Does this sound right to you? Just need a "sanity check" please

[emy72]

DD1 in Y1 and levelled as 1a for writing.

Her writing is her strength though, and it is very good. She can write complex stories using different time periods consistently, her spelling is very accurate, she uses commas, question marks, exclamation marks, speech marks and can use different styles of writing spontaneously.

The teacher says that the reason she has been a 1a for 2 terms now is because "sometimes she forgets full stops and capital letters after full stops".
This has been a sticking point for ages now. I don't know why sometimes she forgets, she just does and she continues to do it occasionally. The teacher says that if it wasn't for this she would be easily a level 2 (like for the other subjects) but this is holding her back. What are your opinions on this?

Is the NC really that inflexible?

Level 2a/b is "I can use capital letters and full stops for most of the time". So 1a would seem a little out of sync to me.

Do you think I should just leave it for next year's teacher to pick this up or should I do something about it? I don't want to be a pain and question teaching assessments, but I know she can write pretty well and it seems that something is amiss here....I guess does it matter? What would you do?

Leave it. It doesn't matter what level she is at the end of Y1.

Her new teacher in Sep will assess her again anyway.

Personally? I would leave it, Y1 has nearly ended. Work with dd over the school hols (scrapbooks/holiday diary blah blah) and be satisfied in yourself that your dd is probably 2a by September. To me, the school grade is irrelevant if I know what my dd can and is doing. I sometimes put lack of full stops etc simply down to lack of concentration in a class of 30.

Yes you're right, thanks for the advice!

wheelsonthebus - don't you mean 2c? Agree with others, leave it.

I though OP's DD sounded more like 2b or 2a, since 2c is: "I can begin to use sentences with a capital letter and a full stop, write a story with a beginning, middle and end, use simple words" etc. Happy to be corrected though.

For Level 2 it would need
clause structure mostly grammatically correct
sentence demarcation with capital letters and full stops usually accurate
some accurate use of question and exclamation marks, and commas in lists

Sounds like she's not far off then. Thanks everyone.

Any ideas how to get her to remember her full stops and capital letters all the time as opposed to most of the time?

Why does it matter what grade she gets, she's in Y1. The main thing is that she enjoys writing and creating stories.

Many young children just don't have an understanding of what a sentence actually is and lots of work is needed to develop the notion of sentences. Obviously I haven't seen her work but would say that a 2A requires accurate punctuation and the ability to use a variety of different punctuation not just full stops and question marks.

I use www.sentenceplay.co.uk/Games.htm with Y2 although they are intended for older children.

Great tips as usual mrz, thanks!

Give her a break, she's Year1.

Is the NC really that inflexible?
yes, ime, don't pay it too much attention. It's fine for the bureaucrats to care.

My DS was also assessed as 1a at Christmas of Y2 for the same reason. Guess what he has been doing lots of at school since :)

Remember that being at 1a doesn't stop her progressing in other areas. It might be that once she can remember the full stops and capital letters she goes straight to a level 2a (or even level 3).

Mrz, hello, again How would you mark a child who DID use full stops and capital letters correctly, also speech, exclamation and question marks, elipses - of which I know you take a dim view of as they can be used too much- hyphens, brackets and semi-colons, also a variety of sentence openers, connectives and punchy vocab?

I would be looking at a level 3+ but each individual piece has to be judged on it's own merit and it is perfectly possible to produce technically sound work that lacks that certain something that makes the difference between one level and the next.

good grief!!!

Just don't worry about levels, ever. They are nonsense, and will continue to be complete nonsense until we're talking about GCSE grades. Why does it matter what level she's at? Surely the best thing is to encourage her and support her when she needs it.