to mask her dyslexia because she was very clever. By the time the school realised there was an issue she had really fallen behind. She had huge difficulty in yr 3 as her reading ability was the same as a reception aged child and of course lots of the work they do in yr 3 requires them to be able to read well.

That knowledge has also been one of the reasons I've pushed hard. I'm frustrated that I've had to especially as it isn't a cost to the school to get him tested.

Well done for keeping on pushing. I think if children are still doing the bd reversal thing over the age of about 7 you need to start asking questions, especially if there are other dyslexic type problems going on. In my experience also look out for the misreading of little words like an and is if on etc and the "look and guess" strategy - ie look at the first couple of letters and guess the rest resulting in "diagram" for "diagonal" etc!

That's interesting. Ds does a lot of guessing and also substituting words that fit the story rather than what is actually written.

Sounds familiar!

Ds misses words and inserts little words, 'in,the,an,' when they are not there. Never knew it was a dsylexia thing.
He is being assessed for aspergers at the moment.
The school is not concerned becsue he is so bright, he hasn't caused them any problems. So far.

Not necessarily a dyslexia thing but it can be a symptom amongst others.