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Primary education

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Year 1 - how to support a child

5 replies

Yvonne99 · 13/11/2013 22:24

I am writing to get some advice on how to support/ work at home with a child Y1.

I come from abroad where all school children get study books on all the subjects - so parents know exactly what is being done and what to practice at home.
Here I know nothing - my DD does not tell me much about school and nothing about what they learn.

I do not really know what to do with her on daily basis.
At the moment we do:

  • spelling: preparation for weekly tests + revising all words leant so far
  • reading - books from school ( 4-5 every week)
  • math - big question mark, but we do +/- up to twenty and a bit more, counting up to 100 every 10.
  • writing - short stories: about my day, describing a cat, etc - as the teacher said I shall practice writing sentences with my DD.

We have got quite a few books for KS1 from bookshops and we do them. I also got a list of books read at school each term - bough them and we ready and work with them at home.
I am not sure what else I shall do to support mu child.

My DD was sitting by the most advanced table in term 1, but the teacher said she thinks it was too much and she is not sure what my DD knows and what she takes from her friends. She downgraded my DD in current term and now she sits with quite poor students. My DD is a quiet girl.

Can someone please tell me what areas are tested in Y1 - I read a bit on grades. I suppose my DD started with 1c in all areas. The second and the last parents evening will be at the end May - all will be done & dusted then.
Is the any detailed curriculum here in the Uk so I can find out what is expected from my child?
Thank you!

OP posts:
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lljkk · 14/11/2013 10:00

That sounds like tonnes you're doing already. More than is expected or necessary. They are only 5.
At end of yr1 they get a phonics test made of of imaginary words, like
foo zee nop etc. That's about all for testing.

Periwinkle007 · 14/11/2013 10:28

DD1 is in yr1. we do reading - about 20mins every night and she gets 10 spellings on a monday to practice for friday so we do those.

that is it. we don't revise spellings she has done previously, don't do maths or anything specific. We talk about different words which come up in reading books or in stories we read to her so she learns new vocabulary and things but that is all.

I wouldn't place any emphasis on the top table. Some of those children will be way beyond what is expected at this age. It sounds like your daughter is probably in one of the middle groups (they are unlikely to have moved her down more than 1 group) which will be working at the average expected level or possibly a bit higher and it is better to be here than struggling to keep up with the top group.

Groupings in Yr1 are not set in stone, as you have seen they move children around so there is plenty of opportunity for her to move back up again if she demonstrates ability to do so.

PastSellByDate · 14/11/2013 10:44

Hi Yvonne99

First off I know how confusing/ frustrating it can be when your child is at a school that is vague about what is being covered and where 'notionally' your child should be by the end of the year. If your school is anything like ours openly and straightforwardly discussing where your child is at and where they should be by spring can be incredibly awkward or can make teachers defensive.

Anyway...

Some useful resources that will help you better understand what is expected are:

New National Curriculum documents: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

If you scroll down you'll see programmes of study by subject area - which will give you an idea of what your school should be covering in each subject.

------

Campaign for Real Education: www.cre.org.uk/primary_contents.html - breakdown of what should be learned by year by subject. This is to a very high standard and your school may not quite be working to this - but at least you have an idea of what could be possible in an ideal world.

Some useful websites:

Woodlands Junior School: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/ - huge range of resources & links to fabulous websites for practice/ ideas here.

Highly recommend their Maths Zone: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html - just search out the area you'd like more work/ practice in and have an explore. You probably will have to try these out first beforehand, just to ensure the difficulty level is about right.

Their homework help www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/ can also be very helpful - especially if you get a vague piece of homework like 'Learn about Roman Baths' for the weekend and only hear about it late Sunday p.m. (thank you DD2).

Math Champs: www.mathschamps.co.uk/#home - maths games for practice organised by age bands 5 - 7 / 7 - 9 and 9 - 11.

------
From what you have said it seems your school is giving a good deal of homework (but I'm comparing from a school that tends to give out about 10 minutes worth and says that we should be reading at home, but does nothing to check on it - although to be fair from what I hear people just fill in the book logging reading regardless at other schools). You're also doing a lot extra at home - which as lljkk says is a lot more than many will.

In Y2 your child will sit Standard Achievement Tests in English & Maths (? Science - although a teacher will be along to explain - I think this is just teacher assessed now). The scores on this exam again don't really affect the 'grades' for that year - but the results are used to predict performance in Y6 and as a benchmark for the school's ability to progress that child.

In theory over KS2 your child should improve two full national curriculum levels above what they scored at end KS1. So, for example, if at the end of Y2 your child scores NC Level 2a (admitting I've no idea how they'll handle this once NC Levels are dropped) - then notionally the school should get your child to at least NC Level 4a by end KS2 (end Y6 - or in other words 2 full NC Levels or 6 sub-levels higher over the next 4 years). Pressure on schools is such that they're looking to raise a child scoring 2a to at least 5c - so that they can show more than 1.5 sub-levels progress per year. Many schools are benchmarking expected progress at 2 sub-levels per year - therefore over 4 years - 8 sub-levels - so scoring 2a at end Y2 should result in a score of 5b. Other schools (like ours) are more resistant to this higher pace of progress.

Resource for preparing for SATS in Y2: BBC Bitesize KS1: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/

My advice having been through these battles with DD1 (now Y6) is if your gut instinct is that your child should be doing more at this age (i.e. you were doing more at this point, your siblings children's back in your home country are doing more, neighbours' children at other schools in your area are doing more, etc...) don't ignore those alarm bells.

I had some panics about things in late year 1 for DD1 (who couldn't add beyond 20 or subtract even 1 from 10) but didn't muster up the courage to post questions here until mid Y2 (when there was still no improvement & no maths homework from school). The result was that I learned you don't have to faithfully follow the pace set by the school - you can do your own thing at home. Probably an idea not to draw attention to it with the school (as I've learned over the years), but definitely worth doing what you're comfortable with. The alternative is doing nothing and I can assure you parents who didn't want to rock the boat or worse, faithfully believed the 'we bring out the best in our children' strap line at the school, are now deeply worried about their kids who struggle to read and cope with multiplication/ division/ fractions and have yet to master basic times table facts.

I hasten to add - I don't feel smug when friends confide in me their worries about their children (DD1s classmates) - I genuinely feel that if I hadn't had parents posting great weblinks and ideas to me here on MN over the years I'd be in the same boat myself.

PastSellByDate · 14/11/2013 10:47

Yvonne99

forgot to add here on MN Education MN has information on assessment and how children progress through NC Levels here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/introduction - which I found very useful as well.

ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO · 14/11/2013 18:54

PastSellByDate

I want to kiss you for those links myself.

Yvonne I share your frustration, and I have not come from country where there is clear open advice on what they should be learning!

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