DD on track rather than greater depth

[Thedownstream]

Just had Parents Evening for DD who is in Year 5. Early on in her school life she was greater depth in Reading, Maths and Science but since the middle of year 2 she has dropped back and now is always meeting age related expectations for the core subjects and never anything more. She gets greater depth consistently in PE, Computing, PHSE and sometimes Geography, but they’re not the core subjects.

EY and Year 1 for her were the years she missed out on schooling due to Covid, and I really tried hard with the homeschooling despite her reluctance. Two younger siblings later and I admit I’ve taken the eye of the ball and DH never had his eye on it, and we’ve not done the readings or spellings with her we should have done, and whilst she’s done her homework every week it’s been a case of let her hand in whatever even if it’s taken her 5 minutes. I feel like we’ve failed her and she should be achieving more. She’s bright (I think) but very slapdash and very competitive. Every teacher has fed back that she needs to take more care with her work and not just rush to finish first. Same feedback tonight.

DH and I both work and DD plays sport 4 nights per week, plus she has two younger siblings that need attention. We barely have enough time to feed them with rushing around let alone anything else!

So what would you focus on at home to help her reach her potential? We’ve started enforcing reading for 20 minutes each morning and I was thinking of getting her to practice spellings then too. But is there anything else we can do with such limited time?

I want her to do as well in her SATS next year as possible. Our local secondary isn’t great behaviour wise if you’re not in top sets. I feel we owe it to her to help her get the best results she can to set her up well for secondary. I don’t think a tutor for SATS is the answer. I don’t want her to panic under any pressure, but perhaps a tutor for English not linked to SATS (English is definitely weaker than Maths)?

If you don’t have much time available then I would focus on reading as it’s so important. It’s key to focus on comprehension, not just whether she can pronounce words and read text fluently. So asking questions about what she has read, what phrases mean and character intentions etc. This will help across the board with her work.

How are her times tables? These are crucial for the maths papers, so I would do some Times Tables Rockstars (or similar) to help. Even 5 mins each morning would really help her.

CGP workbooks are really good if you wanted to focus on certain areas.

Maybe speak to her teachers again to see which areas they suggest she focus on, or what they feel she could do to improve?

Don't overthink it. I used to be a yr6 teacher. If a child was gd at year 1, every teacher after would be forced to put them at gd because of the immense pressure and targets that exist. It's all teacher assessed and not externally moderated so what one teacher might say is different to another. I'm not saying your daughter isn't gd, but the whole system is so open to individual interpretation (which is valuable and professional of course but has it's issues). Sets at secondary are normally decided by their own assessment at the start of the year, not sat results.

If she's going to be gd, she will likely get there by doing doing her normal school work. If not, then she wouldn't cope in the highest set and that would be detrimental anyway. Be wary of how you approach this - I've seen it so much and it often ends up with very tired and stressed children (even with parents who don't mean to put pressure on - children are very sensitive to our actions and behaviours and the messages they send).

Thank you. This is really helpful.

We’ve let her down with the reading. Left her to it far too early and whilst she’s “Read” all the Harry Potter books I don’t believe she actually understood any of them (it was all just a race to finish them first).

I need to find the time to listen to her read.

Times tables are all good, helped by her competitive nature to win the schools Times Table Rockstars competition. She’s known them all since year 3 and got full marks in the Year 4 Multiplication Check.

Why do you think she should be "achieving" more ?

Thank you. This is a helpful other side to things. I’m not sure whether she is genuinely destined to be middle set or whether perhaps she’s not meeting her full potential because we haven’t been supportive enough at home and because she’s perhaps not being pushed in school .

She’s no trouble at school, they have no worries that she’s at risk of not meeting expectations, she gets on with work quietly, the teacher has no TA. I can’t imagine she is getting much time and it was the same last year and the year before.

Focus on her reading @Thedownstream this will feed into everything else. But you need to make sure that the is understanding what she is reading so make sure you ask questions about the book...for example.get her to tell you what it is about, if she is part way through it ask her what she thinks will happen next and then ask her if she was right etc.

Do her school us TT Rock Stars or Purple Mash apps for maths? If so make sure she does 10 minutes a day on them...load it on your ohone and let her do it in the car when you are travelling to school or sports.

4 nights of activities a week does seek a lot...is it worth reducing this to 2 maybe to free up time for school work...seems like she is rushing because she isn't getting time to do it properly

This.
She is average. Not lagging behind. Not behaving badly. Just on track. And that is fine. She does not need to be top of the class.
Sats don’t matter. They’re more for the school than the kids.
She is very young and her approach to ‘studying’ is (quite rightfully and naturally) immature. As she gets older she will have more accountability for her schoolwork. Right now she is 10.

Because she was very bright when she was younger. Ahead in reading, well ahead in maths, could read all numbers up to 1,000 before starting school. She was my only child then and yes some of that would have been taught as I had the time and she had the interest, but I think she does have the potential. If she doesn’t, then at least I’ll have done my best.

Yes secondary schools pay very little heed to the sats results, so don't stress about them. They are only of any interest to the primary school because they are used as a measure of success. I used to be a governor in a secondary school and the staff there knew which schools tutor to the tests.

Thank you, this is really helpful. It has helped reinforce that we really do need to focus on the reading and the comprehension.

The sport is too much and definitely eats into time for anything else, but it is her passion and her talent. It also takes up both weekend mornings 🙈.

Also it is very early to say how academically well a child is going to do. DC1 never particularly stood out at primary school but became an academic power house in secondary, eventually graduating with a 1st in a masters from a top university.

Thank you. That is very reassuring about SATS results and well done to your DC!

Unfortunately at that age you can't expect her to excel at sport and at academics when you aren't able to give her the dedicated time to achieve both.

That's absolutely no criticism, but it does end yo being a cake and eating it situation.

The obvious solution is to reduce the sport activity but if you aren't prepared to do that because it is her passion then you can't really complain that she is not achieving higher at the academic side of life.

You need to decide what your priorities are I'm afraid.

If sport is her passion, & already takes up so much of her time, how is she going to manage homework etc at secondary?

My DD is Yr5 too - working at GD in all areas except sport. She reads everyday, & school have Accelerated Reader where they do tests on the books they've read to assess comprehension. Does your DDs school have something similar?

I am not sure why you’re not keen on a tutor, but a 1-2-1 tutor sounds like a good idea… I do think bright kids can start to lag sometimes if they’re not being properly pushed, a tutor can really
propel her forward

Yes you’re right. I don’t think the sport can reduce and so we need to fit more academics on top somehow. At least we’re not a grammar school area!

I don’t think her school have anything like that with regards to reading. I don’t think any teacher has listened to her read for a few years now.

At present she goes straight from afterschool childcare to sports due to our work. I anticipate at secondary she will have time to do homework as she’ll be walking home and so getting home much earlier.

I guess I don’t want to put pressure on her SATS as she tends to panic a bit under pressure, but a tutor to just help with spelling, writing and comprehension more generally I’m open to.

Do you do much with your DD at home to help with her learning, or does she just enjoy reading so reads of her own accord for pleasure?

Unfortunately @Thedownstream I think you have some massively unrealistic expectations.

You know what the solutions are but you are not willing to make those changes so I'm not sure what you hope to achieve here.

After school childcare and sports so often is actually a lot. I wouldn't be wanting to add more pressure or more to her day as so much of it is programmed already. It may be adding to that sense she feels she has to "rush" to fit everything in or get things done.

Does she have genuine down time when she's home? I absolutely wouldn't be trying to do things on top of afterschool clubs and sports and school that's a lot.

Just give her time to read before bed and keep the rest and downtime up - it's a marathon not a sprint.

DD loves reading - so will read at bedtime either to us or on her own. She also reads at school - they have set times when they read in class (not necessarily to a teacher/TA though). She's on free-reading now so can choose what she reads & often has 2-3 books on the go at once - one school library book, & then home books.
We don't help with spellings anymore as that's all covered in school. If she wants me to run through them with her, I do.
She does 10mins of TT Rockstars a day, sometimes in school but mostly at home when she gets in - it's part of her homework.
Then she has optionally homework she can do as much or as little of which relates to the topics they've been covering in school. Yesterday she designed & made a chocolate bar & conducted research into what we thought of it. They did the Mayans last term.

I'm worried your daughter will burn out OP. What's her sport?

Is it Tennis?

Hi

I'm a single parent, and work full time as a social worker so my hours are unpredictable. DD is at school from 8am until 4.30pm Monday to Friday (sometimes 5.30 Thursday and Friday). She is in clubs 5.30-7 Monday, 5-5.30 Tuesday, 6-8 Friday, and the whole morning until 1pm Saturday. Her dad collects her from school Monday and Wednesday, gives her tea and takes her to her club on Monday, does homework on Wednesday. I often have to work in the evenings so I get everything organised at DD bedtime, ready for the next day so we're organised.

We manage to do reading, timestables rockstars, and spellings every day. She's 6 and a free reader so we usually get her to read a chapter a day. How we do it is, if we get to school or club a bit early, we use that time to read or do spellings. Before getting in the bath or shower, while it's being sorted she will read to us. She has a hot meal at school so on club nights she will have a big packed lunch tea. We call out her spellings as we drive along or while doing other things and she spells them back to us. If we only have time for one thing, it is always reading. At after school club they will get them to do their reading as well. Fortunately, she's very bright and enjoys it. My oldest is 14, has SEND, has always struggled, and this approach just wouldn't have ever been possible with her.

So in your situation focus on reading and use the time when she's waiting to start her club, those few minutes in the car on the way to school or waiting to go in. When you're a busy family, everything gets done on the hop. Children need down time, and being on track really is okay.

@Thedownstream I absolutely understand why you'd want to encourage her to reach her full potential.
I also agree that parental involvement almost always makes a huge difference. A bit of extra work in the mornings - some days reading, some days spellings, etc - should definitely help.

She sounds a bit like me actually when I was little. Everything came very easy but I didn't put any extra effort, was rushing through, and I was also competitive.

As a parent now I'd suggest building intrinsic motivation, learning for learning sake and not to 'win', definitely be as involved whenever and however you can, and I suggest focus meditation exercises to help slow down her mind.
She sounds wonderful. Good luck.