DD is not meeting expectations

[frootito]

DD (year 1) had an absolutely glowing report but is not meeting expectations in maths, phonics or reading. There are mitigating circumstances as she's just coming out of a recurrent patch of bad health that really affected her during reception and year 1.

The teacher said she was off her game on the day she tested but nonetheless she is behind.

What I observe is that she can read but it's a bit laboured and doesn't really flow. She writes great text (imaginative stories) but her handwriting is illegible and her maths is just about ok (her teacher marked her down for writing the numbers back to front).

For lots of reasons I'm not overly worried. And I have no intention of stressing my lovely DD out.

But I would love to help her in a fun way over the summer if I can.

Does anyone have any recommendations for fun reading (we've lots of phonics books and will do one a day).

Writing - is there a way to make writing exercises fun and not a chore?

Thanks in advance

Both of mine didn't like writing. My eldest would do activity books with word searches, letter practice etc. but My youngest would only do it with a bit of bribery (he had to do one page of a handwriting book and read a little bit before he could watch YouTube).

Sounds like my daughter - she has visual stress and struggles without her coloured glasses, which improve her vision when reading/writing.
Have you had her tested for any visual issues? Visual stress needs a specific test, mind.
Once the visual stress is corrected, everything gets a lot better. Just a suggestion for you to consider.

Are you only being told this now you’ve got a report, if so it’s really bad. Reception and Year 1 ability can differ greatly due to age and birthday of child. I would make an appointment with teacher to ask what she is behind on specifically. Please don’t worry, children learn at different stages. Our local library has work books for different ages, I used to do 30 minutes morning and afternoon with my 2 DS, we also read together in the holidays.

Hmm… depends on how dd is finding school. I’m trying to remember advice I got given for ds at that age who was behind.
I would focus on fine motor skills that don’t involve writing such as lego/ other fiddly activities. I’m pretty sure I got told to practise gross motor skills as well- eg ball catching.

reading practice- just read to her , interesting bed time stories. Anything that catches her imagination and sparks a love of reading. Don’t worry about it being something she can read as well. Practise some phonics with her but I’d try and integrate it into day to day stuff to make it normal. Same with numbers

id also ask the school next term how they plan to support her. My experiences weren’t great with primary schools. They tended to push a load of practice homework which ds hated and made a chore out of it. The best advice came from the Ed psychologist and was as above.

Keep a diary/scrapbook with illustrations and photos
Draw illustrated letters like the monks used to draw in religious texts such as
cajun alphabet john guillaume - Bing images
Write a newspaper with imaginary stories

One of my DC was similar to your DD, only she was 7. She didn't really start reading and writing comfortably until she was 8. I read to her a lot so she did enjoy books and viewed reading as a fun thing to do. She chose the books from the library and we read everything from Greek myths and legends to The Hobbit. When she finally started she would read several hours a day and her reading and spelling improved until by the time she was 12 she was reading at an 18 year old level. Writing has always been a problem as she has dyspraxia but touch typing and using a laptop has let her keep up with written schoolwork such as essays.

My daughter struggles so much with reading and writing (potentially dyslexic).

We have got her involved with writing lists including shopping lists, lists of what we are doing that day etc ... she won't do repetitive singular letters as she just gets bored of it.

I also ask her to just write stories about anything she wants. Most of it is back to front, illegible, completely the wrong spelling but it doesn't matter currently. Just writing and getting her to see it can be enjoyable was enough for us.

We have started Reading Hornet to help with her reading. She did pass her phonics assessment apparently (we haven't had official confirmation just a thumbs up from the teacher on testing day) and it has amazed us she did that.

We also do read every day with her reading with us and also us reading to her and she listens to at least 1 hour of audio book a day.

Her school uses ELS phonics and I find it's a really poor scheme for parents to find out about it all the different levels. She is on Phase 5 and I have no idea if this is good or not. I think it's average speaking to a couple of other parents etc... but it's a struggle to get her to read it the first few times and then she just memorises it anyway so she pretends she is reading.

My ds doesn't like writing for 'fun' - but he loves to get involved.

So, we do baking - he chooses a recipe (reading the books) then we check the cupboards together for the ingredients. If we need supplies he writes his own list and quantities and we go to the shop.

Then come back and he reads the recipe, weighs and measures, does everything except I put it in the oven and take it out. He writes labels for the cake tin. He makes invites for tea and cake and we give them to dh, dd, grandma and grandad or friends, whoever is around! He doesn't even realise he's doing writing.

We play board games with 2 dice so he's constantly adding up to move. Sing timestables songs or have them playing on Alexa in the background.

Have you seen story cubes? They're a set of dice you roll and then tell a story based on the symbols that come out where you have to incorporate all the elements. It's great for the imagination and working on structuring - after playing he sometimes wants to draw pictures for his stories or even write bits down.

Functional reading is every bit as good practice - so ask her to look at signs to find places, follow rules, find out times for swimming or the cinema etc. look at prices in the shops and talk about 'more' and 'less'.

But above all, she has only just finished year 1 after a period of bad health. Enjoy spending time having fun, work on her growth mindset and get her ready for learning by practising increasing her attention, playing memory games like pairs etc, counting and matching with uno and have a great summer!

Re the writing, I’d focus mainly on activities to improve her hand strength / fine motor skills.
Things like squeezing / kneading play doh, baking, Lego, popping bubble wrap, other activities where she has to use her hands. If she likes art or crafts then there’s lots of opportunities for colouring / drawing or fiddly craft kits that’ll help her with the fine motor skills.

Plus working on her gross motor skills will also help, again particularly activities where she has to use her hands, such as climbing, crawling or throwing / catching balls.

Sounds like she has already spoken to the teacher, if you read the OP it mentions discussing the tests there.

For writing I’d definitely suggest keeping a diary of what you do over summer (and not just writing - get her to draw, add stickers, etc both because it’s fun and because it helps her fine motor skills).

For phonics, I would recommend flashcarding any sounds she doesn’t know and then reading + writing words with those sounds. Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. She could draw pictures to go with each word she writes.

I’m a Y1 teacher so happy to offer more specific advice if you’d like.

Is it handwriting thats the issue? In which case lego, cutting with scissors, games like picking up things with chop sticks, hama beads etc.

Or is it structure or content.

In which case a holiday diary is a good shout as is doing things like a national trust treasure hunt, where they read the lues and you get them to write answers, sending potcards to various people, writing invites to someone to come for tea.

The teacher shouldn't be basing a year 1 child's assessment on a test... I'd ask what she would have given her had it not been a test.

I think I’d look at the bigger picture. Is she meeting your expectations? Is she kind, helpful, interested in what’s going on around her, empathetic, does she play nicely with friends? Can she wash & dress herself, brush her hair, put on her own socks & shoes? At her age, these skills are all much more important than her phonics skills and maths skills. If you write shopping lists together, lists of things to do, ask her to count out fruit/veg, etc, in the Supermarket or when your cooking, this wall help her to learn what she needs to know. Helping chopping veg into pieces is a great way for children to understand the relevance of maths, (especially fractions). I think it’s awful when such young children are labelled as “not meeting expectations”! Whose expectations?

Thank you all so much. Made me feel a bit weepy reading all the encouraging comments.

No the teacher did discuss her being behind with me so I knew what to expect. The school are trying to support her in lots of ways so I have no complaints.

I'll try some of the suggestions above so many thanks to all

The reason I'm not feeling too worried is that her report really was glowing. She loves school and the non core subjects are a passion (history, geography, science).

She doesn't have any motor skills or sight issues I don't think but I will keep an eye on her.

Now that she's well again she's just so happy and social and fun. I don't want her to feel a scintilla of pressure about school. But I also don't want to fail her.

Parenting is very hard isn't it.

@Harebrain I love your post. Yes she exceeds my expectations entirely x

The DC of mine who was behind is a twin and their sister was always ahead in everything.

I was worried that DC would start labelling themselves as not being capable of doing well which is a self-fulfilling prophecy as once someone convinces themself they will never be good at something, they give up trying. I read 'Leo the Late Bloomer' to the DC frequently. It is about a tiger cub who is much slower than all the other animal children at everything, eventually he is better than they are it was just a matter of time. I used to tell my DC 'you can't do it yet, but you will, and you'll do it better than everyone else'. And they did.

I really wish UK children weren't labelled as 'not meeting expectations' at such an early age. I guess schools have to do it to see if children do need additional help, but it must be demoralizing. Your DD is only 5. In the US she would only just be starting Kindergarten, so wouldn't be expected to know her letters, numbers, or how to read and write. Quite a few US children don't start school until first grade when they can be 7.

Amazon.co.uk : leo the late bloomer

My DD was below expected in R and Year 1. In year 2 she mid year just started getting to grips with it and started to really shine with it all.
The recipe idea is good, and just letting her free write. Make your own book together.

@frootito parenting is hard. One of mine was a very late bloomer. She blossomed at about 13 and went on to University which no one would ever have expected when she was younger. Sounds like you’re doing a great job.

Make learning fun - she will be keener to practice . Would she like this to trace out letters?

The important thing is parent engagement in education. If a parent leaves the education only to school then rarely we can expect above average performance.

I would send her for tutoring if you don't have time to work with her

Mine were both like this in the early years but are now in year 5 and 7 and both exceeding expectations in many subjects (or greater depth - whatever it's called). I think some children take a while to catch up. It has no reflection on how they'll be in the future.

My kids are dyslexic. They were similar to your child. Might be worth looking into.

My dd is older primary but a similar thing happened to her after a bout of flu earlier this year which knocked her about for a good 2 months. At the end of the year her report said she was back on track so not too worried.

I’ve always resorted to workbooks with bribery. I have a bag of keyrings etc that I bought in Claire’s sale that they can choose for completing work. It seems to work well! I wouldn’t stress too much though, she’ll likely catch up quickly if it’s due to illness.
is she young in the year? I was still noticing the difference with my summer born at the end of year 1

It might just be the way she learns to be honest. My DD wasn’t meeting expectations in reception.
Then by year one she was exceeding.
Yr 2 meeting
Ye 3 not meeting now y4 exceeding
I think it’s down to so many things with my DD.
If she is going through a shy phase she won’t answer questions through fear of getting them wrong. If she is going through a more confident phase she will answer more.
Another thing is the topics they cover because at my Dd’s school every lesson is geared around the term topic so if she loves the topic she does better academically than if she doesn’t.
The teachers only have that to go on really so I usually get varied reports.
I was worried at the end of reception when I was told she wasn’t meeting expectations and thought she would struggle for life but a year later she was exceeding. I have gotten to the point where I think it’s just who she is, some terms she has a good term and some terms she doesn’t which I’d say is pretty comparable to life really.

Subscribe to Read Theory and sit next to her every evening doing 3 passages per day.

My son was below expectations at Reading Comprehension in Y3 as he was too bored to read at times. In Y5 he is Above Expectations. So it can change radically. But not without effort