Year 6 and very behind, what can we do to help?

[GirlOnIt]

Ok, so firstly this isn't my child and quite complicated situation. He's currently living with his/my grandparents. But recent sats practise results have come back and in all areas he's significantly below where he'd be expected to be. In maths he didn't get a single question correct in any of the three papers.
No sen that's been diagnosed, but school are aware that he struggles in particular with attention. Although I'm not convinced they're doing enough in that regards, there isn't much I can do about that at the moment.

He brings home sats workbooks for maths homework but really struggles to do it. I tried at the weekend and really went through it and he seemed to be getting it, but says he forgets once he's done it.
Grandparents can't afford a tutor and don't feel confident teaching him, I'm happy to go help with the homework issues, but looking for any tips on workbooks/apps etc that might help in general maths or really any other advice. He's very negative about his abilities and that's the main thing I think needs work on so don't want to overload him. I wondered if some easier year 4/5 work books might help to maybe fill in the gaps that I think he's obviously got. Or is it best to just focus on mental maths times tables, addition etc?

Literacy wise, we're just focusing on reading and spelling. His spelling is really appalling, still spelling very common words wrong. I find teaching spelling a difficult thing to teach, I'm guessing it's just practise, practise. His handwriting is surprisingly ok joined up and quite neat.

Thank you for the suggestions, will ask tomorrow if school use any online apps and then look into it if not.
I feel better that they're willing to speak to us and my dad has said he'll come along, although I'll believe it when I see it. The school don't actually know who he is though, he's on the forms but he's never once been to his sons school. He should be absolutely disgusted with himself but I doubt it.

@GirlOnIt

If he is not living with his mum and dad, and is not returning to them, then something very serious must have happened and he will be a very frightened, confused and traumatised little boy. Is he receiving help ?
This is very likley to be having an impact on his ability to learn

It's very complicated @Ted27 and I don't know the full story myself (only found out recently that he's been there since new year). He spent a lot of time with grandparents anyway, and officially his dad lives there too. His mum has left him with his dad, he hasn't been taken away from either of them. Only his/my dad doesn't do parenting

I agree with a pp, you need to go back to the y1 curriculum onwards and see what he can do and where the gaps are. TT rockstars for timetables is good. Then get to whsmith for some workbooks to being the rest up in the relevant areas. Is the kid happy to be doing extra work?

He's saying he is @Underhiseye2. Gp's have put restrictions on screen time, he's very much a iPad/Xbox boy. I've ordered him some reading books he said he likes from book people, he likes fact books and those horrible history type ones.
He likes football too and my Dp has said he'll take him for a kick around at the weekend as he doesn't play out much.

My daughter is about to do her Sats and has always struggled with maths, English too but mainly maths and although they have said no learning difficulties it's frustrating teaching them something, feeling like they have cracked it and then the next day nothing!! I can honestly say since focusing on her times tables she has improved so much, not perfect, not at the range she should be at but she is able to process sums much better now she knows her times tables. I would focus on this.

Has he had his eyesight and hearing checked?

You should be able to find some free online resources for maths, or maybe do the free trial for Maths Whizz just to get the initial assessment of where he currently is up to - and then as a PP poster said find out which online maths resources the school subscribe to and get access for free through them.

English, lots of reading - library books, the squeebles apps are super cheap, one off cost of £5 and brilliant for KS 2 spellings (and time tables).

As you've already picked up on, self-belief, confidence is really important

If finances allow then maybe a local Saturday morning kids football club? I think they are around £5 a week here, would be a great reward for him putting in the effort with school and homework.

And you are awesome OP for helping him.

Prodigy is a maths app that ds loved last year - there’s a subscription version but we found the free version was fine. It gamifies maths and he felt he was playing a game rather than learning (whereas with TT rockstars he still felt it was maths schoolwork) - he does find maths easy but was able to race up through the curriculum and teach himself stuff.

He is dyslexic (school missed it right until the very end of y6) but they had had a trial of Nessy which they included him on for 3 months - he enjoyed using it and it definitely made a difference to his spelling. Might be worth the school seeing if they can get a trial so he have a go. Or you can buy it yourself but it’s not that cheap for a year.

As well as dyslexia and dyspraxia they found ds had auditory processing delay which meant he found it difficult to take in lots of info at once if he was being told it - and especially if there was other noise. So lots of strategies to help like giving one instruction at a time, headphones when he needs to concentrate, being given the instructions on a piece of paper rather than writing them down himself and many more - worth having a google to see if any of the strategies might help. Or there’s also visual processing delay which my niece was diagnosed with just before ds had his diagnosis - a different way of dealing with her - needing to be told what to do rather than reading instructions, etc etc. So worth looking at them too to see if anything might work for this child. Different dc have different learning styles so if they have problems on top then they can cause big problems that are relatively easy to overcome once identified in order to make some big progress for relatively little effort. So also worth asking the teachers if they might have either or both of these.

Good luck to you both!

Met the class teacher today and she's lovely. She understood our concerns and has her own, but he isn't doing as bad in class work and in other practise papers, so it might have been a particularly off day too. He is still behind but hopefully not as much as we thought.
Apparently the screening tests they did, showed he struggles with processing. She's already put some support in place in class to help with this and extra after school booster classes are starting after half term.
School have the tt rockstars and mathletics, which he can access at home, so will make sure he's spending some time on those. I think they can earn points or certificates or something I need to have a look into it, but we're going to say if he reaches a certain amount my Dp will take him to a football match or we'll go bowling or the cinema. I want to try avoid being bought things as a reward and instead try something that means he's having time spent with him. Gp's have bought scrabble and a few other games and are planning on having Sunday night games nights with him.
He's very sociable at school and has lots of friends but doesn't really see them out of school at all.

@GirlOnIt

that sounds really positive. But please don't rule out trauma. He has effectively been abandoned by his parents, regardless of whether he is living with family members. He may have feelings of rejection, confusion, self esteem will be affected.
I adopted my son, his mum walked away when he was 4, even though he was still with his dad at that point, its had a huge impact on him thats taken years to come to terms with

That sounds more positive, he is lucky to have you on his side.

Other maths resources ... try Oxford Owl, they have activities so it's not workbooks and questions, and would encourage time with an adult.

Try Collins SAT smasher books - there are 6 in total so you can focus on one skill at a time. Short practice tests so he can build up his attention.

Reward effort as well as progress so he can see putting in practice is valuable even if it takes a while to get better.

The struggling at school as been before all this, so don't think that's a reason for this. But yes, his emotional well being is also something I'm concerned about now. That's why I'm trying to spend quality time with him and he really looks up to my Dp so it's nice for him to spend time with him and I'm trying my best to get our father to spend time with him.

He's my brother but honestly (and I feel bad saying it) he doesn't feel like one, none of my siblings do. But I do know what it's like having one parent not care, so can only imagine how it feels having two who don't. He's got a older full sister too, she chose to live with Gp's a while ago, so she's there for him too.

Sorry that was in reply to @Ted27.
Thank you @DropZoneOne, I'll look into those too.

I quite understand that you don't want to share your family's private business in any detail. Although you're saying the child had problems before so you don't think it's due to him being left in the care of your GP's, but it's hard to imagine (not impossible) that parenting was top notch before this happened. He may seem distracted and struggle at school just due to things being difficult at home - not being read to, listened to, talked to, helped with home work through to more chaotic stuff going on. It sounds like he is effectively in kinship care and technically a looked after child, and that should make him a priority at school.

The care and interest from you and your DP are likely to have a lifelong impact on how he copes with life from here on in. In addition to common sense telling us this, it is backed up by evidence (search Welsh ACES if you like). You and your DP's involvement in his life is really valuable.

Thanks @AssangesCat. I'm actually a social worker, on mat leave at the moment. But that makes my grandparents a little cagey with what they'll tell me. Some of my other siblings (different mum) were in foster care, temporarily and I did report my concerns at the time.
He's technically living with his/my father as he lives at our grandparents house. Well on paper he does.

From what I remember of his mum and what they've both said, she was always a really good mum. Not a lot of money, but she always did things with them and they had what they needed. She's got a new partner and I think that's when things have changed.
He's in contact with his mum though, she's just refusing to engage with my dad or grandparents.

It doesn't sound like the reading is too bad at all. Talk to him about his reading and take him to the library to choose books. Make sure that he's getting enough sleep and that electronics are limited before bed - he's likely to read more in bed and sleep better.
The maths sounds like more of an issue. The following are common issues with maths:
Practise showing the right number of fingers when you say a number and then show them in different ways, e.g. showing 6 as 5 on one hand and 1 on the other. Then as 3 and 3 etc. This is really important for visualising numbers and being able to see patterns.
Does he understand place value? Not just 268 as 200+60+8 but also 2x100 6x10 etc. He needs lots of practise making numbers with different equipment (cubes, numicon, dienes) and talking about how they are the same and how they are different.
Word problems - do lots of real problems around the house, baking, housework, diy, time etc. Ask him to solve the problem and then ask what calculation he did. He probably won't know what he's using to solve the problem, but get him to explain as well as he can.
Division is hard because there are 3 variables. In multiplication, you always find the total. In division, you have to find either the number of groups (grouping or counting in steps) or the number in each group (sharing out). This is not obvious and kids get very confused when adults just say "oh you can swap it around."
My main advice would be to get him to talk about his maths and get him to ask questions: what would happen if....? He needs to be able to reason and explain. Baking, diy, handling money, sorting out timings, etc. and then talk about it.

Sounds like the academics are the least of his worries at the moment. I would focus on the making him feel loved and secure as the priority. Then concentrate on the reading and math. Sats are not important. He can catch up on these things later.

Ah, talk about teaching your granny to suck eggs!

DS (age 11 now) struggled to concentrate at school, diagnosed ADHD aged about 8. Over the years we have played loads of board games with him, good for concentration, sitting and listening, and have found useful stuff on www.brightminds.co.uk for games and puzzles etc that, e.g. Dragonwood, a card game with lots of dice rolling and adding up.

Sounds exactly like a friends child with ADD but because the child wasn’t disruptive or hyperactive it was overlooked until late primary. Parents had to do a lot though to get it diagnosed and a plan in place.

How would be best to work out what level he's at if school aren't helping, the homework books they're sending out are year 6 ones. I don't want to spend a fortune on easier ones that he can easily do. Scaled score for reading was 94 and spag 87. Maths wasn't able to be scaled, presumably because he didn't get any right so I think that's our biggest concern.

I have recently done maths screening tests on a small group of year 6s who were only scoring a handful of marks on maths SATs and their maths ages came out as between 6 years 5 months and 6 years 10 months, so working at year 1 or 2 level.