Significantly behind but no help in Yr 2

[Laura0806]

Just been told my DD in year 2 is significantly behind her peers and is at the bottom of 'emerging' in maths and writing. However, she will not be getting any intervention despite being told she would at the end of year 1. I thought with SATS at the end of this year that most schools would intervene. Her teacher said that they expect her to be emerging at the end of the year. Is it usual for schools not to give additional help/ is it because they don't see her reaching expectations so aren't bothering or just lack of staff/ budget cuts?

No, that's not usual, nor acceptable, nor legal even.
All schools have a duty to differentiate and make adjustments for all children who need additional support.
Yes, absolutely it is getting more and more difficult with budget cuts, and more and more children with really complex needs now attending mainstream schools, however, they still need to make a plan of how they are going to do this, and share it with you.
I would go in / e-mail / phone up and ask to see, or make an appt to see the SENCo and ask her what they are going to put into place to meet your child's needs.

Can you do a bit at home with her every day? DS needed this in Y2 (but wasn't bad enough to get help at school). He had to do a couple of mathletics exercises every day before he got to play on the wii (or similar). That sorted it out.

It would be usual for her to have intervention to assist with her "closing the gap" yes so I would ask how they intend to do that. Closing the gap is a big thing for schools so yours should be no different

If she is significantly behind, she should probably be on the SEN register and as a minimum she should have individualized targets set. It would be very bizarre for a school to just give a blanket 'no' to questions about interventions. Maybe try asking in a different way- what are the next steps for your child in writing and maths,what can you do to support,what are the school doing? You don't mention reading, how is she doing in that?

She is a good reader- well at the expected level anyway.

Unfortunately, it is SEND children who are bearing the brunt of cut-backs to funding. Absolutely, your DD should be getting extra support if she is working significantly below expectation. This should either be in the form of intervention, support in class or as "personalised plan" if she is unable to access the curriculum (which doesn't sound like it is the case.)

However, the school needs staff to run interventions or support in class and if budgets are limited, TAs are often the first to go. Also, the Ofsted obsession with data means that some schools are (wrongly) leaving some children to flounder as they know they are allowed a certain percentage of children who don't achieve age-related expectations and the pressure to meet data targets is immense (eg if 75% of children are expected to achieve age-related expectations, in a class of 30 the staff will know there are approximately 6 children that don't need to reach that level, and those children may suffer from a subsequent lack of attention).

In your situation, I would be pushing the school regularly to ask what support they are giving her. I would also meet with the SENCO and see if she can be put onto the SEND register. This would mean that her progress is more closely tracked at least and the SENCO would need to be involved in creating a plan. They may not consider her to be far enough behind to go on the SEND register though.

Other than that, I can only suggest you do what you can to support her at home.

That's something anyway, at least use reading is OK! I would continue to push the school to provide the support, but in the meantime do what you can yourself. Find out where the gaps are and do some work at home- very short sessions, e.g. 5 minutes at a time, but very regularly. For writing I would recommend the Apples and Pears scheme. Start with workbook A if she's significantly behind in Y2 and do at least a page every night- it's quite quick and easy.

For maths, get some decent tablet apps- try squeebles, haunted house maths, addimals, monkey maths, king of maths junior, plus websites like ictgames, arcademic skills builder. Print out a 1-100 square and number line and practise counting on and back in 10s and 1s.

The school should be doing a lot of this, but if they're not, you can either look at other schools or you can take matters into your own hands and do what you can to ensure she catches up rather than falling further behind.

You'll get lots of good advice here if you have any specific questions about the best ways to support her.

Thank you all for your responses. Thats really helpful Mrs K-. Bowling shoes-thats exactly what I think is happening

I was a Y2 teacher recently. The children on ‘emerging’ would generally have in-class support from me and a TA during normal lessons through differentiation. The children who were ‘working below’ at ‘pre key stage foundations’ would generally be on the SEN register with interventions etc.

What did your child get as EYFS scores in reception class? It’s really her progress that is key here. If she scored 1s for her ELGs (early learning goals) then emerging Y2 would be her expected progress.

Sad but true op, this happens in our school too. Interventions get focused on the lower middles, IE those kids who will get the required scores if pushed enough. The the bright kids trundle along happily enough with the class teaching and achieve good sats results, the middles get all the resources thrown at them so they get the results. Children like your daughter, get set easier work and left to trundle along at their own pace. It's a sad situation caused by massive pressure on underfunded schools....... Sorry