Poor year 1 report

[Jeezimacasalinga]

I received the report cards on Friday for my son in year 1 and daughter in year 3. The cover letter explained that the children had been assessed according to the new national curriculum, and that the previous 'exceeding' (top mark) was in many areas now the equivalent of 'mastering' (the middle mark). My daughter's report was fine, although she definitely had more 'middle' marks than usual (she is fairly bright, all 3's for sats last year). However my son seems to be struggling, with lots of 'working towards' (the lowest mark) for literacy and numeracy. His previous reports have been fine and the school haven't flagged up any issues, which I'm concerned and a bit annoyed about. Also, despite me telling them both that their reports were very good but for my eyes only, of course they found them and read them, and my daughter teased him for having lots of the lower marks. He's now upset and disappointed, although we've done our best to reassure him that he's doing great .

Has anyone had a similar experience with the new national curriculum reports - how worried should I be?

You should be worried about your daughter and son disregarding your instructions, and about your daughter teasing your son.

The new NC is harder so you would expect aboves to go to the new middle.

You need to ask your school whether you should be worried regarding the working towards.

I'd worry less about your son's academic achievement and more about your dd's behaviour tbh. Taking the piss out of a 6 year old for his "poor marks" is really vicious.

Thanks for your helpful replies. FWIW, my daughter was of course reprimanded, and told him she knew how clever he was really, as she's actually a nice child. However - they're 8 and 6 year old sibings - of course they are competitive, and tease each other sometimes. Do either of you actually have kids?

I have kids. Just 1 year older than yours in fact. They fight, they wind each other up, they compete. But neither of them would even consider making fun of the others marks. Sorry, but that's not what a "nice child" does.

In the nicest possible way, I think the only person who can help with this one is your son's teacher. The goalposts have shifted so much, Y1s are expected to do so much writing now and it's hard.

It has never occurred to me to hide the reports from my children - they are about them after all. Read your son the nice comments in his report, it might buoy him up a bit.

Thanks blink - it's never occurred to me to hide reports either, but I didn't want him to be disappointed - he's only 6! What the teacher wrote was very encouraging, so I had read that out to him. Having spoken to some other parents, sounds like the class has all been 'shifted over' to the left in the columns for this year. Which I can understand, given the new NC, but perhaps a clearer 'heads-up' would have been sensible. Anyway - have made an app to see the teacher to allay my concerns.

It is my opinion that a lovely 8 year old is very capable of not thinking about the implications of her teasing her brother before doing it. Children, and indeed many adults often speak first and think later. The OP was not asking for judgements on an 8 year old child. She was asking for ways to reduce the disappointment of a six year old. Given how many parents are trying to understand his the shift in NC requirements seems to resulted in lower grades for many children, again it doesn't seem shocking that a parent would choose to not share a report in its entirety (and after all, they are primarily written for parents) with a child. I can't really answer your actual question OP, but my advice is to ignore the nasty comments about your DD. She is 8. She isn't always going to demonstrate the forethought that adults should have before saying unkind things.

I'm sorry I didn't word my answer carefully enough, but OP was asking about being worried about the report, (not ways to reduce disappointment of a 6 year old).

I have 2 children, both of whom have found school a struggle. At primary I never shared levels/scores/grades with them, and only picked out wording I wanted them to hear. The reports are about the child, but are written for the parent.
For me also, it is unacceptable for a sibling (or other child) to tease someone based on how good they are at something which may be a real struggle for them. I think that's what caused me to be blunt with my reply, as my younger one was struggling a lot at school last year due to classmates tactlessness and has needed intervention to rebuild her self confidence.

I also think a 'poor report' is one that says poor behaviour and attitudes, not just one with 'working towards' with respect to attainment.

So OP by all means ask the teacher what you can do to support your DS more, but watch out for your children continuing to compare themselves, especially if the younger one is likely to feel inadequate.

I've just got my son's year one report. There are some lovely comments from his teacher and he's got meeting expectations for everything. Do you think that's a good report or are lots of kids getting working above expectations at this stage?