Lack of Progress Year 4

[katalex]

I've been looking at my year 4 dd's progress reports and I need some reassurance. There are levels listed in a table for sept, nov, jan and april. In numeracy she has 3a in every column except april which is 3a+. In writing she was 3b in sept and nov and then went down to 3c in jan and april. In reading she has 4c in every column except april which is 4c+. Should I worry that she has made so little progress and has actually got worse in writing?

I have been reading some old posts and I can see that she is expected to make 1 full level progress in two years. Her end of year 3 report shows that she made 3 sub levels progress in reading, 2.5 sub levels in writing and 2 sub levels in maths during that year. So she has achieved a full level in reading and maths but in her writing she has only gone up 2 sub levels in 2 years. The year 3 report shows that she was a 3c+ but she is now a 3c. She is below average for the end of year 4 in writing and I worry that she will fall further behind as, according to the principal, year 5 is not as important as years 4 and 6 because they are only expected to make 1 sub level progress during the year.

I'd like to have a discussion with dd's teacher, particularly about her writing being a half level worse than this time last year. She has told me at every parent conference that dd is doing really well but the numbers don't support this. Should I be worried about her lack of progress? I'm not going in to complain, I just need to understand what's happening.

On the basis she made quite a lot of progress last year, I wouldn't worry so much that the progress is more limited this year - it sounds like she may be consolidating skills (and/or the Y3 levels might have been a bit exaggerated!).

How are the levels calculated? IF on the basis of single assessment, I wouldn't worry about the writing either - DS's writing levels went

end of Y2 - 2a
start of Y3 - 2b
end of Y3 - 3c
start of Y4 - 2b
end of Y4 - 3c

.... but I could see tangible progress in his writing. His mixed levels were also partly caused by him being much better at some types of writing (non-fiction, poetry) than others (descriptive) leaving the teachers a bit baffled as to how to level him.

I wouldn't consider 3c to be below average for writing and would take the HT's comment about Y5 with a pinch of salt - children aren't very good at behaving like robots and progressing in the linear way teachers want them to!

But of course it's always good to chat to teacher if you have questions - however I wouldn't personally see those levels as cause for concern.

Hello Katalax:

First off I would refer you to the MN pages on progress through NC Levels here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels

3b is the notional end of year target for end Y4 - so she's doing well in maths/ reading but possibly struggling a bit with writing (3c instead of 3b - but odd that she's moved back a level and that is worth querying with the teacher).

So I think my main advice would be to relax - she's a bit behind in writing, but doing o.k. otherwise....

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In terms of writing, it could be that she is not writing enough in her work or that her punctuation/ vocabulary (openers, adjectives, range of words used) is more limited than it should be. I'd talk to the teacher before the school year finishes and ask if she has ideas on what you could work on over the summer.

I know with DD1 we had real problems moving from what was basically a monosyllabic description of things to a more interesting read for the reader.

I found these writing (VCOP) pyramids really helpful: displays.tpet.co.uk/?resource=387#/ViewResource/id387 - basically the top of each side of the pyramid is the lowest ability in writing and the bottom of each side of the pyramid is the highest ability. These simple Vocabulary/ Connectives/ Openers/ Punctuation pyramids really help you to visualise where your child is at and what they might need to incorporate into their writing next.

I found two things useful at this stage:

We played 'CAN WE MAKE THAT SENTENCE MORE INTERESTING' -

I did this with homeworks and just now and then (often whilst waiting on DD2 to finish dance lesson). So for example DD1 wrote:

Harry Potter is a boy.

(I yawned and said come on you can do better).

DD1 wrote: Harry Potter is a boy and a wizard.

(Better but I'm still bored)

DD1 wrote Harry Potters seems an ordinary boy, but is a wizard.

(Oooooo I said. That's a bit better).

She then had a think and came up with:

Harry Potter may seem an ordinary little boy; however, he secretly is an amazing wizard.

(I cheered! That's more like it!)

Getting them to see that what they're writing needs a rhythm - can't be all long sentences or all short sentences, but needs a bit of a mixture and perhaps a few more descriptive words is a real struggle - but keep working away at it.

We did find the CGP workbooks really helped on many levels: obviously grammar/ punctuation but there was a lot in there on spelling rules/ spelling changes with different tenses. here's a link to the Y4 workbook on Amazon (there is also a Y5 workbook): www.amazon.co.uk/KS2-English-Literacy-Workbook-Year/dp/184146158X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403268868&sr=8-1&keywords=CGP+literacy+workbooks+year+4

In terms of getting your DD to write more:

Diary (buy a nice notebook & pen and encourage her to write in a diary)
Postcards: when you go places have her send cards
Thank you cards (for birthdays/ treats or outings with friends/ relatives)
Fan letters: Have her write to her favorite author/ tv show

If the school asks for a summery scrap book projects - insist that she writes a bit more than usual, don't let her get away with only a sentence when she could write 3.

HTH

Thanks for your replies. Dd has always struggled with writing but I thought this year it would be better. In years 2 and 3 the teachers were lucky to get 3 sentences out of her in one literacy session. Sometimes the page would still be blank at the end of the lesson! They told me that they could see the quality of the work she could do but dd wasn't giving them enough evidence in one piece of work to give her the level she deserved. However, this year she is writing at least a page in almost every session so I thought her level would go up, not down.

Thanks for the link to the VCOP pyramids. I'll print those out and hopefully it will help.

I'll ask her teacher what is stopping her from getting to 3b (or what she has stopped doing which has taken her from 3b to 3c) and see if we can work on that. I might have to use bribery though as dd refuses to write at home. She won't even do her literacy homework most weeks, especially if it's to write a story (which it is 9 times out of 10).