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.

Op, you can't rely on the school alone to fix this. Kids need support at home.
Take your daughter to the library every other week, and find a few books at her reading level. Make sure she reads at home every single day, even if it's a few sentences a day. If you can share what her reading level is, I'm happy to share book recommendations.
For maths start with power maths year 1 workbook at home (start one level below to build a strong foundation, also gives the child a bit of confidence when they begin)

Also, glue ear can come back . So please get her hearing checked again

Im a teacher. The general rule is that nothing on the reports should be a surprise- any concerns should have already been communicated.
You need to ask why they haven't been and I would ask for a proper meeting, not just at a "drop in" with both teachers and the SENDCO.

The school is letting your daughter down. Ask for a meeting with head of key stage 1 and senco.
Points to raise

• failed phonics screening check- what will be done in KS2 to continue to help her move forwards with her phonics, how will they be tracking her progress.
• What changed during the year that she went from ‘doing really well’ in Maths to now not meeting expected level.
• Why do they think that in year one she was able to meet NC levels for wider curriculum subjects but is now not?
• What interventions have been in place this year?How are they tracking the effectiveness of these?
• Have they considered that your daughter has any barriers to her learning and if so have they considered that she may need to be assessed by other professionals/what additional support/adaptations have they put in place?
• Also raise the issue of constantly not getting a reading book and being fobbed off.

if you are not 100% happy with these responses then ask for a meeting with the head. If all of the above is not addressed fully then take things further (if school is part of a trust then Primary Director if not chair of governors) If you’d like to discuss further please feel free to contact me. Your daughter will be fine as you are obviously a good mum and it’s not too late to get this sorted but it’s very important the school take action now.

• What changed during the year that she went from ‘doing really well’ in Maths to now not meeting expected level.

This is a good point but we had this as well - constant flip flopping across multiple teachers and kids and years. Moved schools due to work and location move and this just didn't happen at next school. First school was consiered a good one - the second was where there were inyear places and it's repuation wasn't great - but they second couldn't reply on parents making up any gaps that I now suspect first one did.

At first school we resorted to Maths Factor - for maths and then kept with it - got them soild even child with supposed dyscalculia in first school. They just plodded along at home with it and school did what it was doing. Took couple of years but first school did eventually notice our kids were petty good at maths.

If you were turned down for an ehc i suggest you contact SOS!SEN for advice.

We got our daughter assessed by a specialist speech and language therapist forcehc tribunal. School SALT had signed her off with just a few comments and I was extremely sceptical about paying for an assessment as she sounded fine to me.

But the report came out that she scored 2 out of 100 which meant she had a clinical disorder.

The main problem was her processing of receptive language. It was the equivalent of me trying to learn in German. She could only remember a fraction of what she was told and the teacher had moved on before she had understood what she was supposed to do.

Her actual hearing was fine but it was the processing.

She masked a lot and no one really understood what was going on.

Therapist was astonished that school SALT had signed her off.

We had her assessed by an OT too and she had visual processing problems too. Again her eyesight was fine but it was the processing that was the problem. This can look like dyslexia but is different.

We also had her seen by an Ed psych but that wasnt so useful.

Anyway we got the ehc. The LA saw the evidence we had and granted it without tribunal.

I used SOS!Sen.

To add that a child with Auditory Processing Disorder will have a normal hearing test. It took us years to get a diagnosis as we kept telling everyone she couldn’t hear but she kept passing normal hearing tests.

All these people saying just read more at home etc. For some children with APD it’s IMPOSSIBLE to learn to read using phonics.

It a bit like dyslexia but for your hearing.

I would buy your own reading books. We have loads at home because they do not come home with new ones often enough. And it is important for them to read a lot. Good to read the same book 2-3 times, but if they are comfortable w it, you move on to the next.

I have a son and another granddaughter who are both dyslexic and also have a diagnosis of central auditory processing disorder But the granddaughter I’ve spoken about earlier doesn’t.

And regarding the amount of reading being mentioned - for some children with reading difficulties, regardless of the cause, the last thing they need at the end of a gruelling school day is a more reading at home. It’s not even as if dyslexia ‘only’ causes reading problems, it’s a whole list of things that affects every part of the person.

Try toe by toe, age appropriate and a good book to help phonics

Children that have had some form of sensory deprivation during early childhood struggle to keep up and can have processing issues as a result.

She will probably catch up, but worth speaking to an OT that specialises in auditory processing

I left teaching years ago and even then there were loads of schemes for teens and adults - its sick your son got those books

@Iwanttoliveonamountain I know and got some for home, but was told by his teacher- also literacy lead- that there wasn't anything!

Next class gave him non fiction which was a smart move and really helped!

My now mid 30’s son who’s severely autistic and was non verbal till he was 8, learned to read with Biff and Chip. He never went to school, I did home Ed with him, and between myself and a wonderful teacher we employed to work with him an hour a day a few times a week we got him reading and writing.

I think what may suit one child perhaps may not suit another but I don’t think we can write off whole reading schemes just like that. And interestingly enough when I was reading with my grand daughter once I realised she was more than likely dyslexic I turned to Biff and Chip, amongst other things, to give her respite from the books they used at school.

I know this isn't to do with the original post but a little diversion we have gone down.

I have to say I disliked Biff Chip n Killer in the late 90s early 00s. I don't remember it being particularly successful with anyone. DS age 6 learnt to read fluently playing Super Mario on the Nintendo 64.
Anyway GS 2 years ago started school and it was the all singing and dancing Read Write Inc.
He only lasted 1 term in Reception and refused to go back in January. So we gathered some Read Write Inc and started on the scheme again but it was like swimming through treacle. So we switched to the Julia Donaldson Songbirds and then after that good old Biff, Chip and Kipper reared their heads and his reading took off like a jumbo jet from Heathrow. He has loved reading their adventures and I have enjoyed his enthusiasm.

Get Reading Eggs

i agree, those books can be very good when children are young but teenagers will not be motivated by the stories - it makes them feel rubbish.

@Iwanttoliveonamountain I’m sorry but your mention of teenagers has confused. Under what circumstance would teenagers be given Biff and Chip books?

But that said, I think my son would have been about 11 when he was developmentally able enough start learning to read, it also helped that he’d been talking by then for about 2.5 years, so even though he was close to being a teenager in actual numbers Biff and Chip certainly stood him in good stead.

They used them at the school my daughter went to for secondary - moderate learning disability sen school.

I'd suggest a good private tutor and It's worth looking into things like dyslexia.. But also remember that she is only 7 at the moment, a lot of it is still down to brain development and interests at this age.

I haven't read the whole thread, just OPs posts. I wanted to share my experience. DD had delayed speech and was struggling to read. Due to severe glue ear. It was missed when we took her for SALT/screening in pre-school (aged 3) and she just about had 50 words so SALT discharged us. In reception (aged 5) she failed the hearing screening test so we sought a private referral. She had grommets in reception. Since then she has come on leaps and bounds. Her reading is off the scale, best reader in her class and at year 6 level when she was in year 2.
I'm not bragging I just wanted to draw attention that my DD caught up very quickly once the hearing was sorted. So it maybe that there is something else that needs to be investigated and not just accept that it is just her hearing and wait for her to catch up.
If that is not the case then I suggest reading with her every night. We let DD read books that were far too advanced because she want to have a go (famous five when she was 5). We'd take turns reading. She'd read a sentence then we'd read a paragraph. She would read half the words incorrectly and we'd just instantly correct them as she read. Within a year her reading was incredible. We would read though her school level book once in the week (we stopped doing this in yr 1 as they are seriously boring - maybe some non fiction reading books might help our DD certainly preferred them). We did no phonics, didn't make a fuss out of reading, we simply let her read for pleasure at home and made it a non negotiable but fun 10-15 minutes of the day. It's worth the effort as now she takes herself off to read her chapter books and leaves us in peace :-)

@Lazytiger quits a few posters have spoken of family members with hearing loss as young children and the outcome whilst myself and another poster have mentioned loved ones who had the hearing loss and also went on to a dx of dyslexia.

And I very much agree with your recommendation of no fuss being made of the reading.

Sign up for Reading Chest over the summer (google it). It's a book band hire scheme - they send you 8 books then you return and get some more. Great for summer practice and you can keep a log of which books she has read over Summer to send back into school. Hopefully she will move up a fair few bands by September.