ok, so I just got dd's report, and it would appear I *am* on of those parents!

[TheCurseOfTinsel]

dd is in year 2. I just got her end of term report through, and her maths grade has slipped from 'working in excess of 2 years ahead' (ie G&T, allegedly) from her end of Year 1 report, to 'working below expected levels, and requires support'

in 6 months.

This is the first I have heard of this. not a word from her class teacher (who I see regularly at drop off/pick up), no mention of maybe having a meeting to discuss what the hell is going on.

how on earth is it possible for dd to have been a level 2a in maths at the end of year 1, and to now presumably be performng more at around a 1a? without anything being said to me?

6 months. in 6 months she has gone from doing ok, being ahead, understanding it all, to underachieving and not understanding it, and needing extra support. her effort grade remains excellent, so this is not about coasting, or non-application.

what would you say to the teacher, if this was your child?

all other subjects remain fine, and as expected. only maths has slipped (and slipped doesn't really cover it, does it?).

and, fwiw, this is not about the loss of the so-called G&T tag, but about the complete and utter lack of communication that dd may be struggling in a subject.

I need to compose an email to the head asking for a meeting, without looking precious (I cannot emphasise enough how this is not about whether or not dd is G&T), or ranty (which god knows I am feeling right now!)

she broke up last week. report has come through the post, sent out on the last day the office was open before the christmas/new year break, so received after everything was already shut at school.

agree that reports should not contain any surprises. especially not when we had a parent's evening, what, 6 weeks ago? and nothing was mentioned. everything was fine. but now, apparently, it is not.

x posts, simpson.

I have email addresses for everyone (I am not particularly pushy - they are listed in the parent's handbook ). they will be hearing from me tomorrow.

How are the teachers in the year above your dd? If they are somewhat lacklustre, it could be that they'll mark your dd as bog standardly average or below so that their next year's teacher can be shown to have made progress with them.

This does actually happen at a school I know of. Teacher admitted to the parent that this is what they're asked to do.

Every school I've worked at have made a point of not allowing surprises in reports. Teachers are told quite clearly that any and all issues must be flagged up with parents at an appropriate time and not left for the end of term report. It's also common sense! On that basis alone I'd be furious with the school OP, before we even get to the apparent lack of support for DD.

Tinsel- please stop justifying yourself- this is not a pushy parent thing- it's a you and your dd being badly let down by the school thing.

And I really think you need to dig down a bit into the school's standards. . I would be pretty surprised in a high achieving prep school to see being 2 years ahead of the "expected" national curriculum levels counted as g and t.

Agree with curlew - my DS who was in yr3 at the time was making little progress in his writing (NC wise) and his class teacher made a point of talking to me about it and what she was doing etc, I would have been SO angry if there had been a shock in his report.

I would definitely be sending a strongly worded email (although maybe checking it's not a mistake to avoid ) good luck, let us know how you get on.

Definitely email and ask for clarification of your DD's maths levels for this term and last term. It would be worth asking too if there has been a change in the type of assessment being done i.e. sitting a test paper this year vs working in a nurturing small group setting for prior assessments as the sort of assessment can make a massive difference for some children.

It's not the same, not least because my DD is much younger but her nursery report was shocking-it read as though she was naughty, couldn't count, could barely operate a book and that her main strength was her confidence in physical activities, especially climbing and balancing. It was the first we'd heard of any of it and given that DD loves numbers and sees them in everything eg the springs in clothes pegs, it was odd. Coupled with the fact that she can recite books that have been read to her at school/home and has hypermobile joints-she can fall over air-it just didn't seem to match up.

I emailed the teacher and said I'd like to meet with her. At the meeting I asked to see her portfolio and was able to explain that the report left me worried that DD wasn't ready for reception. It transpires that the teacher ended up cutting and pasting phrases from the EYFS, not checking too much if they matched the child.

There are a few things I think it could be and I am kinf of repeating what others have said.

1- typo/cut and paste error. It happens and, at this time of year ecspecially, a quick read of reports at an already busy time of year could miss it completely. Your brain reads what it exspects. So, in a row of 1's the mind tricks you into seeing a 1 and not a 4. I am not saying you shouldn't be upset. But, as a teacher, I can see it happening! Between performances, Christmas parties, Christmas cards, end of term assessments and school data collection after a VERY long term. Easy for a simple mistake like that happening.

2- ASD- If she is on the spectrum, you can get an uneven rate of progress and attainment. There are several factors that could play into this; different teaching style, time to settle into lesson/class, different kind of support than year before, more formal, less formal, where her seat is in the class, who is sitting next to her, she is staying safe and only doing basic work so she won't be wrong, etc. i have worked with a number of confirmed and unconfirmed ASD. First terms are tricky as they have to find their comfort areas in a different setting. Once that occurs, I have seen a difference in up to 2 levels happen over night! (That is the most extreme. Many, however, have shown a full level difference.) and... Yes, it has happened that it only effected one subject.

Don't worry about it too much over Christmas. Contact the school first thing in the new year and get it sorted.

As someone who has to proof read reports other tewxhers write I can tell you that at this time of year teachers will proof read to ensure that the grammar etc is all correct, no typos etc... However I will rarely notice whose report I am reading, in some schools someone might be proof reading hundreds of reports. Mistakes can and do happen. I would guess that since the teacher didn't flag up anything at parents' evening then all is well.

Email the class teacher (and someone higher if you want) - I have already dealt with two queries via email from home about reports since we broke up last Wednesday.

I agree reports are very often a patchwork of cut and pasted phrases. In one of my son's reports he was referred to as 'she' numerous times.
He is also asd and flew up the levels early on in literacy when it was all about phonics, decoding words and reading aloud. He stalled in about year 2 when he started to have to come up with his own writing and comprehension of what he was reading was needed. Someone mentioned their child is slow at getting things down on paper. My son was also like this. His handwriting had to be perfect and he will rub individual letters out for over and over again to get them right instead of getting on with the sentence. In y6 it can stilltake half an hour to write 5 sentences just because he has no confidence in what he is doing.

Tinsel, fwiw I'd be furious too.

Must have been quite a shock reading the report when nothing previous had been flagged up.

Also frustrating that you've not been able to discuss this with anybody at the school.

Sorry, no advice but totally understand how you must be feeling.

Tinsel, I find it strange that you can accept the idea that your Dd has unexpectedly dropped significantly in a key subject in the last 6 weeks without anything at all being mentioned to you, and yet you cannot accept the idea of a typing error. Given the busyness of the last 3 weeks of this term, don't you think that a typo is in fact a far more rational explanation - yes you might think that it was checked but there is a reality here.

Having been through 3 prep schools and a senior school I would say it is far far more likely that the computer has cocked up than your dd has suddenly gone backwards in maths. And whilst that is annoying, your reaction is ott. If I accepted all of my reports at face value I would have children who have changed gender, gone from first quartile to fourth quartile and back in a term, and learned musical instruments without me being aware.

In fairness I did have one term where ds1's maths result was 96% on one paper and 24% on the other, and I was surprised about a lack of comment. Turned out he never turned over the paper to see the questions in the other side...

You may not be able to ring any of the teachers, but can't you email?

The first thing might be to check how she is being assessed.

I would guess that you get a grade from 1 to 5 or 6 for attainment, with descriptors something along the lines of 1 is "Outstanding/working well above expected levels", 2 is "Very good/working above expected levels", 3 is "satisfactory/working at expected levels", 4 is "working below expected levels" and 5 is "poor/working significantly below expected levels"?

And your daughter received a 1 in the summer term and has been given a 4 this time?

As she is at a pre-prep school, they may well not describe a child's progress and achievement using National Curriculum levels, as they would in a state school.

Rather, I would imagine that this report considers your daughter's progress against the rest of her class and the school's expected standard of a Year 2 pupil at this stage, and in particular focusses on this term's work.

With that in mind, I would conjecture that either your daughter's class has been covering topics which she has found more challenging (as she herself indicated, and Tiggytape said above), or that (especially if she has ASD) it takes her a while to settle into a class and this has a knock-on effect on her performance. Some children do dip in the autumn term and then work their way back up through the year, and you can see that pattern repeat as they progress through school. You mention that your daughter commented last year that she wasn't good at maths, because she wasn't on the same maths table as X, and yet she still got a 1 at the end of the year. What grade did she get in the autumn term last year?

It is a little surprising that nothing was flagged up at Parents' Evening, and perhaps next year it might be worth saying "Here are DD's summer grades, is her December end of term report likely to be similar?" (whilst being aware that it may take her a little longer to settle into a new class etc). Did you actually discuss her progress in maths?

When contacting the school, I would start with the class teacher, and ask (a) whether this grade is looking at the term's work only or a more general assessment, (b) which topics in particular your daughter has been struggling with, and (c) what support is being provided by the school.

I would also bear in mind her progress and attitude in maths over the whole of her time at the school during these discussions, and not just her summer grade.

And I would continue to work on her confidence and enjoyment of maths (happy to provide further resources if these would be useful).

Hi, TheCurseOFTinsel; Sorry to read the above. I would be furious in your position. It is a shame you could not talk to the teacher before holiday starts.
I would do some maths workbooks with DD and try to see where she finds difficult during this holiday. That will help her building skills anyway.
When new term starts, I would be asking honest questions to the teacher, and maybe requesr to see her maths workbook during the term. Unfortunately, having had negative experience, I have come to feel that I need to keep eye on my DD's progress myself, rather than relying totally on the school.

If the teacher is off ill are you even sure that she wrote the report?

Not that it is particularly helpful to your situation but expected progress in KS2 is 1 level in 2 years not 2 sub levels a year, I only know as I recently asked the question on MN.

We also get our reports in the post after the term finishes (with the bill)

Print out Year 2, Block 1 test:
www.wiganschoolsonline.net/curriculum/maths/blockassess.shtm
You'll need to print the answers & levels sheet out too - for your DC to use to fill in answers. You can use answers printed to level. Might help you to clarify whether more recent assessment is by any means accurate.
In my experience, teacher assessment can be completely 'off', but it's unlikely to be so if so dreams tic and accompanied by a sentence or two describing your DC's specific difficulties - named.
They may have lost their confidence when presented with one or two new topics (time, fractions, etc.) but it's incredibly surprising. Could your DC be 'pretending not to know' because they need to warmth of a cosy group run by a nurturing TA? Another possibility. An unlikely one, though. I used to pretend to be in the 'non swimmers' group. Lol

You are right to be concerned, especially as you are adamant that it is a typo. It does seem strange, you are well within your rights to bring this up, I would never think a parent was being pushy to bring this up especially if you take the 'Im wondering what we can do to help' stance.
Good luck, this must have come as a shock, hope you get it sorted....let us know what they say.....

I do think grades vary a little from teacher to teacher/school to school despite attempts to unify things. Possibly the year one teacher marked slightly too positively while the present teacher is a little harsh? It's also possible that your child hadn't understood chunks of maths units this year.

I think part of your major reaction stems from issues faced with your oldest DC. You'd be better going in with an attitude of 'I'm concerned about the difference in grades' and ''what can we all do to help her' and 'please can you contact me straight away if her achievement is below what is expected'

Also typos do happen. It's just one of those things. Staff will have tons of reports to check in a very limited time scale and surrounded by lots of other festive school event pressures. Our school has been a whirlwind this year and I'm very aware teachers are only human.

A 2a for end of Year 1 is ridiculously high. Could this be a typo? I am a teacher and I would question any child getting at 2a at end of Year 2 never mind Year 1. i work in a very gifted school with excellent students. I would want hard evidence assessment because this sounds completely false. It is the kind of assessment figure that in a full staff meeting on levels everyone in the room would go 'woah' that can not be correct. Check with the school. Maybe it should have been a 1a and is still a 1a now hence their current concern about plateauing.

Ps expected end of Year 2 average level is 2b. Below average is 2c. Above average is 2a. I don't like these labels I am just trying to explain what the government makes us do. And to help you understand why at 1a there would be concern. Good luck, I hope things become clear for you soon x