Has your child made progress?

[holidaydisaster2020]

Hi! Just wondering this really. As a teacher and as a parent (year 2) the general expectation seems to be that either the children will have gone backwards or stayed pretty much where they were when they finished in March. Not sure if our schools have low expectations but it seems as if the best case scenario is that the education provided at home will keep them "ticking over"
So, I just wondered, does anybody feel that their child has actually made progress at all and if so, how have you achieved that? Thanks.

I’ve no idea how to make an educational judgement but dt year 4 have learned to tell the time in all formats, angles, shapes, graphs and have done well in comprehension tasks, learned about rivers, volcanoes and have gained the confidence to make biscuits independently. They have also really enjoyed playing together and seem bonded stronger than ever. It’s hard going and dh and I lesson plan the night before (mostly using school stuff that’s posted but also other resources for literacy that we felt would keep them interested) but dh is working full time from home and I’m full time in a hospital. Despite that, I think they’ve made progress. Whether it’s enough is the question. We are thinking we might do one day a week of work through the summer holidays and lots of reading.

Worryingly my youngest says I’m better at teaching maths than her teacher. I’m now concerned how bad her year 4 teacher was!

What magic do they teach on teacher training ? Although my patience is certainly tested by home "schooling." Surely experience is part of it. Sometimes I think we'll do this and it doesn't go well, so knowing a suitable approach for your age group maybe ?!

I've found my DS hard to get to do anything, but he isn't due at school until September, so technically home preschooling. I'm only trying to do 5 minutes of writing each day, things like his name . It takes,m asking , asking again, asking again and some bribery, but his writing has improved and his understanding of phonics. I have no idea how they will get him to do anything at school peer pressure ? He has been very behind in counting couldn't count past four before lockdown and now can do to twelve, so that's great progress through counting sweets !

My ds is in yr7, I think he has progressed in some aspect, but merely done the assigned work in other area, and not sure if he retained what he learned or not. Learning new things on their own, without peer interactions and discussion is difficult. Sure you can learn few new facts, but it may not be as inspirational as you have done it at school with engaging teachers and peers.
On the other hand having so much free time enabled him to learn and master some of the things he was interested and progress forward.

Progress, lol.
Me and my partner work full time from home. I'd say she's a lot better at Roblox than she used to be and has improved her video editing skills. Times tables, maths, English... Not so much

She is y5

My y4 ds has gone massively backwards in his writing, based on what I have seen in his previous school books compared to what he is producing now, despite our best efforts.

What I can't tell is whether it is because he is unwilling or unable to produce work of a higher standard. Maybe a bit of both.

2DC, mostly treading water as DH and I have been working throughout. However DH and I are both good at maths, and Y4 DC2 does seem to have benefited from a few hours of 1:1 beasting in fractions and geometry.

Y3
Yes I think so, he knows more of his times tables, his column addition and subtraction is better. He was a free reader anyway but he’s read a lot. His English may have come on a bit- we have worked hard.
His handwriting seems to have deteriorated though.
His Minecraft has come on the most!

Definitely improved in typing skill and using office 365! Constant use of powerpoint and word, uploading and submitting multiple work.

I think my year 5 dds maths has improved a lot. There were a lot of gaps in her knowledge of the very basic stuff that she should have been able to do years ago. I find it quite worrying that school have labelled her as exceeding the expected standard every year since she started!

My DC are 10 (year 5) and 11 (year 6). I expect it’s been a mixture of forwards and backwards in terms of progress.

They only get 2 hrs ‘teaching’ from me per day as I’m juggling WFH, but they have a screen ban between 9 and 3 in which they pursue their own interests and/or do some of the suggested activities from school. I am trying to use the ‘taught’ time to work on their weaker areas plus topics that school wouldn’t usually cover. The school set work is not covering new content, so I’m letting them pick and choose what to do/whether to do any at all.

I strongly suspect DD has improved her general maths, DS maybe a little too. Their French has come on massively and obviously they have new knowledge from the extra-curricular topics that we’ve covered. They have both learned new artistic techniques. Their use of apostrophes and homonyms is now solid, but I suspect their stamina for writing longer pieces has declined. Despite daily exercise I’m sure DS’s general fitness has declined as he’s the sort who’d usually be kicking a football around with friends every break time and after school.

Everything I haven’t mentioned about will have declined, but hopefully it’s all stuff that can be caught up on later.

My year 4 has improved massively in maths as I've had time to help him 1:1 and we've cracked fractions and decimals, long multiplication and we're working on speeding up his 6,7,8&9 times tables. His handwriting isn't great as he hates writing so writes quickly and to be honest scruffily. We've also been doing some 11+ practice papers in verbal and nonverbal reasoning.

My year 6 was already top sets and has been doing key stage 3 maths and science at home.

They've both been reading plenty too but neither particularly enjoy English or writing in general... we've been doing some comprehension work though.

So I'd say mine have progressed but from talking to other parents we'd be the minority as a lot of children have struggled to engage with online learning and their parents have been unable to support them for a variety of reasons.

DD's mastered number bonds to 20, her 5,10 and 2 times tables and basic fractions like half/double/quarter/three quarters. Her reading is beyond what I suspect the school will do this year now so we'll just manage that at home. But we didn't do much creative or project stuff and she needs to build her confidence on all the stuff she's learned. I would say writing has stagnated somewhat as I struggle to understand the point of joined up letters and don't know the exact format. She has done plenty it's probably just not what they'd ask of her!

I do think this is much less of an issue at Reception/Y1 level and haven't got my knickers in a twist too much. Unlike most of the mums in the class WhatsApp.

I think DS (10) has made significant progress in maths and English. But he was very behind before (SEND) and has had the benefit of one to one time for "normal" school hours. I'm a trained teacher (but not primary level, so it's been a challenge).

I thought teachers were so unbelievably busy they did not have time for any home teaching outside school based work(!) I can now see they gave their own DC 1:1 lessons but others who needed it more were not so lucky and did not get their full attention. Its the equivalent of the rich get richer........but in education

Seriously? Well aren't you just lovely.

My 6 year old has progressed with reading and keywords. Was struggling in school but I think 121 time at home every day has helped. She doesn't like making mistakes so wasnt trying at school to sound out her words.. Mummy is more of a comfort zone so she isn't afraid to take the risk.

My Y1 child has made progress in spelling, handwriting, and science. At the start of homeschooling she was far worse at maths than school had lead us to believe, and she now seems to be at the level claimed. She reads every day but it is hard to tell how much she has improved (or not!) as she is at a stage where there seems little change between the reading levels other than text size and volume of text per page (she was level 8 when schools closed). She has also mastered cartwheels and learnt to tie shoe laces.

DC2 is at preschool due to start reception in Sept. Since lockdown we've seen a huge improvement in her drawing and writing skills (gone from drawing circles and no letters to forming wonky but often recognisable letters/numbers and basic stick people). She has also learnt to read and can manage level 2 books well now. I'm not a huge fan of pushing preschoolers to these skills, but to save arguments over DC1 doing school work they have both been made to do it.
We have also have the time to teach DC2 to ride a bike.

The DCs have had 4-5hrs home learning/adult-led activities a day for comparison (no more than 2hrs being taught core subjects).

My I'm assuming that was aimed at me. Given it's bothered you so much- I only work part time since having my daughter. I've managed to fit my work hours in on the evenings and weekends which has allowed me to teach dd 1:1 from 9am- 3pm each day which we've both loved. We also worked through the 3 weeks holidays so that's 3 weeks of extra learning. And we've had plenty of time to go out walking, cycling etc. The few days I was required to be in school on a rota looking after keyworker children I set dd work which she did and I went through with her when I was home.

My 6 year old has progressed with reading and keywords. Was struggling in school but I think 121 time at home every day has helped. She doesn't like making mistakes so wasnt trying at school to sound out her words.. Mummy is more of a comfort zone so she isn't afraid to take the risk

Oh bless her it's hard when they're self conscious in a class of 30 isn't it? I met up with a friend who has 2 DD's the other day. The youngest was unbelievably shy and I'd barely heard her talk before. This time however, she was chattering away really confidently. I hope this new found confidence lasts, for her and your dd too

@skankingpiglet how do you teach them to read? We have some learn to read book type short books and I've been getting DS to point to the words as I read them. I only really get phonics in terms of letter sounds. DS pretty much knows these now. The problem is I say sound it out and it doesn't work like for example darn Cheese. So I'm assuming there are other rules or a lot of sight words. I'm sure I didn't learn phonics, so would it just getting familiar with the same words over and over ?----

He has, but not as much as he would at school. He has naturally picked up reading and maths quite well, so that makes things easier. His reading has improved and he has moved onto tricker books, his reading comprehension is better as well. This morning he read Rumple Buttercup, we chose it as he has odd feet like my son.

He can now read the analogue and digital (12hr) clock reliably, which is actually really irritating as now I can’t be late doing something without being told off!

His writing I would say hasn’t improved, but he is able to spell some more words and write very basic sentences.

Despite his writing not improving his fine motorskilks have, we have been doing things like sewing, picking out beads etc.

I have two DS, one in Y8 and one in Y6, we both work from home and have been pretty busy so haven't had much time to concentrate on homeschooling.

My Y8 has had set work (mostly fill this out, finish this sort of work) but can't see that he has progressed in anything except football ( he can now do the around the world and over 150 keepy uppies) My Y6, same but he is also very lazy, he has had quite a few skype lessons with his grand mother who's a retired primary school teacher. He has regressed socially though and from being a social person now never even bother to contact his friends.

He has gone back to school part time and it has been wonderful for him, he's really enjoyed seeing his friends and teachers again. I saw a marked difference in him from day one back and he's much happier

[quote ishouldtryabiteachdayy]@skankingpiglet how do you teach them to read? We have some learn to read book type short books and I've been getting DS to point to the words as I read them. I only really get phonics in terms of letter sounds. DS pretty much knows these now. The problem is I say sound it out and it doesn't work like for example darn Cheese. So I'm assuming there are other rules or a lot of sight words. I'm sure I didn't learn phonics, so would it just getting familiar with the same words over and over ?---- [/quote]
Sometimes 2 letters make one sound - so in cheese there is ch/ee/se. One of my children has a th in their name so I always point out the “th” rather than t-h. Similarly sh, ph.

Sometimes three letters make one sound, such as the igh in sight.

DD1 (y9) hasn't made masses of progress, but she has complex SN, so any progress is great.

DD2 (y8) has probably maintained rather than made progress - the work set is very different to school work, she says.

DD3 (y6) has made lots of progress. Already one of the most able in the class, but has been working independently and doing KS3 maths on Numerise.