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Primary education

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Bridging the reading/writing attainment gap

1 reply

BedsitBob · 14/07/2014 09:09

DS is at the end of Year 5.

His end of year levels are: Maths (5c), Reading (5c), Writing (3a).

The secondary school he will go to streams (initially anyway and not sure how much movement there is later) based on SATS results.
I am concerned that obviously his reading is currently much better than his writing so if he finishes Year 6 with a similar profile is likely to end up in the "wrong" stream one way or another, so would like to support, where possible, getting his writing level up to a bit closer to his reading.

This will be a tall order as DS hates writing! His teacher has intimated that he does not think DS is reaching his full potential, so this is not just me being obsessed by levels!

I realise this is a "how long is a piece of string question", but what is the school likely to be targeting for DS? He finished KS1 with a 2a for writing, so I would need to get a 4a for 2 levels of progress (which his reading would hopefully drag up to a Level 5 in English), however this may be a tall order so maybe it is more reasonable to aim for a 4b?

Secondly, how best to support DS at home? Based on teacher conversations he is particularly weak in creative writing - so I am thinking that is the area to work on. I don't want the summer to turn into a battle so anything that involves DS actually putting pen to paper needs to be minimised. I was thinking of making up silly stories verbally - and then looking at ways to improve them. Is there anything on-line that we could use?

TIA.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Elibean · 14/07/2014 12:20

What does he like reading? dd1's creative writing has really improved this year (Y5) as her reading tastes have grown and changed - she's reading lots, and it's clearly helping.

I think silly stories, or ghost stories, or mysteries, told by several people in installments (taking turns) are a great idea. You could also play a game where kids get given three objects and have to put them into a story, or two characters and two objects, etc. I've been making up bedtime stories for my two based on that for years, and they do it easily now. Make up stories for your ds, so he sees how to do it??

I can't help with what school might do, but I can say that my own belief is that writing develops at a different pace and stage of maturity to reading or maths. I've known kids who blossom with writing in Y6 or beyond, so I wouldn't worry too much as long as he's reading a lot and enjoying it.

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