Concerned about transition to Yr 1 based on comments on report

[lecce]

Ds2 (5) is a summer boy and, based on that, and just the fact that he has always seemed young for his age, we were concerned about how he would fare at school. However, it seems to have gone well - we have had all positive comments from teachers throughout the year, he has grown in confidence (though still shy), he has enjoyed it, and has learnt to read and write. However, having received his report, I am now worried that the move to Yr 1 may be more problematic for him than starting school in the first place was.

Though the report is largely positive we are told that he can be silly during carpet time, is reluctant to join guided activities, is eager to leave these as soon as possible to return to free play, and that he struggles to concentrate. Although we were not told any of this at either of the parents' evenings, it has not come as a complete shock as it fits our experience of him at home! For the behaviour grade he got the highest grade, so I suppose they're not huge issues, but a bit worrying, nonetheless.

What can/should we do? His powers of concentration are amazing IF it is something he has chosen to do (learn Horrible Histories dance routines, learn all the words to fucking Frozen, make dresses out of play dough for his dolls) but it is a fruitless task trying to get him interested in anything more 'worthy'. I have sort of given up trying, as I don't want to turn learning into a battle. Sometimes we find an activity he likes that seems more worthwhile (a flower hunt thingy at the local river, but we can't do stuff like that all the time) and he can sit through, for example, a whole game of monopoly if in the right mood, but it's hit and miss.

Reading is another issue. He got exceeding for reading and writing (expected for everything else) and is reading simple chapter books. Fab, since he couldn't read at all when he started. However, he doesn't like books . We read at bedtime and that is it, as he's not interested. He sometimes plays up during the bedtime story. I try hard to get books that tie in with his interests, but I'm worried his reading won't continue to develop if he has no love of stories and no real interests to inspire him to read non-fiction, either.

So, I suppose I'm asking what, if anything can I do to improve his concentration/work ethic over the summer? I'm honestly not pushy, but am worried that behaviour in school will deteriorate if he's expected to sit at a desk most of the day, as ds1 was in Yr1, but it wasn't a problem for him.

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Personally I would imagine that if he got exceeding for things like reading and writing then he is certainly performing to at least some level because these have to be witnessed to be counted.

Sounds to me that he's just like a fairly normal five year old.

We got told to let them have a break over Summer do they came back ready to learn but if you're worried then why not take part in your local library's reading challenge, buy him a comic to read, write postcards etc?

Personally I'd apply the breaks on pushing him and see if you can find ways of bringing fun in. It sounds like he is more than able so perhaps bringing reading or writing into the fun idea would then allow him to shoot forward once he got back to school?

I think DD is probably anxious to please, but she really struggled to read/ understand phonics before Easter in Reception. She really didn't get it (and we were too old to have experienced this stuff).

Then she got it..and she flew!

I think she then flew with both reading and writing because we made a point of spending time chatting. Not monosyllabic grunts, but proper stuff.

If kids make statement and they get it a bit wrong, you ask a question "so you think you would like to...(and you get the tenses and prepositions right).?

It s great to be able to remember to read "suddenly the magic key began to glow" or "the cat sat on the mat", but, going forward, it is far more helpful to feel confident about sentence structures and talking about and writing about ideas.

Sounds similar to my DS in many respects. His school report said he had good concentration, but am certain they were talking about HIS projects, not anyone else's ideas. Try to get him to do something he doesn't want to do and he's fidgeting, singing, chewing fingers, etc. Maths homework is a doddle, he just sits down and does it as soon as he spots it. The interminable phonics colouring sheets however... And he does it really badly if he doesn't want to too. I suspect the only reason he got exceeding for writing was that this term's topic was one of his pet subjects so he actually had stuff he wanted to write about it.

Personally I'm trying to keep writing/reading ticking over say 5 minutes a day, because the easier it becomes for him the less actual concentration is required for that sort of task. And because his writing is dire, despite the "exceeding". Apparently there are no marks for presentation in EYFS! So we're doing a summer diary, just one or two sentences a day.

Apart from that letting him run with his own plans as much as possible. Some are "academic" some less so, but I figure concentrating on anything has to be good practice for concentrating at school. Just hope next term's topic is something he likes too.

From my experience of year 1 teachers they expect fidgeting on carpet etc, it can be still pretty informal so i wouldn't worry too much. He's still young :)

Even though his literacy is OK, a book that might encourage interest in progressing in that area is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews. Look in the "Children's educational books and courses" section, for the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary. There is a link to see sample pages from it. It is attractive, entertaining, and easy to use for children, and goes right up to secondary standard.

To encourage writing, storytelling and recounts, I often suggest, that if you have a tape recorder, or some other audio recording device (some phones do) to DICTATE information before trying to write it down. This worked well with my Yr2 less able boys when I was a TA, and they were happy to dictate stories which I would type on the computer for them.

Ds (just leaving year 2) is/was like this. He also has glue ear.
His strengths were reading and maths though, had/has very little use for writing.

He actually found year 1 much easier than year R. Because in year R, other than carpet time, generally the ""compulsory"activities took place in small groups while the rest of the year played. So he had the distraction of everyone else doing more fun activities, plus a higher noise level. (and year 2 was easier again)

At the leavers' concert a couple of weeks ago was the first time of that sort of thing where he sat as still as any other child in the year.

His teacher said that in her experience boys like him get reluctantly to about year 4, then fly.

I have a DC who is an excellent reader but hates reading. I have found no solution in 3 years. Another DC loves reading and books.