No progress at all in a year

[Wishihadabs]

Just got Ds' s end of year report. In 2 out of 4 subjects he is the same level as last year. No concerns were raised at parents evening and the written bit of the report is good. Is tthis ok ? He has made good progress in the other 2 areas (maths and reading) A whole level in maths and 2 levels in reading.

2 sub levels in reading

What year group is he in? Did he make better than expected progress the previous year.

He might have been only just a level last year and now nearly at the next this year so would have made progress just not demonstratable with levels.

If its Y3 I wouldn't worry.

Y4 no 2 sub levels across the board last year

So which subjects stayed the same? Writing and science?

How much progress has he made since year 2?

Sorry for running off last night. (DH came back). Yes writing and science. Finished year 2 on 3c for both now 3b for writing and 3a same as last year for science. Less bothered about the science but 1 sublevel in 2 years for writing ??

Hi Wishihadabs:

MN has a statement on progress through sub-levels here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels

The thing to take away from it is that it is 1 to 2 sub-levels progress a year - so one sub-level progress isn't great but it isn't a disaster either.

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It's always difficult to know if problems with writing are about handwriting (hard to read, not fully joined up, etc....) or about the use of vocabulary/ punctuation.

If it's handwriting - I'd encourage him to do as much writing as you can during the summer and really stress neatness.

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If it's more a vocabulary/ grammar thing - it may help to learn about VCOP (VCOP is a pyramid with progressively more advanced examples of vocabulary, connectives, openers & punctuation): more info here: www.keystage2literacy.co.uk/vcop-menu.html - click the icons for info. There's a nice summary pyramid model here: <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.staveley.cumbria.sch.uk/Images/Pyramid.jpg&imgrefurl=www.staveley.cumbria.sch.uk/BigWriting.htm&h=300&w=400&sz=13&tbnid=Gdn8qq5fk8TZ6M:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&zoom=1&usg=__tHS9CTlrBuUBR3g8ksMi-ofw56M=&docid=i0pzuGMYfNTmPM&sa=X&ei=UNHnUZqHJKap0AXir4DwBA&ved=0CGEQ9QEwCQ&dur=2750#imgdii=Gdn8qq5fk8TZ6M%3A%3BcLRuz5zDE8eQfM%3BGdn8qq5fk8TZ6M%3A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.staveley.cumbria.sch.uk/Images/Pyramid.jpg&imgrefurl=www.staveley.cumbria.sch.uk/BigWriting.htm&h=300&w=400&sz=13&tbnid=Gdn8qq5fk8TZ6M:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&zoom=1&usg=__tHS9CTlrBuUBR3g8ksMi-ofw56M=&docid=i0pzuGMYfNTmPM&sa=X&ei=UNHnUZqHJKap0AXir4DwBA&ved=0CGEQ9QEwCQ&dur=2750#imgdii=Gdn8qq5fk8TZ6M%3A%3BcLRuz5zDE8eQfM%3BGdn8qq5fk8TZ6M%3A

What I've found is that by knowing where my DDs are working (what punctuation marks/ vocabulary they regularly use and which they don't) and what is 'next on the pyramid' - I can gradually encourage them to use the next step VCOP things to build skills. It's a very gradual thing - but it has helped for us. With DD1 - she has a tendency to always use because, but forget there is although, instead of, as a result of, etc...

You can sneak this kind of thing in their writing: for example if they have to write out sentences for spelling, encourage them to use an interesting opener: Unexpectedly, the knowledgeable (that was the spelling word) teacher struggled to answer the question and all the children laughed.

Encourage accurate punctuation when you see them writing (letters, e-mails, etc... - double checking and making corrections as they do it does help).

Obviously without knowing your DC, it's hard to say this is the problem - but hopefully this helps.

Thank you so much. That's realy useful. Luckily his little sister passed out at 730 last night so the three of us (DH, Ds and me) talked about how to improve his writing, as well as a journal through the holidays he is going to write to his grandmother each week. I will definitely be using those tools to help him do his journal :)

If he ended year 2 on 3c then by the end of year 4 he should be 4c.

I think I would want to talk to the school about his lack of progress in writing- he has made 1 sublevel's progress whereas expected progress is 3.

Even if he were marked overly high in year 2 then he should still be at least a 3a.

That's what I thought. Still only 3 days of school left, now,I have written on the comments form. DH thinks we should leave it till next year (he has the same teacher)

Ok thanks to all, particularly pastselldate. We have done writing with him everyday this summer :). At the beginning I was shocked TBH he hated it and it would take an hour to get 3/4 lines written ! I'm not surprised he was a 3b. However he now bashes a page out in 10 minutes with very little input from us and is being to want to check over his work for spelling or grammatical errors before showing it to us. He will never be the next Shakespeare but he has come on leaps and bounds
Thanks for all your advice. Feeling much better going into year 5.