Behind where expected to be

[fredandfrank]

Good Afternoon,

I am hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction.

At parents evening in March, I was told my DS was struggling a bit with the curriculum but it was not a concern and to just carry on at home with reading, spelling and other homework activities set.

I was noticing that DS was getting frustrated with homework and finding it tricky so I contacted the class teacher, she told me she would get senco involved and send a report home it took me over a month of constant asking to receive this report and then it was dated Feb 2022. I then asked why, and she said that he has made little to no improvement from Feb 2022 till now, obviously in my eyes now this is a concern. I personally have noticed a massive improvement at home with reading and writing.

I have now asked what I should do to help DS move forward with education and all I get it just keep reading, do more reading. We read every night and although I see a small struggle with some words I would say he reads fluently and can tell me about what he has read.

What am I supposed to do to help him? should I get a tutor? Move schools?

DS is in Y3.

Please help, i want to give him as much help as possible, while also working till 5 every evening so we don't always have an hour to sit down and do large activities, I have got twinkl and do download worksheets to do together.

Thank you to anyone who makes it this far!

Can you give us more of an idea about what his difficulties are? I teach Y3 so may have some suggestions but depends on what for! Within reading, it could be his fluency, decoding or comprehension. Writing could be handwriting, spelling, an aspect of grammar or something else.

I also teach y3 and happy to help if I can. Is it just literacy based that there are concerns about?

Hi @NCTDN & @WombatStewForTea,

Thank you so much to offer to help.

It seems the concern is in English Comprehension, writing and maths.

He hasn't progressed with his English since his assessment at the beginning of the year, he struggles with letter and number formation especially, b, d, p, & q. 3,7 and 9.

His maths he has made a slight progress but is still marked below average.

We complete all the homework set, and read every night but I don't want him to feel like all he does is come home and do homework.

I don't seem to get much more info out of the school except keep reading.. so any help on what to do would be great!

Thank you

School don't sound very helpful to be honest. Have they put intervention in place in school? They really should if he's made no progress. Is he 'working towards' year 3 or 'working below'?

In terms of reading, yes do keep reading as much as possible. What type of books is he reading? Is it book bands? If so what colour is he on? And has he been moving up throughout the year?

Can he read the words on a page? Does he sound them out? It could be that he needs practise of the ks1 tricky words. If so flash cards would be great. We have lots of success with something called 'toe by toe'. It's a dyslexia support tool but we use it with non dyslexic kids too. It's easily doable at home and takes 5 mins a day.

I'd look into Doodle maths. It's an online platform that adapts to the child. We have a whole school subscription but you can buy into it as parents. There's English and spelling too.

@WombatStewForTea

He has an interventions at school so this is something, they sent me home a report from senco, but it sounded like they asked DS what he wants to improve on for example it said - 'I want to improve my reading.' action read at home with mum 3x a week.

At the moment we are reading together a book called the enchanted wood, someone bought it for him and he loves reading it we read this every night before bed. He is also sent home a book from school he is on turquoise books we read this book 3 x a week.

He can read words and honestly I thought his reading had come on a lot in the last few months, he does struggle with a few words but once I ask him to sound them out I would say 8/10 that he then gets the word right.

Thank you for mentioning toe by toe and doodle maths I will have a look at these ASAP.

I would think yes turquoise is behind for end of y3.
Does he like project x books there are packs of banded books from turquoise up.

@Summer1912 I haven’t heard of these books I’ll have a look into them.

where should he be?

It’s interesting that phonics was supposed to help every child read well. But it can be boring. I’ve always believed in a mix and getting DC interested in any book is a bonus. School books can be very dry. My DDs were not behind but we went to the library about every 2 weeks and they had a great supply for emerging readers. My DDs loved Anne Fine. It’s fun for them to look at books they might like. Not what they are told to read. Mine liked poetry for children books too. Hope it all goes well op.

Hi @missmonlineclasses & @TizerorFizz

I believe this too and have bought DS a number of books which he loves reading one in fact he took on a recent holiday and read by the pool, have also bought him lots of Minecraft building books which he seems to enjoy reading too!

TBH over the summer Holidays I have been thinking about the school and I just feel let down by them. DS obviously doesn't suit the curriculum and I just dont know what to do!

Thanks so much for writing to me x

Get a times tables app (tables cloud)? Helps massively with timetables.

I found reading eggs app helped my children. Think apps are a good way to get them engaged.

I think it’s a huge shame to miss out on actually holding a book and turning the pages. Choosing a book in the library is a skill for life. By all means use apps but don’t just leave a child to get on with it. Read together and discuss the book. It improves vocabulary and understanding of the written word and punctuation.

I think you need to think about

1. Your ds is being taught at school and is having some intervention.
2. You are reading with him at home.

If you want to do more with him then look at helping him practise his handwriting. Twinkl has a handwriting programme and resources. I would also look at him writing a simple diary each day using the correct letter formation and accurate basic punctuation.

Don't assume that because he is behind, the school are not doing anything. Some children do take longer to learn things than others.