Going down a Reading Book Band after 7 months

[WalkThePlanky]

My DS is in year 1. We have had a rocky start to his education and I've struggled not to be anxious about him. Around Easter last year the school mentioned concerns around development delays with his behaviour with others and he received a Not Achieving Good Level of Development at the end of the year, for fine motor schools and making relationships. Although he scored well academically. Despite him attending nursery since he was 1, we had no expectations of this. I expressed some concerns about him and his energy and strong will and took him to the community paediatrician to check all is well. The Dr agreed it was worth looking into but the Neurological department refused his application for assessment and wrote to the school asking for more evidence. This happened in September.

His new Y1 teacher is a very dedicated young man who has asked to try and manage him first. To say it's rocky is an understatement. DS was sent to the Head for weeing in the bushes, which turned out to be because he was afraid of the noise of the hand dryer. And again for rough play for the other children - I have been working with him at home as he can be quite clumsy and physical but thankfully apart from an incident in reception doesn't hurt the other children. Asking the teacher to talk about physical boundaries with the other boys has helped him understand the issue more than the punative measures did.

Now the teacher had said after 7 months on blue band books he would like to move him back down a level. I can see how DS1 will be very upset about this and I feel quite demoralised myself.

I don't have a lot of experience with schools and I'm struggling not to worry about all this. I have a sense that DS1 is not typical and I think his Reception teacher thought so too. But I can't get the assessment decision overturned without the schools help (I've tried) and I'm worried that the teacher is only managing him negatively and the affect in his self esteem and confidence is already high.

Does anybody have any idea where I can go with this as I'm not sure - moving schools, home schooling and private tuition are the answers and I can't think of anything else. Happy to be told to chill out a bit, if that's what I should do.

What is not helping at all is that it is a small village school and despite my best efforts, me and/or DS1 don't seem to have made friends with other families and there is no one I can talk to among the other parents for advice.

It sounds like the reading issue is just a small part of the big picture with DS. I think you're right to push ahead with the assessment and it's a shame the school isn't being supportive. I would continue to apply pressure in this area. How old is DS relative to his year group? Some of the issues you're describing could be simply down to immaturity (especially for summer born boys) but does also point towards perhaps mild ASD/dyspraxia and is certainly worth investigating properly.

Have you approached the school senco? If not I would certainly do this. Could you afford a private assessment for DS? It's very expensive (£500) so obviously not an option for lots of people. I wouldn't advise private tuition for the reading as it sounds he needs a holistic approach.

In the short term I do think you need to arrange a meeting with the teacher to address your concerns - perhaps you could suggest strategies based on what you do with DS at home? Visual prompts? Warnings when he's getting too rough? You could also ask about how to support his reading at home and continue to apply pressure with regards to the assessment.

Thanks for your comments. I think you’ve backed up what i was thinking, I’m going to set up a meeting with the SENco and push for this.