year 1 report - what are they judging against?

[lifeinthemidlands]

My DD is in year 1 and has a Nov birthday. She flew through reception and made incredible progress, but found year 1 much harder - she lost a lot of confidence, and had concentration issues. This seemed to improve in the last one and a half terms. However, in her report last week her teacher says she is " below the expected level for her age" in all subjects except reading, where she is "as expected". I find it difficult to judge her maths and writing - she is certainly able to do much more at home than her report suggests for both, but obviously I don't know what she's doing at school. However, the one thing I can be reasonably sure of is reading -she's on ORT level 10, which I understood was actually above what would be expected - it's the equivalent to a 2b at least on any conversion charts (I know it's not an exact science but she reads them very fluently and has excellent comprehension).

They haven't been given levels or results of the phonics screening, so when her teacher says "below expected level for her age" is that as an older year 1, or as a year 1 generally. I'm not able to make an appt with her teacher before the end of term.

It's the National expectations for all Y1 children (regardless of whether they are September or August birthdays)

Thanks mrzx - then surely she's above it for reading, and while I can't say what she's doing at school she can certainly do everything required for a 1b at home (and more). Don't want to sound an over-protective parent but just seems a bit odd.

What's odd is that this is the first indication that your dd isn't meeting age related expectations - there shouldn't be any surprises in an end of year report. What did her teacher say at parents' evening?

My understanding is that the level that they reach is based on more than simply the reading stage of their books.

I do sympathise with you on reading this report. I was you last year (although my dd had also found reception a bit of a struggl too).

However, she has found her feet now and made really great progress in year 2.

I would be tempted to make an appointment with the teacher to find out what she thinks would help, especially if, like Feenie says, this report is a surprise to you.

Hi lifeinthemidlands:

I think the way to look at this is the teacher is being honest and giving you a warning that your DD's learning just isn't progressing as well as it should, for whatever reason. You can get angry about it or you can accept that there is some problem here and that you may need to get more involved at home with supporting learning. I have been there (especially with DD1) and it is very easy to get cross about having to do a lot of support at home - however, it is lovely time to spend together and the joy you will have at seeing improvements and small successes is unbelievable (right back to first steps kind of thing).

I'd take the view that your DD is starting steadily but progressing slowly. You sound like you're very well informed and I suspect you know the answer is to try and do what you can to support learning at home. As MigratingCoconuts suggested - I'd ask the teacher (make an appointement or at the parent/ teacher meetings to discuss end of year reports) what he'd/she'd advise you to work on over the summer. Focus on a few things and try to do a bit each day. Bedtime reading, practice with addition/ subtraction (maybe playing a board game or card game), practice writing (maybe giving your DD some chalk to let her practice writing on paving stones), etc... can all add up to covering a lot of learning over the summer holidays.

I'd recommend Oxford Owl: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

BBC Learning [BETA] webpage: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ select KS1 and area of curriculum from orange box middle left - and then chose worksheets/ games appropriate for ages 5-6.

Finally - if maths isn't your thing (and it wasn't mine) - have a look at mathletics, mathswhizz or mathsfactor. There's probably even more out there - but basically there's a lot available on-line - and 10 or 20 minutes five days a week can cummulatively make a huge difference (as in the case of my own DD1 with mathsfactor).

best of luck

We take 1a as the expected level for yr1 so a would mark 1b as below expected.

We did get a heads up in the first parent's evening that she seemed to be struggling a bit, and we did a lot of work with her (following her suggestions), particularly around maths. She improved very dramatically and at the second parent's evening the teacher appeared to be saying all problems were resolved around this. I' m also surprised that the report says that she needs practice in some of the areas which I thought were now very well sorted months ago (number bonds to 10 etc) - last parent's evening they agreed this was cracked and she can give an instant verbal response. I even said that she felt she was trailing and was having a crisis of confidence, and was told no, she was doing OK compared to the rest (her year is split between two classes based on ability, and she is in the higher achieving half, so she's comparing herself with these). So, yes, I am a bit irritated to see this, as well as a bit worried as I would have preferred to have known at the last parent's evening if things were still a bit dodgy. I feel I've had very mixed messages. I suppose my feelings are also a bit coloured by the fact that the teacher is quite negative about my DD and several other children in the class that I know of, but I have to assume this will not affect her professional judgement. I'll work with her over the summer - had hoped to see teacher before the holiday to get more details of what I should work on, but she's not able to see me.

Past sell by date - thanks for th suggestions. I'll certainly take it as a heads-up and will work with her. She already does and enjoys the stuff on the BBC website. Will maybe think about other websites - we liked Maths City but the school no longer has a subscription unfortunately. She writes a diary each night (from choice) and is quite happy to write at home. She also enjoys reading and free-reads chapter books appropriate to her age (e.g. the hideous "fairy" series and the much better "anna Hibiscus" books) as well as reading to us from her ORT books every night, so we do do quite a bit with her still (and she's happy to do stuff on her own).

Interesting Kenny - I wld have thought she would have still been an 1s got maths, but maybe not for writing. will ask her teacher which benchmark they use.

The bit about reading doesn't make sense. For comparison, dd is reading ORT 11 and according to her report is reading 'at an exceptionally high level for her age.' So how can your dd only be as expected? I would ask for clarification.

dontcallmehon - I have found that certainly MY DS's primary seem to measure the 'expected' NC levels not against the Nationally expected levels, but against the levels for THAT year group in THAT school.

So in my DS1's year group, that is 1FE, with an exceptionally able cohort, the expected level for the end of Y5 (this year), is level 4a in Maths, level 4b in reading, and level 4c in writing - over 1/3 the year are expected to gain places at super-selective Grammar schools!

Yet in my DS2's year group, that is 3FE, with a very high percentage of SEN DC, the expected levels for Y3 (this year), are 3b in Maths, 2a in Reading and 2b in writing...

Which in DS1's year were the expected levels a full year before, at the end of Y2...

In fact,scrub that - looking back at reports (got them out to go through, for another reason), the expected levels for DS1's year in Y2 were HIGHER than that - 3a in Maths, 3c in Reading and 2a in Writing!

I wonder if you DC's school does the same thing?

Thanks for the comments - will definately try and get to bottom of this when I have a meeting with her teacher next term.

Blimey counthymow - those are high expectations!

dd is at a primary which does get excellent results both at KS1 and KS2, particularly for reading. Although she is capable of reading higher than ORT 11 - but I think they prefer them to really have a solid grasp of comprehension before moving them on.

Really they should all measure against national expectations, even if the cohort is unusually able. Otherwise we parents get hopelessly confused!