Should i move my child to another school?

[confused426]

My son is in year 3. He articulate and creative. He struggles with writing (content) and works out strategies so he can do the bare minimum. There is very little evidence in his books of him being encouraged to extend his sentences, add more detail, used varied sentence starters etc. His handwriting is uneven in size, orientation is often incorrect and he transposes b/d/j/p on a regular basis.His maths is OK although he takes some time to calculate answers and despite constant practice has difficult recalling all but the 2,5 and 10 times tables. He brings his school books home regularly (this is part of the school's homework policy) and I am surprised at the low level of marking ( I am not in favor of teacher's being overworked needlessly by excessive correcting but equally I think children need specific feedback on areas to work on).There are rarely next steps and simple spelling mistakes are often ignored. When there is a comment referring to an area of development there is not often comments suggesting the development area is being monitored.
On the plus side the school has fantastic pastoral care, the children are listened too, treated as individuals and there is mutual respect between adults and children. The teachers are approachable and open to working with parents.There is a good positive community feel and I find the parents in general positive and supportive of the school. Many of the parents are new to the country and are very accepting of the school and expectations.
I am unhappy about the expectations academically and the progress my son is making in literacy and maths. I work as a teacher and am in tune with what a year 3 child needs to be doing and the standard a child would generally be working at.My son did not met the expected level of attainment in his year 2 sats assessment for writing. I do not belief my son is lacking in intelligence and the work he is producing is not reflective of what he is capable. I have gritted my teeth and put up with it since year 1 but it is now making be feel anxious and angry.
I have been doing extra work with him at home and I think this might be helping him but it is difficult to gauge.
The school had a Ofsted about a year ago and was rated Good. It was a one day inspection and was fairly general in statements.
There is another school which I have been to see which I could probably get my son into, although there is a waiting list. I had a tour of it along with other prospective parents and it seemed efficient and well run. It has an excellent Ofsted report. It did however seem regimented and wall displays of current themes etc in the corridors looked like they had been done with a huge amount of adult input. The school was polished and spic and span but did not have the more child friendly feel that my son's present school has.
My son is happy at his school and relatively settled. I am however thinking that moving him to the other school would almost certainly be beneficial academically. He is reasonably social and makes friends fairly easily. I would be interested in hearing what others would do if faced with a similar predicament?

Has his current school done anything to address the gaps you mention? And are they doing something to help him with his English as it was working towards standard. Is there a difference between class sizes in the 2 schools

Class sizes are the same. His present school is cash strapped and he would get more support at the other school according to the headmistress. I have spoken to the teacher and the head of the year group about the gaps and there is there have been some inconsistent work on addressing the gaps.

has been some inconsistent work on addressing the gaps.

Is he dyslexic do you think? A bright boy underachieving could be dyslexia. I would leave him in his school as a child with that level of difficult may be put under pressure in the other school. Maybe his teacher is not marking all his mistakes in case he gets disheartened. I'm a teacher in lreland so don't understand the years and how they go in the UK. If he is 8 or over could you get an assessment for him? And lots of support yourself without pressure.

I don't think he is dyslexic although some of his difficulties with writing indicate a problem.His reading is reasonable and his comprehension (orally) is good. He does transpose some letters and confuses similar words then/when regularly but he is aware of this. I have thought of having him assessed but I cannot afford it.
I appreciate what you say about the marking it is disheartening to over mark but it is not just that, it is also the lack of direction that is missing, in helping him to achieve better quality writing, ignoring basic spelling mistakes put, looked etc and incorrect use of capital letters corrected but not followed up on.

I think first step is to have a talk with the teacher.
Difficulty in writing may just indicate under developed motor skills or lack of concentration etc, which will not magically solve itself by moving school.

i have talked to the teacher who has put a check list in the back of the book with pointers such as Have I used full stops, used capitals, written on the line etc. It has made no difference. I do not want to be overbearing and appreciate teacher workloads etc but it is not being monitored and has made no difference.
My son's ability to concentrate is totally selective. If it is something he feels confident about and enjoys he can work for hours .....anything to do with Mine craft, frogs, lego and various other things are not a problem.
I understand that moving him to another school will not solve concentration etc and that is why I am trying to work out what to do.

This is a really tricky one. I too dislike criticising overworked teachers, but there are some points of concern in your post that are not what I would expect from my child’s school (I have a DS in year 3). They have systems like marking in 2 colours (tickled pink/green for growth) to draw attention to good/bad points. You’ve tried talking to the teacher and have been given an appropriate but superficial response. These things aren’t going to change as they’re not embedded in the system.

On the other hand, the pastoral side is hugely important too. The other school sounds a little soulless, especially for a creative chap like your DS.

Sorry OP, that wasn’t very helpful! Not sure what I would do but just to say I don’t think you’re worried about nothing.

Thank-you Amber.

Please don't dismiss dyslexia. Several points in your OP ring those alarm bells for me. Discrepancy between oral comprehension and writing things down. Work he is producing is not reflective of his ability. Things he feels confident with, he can work on for hours. Dyslexia is not just inability to read.

He has worked out strategies to do the bare minimum so I think it is difficult for the teacher to get him to do more without setting extra work. How would you expect the teacher to get him to do more? What strategies has he developed? Should he work on his own? Should he correct all his mistakes by writing it all out again? As a teacher yourself, what would you do?

I have rarely seen schools where teachers have time to enhance the work of pupils for display purposes. They may provide a fun background for display but not the written or artwork. I think you like the school you have chosen because it suits your outlook on education so I don’t think you would be happy at the other school. There is no guarantee they would do anything differently.

You could perhaps see the Head and ask about their marking policy. This is the key document and if the teacher isn’t following it, the Head needs to know. However a decent Head would be work sampling and know this teacher needed development to implement the marking policy.

He may not be dyslexic but could have other processing issues. Might be worth exploring before deciding to move him.

In reply to the above I enhance children's work (after class discussion) by giving them simple checklists which they tick off as they work or on completion of a task, for example if writing a character study providing some possible sentence starters, alternative vocabulary to good/bad etc and some pointers for what to include. I have no interest in my son's work being enhanced for display purposes! That does not feature on my concerns.I want him to have some basic knowledge on how to write effectively and strategies to improve and edit his work. Believe me enhancing writing for display sake is not a priority and never will be.
I have had his eyes test. He wears glasses with a very low prescription for reading, but the optician has said the problem will probably correct itself. I have not heard of a behavioural optician but he is due for a checkup so will mention my concerns to the optician
I can have him tested for processing issues as suggested. Perhaps someone can tell me a less expensive route by which to do this. I live in SW London.
The teachers he has had are not terrible or lazy but I do not think he is being given specific and consistent guidance particularly with written work.

My ds had problem with writing earlier in ks2. He has done bare minimum, though teacher commented his content/grammar/spelling was great.
He has hyper focus, he can concentrate for hours if interested, but if not, he can day dream and get easily distracted. Which seems like one of the feature of ADHD.(not diagnosed but highly suspect.)
His writing has progressed so much in two years since yr3, with mixture of gross motor strengthening and regular practice of putting thought directly onto the paper. (Both from mrz's suggestions.)

Confused, your son sounds just like mine at that point. He is now diagnosed with sensory processing issues and hyper mobility

Thing is, it can be anything, tbh. My ds has ASD and ADHD from my pov. From school's pov, he has none. He may have processing issues as well but able to cover it up because of his high intelligence now in primary.
If your ds is struggling, you really need to investigate what is causing it. I don't think school will make a big effort to find it, unless he is struggling and falling behind massively.

How is he doing with Maths? Does he have other issues likw not tying laces or failing to ride a bike ?

Confused: it was you who commented on the wall displays of the other school you visited. I know you are not interested in that really, so why mention it as a negative about the other school? It’s irrelevant isn’t it?

If you have good practice, I would try and do some work at home using your strategies. Could you ask to see the Writing Policy at the school? Is the teacher doing what is in the policy? I think it’s very difficult for you because you are possibly better at teaching writing then your DS’s teacher.

If you try and help him, would this not help his writing at school and stop him doing as little as possible? However I guess the teacher won’t react well to your assertion that she’s not good enough if you tackle her about it. Difficult.

He can ride a bike and learnt to do so quickly. He is slow to calculate in maths but has a good basic understanding of operations.
I have been doing work with him at home but there is always such a meltdown during attempts at written language that I have stuck with reading, grammar and maths.

It could be anything, so I suggest having him assessed. When he does his written work, is he able to create before he writes? Could you get him to verbally record a story on a recording device for example with no writing to begin with?

I have looked up the characteristics of a child who might have dyslexia and he does seem to fit in alot of the criteria but then again so would I lot of children who may not be dyslexic. I shall have a talk with someone at the contact number and go from there.
My concerns about his school are not without substance. I appreciate that league tables are not the be all, however, they do have their place. Just over 55% of children are at expected level. Results for progress in reading, writing and maths are just average. Many of the nearby school's with similar cohorts of children score very well. This is not a one off the school's results have been declining by a small percentage over the past few years. The Ofsted report, although Good did flag the teaching of boys writing as an area to be improved.

I have looked up the characteristics of a child who might have dyslexia and he does seem to fit in alot of the criteria but then again so would I lot of children who may not be dyslexic.

You need to get this out of your head. When you think like this, it just puts you in denial and delay's your son in getting the right support.

The school could be an issue but unless the school you want your son to move into has good quality SEN pastoral care, can cater and support students with additional difficulties really well. If not, there's literally no point in moving your DS into another standard mainstream school.

Plus, if you move your DS into a school which is much higher academically. There would be a risk of your DS feeling too much pressure to keep up, his academic work may go even down.

You have noted several red flags in your OP. I would be looking into getting your DS assessed by an Occupational therapist and especially an Educational psychologist.

On the plus side the school has fantastic pastoral care, the children are listened too, treated as individuals and there is mutual respect between adults and children. The teachers are approachable and open to working with parents.There is a good positive community feel and I find the parents in general positive and supportive of the school.

and

My son is happy at his school and relatively settled.

vs

I had a tour of it along with other prospective parents and it seemed efficient and well run. It has an excellent Ofsted report. It did however seem regimented and wall displays of current themes etc in the corridors looked like they had been done with a huge amount of adult input. The school was polished and spic and span but did not have the more child friendly feel that my son's present school has.

I am however thinking that moving him to the other school would almost certainly be beneficial academically.

... would make me stay with your current school.

You do know that the greatest influence on academic achievement comes from parental engagement (NOT school choice)? Your DS is lucky enough to have that, loads of it, whatever school he goes to.
Generally, children learn better when they are "happy and settled". For the sake of his academic achievement, I would leave him at his current school, but try to get to the bottom of his difficulties and provide him with targeted support. You'd have to do that anyway, wether you change school or not. And doing it at a school where the teachers are open to engage with you, and pastoral support is great, will be easier than at a school that is overly focused on results (which, IME, 'outstanding' schools tend to be, because they are well aware that they are very likely to lose their 'outstanding' if their results slip), and where you don't know the people well yet.

If you find your current school being unhelpful at getting to the bottom of your DS' issues, or unwilling to put any identified extra support into place, THEN is the time to look at other schools. Before you move, you can then talk to the SENCO of the prospective schools and find out if, given your child's particular context, they would be able to support him appropriately.