NC levels for year 1

[cassgate]

Hi,

Hoping someone may be able to give me some guidance. I have a ds 5 in year 1. He was deemed to be below average at the end of reception got mostly 4s and 5s on the eyfs profile with a 3 for writing. Obviously I was worried but the teacher said that she felt it was a confidence/maturity issue more than a learning issue.

Year 1 has seen a massive transformation in him and he has progressed massively in all areas. Just to give you an idea of where we are, Reading in reception barely knew basic phonic sounds could not word blend, struggled to learn basic high frequency words like the, and etc. Is now reading ort stage 4 books confidently and can read stage 5 with just a little help, comprehension coming along ok as well. Writing, reception could just about write his name, could not write any other letters apart from those in his name. Is now starting to write in sentences using capital letters and full stops, all letters are correctly formed, writing is easy for someone else to read. Numeracy, could count to 30 in reception but not beyond, could only recognise numbers up to 10, could order numbers to 10 at home but did not demonstrate this at school. Can now count and recognise all numbers to 100 and order these on a number line filling in missing numbers. Knows his doubles up to 10 (e.g double 10 is 20), understands that doubling is adding two lots of the same number. Knows number bonds to 10 in and out of order. Can count in 10s to 100 and I am now working on counting in 2s.

I am obviously very pleased with the progress he has made and his teacher has told me that he is the most progressed child in the class. All great but I have still been told that he is not yet working within level 1 of the the national curriculum so not even a 1c yet a p8 level was mentioned. From what I can gather a p8 is not far off a 1c but even so I am still a bit surprised that he is not yet working at 1c level given the massive progress he has made. I know there is a lot more to it than the examples I have given so I want to understand what is needed in each area to achieve a 1c, 1b and 1a.

Is there anyone out there that can point me in the direction of a document that gives details of what is needed in reading, writing and numeracy to achieve each of the levels 1c,1b and 1a. I would add that I think that a lot of the progress he has made this year has been down to the extra work that we have put in at home so not sure if we have focussed on the wrong areas and this is why he is still not working within level 1. Teacher has been good in highlighting things that he has struggled with in class e.g doubles, money and I have then done extra at home to make sure he understands it. But I have also done other things as well e.g counting and number recognition up to 100 all needed eventually but may not necessarily be needed now.

Sorry for the mammouth post hope someone can give me some ideas.

Thanks

Sarah

Hi Sarah,
Your son sounds so similar to mine. Mine was not interested in any phonics, reading, numercy in reception but strangely his EYFS scores were above average. He started Y1 reading stage 1 books and only able to write his own name. We had parents evening recently and he is now on stage 4 books, can count and write numbers to 20 and knows his number bonds to 10. He often get 6 or 7 out of 10 for his spelling tests and can write a basic sentence. His weakest area is definitely writing but his teacher did not say it was a problem and that by yr 3 she felt he would be where he should be. I think the levels she gave us were 1c reading, 1b maths and 8 nearly 1c for writing.
I was so worried about him at the start of Y1 but now because I have seen such good progress I have chilled and also with help at home I think he will be fine. Your son sounds much further along than mine in maths. I don't know much about these levels but it does seem like some schools stick more rigidly to the criteria than others. Your son is doing very well and you are right to feel very proud!

DD's school say that the "expected" level at this stage of Y1 is P8/1c so your DS is now hitting this - an amazing improvement in a few months.

I wouldn't worry about the levels but focus on how much he has improved. You are certainly doing all the right things. I think that getting him to the 1c is just a question of "more of the same" plus bear in mind that the teacher has to get sufficient evidence to "officially" put him at that level. He may be "just about there" but not doing so confidently and consistently at school. It is great that the teacher is giving you specific advice about what to cover at home.

Oh, I feel its so sad assessing such young children and attaching some levels to their performance. They should learn at their own pace up until the age of 6/7, when most are ready for formal education. All this learning through play talk is all very well, but my 4yo DS didn't want to play their way and was put off.

Fortunately, our school and pre-school doesn't give out levels at all and they said DS was doing fine. However, he doesn't enjoy reading and thinks maths is hard.

When DS started R he couldn't count to 10 and wasn't interested, he refused to work with Miss X (I then found out she was doing individual maths with them). He loved jolly phonics, but hated reading at home and he didn't until middle of Y1 - he had to in school though (so much for play!)

At the end of Y1 I noticed DS was behind in maths, I worked with him at home every day and he is now in a good Y2 set. However, his confidence is still low and whenever he sees something new he says that it's too hard and runs off. So in school he will switch off, not listen and then it's really hard because he can't do it. I am not sure how to change that, but I don't want to teach him maths to GCSE either.

So so true Gabid. Learning through play sounds wonderful in EYFS but yet we still get caught up in all these levels and tick boxing for 4 and 5 year olds. I can understand the need to indentify any problems through early intervention but often if there is a problem the answer is wait and see til the child is 7. In the meantime we have the worry during these precious early years that there is a problem. Why don't they just leave all these formal levels until 7 then? Actually it wasn't our school that caused me to worry as they just said give it time it will come. It was me through reading mn and also comparing him to his big sister that worried me so much.

gloria - true, the school said DS was fine, I do read MN and despite my opinion that its all too much too early in this country, I am aware of the system we are in and feel I can't just ignore it.

I did worry when DS, aged 6.5 at the end of Y1 couldn't add up beyond 10 when he should be able to add up to 20. So, I thought it was time to move him along a bit, fine, he got it one-to-one with me. But I feel the damage was done - I can't get past this 'it's hard' attitude at which point he will switch off.

I make him very aware when I do something new with him (he can't do it - he listens - we do it together - and then he can do it). Still, so far his his attitude has not changed.

This post actually concerns me as i was kind of hoping by the time my lo was assessed again at the end of this month we may have made some progress, she was classed as at W working towards nc 1 this was in october and again in december, she is on oxford reading tree pink/red bands so stage 1+ in school but at home they give her the jelly and beans series currently book 6 as its much easier for her than the ort, she can write numbers to 19 although a little hit and miss with the higher teen ones but cant do over that although she can count in to her 20s, I do little sums with her all the time which this morning i asked what was 1 less than 10 and she didnt get it so I asked her what 2 + 2 was and she said 12. She has 5 spellings a week this week i was so proud that she got 4 out of 5 she had 'said, play, say, day and may usually she gets lower than that especially if she cant decode it. I was actually hoping that we had moved up to at least 1c but hearing this im doubting we have got there now. It worries me when they go on in school so much about 2bs by next year when were finding it so hard to hit even 1c

Hi,

Thanks to all those who have replied. In a way it is nice to know that I am not the only one in this position. I know I should chill out about it and rejoice in the progress that he has made but there is always the nagging worry that as madmum04 said that if we are struggling to get even a 1c now how on earth are we going to get to a level 2b next year (actually I would be happy with a 2c next year given our starting point). I already do extra at home with ds which I think accounts for the progess in numeracy and we read every day.I doubt the school would have the time to devote to one child that I have. I have also noticed that there seems to be gaps in ds knowledge of some graphemes (think thats what they are called) ai,oa, igh etc sounds so have printed off my own resources and am going over these at home. What worries me is that if I didnt make the effort to do all the extra stuff at home he would be in a worse position than he is now. The only thing I have not tackled is the writing as I am of the view that this will come once the reading is secure so have concentrated on that.

Sarah

He's on track to be a 1c by the end of this year - and therefore a 2c by the end of next year. (Remember kids should make 3 sublevels in Y2)

You can worry if you want to - but there's no need to.