Is this just a result of the pandemic or do we need to take action?

[Pandemicschoolpanic]

Hello,
DS2 finished infant school exceeding expectations in reading and meeting them in writing and maths. He moved to the attached junior school last September and has just brought home his year 3 report with working towards in everything.

I had a few concerns during the year about things that I thought were too minor to bother the teacher with. He did not like his reading group and the book selection seemed a bit rubbish. I have always read with him every day, so I just continued to do that, and let him choose books that he liked.

We live very close to the school, he seems fairly happy and he has friends. I feel like my only options are to keep him at his current school or phone around all of the local schools in search of somewhere with a place. I would move him if I thought it was in his best interests, but moving schools would be disruptive, and he would at least temporarily be set back socially and academically. However, I do not want to bury my head in the sand and leave him at a school that his not helping him to meet his potential.

I realise that the pandemic will have had a huge impact on schools and the attainment of pupils. However, he was exceeding in reading, has practised every day and has still fallen to working towards. How can so much damage be done in so little time?

Sounds like he is doing well.
Maybe speak to new teacher at first parents evening as that would still give lots of the year to.correct anything.
And if you want to work on anything maybe cgp comprehension books. Maybe a book per week ovwr the summer

@desperate4spring

Infant schools are renowned for inflating grades so that their results look good. Year 3 teachers are constantly dealing with the fall-out (in my experience anyway - been teaching for 15 years, never taught Y2 or Y3 but it's a well-known phenomenon in schools)

This: Myb dc are all in secondary now, but I remember every year I knew children going form infant to juniors there would be a couple of upset year 3 parents saying exactly what the OP is saying.

Kollamoo Infant schools are statistically far more likely to be graded Outstanding than junior schools. They teach the same children, so something is afoot...

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-infant-schools-three-times-likely-juniors-get-top-ofsted-rating

OP if he is able to read the authors you mentioned fluently, he is likely in a good place for a Y3. I've taught Y3 or Y3/4 for the past 6 years.

Our school has not even released the information on expectations Vs the national curriculum. I can only assume it is because the results are appalling. The report cards I received were nothing but waffle- there was no quantitative information on anything, not even a reading age. I guess I will speaking to the head teacher on Monday.

To the OP, before the pandemic our school had a huge bank of parents who came in and read with the children. I think each child was reading with an adult at least once a week. Over the last year, due to the bubbles etc no parents are in the school. I think my reception child is read with now about once a fortnight and my y3 child maybe once every 3 months if at all. I wonder if your school is the same ?

I doubt it would make much difference at y3 except to suggest better level or type of books.
Our dc reports never have anything quantitative.
Which is why only really test results are reliable.
There will be a huge drop in seeming ability in the eldest in the year sho start primary well and are sometimes overtaken.

Only really in maths was there a description of why dc got only met and that was mainly speed which really is not that relevant in maths. (Ive done alevel etc and its unlikely you run out of time accuracy is more important. ) Also imo dc maths is really good especially problem solving. Dc just doesnt like it or want to do it.

@desperate4spring

Infant schools are renowned for inflating grades so that their results look good. Year 3 teachers are constantly dealing with the fall-out (in my experience anyway - been teaching for 15 years, never taught Y2 or Y3 but it's a well-known phenomenon in schools)

I would agree with this in my experience. We take an extra 25 children into our school in Year 3. Year on year these children come to us at a significantly higher level than the 60 children we already have coming from Year 2. Our results are far more accurate as you look at the children progressing through the years and then their Year 6 results. I don’t think it’s infant schools inflating. I just think their is a huge anomaly between the expectations of Year 2 teachers in infant schools against those of primary schools. Short of moderating every single child in a class each year I’m not sure what can be done.

@RaisinforBeing
Schools were specifically told NOT to provide information judged against national expectations as it would be unfair and unreliable, how can you judge a child against expectations when they have only completed half or two thirds of the curriculum? Our internal data shows that less than 50% of our children are working at the level we would normally expect and that the " worse " years are the infant ones. And that's despite being recognised for the quality of our remote provision by both OFSTED and nationally.

@spanieleyes
Well I don’t work in education so I was not made aware of that, neither are any other parents. Our school is telling parents that ‘everything is fine’ when it is clearly not. That is why I am flabbergasted at the lack of the sharing of this information. It is an admission of failure of remote provision, I just don’t understand why there is no transparency around this. Neither are there any catch up initiatives that I can see within our school anyway although I have seen local high schools step up and provide after school and Saturdays for those that need it.

I agree there are going to be big issues. As i know kids given met who didnt do the home learning and will be very behind when those topins are covered next year. But the parents obviously think everything is fine,
Our school linked to white rose and oak with the worksheets so kids should nt be behind except obv some couldnt get any help working paremts.

My b-in-law (headteacher) was given some unofficial guidance by someone at ofstead to massage the data in lower years to make the kS2 stats look better. I was shocked!

@hoopa That would only apply to end of EYFS or end KS1 data (and is almost common sense - don't mark a borderline child as achieving expectations if you're unsure, as you might not get them there in KS2). Internal data is literally made up by schools - there is no level system to follow anymore. End of Y1 data (using a made up system by the school) would be of no interest to Ofsted, they would look at progression in books instead.

Wow that's bad from the school unless we are missing something. Ask what judgement that they think he is working towards (that means below) eg formal assessments and see the papers. Maybe he doesn't perform as well in them

I thought I would give a little update ibn case it helps anyone else who is panicking over a school report. I spoke to the teacher today. The judgement was based entirely on a written comprehension DS completed last March after several weeks of remote learning. He answered half the questions and got full marks on every question he answered. He just needs to make sure he answers all of the questions. We will practise some comprehensions and make sure he knows exam techniques like checking the other side of the question paper for more questions. I am reassured that he is going to be OK.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread. You helped me to feel much calmer about the situation, see that it is not a disaster and prepare for speaking to the teacher. You have been brilliant and very helpful.