Can you help me level this writing?

[greenrock]

Could anyone have a look at these two examples of my son's writing and give a level. The first is his recent writing and the second is from last year when he was in Reception. He got a 9 for his writing in Reception and has been given a 1a in Year 1. I don't think his writing is a 1a and am concerned about his progress. I'm really hesitant about speaking to the teacher as she is so nice but have just found out she is having him again next year so feel I have to say something. What do you think?

I lict cocing. my sun got mared. Ilict The put sps. Ilrnt that snals lea eegs in a hol. (I liked cooking. My son got married. I liked the ???? I learnt that snails lay eggs in a hole)

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I madeatiotoos. Imadeitwivmi hands. Theni adidtheeies. (A tortoise I made a tortoise. I made it with my hands. Then I added the eyes.)

I teach R/1 and level writing regularly. However, I would be very reluctant to level your son's writing based on your post. I would strongly advise arranging a meeting to talk it through with the teacher. She knows him best and can perhaps give you other examples of his work that does reflect a 1a level. The apparent lack of understanding of what fingerspaces are/ where they go would be the main question for me. Good luck.

It's not really accurate to level random sentences that aren't part of a larger piece of text. But I wouldn't be looking to a level 1 I'm afraid

I teach R/1 and level writing regularly. However, I would be very reluctant to level your son's writing based on your post. I would strongly advise arranging a meeting to talk it through with the teacher. She knows him best and can perhaps give you other examples of his work that does reflect a 1a level. The apparent lack of understanding of what fingerspaces are/ where they go would be the main question for me. Good luck.

Whoops - laptop playing up.

Thanks. I know it is tricky from just a small sample of writing but I feel really nervous about raising it with the teacher and need some reassurance that I might have a point about his lack of progress.

I would also question the reception score of 9 unless he has seriously regressed this year

Don't feel nervous - you have every right to find out how your child is doing. I would definitely be going in to see the teacher. I'm sure she won't mind in the slightest.

Yes - agree about the 9 score for FSP - I wonder how accurate that was.

I am becoming more and more cynical about NC levels and FSP scores. I hear about teachers being told to lower FSP scores by headteachers, and others being told to inflate them.

I have had three new children in from two different schoolswithin the last 3 weeks. All are working within L1 for writing (I'm in Y2). All of them have been given 2c as teacher assessment. One of them can't write his surname. None of them write more than 2 sentences at a time. One is reading blue books - we've checked by benchmarking twice - and has also been given 2c for reading. Of course, our school is stuffed with these inflated levels.

As someone who plays by the book, I am getting increasingly irritated by the stories of cheating and fiddling that goes on - oh and yes, to add insult to injury, one of the boys did come from an outstanding school.

FSP scores don't correlate to NC levels yet they are being used to predict future attainment. Politics!

We did a writing moderation last night (6 members of staff present - 2 new to our school) on the same pieces of writing they had given over a full level higher than the 3 experienced members of staff ... In reading one of the new members of staff had given a 2c for a child reading red book band hesitantly! so it isn't always a matter of cheating/fiddling.

I think Mrz is right in that different teachers seem to level in different ways.

As an example of this my dd was regarded as a 1b in February, so I would guess a 1a now. This morning she wrote the following while I was in the bath.

Jane the gap tooth witch that I wrote on teacher strike day 2011

Once upon a time there was a gap tooth witch and her name was Jane. Every day she would look in her coberd at her broom and think "how I wish I could have a cat". She thort it would be nice.

My son (y1) got 1a for writing in his end of year report.

He writes this sort of stuff:

"Jim and Alex were talking about going on advencher
next morning they went into there ship and set of.
then they aperad in ches island and there wer only white peses.
Jim asked a castle Hello were is the island of doom. there is no such thing
the casle replide why is there no black peces becase they are defeated
oh rite jim said I think we can go now does eneeone wonts to come with us
maybe me said a night and us said 3 pawns and me said the king... "

• as you see, practically no capital letters or punctuation marks.

I think my main concern would be lack of progress at this stage and not the level. His phonic awareness and knowledge of sight words does not appear to have developed in the past year. He also seems to have forgotten about spacing.Perhaps you could ask him to rewrite the piece from last year and see how it differs?(dictate obviously rather than copy!)

could 'put sps' be parsnips? Difficult to guess without some context

I thought sps may be space

Thanks everyone. Saladfingers it is the lack of progress that worries me. There has been a similar lack of progress with his reading. He has made very good progress in maths though.

The piece of writing from this year came with his report as his comment on the year. I wouldn't have wanted that going to home to a parent if were his teacher.

I wouldn't have wanted that going to home to a parent if were his teacher.

I don't understand - would you rather his work was edited / he was helped more so that it looked better and you were misled as to his writing ability?

You are very lucky they didn't do this, so that you can worry now instead of in a year's time......