End of Y5 report - Maths level 3a - no change throughout the year.

[pols090607]

Just had my DD's end of year report and feel concerned that her Maths has stayed the same for the whole of Y5 at a level 3a. We'd hoped there would have been a jump to 4c at least.

Should I be concerned ? Are we expecting too much ? I've asked for a meeting with her Maths teacher to discuss.

Her other levels have moved on Writing 4a, Reading 4b, Science 4c.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I would definitely want to talk to her teacher. If there has been little or no progress over a year, there is a problem - and the school should jump to help, really. Good luck with the meeting, hope its helpful!

I'd be asking the school why they haven't discussed the fact she hasn't seemingly made some progress.

Forget the level - has she made progress in reality? Does she know "more maths", is she quicker at and finds the "old maths" easier.

If she was only just a level 3a at the end of last year (or the level was inflated), she may well have made loads of progress, it is just not reflected in the levels (and there is a definite jump from 3a to 4c).

I would be concerned about the lack of information. Weren't you told levels at your last parents evening? Or even progress made?

My DD is also yr 5 and I knew her starting level, her level in November, March and will find out end of yr level next week when school reports come out.

DD also knows her levels and is told after every test they have, although she understands that may not be her final level if they've done particularly well in a test.

DD only made 1 sub level progress in Maths in yr 4 but has made 3 (or maybe 4) this year so I wouldn't necessarily be concerned if your DD had made enough progress last year.

Good luck at your meeting

If your DD made a lot of progress last year, it's not impossible that she hasn't moved up a sub level this year. Children don't progress in a straight line - they surge and then plateau while the consolidate. So if she made a lot of progress last year and then just got into a 3a, she may well have spent a lot of this year consolidating, ready to surge forward again next year.

Also, in my experience, teachers (ie me) are often more cautious about a child from a 2a to a 3c or a 3a to a 4c than they would be moving a sub-level within a level ie 3b to 3a. Levelling is not an exact science - that's one of the reasons levels are going.

Hi pols:

I think toomuchicecream raises a good point - progress isn't linear (a straight line/ steady) - and in maths there can suddenly come a crunch point where recall of number facts (multiplication tables especially) or concepts (fractions/ percentages/ proportions/ mean/ mode/ median) can seem impenetrable.

My advice is consider trying to do more at home.

If your school subscribes to education city, manga high, sum dog, my maths or similar - keep using these resources over the summer. Even if your child just plays the games it keeps maths skills active and may even build skills.

If you're concerned that the issue is multiplication tables. Maybe they get the idea and can get there - but have no speed of recall and completely fall to pieces if presented with an inverse multiplication table fact - e.g. 36 divided by 9 is ?????

I would strongly recommend the games/ resources on multiplication dot com: www.multiplication.com/

Woodland Junior School Maths Zone has all sorts of links to games which can help with practically every topic in maths: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

If at core you feel that the issue is that fundamentally your DC doesn't understand concepts you might want to consider getting workbooks or joining an on-line tutorial - there's tons of on-line tutorials out there:

mathletics: www.mathletics.co.uk/
maths whizz: www.whizz.com/
komodo maths: komodomath.com/
mathsfactor: www.themathsfactor.com/

Have a look at what the programmes have to offer - many have videos explaining the programme/ trial lessons so you can get an idea. I'd encourage you to show it to your child and see if they like it.

DD1 was seriously struggling with maths at end of Y2 (barely able to add to 20 and unable to subtract). We started mathsfactor and have never looked back. Others here have posted similarly that maths whizz/ mathletics/ komodo maths have all been great help.

I think the point is that your DC is a bit stuck - and oddly enough practice/ patience/ and a bit of detective work on your part to get to the bottom of what the issue is - can all make a huge difference.

It's a long summer - so my advice is determine to use a small portion of most days toward maths. Try to encourage variety - but encourage your child to do a bit of maths every day. Practice really does make a big difference.

HTH