Primary school key stage 2 education

[NH88]

I've just been called into a meeting with my sons new primary school teacher about his performance in English or lack of it in his teachers eyes- it's been two weeks into the new school year and my son has already expressed he is finding it hard. I hired a private tutor last week and the day after his lesson his work had improved dramatically to which I discussed with the teacher this afternoon. I have asked the teacher what they are going to do to help my son get back to the level he should be at but have been told there is no funding for this so I have replied that the only solution then is for me to pay for private tuition which I find absolutely disgraceful at primary school level, my son is eight years old!!!

It's sad, but seems to be the case in a lot of school. Our school had to let the staff go because they can't afford to keep them, it's very depressing for the parents.
At least your ds improved dramatically with just one tutor session. At least he is capable to catch up with minimum help at home.

The school should not be saying that private tutoring is the only option. One of the main measures of a school's performance these days is how many children are making th expected progress for their age. If your son is not making expected progress, then they should definitely have an intervention or some help available for him. Can your son or his teacher pinpoint exactly what he is struggling with? Reading? Spelling? Grammar? Composition?

What exactly did the teacher say? Why did they call you in?

They should have a plan in place to support him; however that won't include paying for an extra teacher or TA, but they should have an idea of what they can do in school to help.

If they have called a meeting already, are they concerned about his behaviour in lessons or just his achievement?

Hi, we got called in because the teacher was struggling to get my son to write his ideas down on paper, it's his writing, spelling and grammar that he's struggling with. The private tutor has told us he's a perfectionist so if he feels that it maybe wrong he's reluctant to put it down- this I explained to the teacher and said that the tutor had managed with as little as 5 minutes talking to my son had got he to do a page of writing and the teacher even confirmed after one session his work was better in class. I can't believe the educational system will let children fall through the net for 5 minutes one to one time. My son is very well behaved and loved his previous years at school but currently hates it and is beginning to be introverted and isolated so I have no option to intervene as he will just continue in the downward spiral and get lost in the under achievers school system with absolutely no extra help from the teachers

Has he been tested for dysgraphia?

Hi I asked his tutor if she thought there was a possibility of dyslexia but she said she absolutely didn't think so. I think his confidence from previous years as he won the child of achievement award last year has been knocked out of him in just two weeks!! He's also been put back a year on the reading books from school, he's re-reading a book he passed the test on last year and has had this book in his book bag for the last two weeks- another point I raised with the teachers to not much of a response.

If he has won the achievement award last year, he must have made great progress.
Why did he suddenly started to struggle? Was he struggling last year?
What do you mean by put back a year on reading books? That sound odd, if he passed the test.(Though I don't understand what passed the test means.)

Sometimes they just need a little time to get back into the swing of things after the school holidays.

For now rather than the tutor if you can't afford her I would concentrate on practising handwriting and reading with him. It will soon click back.

In the kids school they have to do a test after every book to pass and move onto the next- he wasn't the best at English last year but no where near what he is this year- don't know if it's the teacher as my son really doesn't want to go to school or like him???

Maybe this year's teacher's expectation is higher?
Reading and writing, if he has no sen, I think he can progress well by daily practice, especially he improved so much after one tutor session.
You can get better with grammar with daily practice too.
uk.ixl.com/ela/grammar
Spelling can also improve by reading and writing practice, imo.

My ds struggled with reading comprehension before, but it has improved a lot over the years just doing comp work everyday for 5 minutes.
Writing is still a problem, he is kind of like your ds, struggles to put ideas on the paper. But we started short 3 minutes exercise during summer, and I think it has improved. At least he has become a lot more confident.

Thanks I'm going too continue with the tuition and read daily with my son as well as do writing and spelling. I think all that I can invest at the minute is going to be a million times more than the school and there's no help there

What help would you like the school to give?

Realistically you are not going to get one to one in school. They should have a TA in class who can help with children who struggle and the school cannot expect private tuition. They must have suitable interventions for children who are not making good progress. However they won't have assessed this formally yet so I think they were more concerned that he was writing nothing and wanted to talk to you because of his change in performance.

You should hear him read daily and go to the library to get more books. You don't have to stick to school ones. Extra books builds vocabulary. A bit of writing is helpful too but try not to be too demanding because it may put him off even more. I think it is best to keep up with the tutor but also ask the school what their strategy is so that he makes good progress. Make an appointment with the teacher after half term when they have formally assessed his progress.

They should have a TA in class - Sadly this isn't the case. Many, many schools don't have TAs in every class. And every class has children who are struggling.

That is rubbish. I wonder what Ofsted would make of that...?

"I wonder what Ofsted would make of that...?" It wouldn't concern Ofsted

It might concern Ofsted directly but a sudden deterioration in the level of work being done in school should certainly be worrying the school. Accepting it is still very early in the term and it may be that son will suddenly click.
I do wonder whether having the private tutor is being counter-productive. Your son needs to get on with the teacher at school and it could be he is not wanting to because he prefers the tutor and is then getting mixed messages from teacher and tutor. I think it might be better to give him a month say without any tutoring and see if the situation improves at school. If it has not improved by half term then you have every right to be taking it up much more strongly with the teacher and head teacher as to what is going on at school.

I don't think having a tutor is counter productive. But I do agree that he needs to get on with the teacher at school too.
Even you are not happy about school/teacher, showing him your feeling to him would be a bad idea. I had a feeling my ds's yr1 teacher wasn't interested, and my dh hated her, but in front of ds, we never shown doubts for her.

Over the years, my ds never received any intervention when he was having difficulty, because he was not struggling to meet expected level. And I understand with limited budget, it goes where most needed.
I would have used tutor, but I had time and was able to help(with help from MN teachers' advice so far), so I done it myself.
It will be great if the school can help, but while waiting for school to do something, I think it's far more productive to get on with helping yourself, if you can, anyway you can.

I think two weeks into term is too early to jump to conclusions. If he was working without difficulty last year and his previous teacher had no concerns you need to discover why he's not demonstrating this now.
I assume the school uses "accelerated reader" at school ? Being put back suggests he answered questions in the online quiz incorrectly. You need to ask yourself why? Did he simply not try or was he unable.
Is the progress seen with the tutor transferred to work in school? If so it suggests that he's quite capable but for some reason has failed to demonstrate this to his teacher. One session with a tutor (which ideally would be spent assessing the underlying difficulty) would be unlikely to result in a "dramatic improvement".

(Mrz, after following your advice on free writing, ds is doing great.)

You don't have to rely on the schools books. Take him to the library and ask him to pick out books that interest him. We know as adults that it feels really depressing to have to read boring books that we really don't want to. His reading will soon take off again when he's reading interesting books.

I'm pleased Irvine

OP is your son in Year3?

I wasn't really suggesting she contact Ofsted, but I don't think they would look very favourably on schools which expect private tutors to pick up any slack.

Irvine and NorestforMRz can you pass on the free writing advice? I have a feeling it could benefit my kids.

I would leave the details to mrz, but it's very simple.

It's just writing continuously for certain time, without thinking too much.
My ds does it for 3 minutes, but it can be 1 minute. Basically, child need to write whatever comes into the head, without stopping, without pen/pencil leaving paper until time is up.
Don't worry about spelling/structure/ grammar, etc.

It worked better with my ds when I gave him simple topics. ( I gave him topic like dragons, summer holiday, character from his favorite game, etc.)
We have been doing over a months now, and his writing has definitely improved, even though we are not caring about contents, just focusing on writing continuously. . It's weird, but his structure etc. has improved too.