Hi Nobody:
DD1 is a very ordinary girl at a very mediocre state primary school.
She was seriously struggling at the end of KS1 - still not able to read, could only add numbers up to 20 & could not subtract.
I've posted a lot about what we've done and tried to advise others but basically the recipe was very simple - we just did more at home.
more maths (on-line tutorial) & more reading.
Slowly, day by day, week by week improvements were made and she started to visibly improve at school, steadily moving up the tables (sets) in her class (one form entry at her school).
DD1 is now in Y6 and doing very well. She's not a tremendous high flyer - certainly didn't achieve a sufficiently high enough score to get into local grammar schools (state funded here so free, but entrance based on 11+ scores). But she has managed to become quite a solid little student, with strong maths skills.
We're a few short months away from moving on to secondary. I will never regret the extra time & expense (mathsfactor subscription/ 11+ practice books) I went to so that we could help DD1 as a student - but we remain deeply perplexed why the school left it to us when DD1 was struggling in Y2. They totally refused (teachers, HT, subject leaders) to recommend solutions or advise us on what we could do at home. We also have our doubts about the secondary comprehensive - and fear it will be as uninterested in high standards, academic achievement and 'work ethic' as the primary. Unfortunately supporting students in secondary is a whole other kettle of fish - and we have already had 'that talk' with Grandma & Grandpa in the US about the possiblity of sending her there for 'high school' (ages 14- 18) if educational standards here remain so dismal.
I'm glad we were able to turn things around for DD1 but the cost has been a serious crisis of faith in the education system in England.
There are so many bright kids out there - most of DD1's class were doing much better than she was in Y2. She's now doing streets better than them - I'm thrilled about DD1's improvement- but left wondering why so many have been allowed to flounder/ lost interest (about 1/2 the class are seriously borderline about achieving NC L4 in KS2 SATs this May). Almost all of the year say they 'hate maths'.
I think the issue revolves around whether NC L4 is a benchmark - i.e. all students should aim to achieve this level at least or the end target (i.e. the ultimate goal of primary school ability). I fear our school very much viewed NC L4 as the pinnacle of achievement and frankly all they were required to do. Of course they can afford to have this poor attitude, because each year a significant proportion of parents interested in free grammar school education in this LEA would either DIY tutor or pay for tutors (certainly for Y5, although more recently from Y4) thus radically improving KS2 SATs scores for 1/3 to 1/2 of each cohort for them without any effort on their part.
Grammar schools may be 'unfair' and have a biased entry for the middle classes - but I suspect English primaries schools wouldn't be achieving anywhere near the pupil progress they do without the necessity to have mastered Y6+ curriculum by early Y6 in order to do well on the 11+.