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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Do you where in class your child sits?

67 replies

HuwEdwards · 26/09/2006 10:06

and no, I don't mean 'by Billy' or 'next to the window', but I've tried to word the subject for 5 mins and failed.

What I mean is do you have an notion of whether they are 'near the bottom', 'average' or in the top set? (Obviously as I can't even put a thread title together, I am class dunce )

Was just reading a couple of other posts, and some parents appear to have a view of their child's progress in comparison with the rest of the class.

My DD is Yr 1 and have absolutely no idea - the parent evening in reception gave me no clues - other than she doesn't appear to have any particular problems.

If you do know - how did you find out?

OP posts:

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Skribble · 26/09/2006 23:30

Logically the squares may go to uni and go on to be managers and executives, Triangles may work in the offices and as supervisors and the circles might be in Mcdonalds or emptying the bins.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 26/09/2006 23:53

cant believe you just posted that .

misdee · 27/09/2006 00:02

with regards to reading adn writing by dd1 has extra lessons as she is behind, but is sailing through maths work. her homework comments are things like 'did you find that easey peasey?' with a big grinning face. she is also very arty.

doesnt mean she'll work in maccy d's tho, mind you its got to be better than being on the dole.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 27/09/2006 00:11

would you like fries with that

iarose · 27/09/2006 10:05

ours is quite a big school so they are "streamed" for spelling and maths in three groups by ability... And the reading is banded in different colours so you can work out how your kid is doing by nosing at what colour books the others come out with!! Best way to see how they are doing is to go in and help with activities then you can get a good feel for the other children's level compared to your own.
ps I used to work at McDs

Skribble · 27/09/2006 11:28

My last was meant tounge in cheack . Its just that logicaly the different streams at primary are not all going to be working at the same level jobs in offices 30 years from now.

Nothing wrong with working at McDonalds BTW, lots of kids who went there straight from school end up managing their own one in a few years. Plus they have some good employment policies.

elliedragon · 27/09/2006 11:35

I tried the detective work on my ds last night and he basically said he was the best at absolutely everything. I think I might need to work on his ego!

3catstoo · 27/09/2006 12:46

DD1s teacher showed me a list of the children's ready abilities. It was only to show me how DD was getting on in YR1. The teacher asked me in for a chat as I had written an essay in her record book. I did it to let the teacher know which books DD had read in the hols. The teacher thought I needed advise on how she was doing so gladly called me in for an hour long chat after school. She got lego and other stuff out for my 3 to play with.
I'm not sure that she should have showed me the list but she was just reassuring me.

DS's teacher, yr2, gives nothing away.

Both DD and DS are both on coloured tables but they are not based on ability.

Parents evening is in 2 weeks so maybe I'll know more then.

I know in DS class the reading abilities vary hugely. DS commented that a boy in his class had the same book as DD a week before. DD was reading an ORT stg 4 book. This boy is in yr 2. DS is reading ORT stg 11. Until you're told that you don't really know how your child is doing.

CarlyP · 27/09/2006 20:16

As long as they are enjoying it, does it matter...........

my ds's are only nrly 2 and 3. both count to five, speak very well, nrly 3yo can spell his name. but you know what.......i dont care, im pleased they 'enjoy' doing these things, but im just as happy for them to be pottering in the garden.

Spatz · 27/09/2006 20:36

DD just moved to new school for Y1. Was in her bedroom playing with scraps of paper which had pictures of animals on and said 'I was in bears and they moved to elephants'. Next morning saw chart with five animal names and 5/6 children in each. DD was moved from middle group to 2nd. (Not that I care - v important that she's happy at this stage . They have other 'teams' numbered 1-5 which are mixed ability and in which they do most of their work. Funny that they used animals for the ranked groups and numbers for the mixed-ability groups. Who are they trying to kid!
I don't think DD or the other mums have any idea or maybe it's all going on behind my back!!

QueenPeaHead · 27/09/2006 20:42

I read this thread last night and said to ds1 (yr 1) today "so who in your class gets the trickiest work?"
He said (sigh) "me. freddie comes into my class and him, lizzie and me have special maths together. today we were doing backwards number patterns from 39."
"Oh!" says I, rather amazed to have elicited so much information from him with one sneaky mumsnet question. Then I open his home book and it says "DS1 did VERY well at maths today".

Hmmmm. May have einstein-type genius on my hands

Clary · 27/09/2006 22:47

I know that DS1 is towards the bottom of his class in literacy as he did his SATs in the summer and I know the breakdiwn of figures.
DD, who has just started yr 1, is not only much better at reading than he was at this age, but pretty much better than him now . I would imagine she is towards the top of her class, but that is based on general observation of abilities in the year eg the standard of writing in thank you letters we receive! (which I realise proves very little) but also admiring comments from other parents on her writing and colouring (I repond with, Ahh, but XXX can swim 4 lengths/ride his bike without stabilisers/sing in six parts unaccompanied etc)
I agree with MB the most important thing is that they are happy, and DS1 has been much happier in the last 2 years so I'm fine with that.

Loshad · 28/09/2006 10:14

I found the only tricky thing at Y1/2 type stage was that i had a child in Y2,a dnone in Y1, and the one in Y1 was brining home harder reading books - had to turn reading into a mummy only activity after some comments from DS2 like "oh i read that a few weeks ago" or he would tell DS1 the word - not good for DS1's confidence.

singersgirl · 28/09/2006 11:00

Mmm, DS2, who is just 5, has corrected DS1 (8 with apparently a spelling age of 3 years above his age) on spelling a couple of times (things like "there is an 'i' in 'leisure'" or "the tricky bit in 'chemical' is the 'h'"). I guess DS2 just has a knack for remembering spelling patterns.

Have now established who is in his reading group, but am no nearer to finding out about numeracy. Actually, the reading/spelling stuff is clear for DS2. It's the numeracy I don't know about.

sleepinbeauty · 28/09/2006 14:36

Well ive got it easy as the headmistress's prodigal son is in my dd's class , and he is a brainiac (he doesnt have much choice)!
So as my dd is in all his groups for reading , maths etc, i take that as a good thing indeed!! they are yr 3.

micra · 28/09/2006 21:16

I'm a teacher. If you want to know how your child's doing, just ask! I'm sure all my colleagues would say exactly the same thing.

But there are 2 ways of looking at it:

a) How is your child doing in relation to the rest of the class? (which can be distorted if your child is the oldest, the youngest, or that class happens to be a particularly bright bunch or particularly poor lot)

b) How is your child doing for their age? (Most formal assessments and tests done in schools have a conversion table which takes age into account and comes out with a "Standardised Score". 100 is the average child for that age).

The only thing I would say is that if a parent asks, I only want to give them specific info on THEIR child - eg if I was showing a list of test scores to illustrate where a particular child was in relation to their peers, I'd cover up the names as that's private information. A teacher may be reticent to show you such a list for that reason. Can't think of any other reason why it should be a secret.

Sorry for the essay.

singersgirl · 29/09/2006 17:57

Impressive response from your DS, QueenPeaHead. I asked DS2 the same question: "Who gets the trickiest work?" and he replied, "I don't know, Mummy. Who does?"

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