year 1 levels

[quornmummy]

Any teachers or teaching assistants out there to offer any words of wisdom? DC came home last week with autumn term report. It said effort was fine but below average for reading, writing and maths. His speech was slow to develop and he has speech therapy and is now much more verbal and I feel he is catching up. End of foundation report highlighted only behind in maths which I can see. He is reading blue level books in the main and writing is progressing. Dc is happy at school, lots of friends etc and strong imagination. my question is do children catch up given that Y1 is very young still? He reads and writes at home. I thought he was doing ok.

you have to remember that the curriculum has changed so whilst he might well have been classed as doing fine at the end of the EYFS it is perfectly possible that either he is a bit slower to take to the change in style of teaching in Yr1 and not progressing quite as quickly as they would have expected this term or that with the new curriculum as the required level is higher then he might now be classed as below whereas last year in yr1 perhaps he would have been ok.

try not to worry about it over the holidays, have a rest from school, keep up reading as that can easily slip back in holidays, a small amount every day will really help and perhaps encourage some writing (thank you letters would be a good excuse - you could type a basic bit and he could add a personal handwritten bit at the end maybe so not too daunting but still doing some) and then send a note in at the beginning of term to ask to see the teacher I think. Then you can ask is it of concern to them or is he doing ok and what you could do at home to help him.

There is plenty of time for him to catch up, don't feel it isn't possible but you don't want him to get further behind so it is definitely worth discussing it with the teacher sooner rather than later.

Hi quorn:

First off remember expected levels for years often are for the end of that year whereas the school often reports how they're doing right now (your school may not do it this way but really try and be clear about what information they're giving you). In the main when I've been told DD1 is a bit behind - it's usually been the school trying to alert me to doing more at home.

MN has a good explanation of expected progress through NC Levels (and yes these are now going to be abandoned - but many schools are sticking to them so in case your's is): www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels

at the bottom of that link there is a table showing NC Level & sub-level against school year - remember this is the notional target for the end of a given school year.

Now in terms of how you approach this - if the school is saying he's a bit behind...

1. Consider your child's age - is he younger than most classmates (this will make less and less of a difference over time, but right now may be a huge difference).

2. Consider where the issues lie - reading/ writing/ maths & try and do more at home to help him through that.

Blue band is low end of reading for ages 5 - 6, but if your child is only 5 then that's pretty good going. (e.g. www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands)

Finally just to reassure you - DD1 really struggled in KS1 - for us the solution was doing more at home but I've had friends in a similar boat and a great teacher the next year has made a lot of difference too! The point is that it can all come good - if it's important to you your child can read better, add/ subtract/ etc... just try give it some support & time at home - it will make a big difference.

I also swear by sending your DC the message that they'll get there in the end. If they don't believe they can do it - it really is a struggle. Persuade them they can do anything - and there's no limit to what they can achieve!

My brother & S-I-L teach primary and both firmly believe that you should treat primary as a marathon and not a sprint. Pace yourself.

HTH

My DD was given a 1c in Maths at end of Year 1 (2 sub-levels behind the expected) but by end of Year 5 was 4a (2 ahead of expected). The good thing about being behind in Year 1 is it's quite easy to improve things in a fun way - we went round the house measuring things, invented games for learning number bonds etc. This was why I ignored people saying "she'll catch up in her own time" - I think its so much easier to catch up at this stage.

Year 1 teacher here. Below average at this point of year is quite common and quite common in writing at the end of Year 1.

So nothing to worry about yet. If they haven't caught up by the middle of Year 2, then will be the time to be concerned.