Pre summer slide?

[sleepwouldbenice]

Hi all

first may I start by saying this is not having a go at teachers. I have lots of respect for what they do and think ours put lots of effort into supporting my children

But every year I get worried about I call the “pre summer hols slide” as, since half term and on an increasing basis, the children do less and less academic/ formal lessons at school and I think this does have an impact on the children.

My oldest in in year 6 so did her SATS in May. Since then they have barely done any maths or literacy (not just my DD saying this) with no homework, spellings, anything.

They have done the school production (which is excellent but an awful lot of effort, perhaps too much?), swimming, helping out in other classes, trips. They are still doing art, languages, science but very little maths / literacy and structured learning

I do know that:
• you can learn without formal lessons
• its important to do things like drama, sport and you can learn from them
• teachers have lots to fit in at this time of year (reports, sorting for the year afterwards etc)
• children get tired and a change is as good as a rest etc

But I can really see the difference in my eldest daughters recall / knowledge already and I think this will get worse even before the holidays begin. This really does concern me and seems to be unravelling lots of the hard work by her and teachers!

It also happens in other years but perhaps not to the same extent. I read in school and last year I recall some children, who were previously read with 2-3 times a week, barely being read with in the last few weeks, no homework, lots of classes coming together to do topic work etc

So I am wondering if teachers think this is an issue? Or am I imagining it! Why does it happen? (is it impossible to fit everything in before the SATS unless you pack in the maths / literacy up front then everything afterwards?)? Does the school have a choice? Is there a better way?

Would appreciate your views

The better way is Teacher assessment 3x year at regular intervals, no SATS ( not the best way to assess young children) and a less crammed curriculum so there is more time to make sure the children are secure before they move on. The summer term is lovely as you really can make the most of outside however it's also the silly season with report writing (60 hours extra work so evenings and weekends disappear so not much time for marking) Sports Days, trips and transition work especially in y6. So, yes they probably don't have much homework (lots of people don't agree with it anyway) but maths and Literacy come into everything. Summer slide can be helped by reading, talking, keeping a diary/scrap book of the holiday and maths chat when shopping, cooking, travelling plus ask random times tables and number bond quizzes for fun, ( little every day soon becomes a habit and makes a huge difference) or 15 mins a day on BBC Bitesize. It all helps to see learning as fun not just for school!

I must say I disagree a bit with Lizzie. DD is someone who loves structured learning and while a lot of what is going on is fun and in its own way learning as well, DD gets bored and a bored child is not fun to have at home.

We do lots of things at home but as we work she is not in until 5pm, I am not in until 6, so apart from her reading book we can't cramp more "learning" in a day because she is bored and doesn't want to.

Well, DD2 is still getting homework - the last thing she got was to research how a pinhole camera works and why the image is upside-down, so nice and sciency. Spellings are a waste of time in any case, spellings and tests bear no relation to a child's ability to spell those same words in independent writing - I'm not worry to see them go and DD didn't so much as look at them in the run-up to SATs, preferring to read and write widely instead - far more effective.

Yr6 at DD's school isn't sliding, they're just relaxing the reins a little compared to the academic stranglehold of SATs preparation - there's a balance to be struck there IMO.

Hi sleep:

Much the same happening with DD1 (also Y6). No homework since SATs whatsoever. Lots of D&T/ Art projects suddenly, a business entriprise project to raise funds for the school, trips to park, extra breaks/ golden time/ video watching, special trips/ assemblies - all presented as reward for working so hard on SATs.

What I am aware of is that their Y6 teacher has been having meetings with representatives from the various senior schools the class are going on to and preparing transfer reports for all 30 pupils. I suspect there was also a certain amount of form filling involved with SATs and of course teacher assessment scores also to submit. Our school goes in for War & Peace style novels for end of year reports and my understanding is he's currently working on this.

So Y6 is being taught by a trainee teacher, doing lots of 'partner activities' with other years and various part-time teachers seem to be doing a little more time with Y6 to free up their main teacher for meetings/ reports.

I know enough to know the school has always handled it like this and the kids expect things to be fairly easy in the wind down to the end of Year 6.

I personally have been rather evil and am checking with DD1 about reading (making sure she's still reading nightly) and have been asking her to play on-line maths games (we've finished various on-line tutorials on Mathsfactor - arithmetic school & algebra school) + unfinished pages of KS2 workbooks school bought and initially assigned tasks in and then kind of forgot about/ friend passed down to us.

DD1 is aware I'm asking her to do things her friends aren't - and informs me of it - but I've also made it clear that keeping these skills active/ fresh over the remainder of the school year/ summer will help her get off to a flying start in Year 7. She knows (the visiting Y7 tutor informed them) that at the start of Y7 they'll start off in mixed ability groups but will soon be ability tested again and gradually moved into ability groups during the course of Y7 - so she does concede that being rusty at the start of Y7 wouldn't be a good thing.

If anything it seems to have ramped up at DCs state school this term, certainly homework wise.

DD Y3 has 5 weeks' worth of different literacy projects, and whilst testing might be over, there are gap analyses being done and extra tuition given over the next 5 weeks to address any shortfalls for the year.

Thanks for the replies. Seems we are not alone but there can be variation.... I think I would be a little happier if they seemed to keep things ticking over.

Thanks for the tips for what we can do - although I too am a evil mother the same as Past who gets her to do various maths on line, in the car, quick tests, and will do math factor summer school for the same reason that you mentioned about being able to hit yr 7 running esp with streaming etc. It was during one of the these impromptu sessions I realised how much she had forgotten already. Appreciate the aim was to peak for the SATS but she does need things re enforcing so I think I will have to top up between now and Sept, just wish it hadn't started so early!

Part of me thinks there must be a way of securing time for the school to tackle at least some of the things that need to be done (reports, class change arounds etc) but continue learning but I guess it comes down to resource and prioritisation of different parts of the curriculum throughout the year

I actually agree about the homework and spellings though, I was just giving them as examples of how things seem to have ground to a halt

Thanks again

Lizziewarmington - see understand what you mean about the teacher assessment x 3 pa but schools don't have a choice about this at the moment do they?