I feel I know so little about what and how DS (7) does at school - I want to see more of his work!

[gabsid]

I supported my DS all last year in maths and he progressed well. However, at the end of Y2 his teacher send home some worksheets and old tests. This was sooo helpful! I could see where he is going wrong much better than just practicing randomn Y2 topics.

We never saw any work, e.g. exercise books with targets and work in it. When speaking to his teacher over the year I could see that they are doing several worksheets per week but I never saw any of that work - it would have been helpful to see what he does in school and to support him.

It would have been great if these worksheets would have been stuck in an exercise book or folder and send home with the homework tasks - they had an extra homework book for only homework.

I find it quite irritating not to see any of DC work at school? Can I expect any change next year in junior school?

I said that the teacher was discussing intervention, so you would be aware that the child wasn't achieving at national expectations.

Each child is an individual and it is a fact of life that some children find academic work difficult (for a whole range of reasons - learning difficulties, problems at home, sensory problems, etc). There is no reason whatsoever for parents to compare the performance of their child to the performance of her classmates.

It's like making a parental league table of the class.

It could cause stress for the mother (look at mam's conversation she has had with other parents!) and all the extra pushing may have a devastating effect on the confidence of the child.

As a parent it would help me.

If my dc wasn't achieving as well as the majority,not making the same amount of progress it would motivate me to ask questions I might not otherwise ask and also kick start me into getting more involved at home and at school.It would thus help the child too. Not informing parents by contrast has no benefit.

Obviously most sensible parents would handle said info with a large amount of tact.

I would expect a teacher to tell a parent if a child was underachieving or having difficulties and what they need to work on without the need for any comparison.

But you are comparing.

I know how badly my DD is doing - very.

That knowledge hasn't helped me or her one bit.

I can't help her at home - for the same reasons school can't help her during school.

But I tell you what doesn't help - school telling me 'she's not the worst in the class'

Those of you who think you can help your child out of school, but school can't help her during school, have to ask yourself what's going on. You need to work on why your child can't learn in class - not give them extra support at home.

You can't recreate 6 hours of learning, 5 days a week, out of school. Your child has to learn in class.

'Im bit fearful about september as coming across pushy.'

Funny, isn't it, we all have these fears. Why? As my mother always said to me, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I was afraid the midwife would think me a wuss and it really affected the way I felt about ds's birth. If you are treating the teacher as a respected professional, but nonetheless asking the questions you need to ask and making the points you need to make, who gives a crap if the teacher then blows off steam in the classroom and calls you 'pushy'?

I'm a very mildly pushy parent and whenever I get my inner pushiness out and let it breathe, I'm always happier about how ds is doing. My sister is a full-on pushy parent and I tell you, her kids are really happy and doing brilliantly. I'll push if you will. Why not try Kumon? It sounds like it could be ideal for your daughter, don't let the possible disapproval of a few strangers on the internet put you off [disclaimer; have not read any of the 1000s of threads about it myself].

As it is I think any parents who want to know are entitled to ask.

Getting back to the op I think schools should be made to provide levels,progress and comparisons to national expectations on all school reports.

sorry, blows off steam in the staffroom

Prairieflower you have no entitlement to any information about other pupils only your own

Indigo that is only your child though,it may be beneficial to others.Kids differ and go up and down for a variety of reasons.Some extra input at home can have huge benefits if schools and parents work together.

Of course but you can ask how they fit into to national expectations and the class as a whole.

SATS results go some way to giving that info,kind of silly you only get it in year 2 and 6.

Prarieflower Sun 05-Aug-12 16:52:30

But you are comparing.

No I'm not ... last September I spoke to the parents of 17 pupils out of my class of 30 because they had specific problems not because they were behind their peers but because they had gaps in their knowledge.

There must a benchmark for the "gaps in their knowledge" though as a class so some comparison to others.

You can ask and will be told where they are compared to national expectations

mrs z -thanks for extract on the the writing.
im amazed you teachers can read that writing.
my dd spelt stashun (station)? same way earlier in her short story.
must be a common mispelling then.

if national average is lower than my school or year average`.
joe blogs down road has different teacher.

my child has 29other people in same class 44 in year group and majority scoring higher implies to me

that somethings wrong

it could be my child has special needs-but she doesnt
it could mean somewhere along the way shes failed to understand something vital that stopped her progressing in that area or other areas.
Or could be poor teaching shes not had the attention or the right kind of help.

flexybex-how could i decide? until i work out what the issue is?

im not won for blaming the school.
I picked that school.

I personally like her teacher, have heard other parents moan about her.find her pleasent enough.

my dd happy she has freinds there so pulling her be last resort.

im sure if she was in highly academic school down road she be perceived to be even more behind her freinds and if in commity primary thats in special measures she be seen as a high performer its all relative.

I dont want to know whos got what.
i want to know her position out of 45 in year group on ranking of all areas.to me that be more accurate ,measure i would then expect an action plan and of how parents and school might work together to improve that.

Keeping me in dark as to spare my feelings?

im not a high achiever i was badly let down by my primary.

hubbys the same he left school 16 worked his way up.

that somethings wrong

it could be my child has special needs-but she doesnt
it could mean somewhere along the way shes failed to understand something vital that stopped her progressing in that area or other areas.
Or could be poor teaching shes not had the attention or the right kind of help.

and that is what you need to be told not where she is in comparison to 43 other children.

You need to know what your child is having difficulty with
You need to know what gaps she has in her knowledge/skills that are preventing her from reaching the next stage
You need to know what the school is going to do to address the gaps
You need to know how you can work with the school to help your child

In a report, all teachers in my school have to say working below/at/above national expectations and whether they have made less than expected/expected/good progress (as defined by Ofsted). Because I teach Y2, individual levels are sent home, as are this year's school data (including comparisons with last year's national data).

However, nowhere in the report would I compare little Johnny's performance in class with his classmates'.

prairie
What would be your reaction if the school's data showed at the end of Y2 that 20% of children achieved L3 in writing and your dd 'only' achieved 2a?

mam How do you know that the 'majority' of the 44 are 'scoring higher'?

Keeping me in dark as to spare my feelings?

Unfortunately some teachers think parents are delicate little flowers who will be destroyed by the truth. I work with one who happily tells parents not to worry she never says anything negative so when the next teacher raises the issues parents say "Well Mrs X didn't have any problems"

Depends.

If said child had started the year very low I'd be thrilled however if she was 2a at the beginning of the year I'd be asking questions and requesting advice on what to do at home. Also if my child loved writing I'd ask what could we do to get her to level 3 over the summer- having high expectations and wanting your dc to achieve well/better is a good thing if done kindly/sensitively.

Say 2 thirds of the class were a 3 had had a fab teacher and had made fab progress during the year but my dd hadn't I'd want to know why.

The more info parents get the better imvho.

IMHO I think you've got to trust the teacher a bit more!
If your dd started the year on a 2a and made no progress, the teacher would be worried too, and would be addressing any problems.

Teachers have performance management targets to meet. At least one of these focuses on children's progress. Every child's progress is tracked throughout the year and, in many schools, teachers have to have termly dialogues with SLT to explain why certain children aren't progressing.

'Say 2 thirds of the class were a 3 had had a fab teacher and had made fab progress during the year but my dd hadn't I'd want to know why.'

Well...perhaps your dd isn't capable of achieving the higher level - maybe she's plateaued and will pick up next year. These are children we're talking about, not machines. What explanation would satisfy you?

Yes flexy but I'd want to know if she was plateaued in order to keep an eye on it.Sadly I don't think you can trust all teachers,they differ.The only person with a particular child's best interest at heart and who are in a position to monitor progress consistently is a parent.

joanofarchitrave-you made me chuckle. with kumon disclaimer.

we considering kumon after looking at explore as that seems to be computer based learning which we can easily do at home.
shes fine at it and naviagtes education sites/games fine.

i dont wish to know names of whos higher just a number or even split the year into 3groups so know roughly where she is.

my intuition tells me shes near bottom/lower middle.

im going to do my best to get more involved this year.

as I know her best shes bit of a daydreamer, easily distracted. if she finds work hard she has tendancy to sulk and says shes tired,

but give her something shes interested in then shes away.
we been doing project on butterflys shes drawn butterlys, read about them, written their names, gone through the whole process of how they formed and we plan to visit a butterfly farm this summer hols.
wil take lots of pics.

shes keeping a holiday journal of whats shes done.

Indigo bell-what you say so true.

out of interest primary teachers.

how much time is spent on each subject?

im assume maths and literacy hour each per day
but how mant hours
history
geography?
re
art?
pe
ict-what exactly do you do in that lesson apart from 3kids share 1computer and play c= beebies games
science?
music?
what do you call dt? these days in primary?
hwo much play time to they get in year 2? if any?

have i forgotton any primary topics?

i dont think shes doing modern languages.

Heard last year:
Confident Little Voice says, "Oh, I know how to do this because I've already done it at Explore."
Confident Little Voice then proceeded to demonstrate what a waste of money Explore Learning is.
I'm very sceptical about computer based learning.

mam I think you need to ask your dd's school about how they organise the curriculum and playtimes as schools will differ.