Year 3 DD struggling a bit at school - what's reasonable to expect?

[naturemumma]

I've got my DD's parent's evening tonight. Yesterday we had through her targets for the rest of the year. Reading and maths are fine, but for writing it says that they only expect her to be working towards age related expectations by the end of the year... It doesn't seem to say where she is at the moment, only what they predict for the future.

Am I being unreasonable to ask what they are doing to help her? I know that her handwriting is very messy and they've said she struggles a bit with spellings - but said most children are after lockdowns. No other feedback. We're working on handwriting at home each day which school are aware of.

But if a child isn't meeting the expected standard for their age should school be doing something extra to help her? Or is the expectation that she'll just muddle along at school and they hope she'll catch up eventually? Do they just not worry too much?

To be honest, she's not loving this school much and is lacking in confidence and I suspect this isn't helping. We're looking at getting a tutor for some friendly one to one extra help and I'm hoping this might improve matters. But I'm a bit lost about what I can expect / ask for from school.

We're moving at the end of the school year (again - we moved last year too, DH's job) and I guess I'm a bit concerned she's just going to fall through the cracks.

As a bit of background, in previous years she's met the age related expectations for all subjects, but I don't know if the ramp up to year 3 has been a bit much?

I'd love any advice / experiences. Thanks so much :)

Not every child working towards expectations needs something additional or different. The first thing any school will be doing to support a child working towards expectations is simply teaching them in class. The teacher may give a little more attention to children like your daughter, compared to this confidently on track. But there is no need for interventions for most children at this level. If it is a longer-lasting issue, then it might be necessary to have specific support - this would be a child with special needs. It simply isn't necessary, not is it possible, for all children not meeting the expected standards to have support beyond the typical classroom teaching.

I am a primary school governor on the English monitoring team. In my experience, writing suffered the biggest (negative) impact from school closures. Ask how best you can support at home. Some children also find the transition from KS1 to KS2 hard work, so this might also play a part.

When did she join the new school?

Also ask about her progress, as well as attainment. Learning isn't linear, so if she gains confidence, she may make accelerated progress. But if it takes a bit longer, so be it.

You should definitely ask what extra support she needs / is being given and what you can do at home to support too.

Echo others as above that writing was the worst affected over covid, children don't have the resilience that is normally expected in year three.

In class you have wave 1 children, whom you expect to listen to instructions and then complete the task relatively independently. Following this wave 2 who you would expect to have a little more input, then wave 3 (usually on SEND register for individual input). I would imagine your daughter is in wave 2 and as a parent would expect the teacher / TA to have some interventions or group work to help support closing the gap. The teacher should have a clear idea of where her gaps are. It won't just be her handwriting and spelling but also the content and grammar.

At home I'd give her lots of life opportunities to write (eg your shopping list, writing to a friend / relative etc. A reason to write is always better than mindless writing). Try to make it fun (coloured pens, chalk for content not handwriting, lots of praise). Also read lots, her to you as well as you to her, audio books in car etc.

Hope this helps!

Thanks BlueChampagne, that's so interesting.

She joined her new school last June and I do think her confidence has really taken a knock. Also, like you say, the jump from KS1 - KS2 is really big. Combining that with covid and moving hasn't been great. She's also really young in the year too.

I'd noticed that she seemed to be struggling a lot with handwriting and spelling at home so we've been to see a dyslexia assessor. The assessor doesn't think it's dyslexia, but more an issue with multitasking (and also some fine motor control issues). So she can (usually) spell words on a spelling test, but then when she starts writing it completely goes out of the window, as does punctuation, sentence structure - the lot! It's also pretty illegible. It all feels too much for her I think and then she ends up sitting then and not really writing anything.

I absolutely agree about the learning not being linear. I feel that if she had a confidence boost she might relax a bit and then come on a bit faster.

Cameocat, that's brilliant, thank you so much.

That wave 2 support is exactly what I'd like. At the moment she's being treated like a wave 1, but evidently isn't, so she's just sitting there confused, drops her pen on the floor, gets in trouble and then has to stay behind in break to finish her work.

It's such a helpful way of putting it, thank you, it's given me a good idea of how to approach chatting to her teacher later. I've been trying to find a positive, collaborative way to broach it, but I've struggled to now how to put it!

*know!

She sounds like my DS2 with her writing! You could ask how they run lessons focus on writing - the teacher might mention Pie Corbett or Talk for Writing. If you know what goes on in class, it might help you replicate at home. You could also try letting her type at home sometimes (so Word can help with grammar and spelling, and it won't just be you nagging her). It also helps if she's intererested in the subject she's writing about.

Lastly, don't forget poetry - usual rules of sentence structure don't have to apply

@cameocat I don't think there's anything to suggest that this child needs wave 2 intervention. Wave 2 is a child with special educational needs. This is usually around 17% of children. Most year three classes have 35% or more who are working towards expectations in one area or more. Therefore most children not at age-related will have no wave 2 interventions. If DD has been doing ok until this move, then it may well be the love and not an underlying SEN.

OP, do discuss with teacher but don't expect that she will be added to the SEND register and given interventions unless this becomes a longer term issue.

I was not suggesting she is SEN, but in our school wave 2 is not sen but those that may need further explanation. Wave 3 is SEN for us. It is good for the OP to be a le to ask.

@bluechampagne That's really useful, I'll look that up.

@Stevenage689 I completely agree that at this stage I wouldn't class my daughter as SEN, but I feel that surely there is a middle ground. In my daughter's previous school if children were struggling with things they might have a breakout group led by a TA, or some extra resources to take home etc., but she seems to have been given nothing so far. It is true that she's met the expectation before, but writing has always been the thing she's found trickiest (she's had intervention before for this).

@cameocat It's really useful to know that, I think that's what I'll ask so I at least understand how they manage it. Thank you.

@BlueChampagne - love the poetry suggestion!

Hope your parents evening goes well.

Thanks @BlueChampagne. Basically they told us to do spellings with her. That was it. Oh and to keep practicing handwriting. To be honest, it hasn't worked before. She gets the spellings right and then promptly forgets the moment she puts them into a sentence. I'm holding out to see what her dyslexia assessment says and also what the tutor makes of it all. I'm not the biggest fans of this school. We're moving again (hopefully for the last time during the kids' schooling) later this year. Let's hope we get a better school that's more suited next time! Thanks for your suggestions earlier, really helpful.

@naturemumma have you considered having DD assessed for dysgraphia?

Second BabyBlackCat

In the meantime, lots of reading, and encourage her to write about whatever she likes to write about.

@BabyBlackCat Yes, I have considered this. Do you have any experience?

I'm waiting to see what comes back from her dyslexia assessment because she also suggested that and dyspraxia (my daughter's quite chaotic / disorganised and kind of a bit all over the place physically!)