Year one child

[madmum04]

My little girl is in year one and is almost 6 and im wondering if anyone can help me work out whether school should be doing more or just watching?

Shes on oxford reading tree books stage 1+ pink band which she has been on since reception we are currently repeating books from exactly a year ago, shes at level W at national curriculum as tested in december and im just getting a bit concerned now that she doesnt seem to be progressing as fast as some of the other kids in her class.Just wonder if anyone elses child has been at these levels at this point in yr 1 and done ok or does it sound like a problem with her?

Have you tried her on the ebooks on the learning section of MN
www.mumsnet.com/learning/ebooks

24 is bad. She should know at least the 45 HFW.

I'll have a look at those they look really good :)

I thought it wasnt great but was actually surprised she knew that many, I know its not brilliant to be fair its all the ones basically that she can just sound out.

I second Mrz's recommendation of bear necessities.

I also strongly recommend you don't rely on school, but start becomming very informed and very proactive.

School don't teach all kids. Almost all schools fail some kids every year.

So don't listen to their platitudes - unless they have a 100% record of getting all kids to a L2 by end of Y2 and a L4 by end of Y6.

You don't want your kid to be the one kid they fail.

Thanks so much I feel much better now knowing that I am right following my instincts. Ive just been sat showing her the ebooks, we had a look at pink band fun at the fair, she could only recognise the word 'the' on the first two pages, she said they were really hard but she likes the fact that if she has a go the computer will read it back to her. Might have found a new way to keep her interested :)

Don't look at the coloured bands look at the books above that say phase 2, 3 & 4 this is where she should be at the end of reception.

Wow seriously that is pretty scary, phase 3 and 4 is the end of reception? I could never imagine her getting on that book even at the end of year one

Children should cover phases 2-4 in reception and phase 5 in Y1 if the school is following Letters & Sounds (government guidance)
All the phase books are fully decodable if she knows her sounds

I would suggest you find out what sounds she knows and work to fill in the gaps

I think the school should be doing more. You could ask if there are any intervention groups that she could be part of, things like Narrative Therapy or ELS are two that my school use. There's also Talking Maths if she struggles in that too. At home you could look at a website called phonicsplay.co.uk which has lots of sound games.

I agree that the school will only offer limited extra help due to staff availability, etc. If they have already told you that there are more 'needy' children in the class, your well behaved child may be overlooked for 1-1 or small group support. She should get extra support in school but in reality this may not be enough. So your work with her at home will have a big impact on her learning. Keep doing a little each day and ask the school for advice on what you can teach her.

More needy children in the school they said who needed assessing before she did, not in her class. In her class they said she doesnt concentrate, shouts out when she shouldnt, doesnt join in class discussions, struggles with number work, spellings, reading, writing, she has made pretty much no progress since reception and she was behind in reception as well. She fidgets and messes about on the carpet and times when she should be listening and sat still, she switches off and doesnt listen.

Sounds like you can't rely on school to help her. :(

My DD is very similar in her literacy skills and I could have written pretty much the same as you in your first post. You have been given some very good advice and I will also be looking at the websites suggested to help at home.

My SIL is a primary school teacher and we have asked her to tutor my DD. She recently did a recent assessment and said that she does not know all of her phonics. My DD seems to have forgotten them since doing them in reception and it seems is not being reinforced in Y1 hence very little progress.

So at home now, we have gone back to basics and I am teaching her the phonics and making sure she knows the alphabet verbally and written. I am finding it quite hard as DD is not very interested and she has little concentration but I am hoping even 10 minutes every evening will build up her confidence. I will also address this with the school as they clearly do not see it as an issue.

I would speak to the teacher again regarding this so she doesn't fall any further behind. Could you look at getting a tutor even for a few weeks for some extra help? A different approach in teaching could make all the difference.

I hope you can get it sorted.

Perhaps she is fidgeting on the carpet because she doesn't understand what is going on in the teaching. This is where Narrative Therapy and Talking Maths can help - they can be planned to introduce vocabulary and ideas to children before they are covered in whole class teaching so that the children can then access what is being taught because they've sort of had a head start. I would recommend asking about the possibility of something like this at her school. if there are children who are more needy than her then they would also benefit from this I'm sure. i've seen it work wonders!

Is there a particular reason why she doesn't sit and listen? She will only be expected to sit still for 5-10 minutes at a time. Also, why does she keep shouting out? She knows by now that this is against classroom rules. It seems that her behaviour is affecting her learning so it might be worth working on that first.

She has a lot of trouble with attention and in my honest opinion i think she has adhd or similar

Have to add though school dont have trouble with her being disruptive, the shouting out is when she wants to share information but forgets to put her hand up and shouts out

If you think she may have ADHD you need to go to your GP and ask for her to be referred to someone who can assess her (in some places it's a child development paed, and in others it's CAMHS)

I've also sent you a message :)