KS1 didn't make the expected standard for writing

[abrightday]

I am seeking helpful, constructive input to my concerns. In the past I have put questions on some Mumsnet threads and received (mostly helpful) but also judgemental/troll like feedback so I post my concern with some trepidation.
My son is in year 2. He did not reach the expected standard in writing. I knew the criteria and was aware that he was having difficulties so should not have been surprised about the result. Nonetheless seeing it in writing in a child's report was confronting.
I have since his birth done a lot of reading with him. He loves reading with me and I am a huge fan of children's books especially picture books. He has exposure to lots of exciting out of school activities and I have a circle of friends with children of a similar age who he sees regularly and plays with.
Homework time and any time where writing is involved is stressful. I have tried my best to make it relaxed and fun and this works until my son gets frustrated. He then becomes really angry, shouts, breaks his pencil led, presses heavily on the paper and generally loses it. I am at a loss as to how to approach this. I want to help him and get him up to the required level as I think he capable of this and I am aware of how important written language is in all areas of the curriculum
Specific things like no capitals, full stops etc are a problem but they are easier to help with because they are easily defined and specific.
Things such as structuring his work and writing with some cohesion are a struggle for him. When he writes something and I suggest such things as checking the sentence makes sense or adding adjectives or changing said to another word etc I am immediately met with hostility.I have spoken to his teachers in the past and have been advised to just leave things.....concentrate on enjoying my son and having fun ..............basically just to let him be. That is what I have been doing and he continues to struggle with writing so I am somewhat frustrated by the just let his be route.
I have considered getting a nurturing and professional tutor. My finances are fairly limited though.
My son is articulate and emotionally very sensitive. He is an only child. His progress in reading and maths has been at the expected level although I think he has very good comprehension skills. He loves minecraft, roblox and computer games that involve moving up levels etc. He enjoys playing with his friends, lego and watching tv.

What we are doing at the moment with ds is, we do Article a day from readworks, which he reads an article, and write down new knowledge and new vocabulary everyday, which takes about 10 minutes. On weekends, he does [[http://www.pobble365.com/ pobble]], he picks any picture he likes and answer the question and write some stories.
Also every summer, he writes summer diary,
Those are the things he does willingly.

Thanks yes I have made a big effort to work on things which interest him. He has been interested in ancient Egypt but was more interested in copying things from websites and books rather than writing anything which he knew. One thing which he does seem to enjoy is copying information on subjects he is interested in. He enjoyed making a card for his teacher at the end of term. That is pretty much as far as it goes.

Step away from the WhatsApp group, you need to have a break from what other parents are doing, (I promise you will do yourself a favour by doing this!) and give both DS and yourself a break from school work for the summer. Read to him- every night, encourage him to read to you, share interests together, research places to go visit together (zoo, sea life etc), help him put together a summer scrap book, play board games, play word games, focus on enjoying each other's company.

Your DS will learn, and develop, far more doing these than by completing homework tasks.

Have a great summer!

I just typed in Ancient Egypt, and 119 articles came up on Readworks.
It's mainly reading comprehension site, but you can always use it other way. It's free, have a look.

Thanks for the links Irvine. They'll be really useful with dd10.

abrightday, I posted precisely because I have had 2 children who have struggled - one (dd2) struggled with spelling (and still does) and structure, due to her dyslexia - all the advice I had at the time was to keep the pressure off, find a way in to writing via something she loves (cartoons and animals), and let her listen to and tell stories however she likes (so as not to bore the imagination out of her!) She is now 10 and about to go into year 6, she is working at expected standard, she loves writing (still loves comic strips!) but prefers science stuff ...she is finding her feet, and the progress from year 2 has been fantastic.

The other (ds) is 7 and has just finished year 2. He would be one of those 'low ability' children you talk about. He is working at a lower level in most areas (slightly better in maths), he is able to write sentences with support, but hasn't 'got' grammar, he is on yellow level reading books and struggles massively with phonics - he only started talking when he was nearly 5, and uses an electronic talker and makaton to be understood. The progress he has made has also been fantastic. There are other 'low ability' children in his class - some who have just started writing single words, one who uses an electronic writing aid.

Dd2's school moves the tables around frequently, sitting different ability children together - this has worked very well for dd2. Ds's school has groups of similarly leveled children for some areas, and then mixes it up for others... this has also worked well!

Both mine were on the low ability table. DD looked on it as if she were on the higher tables then she would have to keep up and praise wasn't as forthcoming as the lower table. As she put it if she wrote her name she got loads of praise and the TA would hand out a chocolate button at the end of the week to everyone on the table for their efforts whilst the rest of the class looked on jealously.

Ds only learned to read at 12. Forcing him to write when he couldn't read made him hate school and put him back years. I took him out of school in year 3 because my beautiful funny bright and happy boy had turned into a 7year old that looked like he was suffering from PTSD

Please don't force things they will learn at their own rate

My youngest son ( now 17) , was always HA , but his writing let him down, big time.
He hated it, couldn't see the point and would do anything to not have to write, if he could.( I trained as a TA in his school, so I saw what he was actually doing! I never interfered and let the teachers get on with it.)
It didn't stop him from getting 5A in his year 6 SATS, or As and A* in his GCSE's. Yes , his handwriting is still not good, and he holds his pen in the most peculiar way, ( despite my attempts to get him to do it correctly), but he can write the necessary essays etc .

What I am saying is...let it go. Leave school to sort it out.They will, because they dare not let things slide! Don't pressure the poor boy with a tutor! ( I'm sorry , but tutoring is a pet hate of mine).
If he is as bright as you believe, it will happen, eventually.

I think if he is copying things down, that is fun for him, so it is not a huge leap to doing it for himself. A lot of children find remembering capital letters, full stops etc a chore. Just keep reminding him.

You should perhaps look into whether there are any physical or technique reasons. DD1 did not write more than 2 sentences until she was 10. An OT assessment found that she was pressing too hard on the pencil making writing painful, very tiring and slow - in her case the cause was diagnosed as hypermobility and ASD. She underwent a 6 week hand training course and then she was away and filled notebook after notebook with short stories through her teens and is currently at university.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I appreciate that me stressing over it is not the answer so somehow I have to manage this. It is impossible for me to not worry about this but that is my issue not my son's.I am grateful for the replies people have shared about their own struggles and triumphs with their children.. I am heartened by all the responses and suggestions and now have to work out a strategy that is best for my son. Irvineonephone I will have a look at the websites you use.

If you want to encourage him to write, get him to write about what interests him. If he has something he is particularly 'in to' get him to write you a fact file about it. There are several programmes being developed around writing for a purpose to diminish the difference between girls and boys attainment in writing, using interests and factual topics. Some programmes are being developed using visual stimulus to support tangibility in learning. A lot of schools struggle to engage boys in fiction because lots of boys don't see it as interesting or relevant to them.
My son would write you a whole book about weather phenomena, but would struggle to write a meaningful sentence about a fictional event.

Neither of mine (finishing year 2 and 3) made expected for handwriting. I went in and saw my year 2 dc teacher about it (she's autistic and has ADHD) and she showed me the criteria and it's insane! So many boxes that need ticking. I'm planning to work with them over the holidays and practise. We're planning a holiday diary too. Once we're settled back into school I'm planning an OT for my seven year old as she has issues gripping a pencil but we plan to just do a little writing hear or there.

God here or there!

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DD is year 2 and she is only working towards the expected KS2 level. She is LA and sits on that table each lesson, as you said, mainly taught by the TA. DD adores her TA, who works solely with 4 of them and is lovely, but it does piss me off that because of this DD gets less teacher time. Surely she needs more teacher time??

That one of my "rants" the children who most need a teacher are least likely to be left to a TA! This often leads to them developing dependence rather than becoming independent learners.

My class teacher and I regularly change who has which group, depending on their need. She prefers to take LA herself, although our groups are quite fluid. she assess at input to see who needs more teaching time.

As I mentioned further up in the thread it is a true that children grouped in an LA group get a disproportionate amount of Teacher Aide time. I think it is wrong. In a lot of classrooms I have been in the TA works almost exclusively with children who struggle. I agree with you mrz. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that more TA time goes with less teacher time.

Just had a look at a website recommended up thread www.pobble365.com it looks fantastic.

"That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that more TA time goes with less teacher time." I've got to disagree with it not being bad ... these kids need to be taught and having a TA velcroed to them only teaches dependence. Ultimately it does very little to help progress.

I'd suggest taking a step back and giving him a year to mature. If by Y4 you are not seeing the progress you require, that would be the time to look at tutoring or other additional support.

Check out mrs wordsmith. 10 mins a day and fun. It's about vocabulary and he may not notice the writing.

Yes I agree with you mrz perhaps I wrote the above in haste, it isn't a good thing for children to become dependent on the TA.

I will check on mrwordsmith.

I met with my ds's teacher yesterday for similar reasons as he didn't meet the standard for writing although he is in the expected or at greater depth for everything else. There are no issues around why he isn't keen around writing (he's actually the eldest in the year so it isn't age) just that he isn't very engaged with it and for him spelling is a real issue.

My plan is to use the squeebles spelling app over the summer to help secure the year 2 spellings so he isnt too behind and try to do some fun writing in a very relaxed way - he quite likes the idea of writing a comic or some stories he wants to write about. And just be very gentle with him.

DS (dyslexic) had problems both with expressing himself in writing,and physically getting the words on the paper.
TBH the expressing himself has only been helped by using IT which he does for all longer pieces of writing (A levels now), but for the physical issues we did practice - copying,tracing,mazes,anything that I thought would help that he wouldn't hate doing.So there were probably things we missed,but I wanted stuff we could do little and often,that would be easy on us both,and stress free.And I'm sure the physical issues held him back on the other aspects, because he couldn't produce a longer bit of work at all.
The website a PP described sounds great.I think it can really help to have a resource you can use,but as a non- teacher parent don't have to plan from scratch.
Good luck with it all.