What more can I do to help DD - all out of ideas!

[happymilly]

Hi

Just for a bit of background DD is 6 and a half and started Y2 on Monday. When she started reception she had been considered by pre-school and us to be bright. Not exceptional or anything but certainly able to do things, good vocab, knew all her letters and sounds, could add up, knew shapes/3d shapes etc. They group reception into 4 groups for both maths and literacy and she was in top for maths and second for literacy which seemed right to me.

Anyway by the end of reception it was clear she was struggling and she seemed to have tumbled down the class in terms of ability and in Y1 she was in the bottom set.

So I set too and really put a lot of effort into helping her and I thought by the end of Y1 she had really come on. However now (from what she tells me) she has started Y2 in the bottom sets again and her end of year report was not great either. I'm really disappointed for her and also struggle to understand why. At home she is a bright and interested child but at school I am told she struggles to concentrate, never puts her hand up etc. She can read well but when she reads to me it's like she doesn't even try. She deliberately mumbles and speaks really quietly and I can imagine if she does this at school as well they precieve it as her not having the ability to do it.

Over the past year we have:
got DD to read every day
read to DD every day
done reading eggs
lots of adding and times tables apps
played maths type board games - snakes and ladders etc
done baking (weighing/measuring)
been to the library loads and done the summer challenge
been to the theatre
been to museums to inspire her about science/history/writing
done online maths games
done some maths/literacy comprehension workbooks
written postcards to relatives from holiday

But nothing seems to be having an effect. I'm just not sure what more I can do. It's quite heartbreaking as due to being in the bottom sets she has got it into her head she is not clever and she can't do things. I also really think she has got the potential to do more but it's just not happening. I'm worried she is now on a downwards trajectile sine reception and can't really understand what has happened. She is loosing confidence fast and after doing the above I'm all out of ideas to help. I will speak to the teacher but it is too early in the term really as the teacher doesn't know her yet. Would tutoring or kumon be worthwhile?

I know this will sound silly but has she had a recent sight/hearing test?

Hi Angelto5 - no not silly at all that's good advice.

In fact I was going to book her a hearing test today! She had an eye test last year which was fine but the only hearing test she has had done was when she started reception which didn't show up any problems so I guess a lot could have changed since then.

And it's probably a year since her eye test so I will book another one too.

Thanks

Is she bored? A lot of bright children lose interest if the work is too easy. It can be a downward spiral as the teacher will only give them harder work if they can show they can do it, but they won't show they can do it as it's too easy. What is she reading at home? How's her handwriting? Is she inverting her 'd' and 'b'?

It sounds like you are doing lots of the right things already .
Regarding her reading I was interested that you say that you know she reads well, but that when she reads to you she doesn't read well. Do you mean that you know she reads well in her head? I found with all my DSs that they appear to read very well in their heads but once that clicked their reading out loud took a bit of a stumble. DS2 (just starting year 3) hates reading out loud to me as he is trying to read ahead so fast that he skims the words out loud. He is perfectly capable of reading out loud well and with good expression, but sees it as a chore as he just wants to get on with the story for his own enjoyment. So now when he isn't I mimic him back to himself and tell him that I am not enjoying my story with him as I can't hear all the words.
DS3 on the other hand (just starting year 1) reads quite well (orange band) but is very quiet reading out loud. He doesn't have the confidence to read out loud well. He doesn't like it when he comes to a long word that he has to sound out and hopes that if he is talking quietly that I won't hear if he mispronounces a word. He is quite capable at the sounding out, but seems to think that because he has to that he isn't very good at reading - ie it is a self-confidence issue. I keep reminding him that he is good at reading and how well he can sound out new words and that it isn't a problem - even I have to work out how to say some new words when I read them for the first time. If he gets too quiet to hear I just encourage him to use more expression as he then naturally gets louder rather than telling him to speak up.

ladysybil yes she complains about being bored and she would love to do more exciting stuff. However I try to explain that to get to the exciting stuff you sometimes have to do the dull stuff too (but not easy for her to understand this). She does invert her b and d and also her numbers a lot ie 5 and 3 will be backwards. I spoke to the school about this but they didn't seem bothered.
At school she is on orange level and at home will read books such as horrid henry early readers or the pirate school jeremy strong ones

littlemissgreen I know she can read well as if say I bribed her with chocolate she would then read really nicely but if there is no incentive then she just won't bother. So I've seen her do it but she just doesnt want to.

I had some of this with DS - he was bored so he didn't try so he didn't finish the main task so he didn't do the extension task... and he hated many of the reading books in Yr1 too and was being made to read the most awful crap. The teachers told me he didn't like fiction (funny... he seemed to be quite happy reading the right books at home). For him Yr 2 was a turn around - his teacher 'got' him, and realised that he could do more than he was and managed to persuade him to have a go. I hope the same happens for your daughter.

Can you try some fun reading with her at home - not 'work' reading - and do things like get her to do one of the 'voices' in the book that you're reading? Clearly you'd need a book with a decent amount of conversation in but perhaps worth looking out for something suitable?

Is she just struggling to adjust being back in the class? Are the groups set for the year. We had a meeting at school and were told that the sets were flexible and the children will move up and down, as children will struggle with different things.
How does your DD cope socially? My DD is average academically but knows she is a very good swimmer and Gymnastics, which gives her lots of confidence. She loves showing off in the playground doing back flips etc.
Have you made the learning at home too much fun? My DS struggle in P1 and P2 and then really blossomed in P3. I knew he wasn't stupid but I believe he wasn't ready to learn.

If orange level in reading puts her in the bottom set it sounds like she is in a high ability class. (orange/turquoise is the level that most school aim for at the end of Y1)

Does she like "being top" and "doing well" - does she feel a failure because she is in the bottom sets and so (maybe subconciously) feels she doesn't need to try? I see a lot of this with my DC - although in actual terms they have been similar in ability at similar ages, DD is in a much weaker peer group, so towards the top of it, whereas DS is more middling. DD is definitely much more confident in her ability whereas DS seems to think he is rubbish and needs lots of reassuring. Are you letting her see your disappointment?

I think I would first be looking to see whether it is her confidence that is the issue ...

Reading your post again you have set high standards for maths. Our school didn't even start times tables till the end of P3. We were told that numbers bonds were very important and children had to be fully confident with them first.
Is your daughter picking up on your disappointment? Remember she is still very little.
If you are unhappy make an appointment to see the teacher once she had settled back into school and her teacher has had a chance to know her.

Yes, I also wonder if you are 'pushing too hard'. Are there no other domestic or emotional factors that might be unsettling her. Does she cope with PE, games, drama, music, and other subjects? Has she playground friends, outside activities etc.

An awful lot is expected of very young children these days, maybe too much I sometimes think, and for some children it can have bad consequences later on.

Hi

I'm trying not to really push. Most of what we do is done in a fun way and she gets plenty of time to run around, climb trees, play lego etc.

I do think that the school seem to have high standards as they expect 2/5/10 times tables in Y2 (it's a state school)!

I thought 2, 5 and 10 times tables was standard in yr2, certainly expected in our yr2. They started counting in 2s etc in EYFS and then moved towards them being tables at the end of yr1. (this is a normal state school that doesn't appear to push bright children particularly). At a rough guess in my daughter's yr2 class I think there are probably about a third of the class if not a bit more reading level 10 or over but then there are still a few who I know are seriously struggling with very low levels, I would have said orange would probably be 3rd or 2nd group of 4 there but that is a guess just from books I have seen children waving around or what they say when kids give them books as presents etc.

I would personally say she is possibly bright but bored, bright but lacking in confidence (reading out loud if you aren't confident is hard, what if you get it wrong etc), there is something 'else' going on such as actually finding things difficult for some reason (sight/hearing/?), feels uncomfortable in front of class mates (fears being wrong in front of them), has had people make comments about her being bright and getting something wrong so now thinks that if people don't think she is bright then they won't tease her (small children can be really nasty if a child normally good at something makes a mistake - they are often waiting to see them fail). Bright children often realise that if they do well they just get given more work to do. both my children very quickly noticed that the bottom group got to do much more fun activities, got to play more, those who finish their work earlier get to play more and so on and they did question why they should have to work harder, expected to write more which takes longer etc and not get the extra play.

I agree with working on confidence initially.

In our school in Scotland times tables are introduced in P3!

It doesn't sound like there is anything wrong, just that she has not maintained her place in ' top group'. If you have her sight, speech and hearing checked that is a good start but if there is nothing wrong with any of those it may be that she just doesn't pick things up as quickly or is less confident than other children. Drama classes are great for helping less confident children, there was a girl who was an elective mute in my dds drama class and now she will speak by herself in front of a group of people.

Those times tables are normal for year 2. I thought 3x and 4 x were also taught in year 2.

I think 7 is young to find intrinsic motivation. I would use more incentives until your DD consistently delivers at a higher level and it becomes a habit. DS was always aware bottom set table got to do things in a more fun/interactive way than worksheets & that if he completed one quickly the 'reward' was another worksheet.