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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

How many sub-levels progress a HALF academic year in yr1?

37 replies

dragonmother · 15/07/2011 16:35

One of ds' levels (year 1) has not changed since parents' evening at early March half term.

How many sub-levels of progress should the average child make and if they haven't moved sub-level at all is that worrying?

Background - I don't think the school teaches him at his level (in fact the guided reading group he is in does books a band below the one he is on and he finds the one he is on VERY easy anyway)
Also they could possibly be massaging the figures too! I.e. someone has gone oh we can't have a year 1 child up at 2a or 3c we'd better keep him at 2b to show progress!

Any thoughts from teachers or others welcome.

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iggly2 · 15/07/2011 17:03

Maybe not so much for writing but for maths and reading I would think very possible.

Original poster

dragonmother · 15/07/2011 17:15

Standard state school class size of 30.
I don't think he's a 3c either although possibly heading that way at reading and maths on what he does at home (and yes of course maybe he doesn't do that at school - or more likely isn't given the opportunity to as the work in class is too easy).

I've been concerned all year at the apparent lack of differentiation so that is why I'm wondering about this.

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Original poster

dragonmother · 15/07/2011 23:01

Coming back to this. No not PFB - I have an older dd. I used to be a teacher but it was a while ago and secondary.

I have decided not to worry about it all now. Next year we will hope to see more differentiation.

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tryingtobemarypoppins2 · 15/07/2011 23:32

Isn't it a bit late in the school year to be having these worries?

tryingtobemarypoppins2 · 15/07/2011 23:38

As for Level 3c......

Is he able to write sentences using basic puntuation (IN A RANGE OF TASKS OUTSIDE OF THE LITERACY SESSION), using interesting and varied word choices, starting with words ending in 'ing' or 'ly' to vary the opening?? As karma22 says, I would be surprised. With regard to reading, he would have to be able to show the ability of inference and deduction to be a Level 3 reader. A big ask considering the texts suitable for Year 1.

How often have you spoken to his class teacher this year? Again, just feels very late to me to be this worried.

Original poster

dragonmother · 16/07/2011 09:43

I have had the worries all year but was trying to chill. Is it worth me speaking to the head and saying, 'it's too late now but we have felt a lot of the work was very easy and are concerned by the apparent lack of progress?' For the record?

He is definitely NOT a level 3 in writing. It's reading and maths and I would say more like 2a possibly but I am not a primary teacher so I don't know.

I tried to discuss it with the teacher this year but she is quite inexperienced and brushed me off saying 'he'll be fine'. As in he is above average so why are you bugging me? I put a few polite notes in the reading diary about books having no new words and mentioned the homework was 'very easy for him' but nothing was done. I did not raise the spellings being all words he already knew iirc to be fair.

Ds was meant to have one-on-one or two-on-one with another child at one stage, I was told, but then this never happened and they were lumped in with the top group doing work which wasn't at his level - e.g. book band below those he was reading very, very easily anyway.

Sorry to ramble.

So the big question now is the one above, is it worth noting this with the head to say that I want reassurance it won't be the same next year?

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iggly2 · 16/07/2011 09:59

Can you talk to the teacher when he starts next year? I certainly think levels far higher than 3 could be reached by lots of children (if they are interested in work out of school-some are). Can you bring in some work he has done over the holiday (a list of books perhaps).

Original poster

dragonmother · 16/07/2011 10:53

Good idea.
I can explain what happened this year at the time which will hopefully help her understand my (slight) concern.

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tryingtobemarypoppins2 · 16/07/2011 18:59

I would be very careful dragon.

Firstly many childen do appear on the surface to have 'got it' but can not apply it! Hence why not being given further word lists to learn for example. I had a classic this half term. A new child joins. Mum insists she knows all her timestables. I test her and yes she does know them in order but has no idea when asked randomly and most importantly did not know the inverse of any of these. Mum also said she knew all her medium frequency words when tested. This wasn't evident in her independant writing though.

Secondly, if you didn't raise more concerns this year I think it is very rude to tell the next teacher you were not happy.

I am sorry but you do come across very negative of the class teacher. 30 pupils in a class is very tough. Perhaps you could offer to go in and help with some reading instead??

iggly2 · 16/07/2011 19:56

Sorry I did not mean criticise the previous teacher but emphasise "Oh by the way X likes this /did this/enjoyed this.... OVER the summer" as this is summer work it is not a direct criticism IYKWIM. I think it must be very hard really knowing each child's progression at that age as they must all vary so much especially due to their own interests.

Original poster

dragonmother · 16/07/2011 22:17

Trying - I go in a morning a week to help in the reception class.

I do see your point about kids not showing what they can do. Maybe my kid isn't as smart as I think/ his reception teacher thought. Maybe he 'levelled off'.

I don't want to go into details as I think it might identify me but the existing teacher made some big errors which she then had to do u-turns on. So no I don't have much faith in her.

I did complain in that I spoke to a governor (a councillor one who my dh is friendly with) but nothing changed. The school has been criticised by ofsted in the last report for not challenging more able kids. I could go on and on with more info.

It is not a good school but I can't move him so I need to find a strategy that will a. not upset the teachers but b. ensure he gets taught to his level a bit more next year. I'm not expecting it all day as there are 30 in the class. Other schools manage to challenge their most able kids a bit more.

When your child sits discussing prime numbers and teaches themselves their times tables but they get 12 + 3 etc. home for homework you do wonder. I have seen the workbook stuff on open day too and it was no better, despite the mention of extension work in his report.

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iggly2 · 16/07/2011 22:48

Your child is as smart as you think he is (you're his mother you see what he does) BUT his performance in a school environment maybe all his teacher sees. School performance maybe lower eg:due to him not being given a chance to show what he can, or how easy he gets distracted etc. Seeing my son's friends and what they do out of the confines of school so many are obviously working above school curriculum requirements for their ages in some areas.

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