Honest relpies wanted regarding my dd's sets!

[Quadrophenia]

My twin dd's have just gone from year one into year two. last year all reports were good with both girls being in top sets and we were told they are both bright. This year at parents evening we were told they wre both working just above average and they have gone from top set down to third in literacy and second and third in numeracy with in my opinion the brighter twin in the lower set. Now i am confused, belive me i have no problem with my child being average, but i don't undersatnd how they go down without any problems being highlighted in anyway. Both girls are aware they have gone down and are bothered by it, but more bothered that in their litercay group all the boys mees ae=round and call them swear names (cow etc). I don't see this as a group in whcih they are going to flourish in anyway and do if i'm honest feel abit snobbish towards the boys in her group who are all 'naughty boys'. In regards to literacy, they are reading at a higher level than the others in their group by two stages and are reading at the same level as children in the top group. I must admit none of it makes any sense to me and i feel i should speak to the teacher but have no idea how to broach it, if at all. What should i do?? Can you see why I'm confused?

So they're not reading the same books as the rest of the children in their set? Are they reading the same books as the top set?

they are reading yellow sticker books, top set children read yellow sticker books and some are below that. Other children in their set read green sticker books which are two stages down (sorry i knwo its confusing)

I can see why you're confused, yes. I don't know if this is relevant, but my ds went down two groups for reading when he was about 5 and 6. The reason was that although he was excellent at reading out loud, in the sense of saying the right words and pronouncing them correctly, he was rubbish at comprehension, so he could never tell you about anything he'd read. As that's what they are mostly tested on, he obviously wasn't really as good a reader as he seemed. Is that remotely possible as an explanation? I should say that the teacher discussed it all though, he wasn't the only one in that position, and it was all explained well.

they only got moved up to yellow sticker after i complained that the blue stickers were too easy, I was told they had been put on the stickers they were in year one , this was the midle of Oct and they hadn't been reassessed, my kids had progressed loads in this time.

How do sets work if they're reading different books then? Sorry, what I said was probably irrelevant. What I understand as a set is a group of children who are all reading the same book.

Thanks tamum, I'm not sure about the comprehension, they answer the questions re the books ok, so i guess they understand. Will check though . Just wish I knew why the big drop, feel like I've missed something.

No because the literacy groups are the same groups they do writing in, they don't read group books at all.

What tamum says makes sense. However I do think you need to discuss this with the teacher. One way or another you dds are uncomfortable in this set and need either to have the reason for their placing explained to them, or to be put into a more apprpriate set.

Is it possible that the teachers are still finding the level of each child? It took ds's new teachers about a month to place him correctly ehen he went up from R to Y1 this term.

Could the drop be due to other children from other Y1 classes joining together to make the new Y2 class? Or new children arriving in school?

So there may be a new mix of children iyswim. The other children from other classes or schools may be more able?

Could it be that their written work is not at the same level as their reading? i thin you need to ask school, on an aside, please don't label the boys naughty. As a mum of a previous 'naughty boy' he used to get very upset at being labelled and sometimes lived up to his name. I know of boys who are still in ds1 ex class and they are labelled naughty when in reality they are not being stimulated by the very pro girl school system.

Sorry rant over

They have already rejigged them and my dd's stayed the same, i will definately mention the disruptive behaviour, but so don't want to come accross as apushy parent who has got her children all wrong!! i think there is a big diffrence between the abilities of my twins, yet the slower twin is in the higher numeracy set and then they are the same for literacy, this seems bonkers to me, but i feel if i say anything i am putting said twin down.

Ah, I get it. The teachers should definitely be explaining what's happening to you. Your poor twins

I hate myself for doing it deegward but these boys are being quite cruel to my children so its a bit hard not to. I hate the whole labelling thing to hence the concern about the sets. I often think kids will only do aswell as they are expected to do, and if the expectation isn't high they won't achieve as high. Didn't mean to upset you

Quad, no offence, I took my ds out of that school because of the disruptive influence of those boys. Now in a boys school.

I think boys act badly, to be noticed and get attention which works, but I do blame the school system. I think you need to make the school aware of the boy's behaviour and make it their responsbility to get it sorted. They are affecting your dd ability to learn.

Thanks tamum, it really is hard, the girls just don't really understand why they are not with the friends they worked with last year, some of them are really clever though and definately loads brighter than my girls, but they see it as some kind of failure. i have jollied italong, as you do, and said you can't be good at everything etc, but they feel they are not good at anything, but they used to be

I have the joys of my boys being at school to look forward to deegward
will definately bring up the behviour, being called 'fat cow' etc isn't acceptable and is quite upsetting for them.

Oh, I know just how you feel. Ds's teacher gave him a hug and just said that she thought it would be nicer for him to be in the other group and not be struggling any more, and he took it pretty well. Dd has recently started to find maths terribly hard, having swanned through it earlier, and it's really knocked her for six.

I really do think sometimes that it is forgotten that the teacher should have control over their class, or do I just not live in reality?

have took that approach tamum, explained to the girls it will be much easier working without finding it a struggle, but i honestly didn't know it was before which is why its all strange. didn't think educational matters would bother me so much, but didn't realise they would impact on the kids either, the things you never see coming!!

I'm not sure the teacher is aware of it, as my girls don't feel comfortable with 'telling' but i have tld them tonight that they must if it is upsetting them or stopping them from working.

Surely that will knock his confidence more, themildmanneredjanitor?

really don't understand the putting kids who mess about together thing either, its definately the case with the three boys who sit with my girls.

also the girls sit on a table of seven whilst the top set are a table of five, doesn't make sense to me either.