Hi,
Ds is in year 1. At the end of reception we were told his maths was extremely good and his best area. I didn't get a calibration of this beyond a mention that it was a couple of years ahead but this was vague.
He was the kind of kid who could count things out and do sums at age three. He also would do things like work out how many days there were until his birthday at that age in his head by counting through the days.
In year 1 he has a very inexperienced teacher (note who has made mistakes in other areas which she has had to correct) who said he made a few errors doing simple sums, so gave him a level 1b mid year at the parents evening. I was very surprised as this did not sound right for a little boy who does things like calculate square numbers and work with negative numbers. I have seen the APP stuff and know that they have to be secure in all areas not just eg. sums.
The teacher agreed that maybe he made the mistakes because the work was too easy e.g. 8-3!
This would mean he wouldn't even get a level 3 at the end of year 2 under the standard predictions.
Surely just because he made a few errors once or twice it shouldn't be such a big deal. Levels are just levels but more importantly he does not get work which challenges him at all in class or for homework.
At home he has stopped making the silly errors, not sure if he has at school.
Here are some examples of what he does/ says at home when he was making up his own sums:
"infinity minus two infinity would be minus one infinity wouldn't it?"
"five minus two times five would be minus five"
so the idea of him not being able to do 8-3 is crazy to me. And the idea of him only being a 1b when I have read through the APP assessment stuff seems very odd.
Should I raise this with the teacher and ask to have a quick chat after school in case ds is still making mistakes? Or leave it now the end of the year is nearly upon us?