7yr old failing at every subject

[Umbrio]

Just had our 7yr olds report home last night and they have a marking system of exceeding, meeting targets and then below expectation. He got below expectation in every category. The categories were reading, maths, writing and one I didn't understand and can't remember the initials of (son threw the report in the bin as it made him sad).

It also commented that his attendance is above average, his behaviour is fine and he is always prepared for lessons. Should I not have had an email or something before now if he's doing so badly?

He does all of his homework including times tables, a maths programme and instead of his reading book we read books of his choice with him. He read the entire Mog the cat book to me last night only hesitating over the odd word.

Our older son remarked that he was reading Diary of a Wimpy kid books at 7. Yes but he hadn't had much of Reception and Year one taken away from him!

We do his homework, we read with him, we take him on interesting days out to museums, castles, National Trust places and talk about history with him. He does Beavers and spends time with grandparents. What more could we be doing? I'm at a bit of a loss. To me he seems like a normal inquisitive 7yr old.

There was a question during covid as to whether he could be autistic but we have worked really, really hard with him to improve his social skills and he now has friends. We took him to a science fair in half term and they asked for a volunteer to get on stage and his hand was straight up, he got on stage and did really well. He was destroyed by the lack of school during covid and we are so proud to have got him back to how he is now. He used to hide behind the sofa if anyone came to the house, now it doesn't bother him.

As someone with a child like that ( she's doing much better now), while I cried reading the (redacted) complaint letters they really did help her get the support she needed (mostly anyway, funding being what it is).

Yes I'm very aware thanks, I've taught Y3 for the last 8 years. Note that list is produced by the book publisher; no where in the NC2014 does it specify what colours children need to be on in different years. The kids I teach are very typically on White or Lime at this stage in the year - they reach expected standard both at the end of Y3 and the end of Y6. We are rated Outstanding.

I think parental engagement is key though. The op wasn’t doing the reading books with DS. Years ago plenty of Dc had become free readers in y3 at our school. They were not constrained and flew. Having said that I doubt that’s the case now looking at their sats results.

Nationally 41% don’t make expected standard in all sats in y6. 26% don’t in reading. A school only needs a few to struggle and they really won’t get 100% every year. No learning difficulties in the school ever? I doubt that.

@TizerorFizz I am an engaged parent. I just read books of his choice with him instead of the battered, boring reading books from school. I didn't understand the importance of him reading them but now I do, thanks to this thread.

We have hundreds of children's books at home.

@Umbrio But it was that which caused an issue. If you don’t like dog eared books maybe buy the school some books by a donation? Also I agree they are boring. Nothing wrong with supplementing them with age appropriate books. As I said, a library will help. However don’t worry about the school books. Just whizz through them.

I am not trying to minimise or suggest that he might not need some extra support.

But he is absolutely not failing.

As others have pointed out schools have to report progress throughout the year. If every child was at ‘exceeding’ at the start of the academic year in September then there would be nowhere for them to go from there. It’s still a term and a half until the end of the year.

Please try not to worry and bolster his self esteem. I had an exceeding expectations girl and a below expectations boy. They both did exceptionally well in their gcses (he actually did slightly better). She's at uni and he's doing A level - on track for As. Just keep engaging and try to reinforce a belief that he can - the system is weird here and my sons gcses targets were based on his ks2 Sat's- which were average. He beat them by miles.
Children's learning isn't linear and the biggest thing you can do us to get him interested in things and to believe he can. The testing sysrem doesn't help children to self reference and build resilience. Its normal to fail and its how you bounce back thst makes a difference. Some people font do this until they are adults and then really struggle.
My son only voluntarily read a book for pleasure this year and it was about economics. He is 16. I kept buying him books occasionally in the hope one would stick. He did like bring read to though - I remember reading Hubert Horatio Barton Bobtail Trent over and over...

This is very true. The 'expected level' has not changed, but many children are having a harder time reaching it.

Still, your focus is your child. And we don't know if this is the reason that HE is finding lessons a little difficult. So first make an appointment with his teacher, one that lasts more than 5 minutes. And ask your questions.

Read at home, as much as he is comfortable with. If you haven't already, find out about his phonics from the teacher. Can he decode unfamiliar words accurately? How's his spelling? Any work you can put into reading at home will pay off in every subject.

For maths, find out if he's okay with his number bonds and mental maths for addition and subtraction. You can easily help at home with this, again short amounts of time each day.

If you suspect SEN, as you mentioned, does his teacher? Ask.

And tell him he's doing great!

But that's terrible @Jules912, nobody should have to go through that. "We'll give your child some of the support she needs but first you have to listen to how everyone has complained about her." I am so sorry that was your experience and I really hope your daughter is thriving now.

Many of us have experienced a toddler that goes through a biting phase. It's mortifying to hear from nursery that our child has bitten another and most of us are grateful when the nursery workers reassure us that it's a phase and that we'll work together on firm boundaries. There is not a lot to be done other than reinforce a firm 'no' and remove the toddler from the situation each time until they get the idea and stop biting. Just imagine how you would feel if the nursery worker said 'we'll probably do some support reinforcing boundaries in our setting, but before we can here's a letter from every other parent describing how much they hate that your child is a biter and a disruptive influence. He's really harming the education of the others and you need to understand that.' Imagine if they were anonymised so you didn't know which of the people who you were friendly with had said which terrible thing. I doubt many parents would recover easily from that, and it wouldn't make the work to end the biting happen any faster or better.

Many children are good at reading, but not so much with their comprehension and inference skills. These are what you need to build up with him as he reads to you. Also, how is his spelling? As for numeracy, are there particular areas he struggles with? You could ask the teacher for more support on these areas so you can help your son at home. The disruptive children in his class would also negatively impact other children’s learning.

@Circleoffifths
That is not how assessment works. Teachers assess on the curriculum that has been taught to that point. They do not assess on work and learning the child has not done. Therefore no child is assessed on long division, even if it’s in the curriculum for that year, if it’s not been taught. What evidence would there be to support a judgement? Absolutely none!

Teachers must have evidence to support judgements. This is usually done by setting work in increasing depth and complexity within the topic. Therefore in term 1, a teacher does know who is working to greater depth, at expected etc. They have work books, questioning techniques and tests to get evidence. Other teachers sample the evidence and judgements to ensure accuracy. The judgements are not based on the end of year curriculum. So yes, all Dc could be exceeding! All Dc could be below expected. Highly unusual not to have a spread with most in the middle.

I'm not sure if this is a reply to my message, and if it is I'm not sure why I'm getting a hard time for trying to reassure the OP that, as is my experience as a Y3 teacher in a high-performing school, White or Lime is fine for this stage in the year. I was pointing out that my average ability children who are on this level typically go on to reach expected in Y6. Not we don't get 100% reaching expected in Reading every year in Y6 but some years we do - we have some cohorts with high levels of SEND and some with none. The children who don't meet the expected standard in Y6 aren't my White or Lime kids though. I agree reading school reading books is very important; picture books like Mog are fine but not in isolation.

@Bleese
Sorry I didn’t tag you. It was just fleshing out that loads of Dc don’t make expected. They don’t for all sorts of reasons. You did seem to imply that in an outstanding school all could make it. No send in a cohort is very unusual. Or lower achievers being absent in a cohort. That is blessed indeed. Any PP children? I’m not sure you reflect the norm for most areas of the uk.

I'm bowing out after this because it wasn't that point I'm making - that those average children at White/Lime in Y3 are where they need to be based on the fact they go on to pass their SATS. Fine if you disagree but that is my professional experience. Yes we have cohorts with lower achievers and SEND as you say - those children might be on around blue, green or orange in Y3. Our PP is actually currently around 50%. Clearly some schools achieve above the national average in Reading and we are one but even if we weren't my point would still stand.

I am sorry to hear you DS is sad because of school report.
As parents it must be hard to be told your child is below expected level.
I agree with a few comments here - read the school books AS WELL AS his chosen books. School teaches him the ability to read, and then he can use the ability to read for his own pleasure. There is nothing wrong with reading Mog but my understanding is by Y3 most kids should be able to read children's paperback fictions independently.
Re maths, there are games you can play. Board games, kids sudoku, puzzles, logic problem solving, etc.
It's great that you take him out for museum trips and visit National Trust. How much does he get out of the visits? Having a good understanding of wider world will help with his writing too.

@Nboo
We took DDs to NT (and English heritage) properties. We found they always asked question about what they saw. It promoted conversation and knowledge - eg history, how people lived, how castles were defended etc. We took DD1 to the Musee D’Orsay at age 5 and she remarked that Vincent Van Gogh still had both his ears in a self portrait. They really are never too young to take an interest!

@TizerorFizz I never said they are too young to take an interest?
But equally not all children visiting will have the same level of interest (based on my observations of children I know).