Year one report a bit worried about ds can anyone offer any advice?

[5dcsinneedofacleaner]

We had the school reports yesterday, dd in year three did really well but ds who is year 1 (he is one of those oldest in year 1). Seems to be a bit behind.

As far as I understand from the letter with it he should be getting some sort of level between 1c and 1a with 1c being the lowest but he has been given "ELG s7" which I am assuming means he hasnt reached the lowest levels yet? I have googles and ELGs seems to be some sort of early years grade but I cant figure out really what it means.

I am going to speak to his teacher after school today but tbh I raised concerns about him at the last parents evening and she just kept saying how well behaved he is which is great but not what I am concerned about. So I was hoping to understand it a bit more before I talk to her.He struggles reading and writing he can read only very basic words like a and the and his writing is mostly not understandable.

Does anyone have any clue what this means? how bad is ELGS 7 am I right to be concerned or am I worrying too early?

Does he know all his letter sounds? Can you help him a bit by writing "cat" "dog" "pig" "sat" and "mat" on big pieces of card and helping him to read them?

If he can already read "a" and "the" then maybe soon he will be able to read

the cat sat on the mat

Has he just been given the one score covering the whole report? I would have thought that he should be graded on a variety of different aspects each with its own score. My DD is also in yr 1 but we haven't had any reports about her yet so can't help you as to how her school will show her grades

Back in reception each child would have been assessed against a matrix of skills and would have been given a score up to 9 for each one. At our school (and probably in the vast majority) we weren't given the individual scores but I had an informal chat with DDs teacher at the time and she was happy to provide me with the background data.

There are 13 areas that will have been scored ranging from social development, emotional development, reading, writing, knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development, creative development etc

Other people will be able to give you better information, but from memory an 'average' child should leave Reception having gained scores of 6 across the board.

When it comes to Year 1, an 'average' child would be expected to get a 1B or 1C (seems to vary between schools and who you talk to) at the END of the year so I would have thought it quite possible that after only 1 term there could be any number of children still working towards level 1 of the national curriculum.

As I say though, this is all new stuff to me and I could have got it wrong. Other people could perhaps give you some more information and practical advice as to how you could help your DS if indeed he is behind

He doesnt know alot of the sounds. We get reading books from school and we have books in the house - I have tried to help him with his writing at home but tbh its really hard to know where to start.

minty - there are 4 areas on the report reading,writing,maths and IPC. He has elgs 7 for all the areas apart from IPC which he has 1B for.

If you helped him to learn the letter sounds in "cats on m" because he can already read "the" and helped him to read "the cat sat on the mat" on Monday, would he still be able to remember how to read it on Tuesday?

I'm no expert, and hesitated to reply until I saw that you wanted advice before school pick up ie before the teachers get on their computers to give you better advice than me!

I think minty is about right - it sounds like your son has been assessed at 7 on the Early Years profile. I believe that children are expected to reach 6 at the end of reception so it does sound like your concerns are valid ie it sounds like your son isn't quite achieving expectations for his age and the question why needs to be considered.

You do need to speak with his teacher, specifically about what the school are doing to address this. Do they have any idea what is causing your son difficulties in learning sounds/maths etc? What progress has he made this year?

It may be just that he is a 'slow starter' but there may also be an underlying need that requires attention. It's good that you now have some school assessment to support your concerns and that actions should be put in place now.

Best of luck.

Does anyone have any clue what this means? how bad is ELGS 7 am I right to be concerned or am I worrying too early?

Schools can initially use the EYFS profile assessments for children who haven't achieved all the ELGs (there were 8 in each area of learning) for children working below level 1. The problem with having a score of 7 ELG is that it doesn't tell you which ELG your child hasn't achieved.

The teacher should of spoke to u about his development stage b4 giving u a report

I agree you do need to speak to his teacher about how to help him progress in these areas but at this stage in Y1 I would not be overly concerned.