Dds NC levels lower than I'd expect, should I be worried?

[Joyn]

dd (6, yr1) is doing well & happy in school. Her levels are above national expectations, but seem a lot lower than what she is demonstrating to me at home.

I think she is quite quiet in school & moved class at half term & although has not been unsettled,hasn't really had a chance to show what she can do & there seems to be a few issuse with her new class;
1)Her teacher has been out of class a lot due to other commitments within the school.
2)I was told he or ta would listen to her read 2x a week, yet it wasn't even 1x a week.
3)They had weekly maths homework, but the last 4 lots of hers weren't collected in or marked.
4)She were also supposed to have weekly spellings, but they forgot to give them to her 4x & I had to ask for them (she wouldn't do that herself,) & she ended up only having 2 days to learn them (rather than a week,) but still usually managed 8 (or more)/10 (apart from the week she didn't get them at all).
5) after Xmas, they are having another class switch around, dd will be staying where she is, but some other dcs will be moving out & others moving in.

How long would you let issues like this continue? I've spoken to her teacher, at school pick up time about not getting spellings etc, but not about her levels seeming out of kilter, (only got report yesterday). Should I give it a couple of weeks next term to let the new changes settle down, or should I have a word before Xmas, about the discrepancy or the other issues?

The thing that would concern me most is the class changing for the 2nd time. Unless the classes all work together for a lot of lessons that sounds incredibly disruptive and I'd really question the need for it.

I'd check with some of your points that there wasn't something you/DD was meant to do or something you are unaware of - e.g. was she meant to pick up her own spelling sheet or put her maths homework in a particular box? Some parents at DD's school recently went in to complain about lack of reading in school - to discover that their children were read with very regularly - they just weren't aware.

Also in the week or 3 before Christmas I think a lot of "regular" things do slide so things may get better in January.

If her teacher a member of the senior leadership team? If so I think (unfortunately) they do end up spending lots of time out of the classroom but I think it's reasonable that the school will organise suitable cover (e.g. always the same cover teacher so there is continuity)

Thanks red sky, you guessed right, he is part of the senior management team & they do have the same cover teacher.the lack of unmarked maths was partly Dds fault, (wasn't handing it in,) but for the 1st couple of wks we weren't told the procedure or even the day it was due! The problems with spellings & reading were down to the teacher/tas. And things definitely got more disrupted the closer it got to Christmas, but the problem with this was as she only joined at half term, the first 3 weeks it felt like things were just settling in & the rest of the half term has been getting ready for Xmas, concerts, bazaars etc, so I have no idea what 'regular' is like!

As for the class changes, they are unavoidable & we have known it was going to happen since the start of the year. The school continues to use the eyfs, for yr1s until they believe the dcs are ready for NC, so it is only now that the rest of the year 1s will be joining dd in a ks1 classroom.

I dont think I would be so much concerned about your daughters levels as the messing about in her class, hopefully after christmas it will all settle down and get in to some sort of regular routine.

My daughter whos also in yr 1 they do reading each day but it doesnt get recorded in her book, they send home reading books but do guided reading in school with different books perhaps its similar in your school?

What levels is she at?

Thanks for the reply little miss. Guided reading & 1-1, have always been recorded in her homework diary, up until now, (but I can't recall seeing any guided reading entries since she moved class,) so perhaps it is that. I might need to check with her teacher.

She's down as 1b across the board at the mo, but with targets like, 'I can read, recognise & write numbers to 20,' which seems way too easy & make me think they don't know her level at all. Personally I'd actually say she's ticked off everything to reach a 2b in numeracy (although I know what they do at home, often exceeds what they demonstrate in school). But she's very good at maths, for example she easily solves sums with up to 3 digits, (in her head,) knows, 2,3,5,10x tables, can do some corresponding division facts, (she worked out 24 divided by 8 this morning, when I was helping ds practise his 8x tables,) can tell the time on digital/24 hr clock & analogue & can do basic fractions & percentages & all the other things listed in NC targets up to 2b.

It's similar with her reading, again I'd say she's about 2b, she's on ORT level 9 & has demonstrated to me good understanding, empathy etc.

I'm putting the difference between my assessment of her & theirs down to the new teacher not really having a chance to get to know her, partly as she can be quiet & also because of the issues I've hi-lighted, but should I be raising this with the school?

Sounds like my dd joyn
Especially the numeracy,dd is doing times tables and division etc at home but nothing like that at school (just been assessed with a maths paper at a 2c,which i think they were a little surprised by).
I get really frustrated,as you know,as if dd is given something bellow her level she just looses interest and makes a hash but then of course school think she can't actually do what has been given.
Could your dd be bored?

They have to demonstrate it at school. Simple. End of.

I could come on here to rant or march into my daughters classroom and show her teacher the level 5 maths stuff that she can do at home but I don't because I know that the different environment/peer pressure/ distractions/ one-to-one attention, whatever, make a huge difference to a child's performance.

A question - I'm pretty sure ds isn't given the chance to demonstrate what he can do as the work is not that challenging. In his books last year he had pretty much everything right but wasn't given the stuff from the next level which I know he can do at least at home.

That's not great teaching but what can I do about it?

Totally agree, imnotinterested - I agree she isn't showing them in school, but I'm concerned as to why. Im worried because of all the disruption etc & because she's a bit quiet (at school). I'm lucky ds is the older one, as he's kinda set a trail for her to follow, she hasn't had to prove so much as they know she's clever too, but I don't think they see how clever iyswim.

Mrs Shears, I'm so pleased they are starting to realise how clever your daughter is, I know you've been having a lot of trouble. I don't think dd1 is actually bored tbh, she's always been very good at amusing herself, when she finishes something she'll just get herself another piece of paper & write a story or make up some more maths problems herself. She came home the other day with a bag full of minute maths sheets she'd decided to do herself, as they'd had free time, but the teachers never saw them.

I'm beginning to think I should give it a week next term to settle in & then ask for a chat with her teacher.

Things are never normal at this time of year for ANY child, and if your DD has only been there since half-term she is having to deal with double changes. I really, really would advise you to chill out about it for now and see what January brings; IME the workload really ramps up a gear.

Thanks iani, I am a bit stress today. Just found out dd2 hasn't got a place at pre-school, which she was supposed to b starting in January! Part of the problem with being a sahm, when things aren't going quite right for the kids there's not a lot else to distract me from it. Perhaps I should go & sort some washing...

Hi Joyn:

not getting spellings and math not being collected are really annoying.

We solved the first by asking the school to post spelling lists on their website (or moodle if your school has it). This way I didn't have to get a dictionary down and prove to my DD1 that she had copied the word incorrectly. She just wouldn't believe my spellings - no matter how sure I was that I had it right and with a dictionary to prove it.

We solved the maths homework thing by finding out what day was 'hand-in' day and then I religiously checked my DD2's book bag and made sure if she had not handed her work in on the Monday morning that she ran back into school and gave her book to her teacher on the Monday afternoon (sometimes Tues a.m.). This seems to have improved things for everybody.

Joyn it sounds like things are a bit chaotic there at the moment - but it may be a productive and happy kind of chaos. Especially as you are relatively new to the school - I would play that card rather than complain about things not happening. I find people respond much better if you open with something like, 'I'm sure you explained this when we first arrived at XXXX primary school, but I really can't remember what day the DCs get their spelling list and my DD seems to regularly forget to collect hers so I'd like to remind her that morning.'

Hang in there. Things get much calmer next term.

Thanks sellbydate, I do think I need to be on top of her more in checking she's handed things in etc,it's just difficult as I also have to pick up her brother at the same time from another part of the school (and they come out at the same time,) & have a 2 yr old to keep an eye on as well. We haven't actually changed schools, only classes, a few dcs moved at half term (dd was one of those,) and the rest are moving after Xmas. I am going to chill out about it all though, & just enjoy xmas & if her teacher is around more next term I do think that will help with the disruption & confidence issues, so we'll have to just hope for the best.

Would the school expect your Y1 DD to hand in work independently or exchange her own reading books reliably? Mine wouldn't and I can't imagine my Y2 DS do that by any stretch of imagination.

If she is down as level 1b, what level is she being taught at?

I found with my DS Y2 maths at school and at home seems like 2 different planets for him (its 2 languages but still the same). I asked DS what he did at school and he told me he was doubling using cubes and then he said they did something difficult (according to teacher): double 13! At home DS doubles any number up to 100 (e.g. 28, 49, 50) in his head without cubes.

Gabid, sorry for not replying before. Yes, the school would expect her to hand in her homework independently. I'm not sure what level she's being taught, she must be working towards 1a. Shes in a yr 1/2 class, so works with some yr2s as well as yr1s.