Child behind- what would you do?

[Jessicapancake]

My 8yo has always been 'working towards' at school, but they have but in support such as extra reading and maths sessions, and not really flagged it as anything major.
This parents eve they have a new, very experienced teacher who has told me that she is very behind. She was shocked (her words) at how low her assessment scores were as the previous teacher hadn't really given that impression. She got something like 20/100 in her maths.
The teacher said otherwise she's a happy, confident lovely child and that some children just aren't academic.

I'd like to do something to help her catch up a bit. I'm time poor as we both work full time but probably could afford a tutor once or maybe twice a week at a squeeze.

Or is there something else I could look at like repeating the year?

Wwyd?
Please be kind, I'm feeling really upset about it.

What do you do with your DD to support her? When mine were little we had a subscription for Carol Vordermans maths factor and they did 15 mins a day. We also had maths work books suitable for the school key stage (there are loads on Amazon) which we worked through with them (again just 15 mins a day so not too onerous). You can also play games as a family that involve maths (Uno, monopoly etc) so they don't even realise they are doing maths. Incorporate maths in every day (get her to help with weighing out recipes, adding up the shopping bill etc). For English, reading with her is the best thing you can do. Not just her reading school books to you but you reading to her and asking her questions about the books (comprehension), it makes a massive difference.

A tutor twice a week is too much.
Make learning as fun as you can at home, reading, games, and let her follow her interests.
If you can find a good general tutor who isn't focused on SATS, 11+, or the curriculum, this can be a really good idea, but only if she enjoys the sessions.
Also rule out learning needs such as dyslexia and discalculia (sp?), dyspraxia. schools can be terrible at recognising and diagnosing these.

Repeating the year isn't really a thing in the U.K. system. The expectation is that the teacher in each year group adapts activities to the various different levels that the children are at.

There's some general advice, and then you may need to dig a bit deeper into what's going on.

The general advice is get her eyes and ears tested. A very simple reason why some child are behind is that they can't see very well or hear very well. If this is the case then it's a quick fix - glasses or looking at hearing support.

If those are both ok, then look at her previous reports. Did she pass the phonics check? If no, then school should have informed you and put in extra support and she may have retaken the check in year 2.

If the issue is phonics there is a lot you can do at home to support.

Tutors are generally not cost effective at this age as little and often is better than once a week and doing (for example) watching alpha locks and numberblocks plus doing reading eggs and nessy phonics daily will have much more of dn impact.

I would get a full picture of where she is behind, and more importantly why before initiating any tutoring.

If there are no additional needs and she's 'just' behind then really don't panic, not at age 8. There are several years left of primary and plenty of time for you to catch her up.

IME some kids genuinely just do learn slower than others in the first few years. So they're slower to get the basics of phonics or maths to 'click' - and because others in the class get that click two years earlier, they then seem to plough ahead with more advanced stuff whilst some appear to fall further and further behind.

I wouldn't get a tutor yet. At 8, the best thing she can do is regular, VERY regular practice, in bite sized chunks.

I would implement 20 minute sessions of either reading or maths and make sure they're done every day. And 2 x 20 minute sessions on weekends. So Mon/Wed/Fri - 20 mins reading. Then Tue/Thurs 20 mins maths. Sat and Sun, a session of each.

Don't push her to do 'advanced' practice. Don't try and get her to sit and do maths at the next stage or push her to read a harder book. Practice first with what she IS comfortable with, even if that's her 2 times table or reading a 5 page book. And for the maths, use apps. 20 minutes on TT Rockstars or Sumdog or whatever it is seems like fun, not learning. Get her comfortable with the routine and let the increase in difficulty come very gradually.

The biggest opportunity you have is the 6 weeks summer holidays. So start now with the 20 minutes a day. And all through every holiday, especially summer, KEEP doing it. Every day. Even if you're sitting on a beach and she's playing on a maths app on your phone. Many kids regress hugely over summer as they do nothing - if you keep going, you have a huge opportunity to catch her right up.

The teacher has only been with the class for a few weeks so I'm not sure she has tons of info.
Reading, she reads confidently I thought but apparently they should read 100 words a minute and she needs to work on fluency/speed and comprehension of what she's reading.
Maths she scored very low. When we do homework she gets very frustrated and I find I'm unable to help her as I don't really understand the processes for maths these days.
She's quite a handful at home, emotionally charged and not a child who would sit and do homework/reading independently.
Her older brother does ok at school, although has an adhd diagnosis with the inattentive aspect. He has gained focus as he's gotten older but was never as behind as she is.

What about some maths and other educational games in the evening and weekends? My child used to enjoy those and the maths/english workbooks that you can pick up for £1 in The Works, I’ve seen them in Poundland and Aldi too.

Make sure you’re reading each night too. I know you work full time but half an hour sat at the table each night has got to be doable.

I really, really struggle with home study for her to be honest so a tutor was my work around for trying to get something reliable in place.
I think I probs have adhd albeit undiagnosed and trying to do a regular learning sessions has been a tried and failed for years. I despair at it. I've bought so many catch up books with the aim to do regular sessions with her and they sit unused. I work full time plus with random shifts day and night and she is not a willing participant so it's easily abandoned when you're exhausted and don't want to fight with your child on the free time you have together.
I can't rely on me, shit as that is (and trust me it feels horrendous) so outsourcing is the only way I feel I can follow through with a committed approach. Hence the tutor idea.

please don't make her do maths apps at the beach. Just let her play. She'll be learning while playing and without realising it. Kids need to explore, wonder and ask questions to truly understand maths and science concepts and to consolidate their learning. The beach is a brilliant place to do this.

You should get a tutor once a week but ask them to set your child daily 10 minute short homework for Maths. She really needs to be absolutely fluent in the very basics of number bonds and timetables etc and then needs to move on to worded problems and two step problems, initially based on very simple arithmetic.
Regarding reading, comprehension is very important from Year 3 onwards. It is best to go back to easier texts she is confident in and ask lots of questions and make it fun. Look up VIPERS.
If you get an excellent tutor they will help you understand how to help your own child in very accessible bite size chunks. 5-10 minutes a day makes a huge difference long term.

If you are not in a position to do work with her then a tutor is a good ideas

Look for a retired primary teacher. They will have a lot of experience and will be able to tell you exactly where she is and focus on the areas she needs to improve.

I haven’t read the whole thread as at work but I have an 8 year old daughter just the same. Always been working towards in everything but struggles particularly in Maths. Is described as hard working, emotionally intelligent, friendly, creative, etc.etc. by teachers but just not academic. It has floored me a bit as my other two DC have never struggled.
What I have done for DD is find her a good tutor for Maths and English. She is an ex primary school teacher. It is £30.00 an hour but has been totally worth it for us. DD has had her tutor since year 3 and had formed a close bond with her. She hasn’t of course become academically able overnight but the tutoring has given her confidence - along with reinforcing things she is having problems with she is able to talk to her about her struggles in the classroom. She had been getting very down with school, calling herself “dumb” etc but her tutor gives her the reassurance that I cannot seem to! I would absolutely recommend the tutor route if at all possible.

That's really helpful.
How often/how long sessions does she have and are they f2f or online?

This highlights the problem of assessment systems. We have to report if a child is ‘working below’, ‘working at’ or ‘exceeding’ within a particular year group. Telling a parent their child is ‘working below’ (often substituted with ‘working towards’) is practically meaningless because if a child were, say, in Year 4, does it mean they are working at Year 3, 2, 1 or Foundation stage?
Where a child is working below their year group, a teacher could use P Levels to fine tune their assessments to show what progress they are making. Sadly, all too many children are recorded as ‘working below’ all through their primary years.

I’ve done lots of tutoring for Primary children. I would always advise parents to book for an hour but that hour will be 45 minutes actual teaching, 5 minutes feedback to parents and 10 minutes prep time. An hour of 1:1 teaching is quite intense! Face to face is better, and 2x weekly is also better.

Hi, she has a one hour session once a week after school and it’s face to face (would recommend this over online)

Yes this is what we do (50 mins teaching, 10 feedback) except only once a week. Thinking about increasing to twice a week but because of cost would mean we would have to drop other out of school activities.

And the teachers have always told me she was working towards which feels like just below and I've not worried because my son did same and caught up as his focus and concentration improved. But it seems actually she is working below with a significant issue.

Thanks @Julen7
I think f2f would be better, I think she might engage better and be less distracted.
It's trying to balance what we want with what we can afford that's the issue.

Yes it’s not cheap. You could trial it for a few months to see the effect it was having (this was my intention but I now can’t see how I can ever stop it 😒)

Have you considered that she might have ADHD too (as I am sure you are aware there is a strong genetic link)?
My youngest was struggling at school as they found it hard to focus, but has since been diagnosed with ADHD and the medication really helped them catch up (in fact they just passed their 11 plus)
They would not have benefitted from an hours tutoring prior to starting their ADHD meds as they just wouldn't have been able to focus for that long.

If she finds life just a bit easier it will be worth the investment.

I've always been academic and found everything easy so this has been really confusing and challenging in lots of ways.

Yes nothing worse than watching them struggle is there?

I have done tutoring for 7 year olds up to 13 year olds.
They all appreciated the opportunity to talk about their learning and what they were struggling with, without feeling self-conscious or embarrassed.
It was mostly maths.

Have you considered that she might be ND too? Dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD are all possibilities, maybe even more than one.

I think she'd be much better off doing little and often rather than just a tutor once a week. If she loves it though then it will be really worthwhile. If she's not interested and doesn't really engage then it might put her off even more. Does she like the idea of a tutor? Certainly big it up and give it a try.

Do you read her a bedtime story every evening? I think that is really vital and you can talk about what's happening to help her comprehension. Would she do homework better with her dad? Get her to teach you/dad how to do the maths (she might think that's funny and it's really good for her learning). Things set for homework will be things she will already have done in class, so if she doesn't know how to do it then let the teacher know as she is obviously not understanding what's happening in class - I would also say get her eyesight and hearing checked just in case.

She really needs to be reading to someone every day - could her dad do that if you don't think you can? You will find it makes a huge difference. Maybe take it in turns to read a page - or even a paragraph if that helps make it more enjoyable and take the pressure off. She might still be using her brain to decode the words and that may be why she's losing the meaning, the more fluent she gets the less she has to think about what the words say and the more she can concentrate on the overall meaning.