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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

Concerns about dd Y6 English, and moving on to secondary.

9 replies

lexcat · 04/11/2011 17:39

Dd is a bright able child who has always been in the top sets at school. Yes she never liked putting pen to paper but she an avid reader. At last she's started to knuckle down and start to enjoy writing a little more. She working near a level 5 in maths her reading is level 5. Then today dd comings home telling me her last piece of written work was a level 3. I think her teacher told her because dd told her teacher last year she wanted to get all level5's at the end of Y6. Dd was told it was possible she just really needed to work on her spelling and handwriting.

My main concern is dd catchment secondary is a great school but been in the top stream makes a big differents. I always thought it wouldn't matter as dd would be in the high sets where the level of achievement is fantastic.

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Original poster

lexcat · 04/11/2011 17:56

Bump sorry

OP posts:

IndigoBell · 04/11/2011 17:57

Neat handwriting and good spelling aren't normally the difference between a level 3 and a level 5.

activate · 04/11/2011 17:59

they set by core subject not as a whole so she may well be top set Maths and Science but lower set in English until she gets her grade up

so what's to worry about?

the ideal is that she's taught according to her ability and if she's not a 5 when she gets to secondary they'll move her up

tbh the levels at end of primary are reassessed for secondary anyway as too many primaries teach to test

IndigoBell · 04/11/2011 18:02

She can do it. Or at least it is possible to go from a L3 in Nov to a L5 in May - but she'll have to really understand what she's doing wrong, and work out how to fix it.

It's now teacher assessed not an exam - so she just needs to talk to the teacher about it and find out exactly what she needs to do to get more marks.

Original poster

lexcat · 04/11/2011 18:08

Sorry forgot to mention dd was 1 mark off level 4b at the end of year 5. Spelling was were her mark was really weak. Plus this is the child who went to school reading and writing and use to work with Y1's for maths and literacy
when she started school. I wish she hadn't been as I think that's what put her off writing been pushed to soon.

OP posts:

activate · 04/11/2011 18:32

doesn't matter what she did when she was younger

all that matters is how she applies herself now and in the future

this is why people crowing about early reading, gifted children in primary are barking up the wrong tree tbh

DeWe · 04/11/2011 18:48

Dd1 was assessed by one English piece as a 3a part way though year 5 last year. She got 5b at the end of year 5. When I queried it, I was told she'd had underachieved on that piece. Unfortunately it happened to be the piece they were using to assess them. The teacher was keen that she knew this to make sure she saw the mistakes she had made so she knew to avoid them.

Dd1 was a bit upset by the first result, but her best subject is always going to be maths, so it didn't put her off English as much as if she'd underachieved in maths.

maree1 · 04/11/2011 21:56

You can get plenty of practice papers in WH Smiths. Google also Creative Writing Magic Money Cards. Spelling - well that is just practice. You could play spelling games together from time to time.

squeewee · 05/11/2011 19:01

Just spelling and handwriting will NOT take her from a level 3 - 5 in writing. This gets me really angry hearing teachers say this as it's rubbish (just like teachers who think children just need to learn tables to improve their maths) The trouble is by the sound of it that your daughter doesn't like writing, doesn't find it easy to do physically and finds spelling hard - that has made her less confident.
To work towards a level 5 she needs to: use a good range of types of sentences, short and more complex. 'the old lady, how lived next door but one to Susan, tripped as over a branch as she made her way down the road.(is a complex one)
Interesting sentence openers - 'and then' or just 'then' at the start of a sentence is a no no.
She needs to use a good range of vocab - not necessarily that many adjectives and adverbs, but interesting nouns and verb; gobbled not ate, sauntered not walked, waggy tailed friend not dog etc.
She needs to be able to organise information logically - always starting with a general introduction. put in bullet points and organise things into paragraphs.
She needs to be able to expand on her ideas.eg 'It's important to have a mobile phone because I might need to call my mum.' Dont' just stop there, but explain when or why she might need to call home and what might happen if she couldn't.

Oh and fairly tight punctuation - she must put in full stops in the correct places and possibly commas for short clauses (where you might use brackets).

These are some of the basic things. Many children find the expanding on ideas the hardest. They put all their ideas in the 1st sentence and then wonder what to write next.

As for spelling - she won't learn to spell by reading more - she'd spell better now if that was the case. Get her to sound hard words out as they are spelt and make them sound funny - indepen dent with the emphasis on dent.
real ly
spek i al
say 'you have a biscuit' - bisc u it

Lots of silly ways - just pick a few each week.

Best of luck. It's a shame if a bright verbal girl can't be in a high set in 2ndary school just because she feels her writing is weak and her teacher clearly doesn't know waht to do about it.

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