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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Original poster

Nervous about year 1

34 replies

elliejjtiny · 30/08/2018 22:34

My 5 year old has learning difficulties (he is like a 2-3 year old in his development). He did really well in reception and was very happy at school (mainstream) even though I didn't think he would cope. He doesn't have an official 1-1 but he was in a class of 25 children and 3 full time and 1 part time member of staff so there was always someone who could support him one to one when they did academic things like reading, writing etc.

He is about to go into year 1 where there will just be 1 teacher and 1 ta. Will be be ok? Is there a lot more writing and less play in year 1? He just seems so far behind my niece who is starting in reception and is a year younger than him.

I don't mind if he doesn't make much progress, I know he is trying his best but I'm worried about him struggling and getting upset when he has been happy at school so far.

OP posts:
BubblesBuddy · 30/08/2018 23:07

Are you working with the school to start a Send assessment? Yes, Y1 is not play at all really. However the staff must differentiate the work for him but I would really talk to them about TA targeted support. It sounds like it’s vital.

The staffing you describe in YR is very generous. The school must have a healthy budget. They must pay to support his SEN and I’m surprised they have not discussed it with you already. As they haven’t, I would see the SendCo as soon as you can this term to discuss his needs and his longer term needs too. If he doesn’t make progress, the gap between him and the others will be very noticeable. What do you envisage should be done about this?

Norestformrz · 31/08/2018 06:43

I'm really surprised his difficulties haven't been identified and that there wasn't a discussion last term about how to meet his needs as he moves into Key Stage 1. I would suggest asking for an appointment with his teacher when school starts.

FourAlarmFire · 31/08/2018 06:54

If his development is how you describe, the teacher will be keeping a close eye on him over the first few days. For some children the shift to the National Curriculum is just what they need, for some it poses more challenges. If he’s struggling he is likely to be reconsidered for an Education & Health Care Plan and associated funding. Definitely have a chat to the teacher a couple of days in to see how he’s getting on and what the next steps are.

ThisIsNotARealAvo · 31/08/2018 07:21

Year 1 varies a lot by school. I'm a year 1 teacher and we continue the same set up as reception until at least Christmas, longer if the children need it. Have you asked the teacher if they do this? Not all schools do but it is good practice not to just get them straight to writing at tables all day.

The school should have made provision for all the children with SEND so that they still have differentiated work and an adapted curriculum if they need it. I'm sure when he starts year 1 there will be an opportunity to speak to the teacher about what they've got planned for your DS.

They may have also decided to put more adults in that class - the school may be able to make adults available if necessary if there are children in the year group with additional needs.

Lots of parents will be convened about the jump from YR to Y1. Hopefully the school will be doing as much as possible to reassure you in the first few weeks.

Norestformrz · 31/08/2018 07:31

A child with a developmental age of two will not be accessing the National Curriculum and needs an individualised curriculum in place to meet his needs.

ifIonlyknew · 31/08/2018 08:08

I would speak to the teacher very early in term and ask if you can arrange a meeting with her to discuss it with her and if possible the SENCO present too.

5000KallaxHoles · 31/08/2018 08:27

I'm with you OP - DD2 academically could do the Y1 work - probably not record it down on paper, and I think she's going to flounder desperately in terms of the reduced ratios (her reception class had a lot of adults in because that's how the head prioritises her budget) and lack of support going forward (she has some SN issues - not in the league you're dealing with). Hasn't got the most sympathetic new teacher either... so I'm anxious as hell about it. SENCO contacted me the other day though that they'll give it a couple of weeks into term and then meet to review what's working and needs additional support - so at least school are on the case about it (I'd only emailed in a list of appointments where I know we'll be out of school to the office and SENCO picked it up to contact me anyway).

I've spent a lot of time in the other Y1 class in the school - so I know the curriculum and how independent they're expected to be... hence I know that she's fairly likely to struggle (we've been putting as much ground work in at home as possible to try to smooth it over). Just clinging to hopes my reservations about it all don't come to pass - if I have to I'll end up going down the home ed route but I really don't want to do that if it's avoidable.

You really should (and I know I'm kind of doing myself in on this one as the SENCO avoided me most of last year - between me and the class teacher we had things fairly well managed with DD2, again the increased ratios in foundation stage had helped) have had involvement and meetings with the SENCO before now though - I'd be pushing for a meeting with them as soon as possible into the new term to review how things have gone in the first couple of weeks and what needs to happen going forward. I know I pushed fairly strongly to make sure we'd had one before the end of the year to plan for transition into Y1 (took a fair bit of pushing - SENCO had been covering the year for maternity leave and really was in "I'm stepping down soon" mode trying not to have to deal with issues).

I know our current school do transition them into Y1 gently (it's one reason I moved my kids' schools as the one DD1 was at originally didn't and she absolutely freaked out completely after their transition day where it was all desk-based stuff for the entire day), with lots of play based stuff and very short bursts of anything more demanding to start with (I've got my other one just coming OUT of Y1... which is both a blessing and a curse where this is all concerned - as I can see the mahoosive gap between my eldest and my youngest). From what I recall last year (might give you some idea and reduce the fretting down a bit) they did a mini-topic on traditional tales and made gingerbread men the first day back at school... built three little pigs houses (well apparently it was a house - looked like a half-dead shoe box that had lost a fight with the artstraw box and PVA glue to me - well it was more portable than the 2 foot high model unicorn whose head kept falling off that I had to transport home another evening) and did things like that.

Original poster
elliejjtiny · 31/08/2018 09:16

Thankyou
They chucked a lot of money into the reception class after Ofsted a few years ago said that the rest of the school was fine but the early years provision wasn't. They have a lot of children with pupil premium funding and they use that for extra staff, mostly in reception but it also means that all the other classes have a full time ta too.

My ds is meant to have a meeting every term with me/dh, the teacher, the senco, speech therapist and ed psych but the school have cancelled the last 2 meetings so he hasn't had one since October last year. I will start nagging the senco to organise one for this term asap as I'm feeling a bit out of the loop with what they are doing with him at the moment.

OP posts:
5000KallaxHoles · 31/08/2018 10:46

Yeah - I'd be starting to be a squeaky wheel if I were you cos the school are dropping the ball on keeping you informed (the SN boards on here are handy as well). I'm prepared to be a lot more on the case of school if required this year to make sure things are in place like they should be - hoping I don't need to be.

You manage to nail down meetings with speech therapy you're doing better than me - our sessions usually just involve the therapist whining that she doesn't want to be doing this clinic at the far side of town and trying to finish as early as she can get away with! (They're so bad we're paying to go privately now) Trouble with our school being so well regarded with SEN is the second they all hear which school you're at they're all "oooh I know they'll do whatever we recommend so let's skip this course of sessions you've been waiting for for 7 months and I'll just come into school and get 'em to do it for us!"

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 31/08/2018 16:19

Have you started EHCP process to get money for 1 on 1?

Original poster
elliejjtiny · 01/09/2018 10:35

Thankyou. I need to work harder at being more squeaky. It's hard when the senco seems so nice and is obviously trying very hard to get the children with sen what they need on a very limited budget that keeps being cut.

We have been quite lucky with speech therapy in that because ds has a cleft palate then he has a speech therapist from the cleft team who is paid for with different funding to the school speech therapist. The school speech therapist saw him once and discharged him because his speech is just about understandable most of the time if you listen carefully. So he just has the cleft speech therapist now who sees him once a term at school and comes to the school meetings.

We haven't started ehcp process yet. Senco said it wasn't necessary in reception and we were meant to be discussing it at the march meeting that got cancelled and the June meeting that got cancelled too. I'll ask the senco about it next week.

OP posts:
ThisIsNotARealAvo · 01/09/2018 12:19

I think as a PP said you will have to be a squeaky wheel. As well as being a teacher I'm an adopter and constantly have to ask school for things for my older DC who has a lot of anger issues.

Remember that an EHCP will not automatically get the child 1:1 support. I'm our school we have to make up the difference between the cost of the extra staff and the EHCP money. Not all schools can do this for all children.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 01/09/2018 17:11

I was thinking also ehcp is also going to be useful in five years when going to look at senior schools.

Tink88 · 01/09/2018 17:58

The earlier the process starts the better as they can take a long time to come through. I would also speak to your GP

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 01/09/2018 18:27

Yep, my son is going into yr2 and waiting to see ASD team but after that we are going for ehcp as it takes a while and he needs adaptations already for his SEN dx he already has.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 01/09/2018 18:28

Ask gp to see community paediatrician

Norestformrz · 01/09/2018 19:18

The school can apply for top up funding without having an EHCP if he needs support

abbsisspartacus · 01/09/2018 19:24

Can I ask what would a paediatrion do for a sen child?

abbsisspartacus · 01/09/2018 19:24

paediatrician 🙄

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 01/09/2018 20:58

Our paediatrician referred us to an OT and also referred us to another team. For our dx he also provided the dx after the Ot’s report.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 01/09/2018 21:03

We did get the referral to him though as ds’ Sen has physical aspects though.

Original poster
elliejjtiny · 02/09/2018 00:19

He already has a paediatrician, she isn't a community paediatrician though. She specialises in premature babies (he was born early) and children with congenital health problems. He was getting funding, I think they called it rollover finding although I'm not sure if he still is, I'll add it to my ever increasing list of things to ask the senco about.

OP posts:
Tomorrowillbeachicken · 02/09/2018 09:26

Oh ok. Was just checking.

Original poster
elliejjtiny · 02/09/2018 09:51

Would a community paediatrician be able to do anything for ds that his current one can't? I would be reluctant to change his paediatrician as ds has had some traumatic medical procedures and he is so much better with staff who he knows.

OP posts:
TwoOddSocks · 02/09/2018 09:57

At DS's school Y1 was some lesson time where they all sit on the carpet, quite a bit of practical stuff (e.g. planting vegetables and learning how seeds grow etc) and some table work where they sit down and do work sheets. For the latter they're separated out in terms of who needs most support. One table is for kids who need lots of support and a teacher will be there helping them all the time.

I would definitely follow advice about being the squeaky wheel. I would maybe arrange a meeting with his teacher as soon as he starts - don't wait for him to become upset with school before taking action, establish a good relationship with the staff straight away so you can keep lines of communication open.

Good luck OP!