How to help daughter do better at school

[Desdemoana]

Hello I have an 8 year old daughter in year 4. She's really happy at her school but I'm worried she isn't doing as well as she could do.. She's doing fine and is where she should be but I think she's capable of doing really well if given the right support. The latest KS2 results for her school are average for reading, below average for writing and well below average for maths. This really concerns me. I recently looked at another school in our town which is about half the size and had better ks2 results (average for reading, writing and maths). I seriously considered moving my daughter there but after a lot of deliberating, decided to keep her at her current school as she's just so happy there. I'd like to do what I can though to help her to not just meet expectations but exceed them. This will then give her the best chance of doing well in secondary school. I don't know where to begin though. Does anyone have any advice? Just to add, her school doesn't set much homework. The kids are just meant to do Times Table (TT) rockstars and reading. Sometimes they are given spellings to learn. Thank you.

How much does she read? The biggest consistent difference between higher and lower achievers is vocabulary, and children expand their vocabulary through reading. Actively teach her new and interesting words, encourage an interest in new words. Mrs Wordsmith is one resource available.
Can she learn a musical instrument.
Problem solving games and activities, strategy board games where she has to plan ahead and try and see things from other players perspective are good.
Talk to her, ask her opinion on things, ask her to justify why - even games like ‘would you rather’, ask her to explain and justify her choices, ask her what her favourite is, and then to explain why.

Thanks @Elisheva for that advice - really helpful. She reads an awful lot - adores reading in fact. Currently part way through the Harry Potter series. She also has guitar lessons at school but never wants to practice at home. I don't find the online guitar lessons very good at all so I'm considering a guitar tutor. I'll check out Mrs Wordsmith.

Exactly as @Elisheva has asked - how much does she read, and importantly how much do you read with her?

Eight is a good age for really pressing ahead with this. Her comprehension will have matured, but everything she needs will be within your grasp. If you can set aside even twenty minutes / half an hour every day where she reads aloud to you and you read aloud to her … Choose, or let her choose, books that might stretch her - and they don’t need to be children’s books. Poetry is great also.

Do you read a broadsheet newspaper every day? Obviously everything’s online but if you could try to have a printed newspaper in the house once or twice a week - from which you both read a few articles aloud and discuss them - that also would be brilliant.

The same newspapers are also great for keeping you both up to date with new books.

In short, make it your mission to keep her excited about books and reading - everything will follow from that.

I teach at an outstanding school with above average results for reading, writing and maths.

We give out very little homework. The only expectations are for children to read daily and to practice spellings and timetables. There's a termly homework menu for children who want to do extra (or for parents who like homework) but it's completely optional.

The best things you can do for your daughter are to encourage the reading (it's extremely rare to come across a greater depth writer who isn't an avid reader) and to talk to her. Discussions and sustained conversations (about anything and everything) are invaluable.

I do wonder if you have any particular reason for feeling that your dc could achieve greater depth and how familiar you are with the expected levels.
ARE (age related expectations) are just that; what children should be achieving for their age. The standard is high and if a child is meeting ARE then that's something to be proud of. It's nothing to worry about unless there are good grounds for believing a child isn't meeting their potential.

Sorry, @Desdemoana - I missed your update. But I would definitely say that in addition to reading alone she needs to be reading with you. And from a broad range of literature.

(Harry Potter is thrilling but I’m not sure anyone would call it great literature.)

For Maths, we found that the Doodle Maths app really helped. Just 5 minutes a day.

I agree with Elis reading and vocab. At the school I volunteered in they would study say The Iron Giant and then they would get the class to suggest good descriptive words, so instead of big the could have huge, girnormous etc and they would then all be given the opportunity to use better word choices in their work as they were written on the board. This meant they were given them on a plate and not have to think about them. They call it being a magpie.

You could try that when she is reading, pick a word, get her to think of one to two better ones, you can look up synonyms together online. Mine also used to read the dictionary for fun, get them to realise how many words they know already. Listen to her read, ask her questions like why does Ron do that, or what do you think Harry is feeling right now? What do you think might happen next? Although lots of children can read, comprehension is more difficult. They read things without understanding them, ie in book 1 they find Neville lives with his Grandparents but most children just accept it and don't ask why that would be.

Game strategy, something like Castle Panic, Forbidden Island or any co-op game where you all work together to win rather than against each other. They might be a bit too old but you can watch how to play on Youtube, far better than reading the how to play instructions.

Re music lessons in school, drop them, they take them out of class and depending which class they could be missing core subjects. It isn't important in school I think they get far more benefit from private lessons than group lessons or just playing for fun. Youtube has loads of videos on how to play songs, if she wants to do that then she will. Ds is self taught both piano and guitar via Youtube, he didn't want to sit exams, just happy to learn songs.

I completely agree with cariadlet DCs went to an outstanding school, homework was just read for 5 minutes a day, times tables, it isn't working it out but knowing the answer just like you know the words to a song and what comes next, the quicker you can answer maths questions the more you answer and the higher the mark. Plus around 8 spellings every week too.

Reading is key like others have said. But read to her as well as her reading alone.

And I second Mrs Wordsmith.

Also I wouldn’t personally recommend actual newspapers for children of that age.

Id recommend magazines like The Week for kids for age appropriate current affairs.

Also life experiences. Museums, workshops, travel, theatre, concerts, extra curricular activities etc are probably more important than anything.

My child at that age were writing little news letters in class. This really brought on their writing.

I used to play boggle, countdown, etc any games that help support.

Your DD likes her school, so she is probably in the right place. Gold star 🌟
Whatever shortcomings you think the school might have, these are things you can work on at home. The kids who do best are usually those who have good support and encouragement outside of school.

What worked for my DD was our sitting in bed together, her reading a book to me and my asking questions about the story (sneakily ensuring she understood what she was reading). Year 4 was when she began to struggle with maths. She had her school textbook but I got her a supplementary book of exercises and encouraged her to work through it at her own pace with my help. "Get aggressive with maths. Don't let it defeat you," I told her. That little intervention in Y4 made all the difference. My DD became confident, then really good at maths to the point of her Y10 teacher begging her to take advanced maths in Y11!

I am a big fan of kids being allowed to learn at their own pace, just plodding through stuff at home away from classroom pressure. If you can create a cosy, even cuddly environment for learning, your DD will flourish, I bet you.

You could also try getting her to do atom learning. Many dc in private schools already do this via the school. We know about it because it is used for 11+ It goes through the curriculum.

My daughter is a bit younger, but we’ve also had to get involved in her learning at home because we didn’t feel that she was at all meeting her potential in school.

We ended up doing several pages of workbooks a night (all for the year below, as we’re not really trying to push ahead so much as cement previous learning and spot gaps) and talking it through.

It seems to be making a massive difference having “one on one” chats about everything and she knows (rather than thinks) she’s understood something and we can keep chatting through areas she’s less sure of with no time pressure.

I sometimes feel guilty for making her do this extra 10-15 minutes every day, but after a tiny bit pushback at the start she now just accepts it and possibly even enjoys it. The teacher said that she’s made a lot of progress in a relatively short space of time and I can see it too I think, even if I’m not sure what we’re aiming for.

I would say its largely child /parent ability (as in high achieving parents)and homework. And data manipulation.
Dc school did very well in SATs this year however
They have excluded at least 2 kids from the data who cant read past ks1 level. (One who has been there since reception)
Another 8 kids were low attainment at ks1 and 0 of them met expectations at ks2. I expect they were left to it.
Between y3 and y6 some kids had 'secret' extra maths or reading before school or clubs.
Dc1 did very well at ks1sats but dropped back hugely at ks2. Which i assume is where school focussed on middle attainers going up to exceeding.

We had maths app for weekly homework from y2. And y6 did cgp booklet (whole thing) in each of the reading maths and spag. So parents and homework.

Most kids could then get full marks on the arithmetic paper.

A few kids went private so would have prepped for 11+ and may have had tutors. Others were teachers or doctors kids.

At ours also writing wasnt great as i assume that isnt covered as much at home. But also would have got behind during covid years.

Also work noting some above average etc is comparing to ks1 and some schools made zero effort for that so seem to have made more progress.

At any year but y6 exceed or met etc is just an opinion... As a kid i know had not met then met all to y5 then exceeded SATs. A lot is based on speed and willingness to do the 'challenge' work.
Im sure though this has created a mess for secondaries as they have high SAT achieving kids but they will drop down as they hit much harder work...

Thank you all for your brilliant advice and suggestions. Any suggestions for well-written, intellectually stimulating books suitable for an 8 Yr old? She's just started The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Also do you have any suggestions for work books I could get her that will help her prepare for her SATs and give her a really solid foundation in maths and English? My motivation for all of this stems from my own experience at school. I didn't work very hard in junior school and would mess about in lessons. I really struggled in some subjects at secondary school such as maths, as I didn't have a solid foundation. My daughter's teachers have said she's capable of producing work at greater depth and ultimately I want her to do really well at school, fulfill her potential and hopefully end up with a great career doing a job that she loves and gives her a good quality of life. I'm aware that I need to get the balance right though and not be too pushy whilst at the same time, encourage a love of and passion for learning.

Could you get her a tutor?

For books see https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/category/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/

We do doodle maths too, paid for itat my kids were both 'working towards' in maths.

Merry Christmas!

She’s eight, @WGACA! Unless she has some particular, unusual challenge, an eight year old doesn’t need a tutor - just one or two interested parents who are prepared to actively support her learning. And at this stage reading is the thing she needs most.

It’s great she’s reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, @Desdemoana - get her the whole set of Narnia books.

Has she read Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series?

I recall reading The Hobbit at 8, and The Lord of the Rings a couple of years later.

All the ‘children’s’ books by Ursula Le Guin or Alan Garner.

By which time she’d be ready for Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy plus the additional novels / stories.

That’s enough for now - presents to open!

Spend time with her. Play games with her. Teach her cribbage - very good for maths. Introduce her to Suduku and other puzzles.

Give her a diary as a New Year's present and encourage her to write in it every day.

Get her to read the recipes to you while you cook.

Take her to the library every Saturday - or Waterstones if you can afford it.

Make it fun. Mostly it's just practice.

My DD is 9 but also in Yr4. She works at greater depth & we do pretty much what you're doing.
She's learning guitar at school, is reading Harry Potter at home, but other books at school. We visit the library regularly, she's got the Narnia books for Christmas & the Horrible Histories board game.
We often visit museums or sites relating to her school topic work to expand her learning. Homework is reading, spellings (approximately 10 per week) & TT Rockstars everyday.
We play board games & riddle books to help with problem solving; she attends Cubs & does swimming weekly too.
I get her to help with baking, weighing the ingredients etc. we take things like word searches, sudoku, puzzles & games out when we go for meals etc. we watch Newsround, subscribe to Nat Geo Kids & Whizz Pop Bang.
I'd say you are doing the right things tbh - just keep encouraging her. What does school say about how they're helping her to get to greater depth & have they suggested what you could do?

Bond do a series of maths workbooks aimed at different ages that aim to get kids ready for the 11+ which is harder than ks2 sats.

They are all called bond 11+ but age 8-9, 9-10 etc

www.bond11plus.co.uk/shop/category/maths

A page/section each day will make a big difference

I wouldn't stress about trying to reach exceeding just focus on reading & understanding what she is reading as lots of dc struggle with comprehension. Talk about the books etc

Many many 8 year olds have tutors especially since the pandemic. I tutor some able children who are capable of reaching GDS (often the siblings of children who are working towards ARE)

Also it’s usually parosody (expression) that stops children getting GDS in reading in my experience so ensure she reads aloud regularly and especially puts her all into doing the voices (like she’s a children’s television presenter reading her viewers a story.) If children’s voices are quite monotonous when reading it can stop them achieving GDS.

Second asking her teacher what in particular you should focus on. She’ll want her to reach GDS if she capable just as much as you.

Many many 8 year olds have tutors

That’s as may be, @WGACA - and I understand why you would want to encourage it, but my point was that children within a mainstream range of capability shouldn’t need a tutor at that age if they have at least averagely intelligent parents who are prepared to put in a bit of time to support them. They’re hardly doing advanced academic work beyond the abilities of their parents.

I think what I mean is it would be a huge shame if parents of eight year olds who can’t afford tutors throw up their hands in despair and feel their child is disadvantaged.