Parents Evening Feedback/Possible Private Tutoring

[monkeytree]

Hi. Just need to bounce a few thoughts about and get a bit of advice from any parents/teachers out there. We have returned home from 'parents evening'. DD is in year 3 now. Her report was basically O.K. It appears that she is about average in the class. She does not need additional support but nor is she a high flyer. The teacher states she is slightly below average for her age but is confident that at the end of the Summer term she would have bridged the gap and would have reached the expected standard. I think from what they are saying her learning has accelerated recently.

My husband and I try to spend time with DD each week (supporting her with but not doing her homework). It is really difficult to work out how she should be performing in comparison to others in the class - please don't criticize for this as I think although we shouldn't compare we do. I am pleased with her report but somehow I am not content as I know and this was backed up by class teacher that DD sometimes becomes distracted and does not always ask for the help she requires and I feel that somehow in a class of 30 she is not reaching her true potential. She appears bright (not super bright) but not truly academic I don't want to drill her but at the same time I am concerned that she is not maximising her potential. Her concentration is not always there - her punctuation is hit or miss - sometimes using capital letters, sometimes not and not always spelling common words correctly - doesn't read and check her work. It seems she finds writing a chore but can use some really lovely adjectives etc when she puts her mind to it. Also in maths may struggle with the concept initially but then goes from strength to strength when she has grasped it again a class of 30 cannot help this particularly if you are floating somewhere in the middle.

We have a baby dd in the house now and don't have the same amount of time at the moment to give older dd. We're discussing the possibility of tutoring for an hour a week but wonder whether this will make any difference to dd and also we don't want her to feel that she has to do yet more work but would like to at least consider it as an option. Bearing in mind my last paragraph do you think it would make any difference to dd? I also don't want her to think she is failing because we have brought a tutor in, I realise it needs to be fun. DD already does lots of extra curriculum activities - brownies, swimming etc and I don't want to overload her - any advice regarding this please?

Sorry for long essay but sometimes it's difficult to explain how things are and clarify thoughts. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

monkey

it may be DD is just finding her feet as y3 is quite a change from Infant levels add in new baby I would not go with a tutor just yet maybe reasses at end of year

I can't understand half your post. But, is your daughter stupid and maths, and if she is stupid at maths then why is that the case?

I don't know if your school does this but each year at the start of term we have a meeting where parents are told where the average child is and where they expect them to be at the end of the year.

This includes seeing below average, average and above average writing, so a story but you can see punctuation, spelling and handwriting. It gives you a context for your own child.

Also at parent's evening we are shown what level they came into that year group at, so 2c where they are now, 2b and where they expect them to be at the end of year, 2a.

As a parent this massively helps. You see the broader picture but then your individual child and where they fit in that.

If I felt I could help my child by hiring a tutor I would do it. In a heartbeat. I wouldn't want them falling behind. I'm not talking about making them top of the class, but just reaching their potential and sometimes a different environment than a classroom is a good thing.

sigh pointing out that DD school used to pull students out for extra help.(which you state that must be terrible for the child

I am disagreeing as her school no longer pull children out instead they all in same class for maths and DD feels stupid (she is not] as now all other children can sed her struggle so does not even wanr to try answer questions

oh and dd is neither stupid or stupid at maths .She feels like is due to pressure placed on her oh and she has discaculyia so not help

But reason struggles as well see above post.

I can't read a lot of your posts. But, are you saying that your daughter does struggle with maths (because she has dyscalculia)

Or are you saying that she doesn't. The reply she's neither stupid nor stupid at maths but she struggles, everybody thinks she's stupid at maths and she has dyscalculia

seems to be a contradiction. And until you've worked out what the problem is I don't think you've any chance of fixing it.

I don't agree at all with those who say that getting a tutor will "stress" your dd. A good tutor will ensure that she has fun, not doing "death by worksheet" type sessions. In maths there is plenty of scope for games-based learning, which is great, because part of teaching is to build an enjoyment of the subject, not just learning the mechanics of the subject.

Make sure you get someone who is familiar with the KS2 curriculum and current teaching methods, though -this is particularly important for younger students, who may easily be confused by different methods. Teaching younger students is just as difficult as teaching older ones, so don't just think, well primary level is easy, so anyone can do it... honestly, it is not! Having a tutor who wants to find out from the school how best the school feel your dd can be supported us also a good thing. Sometimes it seems tutors are criticised if they don't ask parents for info from the school (not working with the school to support learning) and criticised if they do (increasing teacher workload).

You seem to be assuming that a child who struggles must be stupid which is simply untrue

The teacher also said that she is slightly below where she needs to be for her age? I think this is relating to those scores at the end of the year but I don't totally understand them and how this is measured. DD recently sat a maths test at school (apparently). DD is a young one in her class (July baby) so not sure whether this affects her score as some of the girls in her class were 8 last September! Teacher said that dd would have caught up with her peers now and being a young one wouldn't make any difference - she is where she is now I think were her words. Not totally convinced. I think the grammar tests still allow for age differences and give a bit of extra scoring?

Yes now the trick is to get a good tutor who is up to date with what is being taught - not sure how they're going to find out where dd is at without some sort of assessment. Not sure I want to go public about any tutoring but it needs to align with school somehow I guess. Going to try and get someone to work with DD after Easter hols. I feel a sense of relief. Attempted to encourage dd to do some writing this morning but she wasn't having any of it ie write a short play about your barbies, a receipe for baby mash or a story about a sleepover or what ever you want she wasn't having any of it and has refused to do any. Perhaps not ideal but also offered 50 p pocket money as this was separate from homework which was maths only this week. Still won't do it and is doing what a 7 year old should probably do - is playing!

She is slightly below but making accelerated progress?

The expression being used is "stupid with maths" (which is an unfortunate expression, but I'm assuming that it's a classroom phrase invented by the children.)

I think I might have got muddled with the accelerated bit. I think what the teacher means is that she is making good progress - certain things such as using punctuation are beginning to click/fall into place. I guess for some of the children this "clicked" a while ago. I prefer things to be written down as sometimes its hard to recall what is actually said!

For what it's worth I really don't like the word stupid - its a word that's been banned in our house.

Happy mothers day as well! Off to peel vegetables in a moment or two!

and once it all clicks into place she is able to make progress and catch up?

monkeytree:

Have read your post but not the replies so apologies to all if I'm somewhat repeating what others may have said.

My advice is this:

If you're worried about maths this is a great time to start regularly practising maths skills. We opted for an on-line tutorial because DD1 simply wasn't getting the mechanics of addition/ subtraction for numbers beyond 20 or carrying numbers. We went with mathsfactor, but there are all sorts out there maths whizz/ mathletics/ komodo maths (just type in on a search engine & explore).

With a baby at home - time is precious & you often can be disrupted - so an on-line tutor means you have total flexibility and your DC can do it as and when time allows, around family/ school/ after school life.

In terms of reading: really encourage regular reading. 10 - 20 minutes a day cummulatively makes a huge difference. As DD1's teacher has said, he can tell which kids are regular readers and which rarely read and it is affecting their performance.

With writing - encourage writing postcards on trips, thank you cards for presents, letters to favourite tv shows or competitions, etc...

Y3/ Y4 - is a great time to consolodate core skills and in late Y4 you can start making decisions about your DC's secondary options (and whether the 11+ route is for you or not).

One thing I will say is comparing your child against their class can sometimes be unrealistic - there can be strong years where all the students are way brighter than usual and weak years, where everyone is struggling. The point is to understand how they're performing against nationally expected peformance (e.g. Mumsnet view on this: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels - see table at bottom of this page).

It's very difficult when other children are in the equation, especially a new baby - DH and I have handled this with 'tag-team' parenting - whereby DH helps with things like baths and play with younger DD2 whilst I did some work with DD1 and had a free half-hour to fully pay attention to her. Developing routines also really helps. We don't even think about it now, we just know one of us reads to a child whilst the other is helping the other child with their bath/ brushing teeth/ getting ready for bed.

The nice thing is you do a lot less as time goes by - it does get easier.

Summer birthdays. Where we lived abroad standardised testing didn't start until the end of year 4. it was believed that there is a great deal of difference in abilities due to age - some younger kids still way behind - until around age 9.

Having a summer birthday kid myself, she did struggle with some of the topics up until around then. they are teaching pretty advanced topics to young kids. Not sure if in the UK they think all children should be caught up by end of KS1

For stories you could try these. We have them and if I sit with dd for the first story and then get up to 'make a cup of tea' she gets lost in the game and plays with them for ages. www.amazon.co.uk/The-Creativity-Hub-Rorys-Story/dp/B003NFJMBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396204573&sr=8-1&keywords=Story+dice

Thank you all once again for your comments.