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.

I think parents should be able to expect that if they're told at parents evening that all is well, and their child is progressing well, then they should not expect to be second guessing the teachers in time for a surprise negative end of year report. That is all I meant by entrusting education to the teachers. I think a parent absolutely should be able to believe that two teachers can inform them if a child is not making progress and make a plan to help them if that's the case. The op should absolutely not have been surprised by an end of year report, that is totally unacceptable.

The schools let her down tbh, I’d be asking for a meeting to discuss this.

However when you can’t trust the school to send her reading books home you do have to take over and make sure you are still reading with her at home. You can’t undo the fact that they have been shit but you also shouldn’t be passive either when it comes to your DD’s education.

Can you afford a tutor?

The school sound pretty awful though.

Hearing impaired children often struggle with phonics.

get her hearing checked again. If she cannot hear certain sounds then she is going to find phonics very difficult or almost impossible.

at this point you need specialist help. Your school may be able to access a specialist teacher of the Deaf who can advise on hearing impairments.

this is an example of what they do (from Devon county council)

https://www.devon.gov.uk/support-schools-settings/send/areas-of-need/sensory-and-or-physical/deaf-or-hard-of-hearing/the-role-of-the-teacher-of-the-deaf-tod/

Also, tell the school you do not want more shocks in future. You need clear planning and communication. The process is called Assess, Plan, Do, Review and happens in a cycle. You should be informed and included in every step, as should your daughter. In terms of the attention issues, ask what adaptive teaching strategies have been tried and expect answers like timers/buzers/prompting. Ask them to refer to specialist team at county in a term’s time if no improvement. Consider GP pathway to having that assessed too.

I agree, no parent should be learning something for the first time in the end of year report. This should absolutely have been raised beforehand.
However I would have known if my children were behind in terms of the national curriculum at that age, because I don’t believe that the majority of schools are currently equipped to educate children adequately (due to the challenges we read about all the time on here, and in the press), so we take on a lot of that role at home.

Phonics dosent work for all - my ds2 had (still has to a degree at 14) glue ear - we had x2 sets of grommets and bilateral hearing aids in KS2. He could never hear the subtle difference between sounds especially soft sounds. His reading caught up with hearing aids and he now reads at a level matching his age, though spelling is still a work in progress. I would push for a hearing test to check all is well. I also made sure I read to him every day until he was about 11 - so he had access to stories that were age appropriate even if his ability wasn't quite there.

Is dyslexia associated with hearing loss?
Sounds more like a muddle between the two teachers tbh. Do you pick her up on Friday? No book and she goes back in to get it. Go back in with her and encourage her to find the book.

Ask for an appointment with the teacher she's having next year and explain the problem. Ask for a plan for her at the beginning of next academic year.
Read with her, OP, every day. I'm not a KS1 teacher but something like 15 minutes twice a day can only help. The library is your friend.

Is dyslexia associated with hearing loss?

Yes it is, look it up.

www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/test-for-dyslexia-37-signs/

I would email before the drop in session. Gives the teacher time to put a workable plan together rather than deflecting and saying they will look into everything.

In my email I would highlight you are surprised by the report as you would have expected to have already been made aware of protection problems and that you feel communication is important to work together. Include examples of when you have chased them and the results of that. I would end it with a comment about your concerns that you are worried the curriculum becomes more content heavy rather than a focus on the basic skills that underpin learning (reading and numeracy) and ask how they will address this.

We are also told parents shouldn’t hear anything new at parents evening or in a report because communication is year round.

I would also copy in the head senco (if they are linked with the hearing issue)

DD was never interested in the books school sent home so she read the books we had at home to us. The school still badger me to read the school books even though she was the first free reader in her year. Not giving your DD books to take home is negligent of the school.

Of course you need to read with your DD as much as possible at home.

Schools can be really shit with reading, I've found. I taught all mine to read myself. Little bit of phonics but mostly taught whole word recognition and all four are now/were several years ahead of their age groups. Just teach her yourself if they're not up to standard. I'd not be arsing about asking for reading books, just go to the library.

be careful with the advice to allow child to choose own books at bookshop or library etc. this they will usually happily do - enchanted by the cover or title or author etc but they wont be able to read it. so it will be pointless or worse.
to find if a class book is at the right level they should be able to read on sight something like 70% of the words - any less and there wont be enough clues

When my children were little I bought a couple of reading schemes for home when it became clear the school didn’t have time to hear my DC read very often. The whole Julia Donaldson songbirds set cost about £15 I think, you can probably pick them up secondhand, and another set about Alien Adventures.
We worked our way through them all - you might say that we shouldn’t have to buy them, it’s the school’s responsibility, but they costs very little, and we donated them to school afterwards.

If she is still on reading scheme books, pay to join Reading Chest for a few months and slam through as many as you can together over the holidays. (It is a postal loan scheme for the staged books) You can probably raise her a level or two a month if you are focusing at home, at her age.

What books are you reading at home? Most parents in my daughters school ignore the books sent home by school after year 1 as the kids are reading their own books at home.

This is my thinking too. Why are you expanding so much energy trying to get one book a week from the school when a visit to the library would mean you could have 12 books, and books that she has chosen for herself from a much greater range ?
I mean, it is a bit of a tangent from your initial question, but seriously, why doesn't she have books of her own choosing to read at home ?

On Fridays check her bag as soon as she comes out. If theres
no book then send her back in. Same for Monday.

I was going to also say she needs a dyslexia screening. My son was diagnosed with dyslexia this year. He also had glue ear in reception and year 1 before grommets so there were signs then but we weren’t sure due to the hearing difficulties. But after the correction, I still felt something wasn’t quite right. You can get her screened before committing to a paid assessor.

We’ve got hundreds of books at home. DD gets read to every night and I’ve got the whole of the Songbirds series plus a load of other random phonics books I have picked up over the past couple of years. If she doesn’t bring a book home we read a different one instead. DD reads every night. DD loves to write and draw at home and will often write shopping lists, invites for parties, menus, notes for her friends or stories, etc. Spelling homework is completed every week and DD has excellent attendance.

Her speech is fine and she uses a wide range of vocabulary. Recently the teacher commented that DD was working really hard at school and made a number of thoughtful contributions to class discussions. Her teacher has commented how DD loves to sing at school and how well she does in music lessons.

i’ve ordered an age appropriate magazine/comic subscription for DD as I’m hoping that will be something she will enjoy. We used CGP books when she was in Reception and Y1. I will order the Y2 books for DD to work on to consolidate and cover gaps over the summer. I will print off the Dolch words for DD to learn.

Tbh I have been pushed for time this year as DS has had a number of medical appointments and speech therapy and I have had to take the LA to tribunal as they refused to issue an EHCP which has taken up a lot of my time.

DD had her hearing tested after she had grommets and last summer and her hearing was in the normal range. She is due to have her hearing tested again this summer

I’ve spoken to my neighbour and obtain the details for the English tutor she uses. Her DS goes to the same school school and she has paid for a tutor since Y3 for her son as he slipped behind and wasnt catching up.

i have request a meeting with DDs teacher to discuss the report and find out what the key concerns are and what would be best to work on over the summer. I will also raise with them again as I have concerns that DD may have some type of SEN (possibly ADHD or Dyslexia)

I’ve asked if there is anything extra I should be doing at home and I’ve been told no

I was told similar and wished I'd ignored it sooner.

If she had hearing issues - hopefully now gone - she will probably not have taken in phonics.

We liked https://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-read/ - 10 minutes a day.

Teach your monster how to read for fun.

We also used reading chest and bought many phionics books - mine also needed spelling programs but there was more going on.

I did once complain about being blinded by end of year report for one child - wasn't the only parent who was and the HT did get involved - newish teacher. Didn't do much for my kid - by then but at least knew wasn't just us.

As long as she has additional support - and I'd agree your right to raise and push for testing for SEN - she will likely catch up but it does taken some time. It was frustrating and worrying with mine during that time and it was about 18 for a year behind I think though that will clearly vary - SEN glue year memory issues - but they did catch up and as we continued with the home support got passed expected levels and were rock solid in basics by secondary age.

Firstly ask what has happened this year to stop her passing the screen, next ask what their plans are to ensure her phonics continues (not all schools ensure this happens daily in ks2) and thirdly ask to speak to the sendco - not passing at y2 would usually mean Send needs for us x

Mumsnet has hidden my comment, probably all. the links! I'm really sorry this is happening I hope you find a way to help.yoir child. I mentioned a number of things in my hidden post that I found helpful for my son who is dyslexic.
The library, the summer reading challenge is just starting with stickers and rewards for borrowing books from the library, they will have a selection of graded reading books.
Reading eggs who have a free summer trial, repetitive and really good online or app for learning phonics.
Jolly phonics which is a multi sensory way of learning phonics and uses movement and little saying to help remember phonics. My children found them really helpful.
Oxford owl website, which is the Oxford Reading Tree website which ebooks, phonics guides and helpful guides for parents as well as some maths.
If you think your child may be dyslexic I can recommend paying for an assessment, school really dragged their feet about assessing my child and made me doubt myself. The assesment made my son proud of all the things he was great at, like pattern recognition, and have an answer as to why school was so exhausting, and languages were almost impossible to learn.

being made by school to read those awful; Biff and Chip went to the shops shite

@EternalFogInMyNotSoSpoltlessMind my now adult son has complex additional needs. He was (is) well behind on his reading and was being given those books as a teen. Both he and I were losing the will to live when another one was sent home!