Oh wise and articulate mumsnetters.......help me prepare for ds' parents evening

[northender]

Thanks for reading this, sorry it's so long.

It's ds' parent's evening tomorrow and I'm having to go alone as dh is working late. I feel really low at the moment but have things I want to say but don't want to sound like a waffling idiot or end up a blubbering wreck (bad idea!).

Ds is 6 and should be in Y1 but due to number shuffling was moved into the year above (missed Reception). He (and the other 4 children in same situation) will do Y3 twice. There was a whole other thread on this at the time.

Today he came home with a mid year progress report which gives grades for effort and progress in reading, writing and maths. These relate to National Curriculum targets. His targets are 2A which is a top end of Y2 target I believe. In reading and maths he has a B which indicates he will meet the targets but in writing a C ie. not likely to meet the target. The teachers comment is "ds has made particularly good progress in maths. He needs to focus on improving his literacy skills"

My issues are:

1. ds is 6 ffs and is doing pretty bloody well to be working to Y2 targets. Giving him the lowest grade for possibly not achieving his writing target is pretty negative imho. We're not about to start giving him extra coaching in writing as we'd run the risk of alienating him completely. At the moment he enjoys to write as a play activity and I want to encourage that.

1. The teacher's comments are so target focussed and tell me nothing about ds' manner, social skills, attitude etc. This was also reflected in his end of year report.

Any ideas on how to approach this would be gratefully received

You definitely need to bring this up but I have no expertise/advice about how, sorry. Poor ds, though.

Sounds like a standard format report with no allowance for his age/relative immaturity. The grades are pretty irrelevant anyway imho, simply a tick box exercise and it is not as if he will be aware.

What exactly do you want to discuss ? iiwy I'd ask what provision is being made to specifically teach the younger group at their level, rather than to meet KS1 targets early.

Do you have previous experience of parents evenings with this teacher? Only you may find that the report was a form-filling exercise and that parents evening is more about the social skills, attitude, etc? [hopeful]

As for bringing it up - if teacher doesn't, I would (who am I kidding, I would blub, but I would plan to) say something like "We read your report, but that is an assessment of how DS is doing in Y2 terms. Given that he is a year ahead of his age group, how do you think he is doing for his age?"

Thanks edam, fortunately ds is totally unaware of the report thing and we'll keep him that way. I wouldn't mind but we went to a PTA fundraiser last week and 2 other teachers commented on what a delight he is to teach. That's what I want to know at this age tbh.

Agree with Liz and stealth - I'd ask how they are helping him deal with the fact he's been jumped up a year and that you are concerned the report seems to measure him against targets that just shouldn't apply to him yet.

ss unfortunately the teacher comes to the parents evening armed with sheets of paper relating to the targets and how they relate to your child. Like the idea of asking for more age related info.

Thanks LIZ as well, I really appreciated your help and advice before.

Fortunately ds seems to have coped with the situation extremely well, loves school and has made a really good friend with one of the other 4 which I think will stand him in good stead when they integrate back into their proper class.

Just a couple of comments - 2C isn't the lowest they could have given him, it could be a 1. and also did you realise that writing means 'creative writing' not hand writing ? I didn't so could not see how ds1 would score so well as his hand writing is terrible - but if it could be read was quite creative! I would also ask if they are even entering him for SATs this year - I thought they could only put children in the results if they were the correct age. So if he doesn't do them next year I think they will have to put him down as a child who is eligible, but didn't sit them, which looks bad. Anyway it sounds like he is doing really well and should be a level 3 by the time he is actually the right age to sit them.

Jicky I didn't know that writing was creative writing. The C was just an indication of how likely a child is to exceed, meet or not meet their target (A, B, C). He won't do SATs this year but will be doing them with his "real" peers next year.

My mum was very intelligent and articulate but was often intimidated when she was up against "authority" figures, particularly doctors.
She used to write a list of bullet points and take the list out and go through them, noting down replies (especially for medical stuff.)
This way she did not forget to bring up anything she needed answers to.
If there was an issue she felt emotional about and thought she might have difficulty expressing she wrote down key phrases/questions and practised them before hand. She also made sure she got answers by ticking items off the list once she was satisfied.
I remember her once saying the doctor almost fell off his chair when she pulled out her list of queries on the drugs she was being prescribed but she went through each point calmly and noted down the responses.
I find this approach very good and it genrally stops them patronising you.
also, her key phrase if she thought they were being dismissive or evasive was "what is your rationale for that?" GReat stuff.

For a child to reach a certain level in national curriculum sats they have to meet certain criteria. It is arbitary and has nothing to do with the teacher liking or disliking a particular child.

By the way the lowest grade is a W (ie. child's ablity too low to be awarded a national curriculum level and their achievement would be measured by P scales)

It sounds like your child is doing well and you have no reason to worry.

HI
I am a teacher. Can I just say something. Assuming I read it right and your ds is Year 1 age, then those grades and everything are really good.
As a school, you would aim for every child to reach level 2b by the end of year 2 when they do thier sats then.
I would expect most children in year 1 to be working at level 1 or working towards level 2.
I agree that the report doesn't really tell you what you wanted to actually know, but it might be school policy to write the report like that.
If I were you, I would ask about how he is getting on etc socially while you see her.
If this was my child I would not really be that bothered about the grades thing - remember these are year 2 grades and focus on how he is getting on and how he is mixing with children who are older than him etc..
Hope that helps
x

Thanks for all your replies. I feel a bit calmer today and it looks like dh will probably make it tonight after all. My concerns weren't about his progress as such. The grades available in this report are only A, B and C, he was given the C to indicate that he is unlikely to reach 2A by the end of the year. My gut feeling is that this is a horribly negative way of assessing things. Could it be that the teacher has set his target too high? We will ask that. She has given him the same target in maths when his maths ability imo far outweighs that of his writing.

Miggsie, I think what your Mum does is great and really sound advice. I work in the nhs and would love to have seen the doctors faces when she pulled out her list of questions, good on her!