Level 4a in writing?! I need genuine advise please.

[Ineedmorepatience]

Dd3 has SN's, I have real reason to be concerned about her writing level. I have a book from school at home, not a homework book a classwork book. I always thought she underperformed at home due to her difficulties but it looks like she does have the same problems at school.

School are always telling me how well she is doing and have just this week assessed her as a 4a in writing.

She regularly puts capital letters in the middle of sentences.
She regularly forgets that names need a capital.
Her letter vary in size throughout words and sentences.
The is one letter reversed in a paragraph of witing.
He writing often doesnt make sense eg. she doesnt read what she has written.
She never joins her writing.

It sounds as though I am being mean but there is a genuine reason for me to be concerned.

Hope someone can advise me

This might be worth a read www.londonmumsmagazine.com/2013/creative-writing-magic-money-cards . Or visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2013/?region=uk for some age related examples - although bear in mind the BBC entries are for a competition.

maree the bbc competition pieces are in no way reflective of the average 10 year old's writing. They have won a national competition and are exceptionally talented writers.

OP as a year 6 teacher, I'd not worry particularly about handwriting issues when assigning a level (the official guidance is that we 'should take it into account but it should not have undue influence in the overall level awarded'). Capitalisation is an issue, but if everything else is at a high 4/low 5 level then I'd still be happy awarding a 4a.

Like mrz, the biggest thing that jumps out is that the writing doesn't make sense. At this level children need to be able to write work that is consistently grammatically accurate and that shows a good awareness of the reader. I'd also expect a high level 4 child to be able to accurately self-edit these sort of issues (ie they read back a sentence, realise it doesn't make sense and then rewrite an amended version).

I wouldn't worry if one piece of guided reading writing is really poor and scrappy, it does occasionally happen to good writers when they aren't engaged and just want to finish the task with minimum effort, but if she is doing this regularly then I would question a level 4a

One question though. Is she able to pull good quality work out of the bag during assessments? We use a combination of class work and 'cold' assessment pieces (ie the children are given a stimulus, we have a brief discussion on what is expected then they write independently for about 30 - 45 minutes) to work out a level. I have one child in my class who consistently produces poor classwork, then will produce a high level 5 piece of work when we do assessment writing. It's quite difficult to give them a fair and accurate leave as they are so inconsistent.

media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/2/sta-ks2-writemod-un-l4.PDF

lendmeyourliteracy.com/?lmyl_school_group=year-6-ysgol-craig-y-don&lmyl_stage=year-6&lmyl_genre=

Thankyou all and sorry I havent been back. cats Tbh, the whole book is fairly awful but I know they are often just getting ideas down on paper.

We received the report from the Ed Psych confirming that she does indeed have dyslexia , there are lots of recommendations in the report so fingers crossed her school will take them on board and give her some extra support.

I am going to buy a touch typing program [sp] so that in the future she will be less reliant on her writing and she may be able to concentrate just on the ideas.

Thanks Mrz, I will check out those links next time I am on the laptop.

maree If you dont mind I wont read the amazing creative writing done by the winners of the competition. I need to have realistic expectations of my amazing Dd3 and dont want to kick myself while I am down. Thanks anyway.