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Primary education

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Original poster

Da hopeless at writing - here is an example.

188 replies

Notmymuse · 29/03/2015 17:52

Further to my previous thread ds (5) wrote this today. He self corrected a number of times and at the end went back and changed 'to' to 'two'. It took him around 5 minutes and says:

Jesus went into Jerusalem. He had the last supper. Judas betrayed him. The Roman king put two criminals up together. 'Which one shall I release?' said the king. Sadly Jesus was crucified.

Apart from criminals - which is spelt insanely - I'd have been able to get the rest but the handwriting continues to be horrific. He's 6 in June. This looks quite behind to me. Should I press the school for some further help? Certainly compared to all the beautiful work on his classroom walls he is behind.

Da hopeless at writing - here is an example.
OP posts:
Blueblackdye · 29/03/2015 23:01

TSSDNCOP, love your post !
OP, don't put too much pressure on him. He is only 5. Children develop differently.

TheBuskersDog · 29/03/2015 23:02

my favourite spelling was when he just started year 1: unforchunaitlee (unfortunately). His teacher wasn't impressed however!

If that is really the teacher's reaction to a five year old attempting to use, and having a decent go at spelling, unfortunately in their writing, then she/he sounds like a shit teacher!
The year 1 teachers I know would be more likely to be pleased that the child had attempted it and would love the spelling, never would they criticise it.

TheBuskersDog · 29/03/2015 23:04

^^
my favourite spelling was when he just started year 1: unforchunaitlee (unfortunately). His teacher wasn't impressed however!

bold failure!

Ferguson · 29/03/2015 23:06

The Crucifixion is a scary topic for little kids, as is the Fire of London or the Flood!

YonicScrewdriver · 29/03/2015 23:09

YY Busker

Box5883284322679964228 · 29/03/2015 23:09

I think he's probably average for year one. Also his performance now will not link to his performance at year 6 level. I found lots of bottom/middle ability table year 1's were top table by year 6.

TheControversialJessie · 30/03/2015 00:16

Does this school follow the International Primary Curriculum?

LondonRocks · 30/03/2015 00:20

This thread makes my heart sink.

Poor kid.

minkGrundy · 30/03/2015 00:37

Ok OP have it your way. Your kid is average for his class. So what?
Really it is nothing to worry about other than the fact you worry about it.

And it is far from 'hopeless'. It will get better and you know it.

Mandzi34 · 30/03/2015 06:40

By the way, my son is an August baby so like yours is very young for his year (now Year 5). In reception he struggled to even hold the pen, let alone write anything! By Year 3 he had more than caught up.

youarekiddingme · 30/03/2015 06:53

That's a great piece of writing for a year 1 - 5 year old.

isittheweekendyet · 30/03/2015 06:56

This thread also makes my heart sink. Op I hope you truly have praised him because your natural reaction of describing his work as 'hopeless', and a child of 5 already knowing he is being compared to, and is behind his classmates, by his teacher makes me both sad and angry. He's 5. Everyone involved in his education should be making it a fun and enjoyable learning environment not piling the pressure on at such a young, vulnerable age.

jaynebxl · 30/03/2015 07:11

So you know the content and vocab is good , you're just concerned about the handwriting?
All of the work on the wall (about 15 examples maybe) showed very neat joined writing.
I'm sure they only put the best written stuff on the wall. It's perfectly normal for children not to have great handwriting at this age because they're still refining and practising their fine motor skills.

ilikemysleep · 30/03/2015 07:22

Oakmaiden we have been working on spaces between words since he was 5. Its on practically every piece of writing he ever wrote! Weirdly it seems to be genetic as apparently his dad didn't use spaces and one little brother doesn't either. His 2 other sibs have lovely writing.

littlesupersparks · 30/03/2015 07:22

Wowzers I'm a secondary school teacher and see worse writing than that often. That's completely legible!

QOD · 30/03/2015 07:53

My Dd went to a village school where nearly every child started school with skills well above national average.

Affluent SE Kent & expensive village, 2% school meals
if you were below average for cohort you were still above average

Original poster
Notmymuse · 30/03/2015 07:57

Yes I suppose it is mainly the handwriting and some of the spellings - kriamells for criminals?
I don't know, I suppose I thought he should be further on than this but I shall try and stop worrying.

OP posts:
RedButtonhole · 30/03/2015 08:24

My DS is 5, 6 in September. We are in Scotland so the curriculum may work differently here but my DS is nowhere near writing something like that independantly.

His handwriting is more or less the same, maybe the spacing isn't as consistant as your DS, but certainly I'd say the content and attempt at spelling is excellent for his age, and handwriting must be at least average? I could read it and understand it without any difficulty at all so I don't think you need to worry. I'll be impressed if DS is at the same stage in the next few months.

mrz · 30/03/2015 08:26

Firstly I wouldn't worry if he were in my Y1 class he has the basics and there is plenty of potential to improve.
I would give him lined paper that will help him regulate the size of his letters and it immediately looks much better than undulating script. From the piece you posted his letter formation looks fine and will develop as he matures.
For his spelling encourage him (model for him) to say the words very precisely so he can hear all the sounds (his spelling voice) and to break words down into syllables building the syllable sound by sound and the word syllable by syllable.

Research shows that writing by hand is important so I would avoid using scribes or speech to text programmes ... he's Y1 and doing fine.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 30/03/2015 11:59

I can't spell criminals (well it autocorrected it for me - phew!). I'm a lawyer (albeit not a criminal one). He's below average in a very able cohort. He's doing extremely well. Cut him some slack.

Original poster
Notmymuse · 30/03/2015 13:05

Yes I suppose you are all correct.
It doesn't help that everyone I know has very advanced children. It shouldn't matter as long as ds tries his best and is happy but it's hard when everyone else seems to have children ahead of the curve.

OP posts:
hazeyjane · 30/03/2015 13:07

Just concentrate on what your child is doing and stop paying so much attention to other children

Original poster
Notmymuse · 30/03/2015 13:18

Yes and he is awesome in very many ways. He's very good at football and sport so even though he may not be academic I'm hopeful he will find something else he's good at and enjoys.

OP posts:
Shapebandit · 30/03/2015 13:45

We can't all have extremely advanced children though.
It seems your son is advanced for his age but is not advanced enough to keep you happy. I do feel a bit sorry for him!

mrz · 30/03/2015 13:47

There is no reason to conclude he isn't academic. He's 5 years old and doing well.

I don't know how long he's been in his current school but he's having to adjust to different teachers, different approaches to teaching and different expectations ... He's playing catch up and getting there!