Shock school report

[FakeItUntilIMakeIt]

DD came home with her school report today and it is not great. . Some background is that DD learnt diddly squat in Reception as she has a hearing impairment and spent most of the time sat at the back of the class looking out of the window. Grommets at the end of Reception and then Y1 school report said that she was at ARE for all NC subjects apart from reading and writing where she was working towards. I was reassured by the teacher that she was only one term behind in reading and as her reading caught up her writing would as well. Both parents evenings have been positive this year will DD doing particularity well in Maths, improving in writing but easily distracted.

DD received her Y2 report today and she is below expectations in reading and working towards in most national curriculum subjects. She has also not passed the phonics screening check again! This came as a shock as at parents evening I was told she was doing well particularly in Maths (which she is now WT) and was progressing with her reading but struggled with concentration. I’ve asked if there is anything extra I should be doing at home and I’ve been told no. I’ve had to chase DDs school repeatedly as she can go weeks without being home a reading book. We always compete the spelling homework and DD normally gets 9 or 10 out of 10.

My main concern is that DD is 8 in December and is not phonically secure and struggles to read. At her age I was reading basic chapter books.
The is a drop in session to discuss reports so I will be attending that. What would you suggest I bring up with the teacher? What would to recommend to help DD catch up. My concern is that DD is a well behaved polite and friendly girls so she is easy to forget in class.

You don’t think parents should be listening to their children read/reading to their children outside of the school reading scheme?

Yes, of course I do. That isn't what I've said at all ☺️
I'm just pointing out that a) the op shouldn't be viewed as the main thing going wrong here and b) there is no acceptable scenario in which a parent is receiving a surprise bad end of year report.
The most important thing is that op can have a meeting with the school and a plan can be made to move this child forward and get her reading and thriving at school.

Additionally , I can't actually see where the op has definitively stated that she does no other reading at home. She's simply criticised that they don't get regular books from school.

You need to take charge of your daughter’s education. Teach her to read yourself. Use Reading Chest or books from a local library. If you have a desktop or laptop computer then online phonics schemes are a helpful complement. Carol Vorderman maths or similar will also help.

I’d get an app/ website like Doodle Learning or similar, and make sure that’s done at least 5 days a week over summer, continuing into next year.
Make sure she reads out loud to you most days. Twinkl does have its own reading scheme / books you can access online with subscription, then print out worksheets in areas Doodle or whichever website you use identifies her struggling in most

I don't do any homework with my children as they are at school for 6 hours a day. However, I have read to them since they were babies, encourage them to read things they love, buy magazines I know they will read, get them to do basic maths with baking, science kits etc. parents can't abdicate all responsibility for learning to school.

There's no suggestion that the op has abdicated all responsibility to the school.

There are more classroom disruptions than ever. Teachers are burnt out and overwhelmed. They don’t have enough funding or enough staff to meet the needs of the class.
It’s foolish to trust their education wholly to the school these days. I think it’s probably a small % can actually succeed in the classroom without extra work.
I know within my mum friends, most have apps their child does daily, some do workbooks on top of this and some have tuition.
Not an 11+ area, as I know it’s usually assumed it is.

Ask for a meeting with class teacher and SENDCo, ask them how the graduated approach is being applied.
They should be able to tell you what screening or assessments they have done or have planned, what interventions or strategies they are going to put in place and what you could do over the summer to support her.

I'd buy a set of Oxford Reading Tree (Biff and Chip) phonics books (they are always being sold cheaply on local Facebook pages) and go through them with your DD during the school holidays. This will give you a good idea of what 'level' she is at.

You could try watching the Jolly Phonics videos on YouTube. My DC enjoyed these.

If you can do regular times tables practise, this will help a lot with maths. There are songs you can listen to in the car etc which will help them stick in her head.

I'd definitely go in to school and ask what has changed between parents evening (meeting expectations) and now. If she has slid back a bit they should be delivering targeted, small group session on (e.g.) phonics, to get her back on track.

Exactly. We’re told all the time that teachers are over worked and under paid, schools are under funded, there’s too much paperwork, too many children with SEN in mainstream education, poor behaviour in classrooms etc. With all that going on it would be madness to entirely entrust the education of your children to schools nowadays.

Does she still have a hearing impairment? If so I would think she would have individual learning plan, or whatever your school calls it, and you and DD should have some involvement with that, and it should be reviewed at least annually

Your wee one sounds like my grand daughter even down to the hearing issues and within the last 3 months she’s been diagnosed with Dyslexia. It wasn’t a surprise to us as she’s not the first in the family and we recognised the characteristics, plus one of my children is a SENCO so we were on very firm ground with our suspicions. Truth be told we’re a neurodiverse family and our problem lay with her school telling us it was way to early to jump to this conclusion 🙄. Anyway we were correct and she has her diagnosis but we instigated it ourself because we’d been there before - the first dyslexia diagnosis in the immediate family was 20 odd years ago. It’s also highly likely that my grand daughter has ADHD.

If I were you I would be telling the school it’s time for further investigation of the problem.

sorry, just to add my grand daughter had two lots of grommet surgery. I think she was about 5 when she had the first lot then almost 8 when she had the second.

What books does she have at hone? When do you visit the library? Take her to the library some do a reading program in the summer get points for books
Get hearing tested again
Get referred to teacher for hearing impaired

I’ve had to chase DDs school repeatedly as she can go weeks without being home a reading book.

What's stopping you from actually borrowing or buying books and reading them with her???

Do you have a local library, a local bookshop, a second-hand bookshop? If you're not reading with her, why are you surprised she's behind?

I would definitely get her hearing checked again. DS had grommets but they only gave him good hearing for about a year. We're waiting for a 2nd set.
If finances allow I would be buying a decent set of books for her to read at home over the summer. We have the Songbirds phonics set which goes from level 1-6 IIRC. You can also borrow books from the library or make your own flashcards cheaply.
If she is hearing well could there be any other SEN do you think? Dyslexia, Autism or ADHD could all contribute to underachieving in different ways.

Schools are notoriously bad at understanding what is going on with quiet pupils who don't cause them any problems.

I suggest you get her assessed by a speech and language therapist. She may need more support in this area.

You might also like to get her assessed by an Ed psych to identify her potential. If she has learning difficulties, this will be picked up. Don't get her assessed for dyslexia as that's all they look for. An Ed psych will look for dyslexia and other things too.

You might also like to get her assessed by an Ed psych to identify her potential. If she has learning difficulties, this will be picked up. Don't get her assessed for dyslexia as that's all they look for. An Ed psych will look for dyslexia and other things too

Yes. I agree with you. We went down the Ed Psych route.

Join your local library and read every day. Your library might be doing a summer reading challenge.

It might be useful to do a bit of maths with her now and then over the holidays so she doesn’t fall behind.
Teachers cannot give your child one to one attention. That has to come from the parents.

She hasn't done anything wrong in entrusting her child's education to the school.

Wrong. The home environment as an informal learning environment is often as important as school.

Your attitude is why teachers tear their hair out ...

I am a teacher 😂

So you’ll know then that the pressures being faced by the education system mean that it would be foolhardy to entirely entrust the education of your children to schools!

You need to help your daughter practice her reading every day. It doesn't need to be long, 10-15 minutes per day. You don't need to use books from the school either, go to the local library and let her choose books. It became apparent to me at the end of Reception, that my son was struggling with learning to read, and I knew without me intervening, he would continue to struggle. The school do their best, but the teacher has X amount of children in class and has to teach all he other subjects too. We spent 10-15 minutes per day for an entire term, my son went up several book bands at school and his teacher was amazed. If I hadn't taken this action, he would have continued to struggle. By the time my son started secondary school, and had admission tests, his reading level at 11, was aged 14/15!!

I wouldn’t rely on phonics as the only tool to learning to read.

My ds still can’t so phonic sounds now but he’s working on software development so I wouldn’t make it the be all or end all either!

Fond some dyslexia friendly books and apps and look at another way of teaching reading and recognising patterns in words etc.

Speak to the teacher and ask for specific advice on what they recommend and what interventions school will be putting in place .

• Ask the school for her Individual Learning Plan (ILP) if they have one. Ask them to create one, if not.
• Ask them which intervention groups she is in currently- ask for the evidence/data from these- and find out which groups they’ll put her in for September.
• Find some really engaging books to share at home. Shared reading is more fun and do try to find the best books you can afford or take some out from the library. Play to her interests and read fiction and non-fiction.
• Ask the school to screen her for Dyslexia (SENDCo)
• Consider apps/tutoring/further investigation with an educational psychologist as funds allow. Reading Eggs/ Nessy/ IXL/My Maths are all good
• Ask for a transition meeting between at least one of her current teachers and her next teacher. Plan next steps together.