Yr 1 DS not doing too well

[KwaziiHunt]

I started a thread last week about my Yr1 August born DS struggling with Yr1.
We had an end of term assessment given to us last week and my fears have been confirmed he is clearly struggling.

The assessment gave us the average level at end of autumn term Y1, his level at start of term, his level now and his effort.

In Maths he has stayed at the same level and his effort is satisfactory. In reading and writing he has increased although only marginally and his effort is poor. He is below expected levels in all areas.

The expected levels doesn't concern me as much as not making progress, but even more worrying not making an effort and, as far as I can tell, not engaging with school.

I am seeing his teacher after school on Wednesday to talk this through and want to make sure I am clear headed about what I want to talk about.

He has been telling us for a while that it is hard and not fun and when I try and do homework with him he switches off completely.

Things I will raise:
He has not made any progress in Maths and yet this is where he has made most effort. What strategies do you have to make sure he makes progress next term?

he does not seem to make any effort. What does this mean? Does he not try at all? What can we all be doing to make lessons more relevant to him and how will you be making sure he engages with the learning process rather tham being fixated on the outcome?

What do you do currently do to encourage him? Is there any of his work on the walls, does he get points for his work?

The homework almost always seems beyond him and/or takes a good few hours over the weekend to complete. This is causing him stress and makes him feel even more that 'he can't do it'. Can we just not do the homework and I will read and do some simple maths with him each day after school for 10 minutes.

What can we all do to make sure he engages with the process of learning because at the moment school is not working for him. He is not happy, he is not making any effort and he is not progressing.

Sorry that is long. I really want to work with the school and want to get the teacher onside. Does this sound OK? Am I being too precious?

Well I think the first thing to do is ask for him to be moved down a maths group.

When my DD was having a lot of problems I've come to the arrangement with school that she didn't do any homework, so it is a reasonable thing for you to ask.

Not time limited hw, but actually no hw.

If you don't do any school homework with him, that'll give you time to reinforce his maths through games or day to day stuff.

But that homework is well above nationally expected levels for year 1. What NC level is he working at?

3 times table stuff sounds like year 2 to me. My ds in year 2 and counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and looking at 3s. No 3s in year 1 for him and he is considered ok for maths and well within 'expected' NC levels.
The homework is truly ridiculous op and I hope you get some sense/ answers from your son's teacher.

That's much harder than what we are getting (for a 'top group' year 1). If they won't differentiate the homework, I would stop doing it -maybe just put a note in the homework book saying 'this is too hard can we have something easier?' and do fun stuff vaguely to do with numbers instead - the bbc bitesize website is good for that. If that's what the middle group are doing it must be filled with maths geniuses, or something.

i had same experience with my august boy last year in year 1. He was miles behind everyone on maths and writing and couldn't not be made to do homework without tears and tantrums. So we dropped him a year (in private sector, not sure this is possible in state sector) and, hey presto, he is king of the class this year, getting all the stars and prizes. funny that!
think august children, particularly boys, need time to mature without homework pressure which will put them off learning for life and make them feel stupid. i think you need to get the school to help him more, give him time and build his confidence.

My ds in yr1 struggled soooo much I really thought what the hell is happening. He is June baby and really struggled in writing he didn't even have any level the only thing he was good at was reading. I thought he was good at maths but even maths he was below average. I stressed so much.
What I did was simple counting repetition alot counting backwards wmad forwards could be anywhere shopping,driving anything.
His writing again alot of repetition just simple sentences. He understood but putting it together was hard. We would do 2 mins he would get frustrated and we would give up.
The school then incorporated on early literacy lessons were he would spend 30 minutes on phonic work and letter formnation. I then said to them that he doesn't have much confidence and they put on him on a program called "number counts" not all schools do this.
I can now say when he got to year 2 he no longer did the lit classes they said he didn't need to because he would easily get them all right and has 12 months on his maths. So my advice if he doesn't want to do it don't and just generally put some in every day life. Dominos was a good one he had to match the dots with another domino. I can't say don't panic as I did and I think with maturity you will see a diff in Year 2 x

Just to update:
I saw DS teacher yesterday after school. I think it went quite well. She knew exactly why I was there and was very open and honest.
We talked for a while about DS and what she sees and what we know him to be.
The upshot is:
we all (teacher, his parents and DS) need to work on his confidence and getting him motivated at school so that he is trying and once he is trying he should start achieving too.
DS will be moved down a level for both numeracy and literacy so that things are a bit easier and he is able to achieve the work to boost his confidence.
She will break instructions down for him, so he is only given one instruction. He will repeat it back to her and then he will tell her when he has completed it.
She wants to see me once a week so we can keep on top of how he is doing.

She did mention that she needs to look at what she is doing so she can motivate him and also that Senior Management will want to see what she is doing to make him progress.

I also spoke about the homework and she said if he can't do it, just to leave it and note that he cannot do it.

It felt positive and that they were wanting to help DS and that they were on the front foot.

We will also be making it clear to DS that it is his responsibility to work at school, but that we are all trying to find ways to help him do that.

Do remember he's only 5!

Did they tell you what NC levels he's working at?

That all sounds positive. It's good that you will be speaking to the teacher regularly.

I know what levels he is working at and they are not great.
We spoke about the fact that right now it is not important what level he is working at, it is about the fact that he is not listening and engaged in the classroom.
I know he is only 5, but he is overwhelmed with what they are doing and therefore doing nothing.
What we are trying to do is bring the level of work and/or instructions down a bit so that he is actually doing something at school.

Would you be prepared to share? Maybe some others on here with children of of the same age could reassure you.

I thought it was fairly normal at this point in Y1 for a child not even to have a NC level (or be working toward L1?) Certainly the case in DD's class. I wonder if you have a paticularly high achieving class so expectations are very high? (DD is in top maths group and that homework you outlined is way harder than anything she is doing)

It is fairly normal not to have an NC level at this stage in year 1. But the Maths the op's sonnies being asked to do looks like level 2ish stuff to me. If he has been assessed well below level 2 then the homework is entirely inappropriate. Which indicates that the school is getting things significantly wrong.

Hi Kwaziihunt:

Department for Education guidance on homework can be found here: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/SchoolLife/DG_179508

There also is a useful learning aids here: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/HelpingYourChildToLearn/DG_185973

It sounds like he's not grasping the basics or possibly the terminology. Being August born also means he may be the youngest in the class - which can be a huge difference at this age. My DD was in this boat and we let it ride in Y1, because we were advised that she just needed time and would progress at her own speed. By Y2 things really hadn't improved and she was still struggling. We found Mathsfactor themathsfactor.com/.

Mathsfactor is an on-line tutorial with Carol Vorderman (remember Countdown - this is what she set up with the money she won off channel 4 for being sacked for being over 50). She goes through things slowly and simply. You can repeat the little lessons and there's tons of practice and great ideas for maths games you can do at home, away from the computer. If you feel that the teachers aren't getting through I would heartily recommend this. I didn't feel confident enough (or patient enough) to teach math at home myself, but we opted to subscribe (it is ~£15 a month) and we've never looked back.

I now have a daughter who's sitting in top maths group Y4 - who knows her number bonds, can add and subtract 2 digit numbers mentally with speed and knows her times tables facts to x12. I never ever would have believed that was possible in March of Y2 - we were in despair and the teachers had clearly given up on her.

So Kwaziihunt - I'd say start with math. Accept that you're going to have to sit along your DC and spend 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours (over the week) helping them with 5 homeworks a week. Accept that this is going to be a slow, long slog. But just do those 5 homeworks a wee - no more and slowly, slowly things will begin to click. Carol's always positive and encouraging (the beauty of video!) and my two girls just adore her! I also think the visual imagery just helps them so much to understand what they're doing - it really is clever old stuff.

With reading I'd just advise reading 10min a day with your child and start to shift the bulk of reading slowly over to them. Start with having them read words they know. Then have them help you sound out words. Again - slowly, slowly you'll see the improvement. I also came across this website www.mrthorne.com/t1/ for phonics - and it may help as well with understanding letter sounds.

I agree one on one time in school would help - but many schools just somehow never manage that - so if you can - try and claw a few hours a week (~2 hours) to supporting your DC. It's frustrating and tiring, but when you see them 'getting it' - it's like they're taking those first steps all over again!

Hang in there.

Lizs last para is relevant. You need to go back to where he is able to understand. Then you need to ask which part/ where is it you don't understand? then talk him through it using a multisensory approach input from you. Make sure you do it ,then ask him to follow on with his copy .Go slowly! You need then to do a few examples with him. Do check at each point ask " Are you ok with that, say no if you haven' got it yet". If he goes wrong...DO NOT USE THE WORD...NO! Say "Try it again" Keep your cool.
It is not he doesn't want to , all kids want to be able to do things.There could be a number of reasons, from not enough input from the teacher, scared of getting it wrong, which goes with" if I dont do it then I cant be wrong". I have taught many children who have travelled the same path.
Use object to help understand the mechanics where you can. Many children get on better if visual aids are used to get them on the upward path.

Methinks the op is a pushy parent.

Why do youthinks that seeker?

I have tried to explain that my worry is not the level he is at but the fact that he is not putting effort it.
If he was enjoying school and found the work interesting and stimulating he would put effort it, right?

What exactly is pushy about trying to make sure my DS enjoys school?

Because your op was all about achievement and levels. Your thread title was about him not doing too well, not him not enjoying school.

You seem to ignore those people who are telling you that the homework he is being given is not year 1 work.

And talk about "it being his responsibility to work hard' and "putting the effort in" and he's 5 years old.

And you won't say what his NC levels are, which suggests to me that they are perfectly fine, but not as high as you would like them to be.

I have just typed a reply to your points, but I have deleted it.

I can see where you are coming from but I think you have misunderstood me.

I don't want to justify myself to you.

So thanks to everyone who has replied to me.

All I am trying to ensure is that school works for my DS whatever level he is at.

Hi KwaziiHunt

I was responding to another thread and mentioned Alphablocks - and realised I forgot to mention it to you.

Alphablocks is a cartoon on CBEEBIES which reviews phonemes with sweet quirky songs (possibly too memorable as I still find myself humming them and my girls are now in Y2 and Y4).

Anyway you can find out more here: www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/ The watch and listen tab has the phonemes ordered alphabetically - the 'magic' episode is about silent 'e' and is my personal favourite.

Hang in there!

Absolutely OP. But just have in your mind all the time that.he's only 5. Barely more than a baby. And that homework was really, really hard. And he's got loads of time to shoot up the levels and still be a level 2b (average) or 3 (very good) by the end of year 3,