DD's school report - should I be worried?

[Unorganisedchaos2]

I would appreciate any opinions on DD report which was received today for the first term of year 2.

I'm not sure if its the same for all schools but the levels are:

Working Below - WB
Working towards - WTS
Working at expected - EXP
Working at greater depth - WGD

DD has, for all her schooling been "Working towards" in the core subjects - I have spoken to the teachers and they all say they have no concerns and that she is on the cusp of being at "Working as expected" however she never seems to quite make it, even by the end of the year🙁

For context she loves school, has lots of lovely friends, we are always having play dates etc. We do homework, the math's app and read with her every night. She enjoys reading and writing but needs encouragement to do math's. She did well in a recent spelling be and times tables competition but I wonder if that's because we focused solely on specific words/sums needed and her comprehension isn't actually that good in a broader sense?

One of her friends Mums is a TA and I spoke to her last year and she said she wouldn't be concerned and to see how this year goes (they had a very unsettled year 1, with 4 different teachers over the course of the year) but I was hoping she'd be more up to speed by now.

My lovely in-laws have always said they would help pay for a tutor if that's what we wanted/needed but I've held off as she's still quite young, but Im worried about her going into KS2 not up to speed in maths and English.

The other thing to check is if they are evaluated against the end of year expectations.
Our reports always mentioned that a child worked at expected level at the end of term 1was achieving the standard expected for the end if the year, and so was doing well.

So, if that report came from my kids school, I'd be very happy for this time of the year.

I wouldn't worry. My son was working towards all through first few years. If she's happy and you're doing the reading and stuff at home she'll catch up.

Don't fall into the trap of getting stressed and trying to hothouse her at home x

Is she young in the year? If she is then it’s still very early in her school career for it to have evened out yet.

I wouldn’t worry too much if she is making good progress.

didnt read correctly- my fault!

(She will have EXP in some
foundation subjects as the teachers may have taught enough to make the judgement. There aren’t nearly as many objectives in core subjects)

My DC was always working above through primary and several of their friends were WTS at that age. It all switched around in time for GCSEs. 🤦‍♀️

Concentrate on doing a good amount of reading and discussing what’s happening in the books. Get her up and running on times tables and do some gentle arithmetic with her from a Y1 the Y2 book as it sounds like she could be EXS quite easily. Get her to write regularly a few simple sentences and getting the basic punctuation right without being reminded. The school can build on that. Not every day for all of this but a little here and there.

No need for a tutor yet IMO. I’m a primary teacher.

Thank you for all the replies, I'll try not to worry for now. we have parents evening in a couple of weeks so I'll have a chat with the teacher than.

I'll carry on doing the bits she enjoys at home and hopefully she'll get thee by the end of year.

Personally I would be worried actually, because you've said they are always saying she's WTS but on the cusp of expected level but then never makes it, even at the end of the year. School should be supporting her more and doing interventions to get her up to the expected level as once kids fall behind it's harder to catch up.

I think it's a mistake to let school fob you off saying don't be worried yet - friends of mine experienced this, constantly being told their child would get to expected a bit later, and we're then devastated when no, they didn't get to expected and actually the struggle became harder. Early intervention is key.

I'd be wanting to know specifically from school what is holding her back from reaching expected in those areas, eg for maths is it number bonds she's struggling with, or is it the speed and fluency of her work, or are there understanding gaps? In reading, again is it a comprehension issue or is she just not reading quickly enough so not having enough time to process.

I think it's easy to fall into a trap of wanting to feel reassured that everything is OK when maybe actually, it isn't, a some more support at home might just be the difference.

If she could get to EXS quite easily why isn't she? OP says her daughter is WTS every year and never gets to EXS. If she was so close she could easily get there, why haven't the school closed the gap by now, she is year 2 and they've had 2 years in which they could have been doing interventions.

My DS was not meeting expected in KS1. He's now KS2 and flying!

I would be really pleased that effort and behaviour are good. It sounds like you do loads at home already and I wouldn't add more in like a tutor due to the risk of putting her off or creating anxiety. We just made sure that we read to him as well as him reading to us - this meant we could role model reading and increase his exposure to books with different vocabulary etc.

Make sure she can form her letters properly, bake together and count and share in the supermarket (how many can we each have from this packet of sought after biscuits etc), read to her and listen to her reading, draw together, make up stories together and ask her to explain to you how to do a process (playing a game etc). That goes a massively long way at this age and enhances curiosity/ love of school rather than the other way round.

I have a summer born boy after two bright girls and what he couldn't do in Y1 and 2 was vast. Now in Y4 his English, History etc is extremely good and maths is bang on average or a bit above. I'm hoping that will come up too as I'm a maths teacher but I won't do anything formal with him until y6ish and only if he needs it (I would gently step in at Y4 if he was working towards at that point and keep it to games and different mental methods).

Pattern spotting and describing is good at this age too.

Thank you for the replies, parent teacher meeting is the week after next, any advise for what exactly to ask? I was going to ask if there was anything specific we can be doing to compliment work at school but as PP mentioned should be asking specifically where she is falling short?

She loves doing bits at home, but its very informal as I don't want to discourage her. At the moment she's enjoying copying text from her favorite books for example so I tend to just let her get on with it rather than setting specific tasks. She also loves word searches so we do those too.

This is a good suggestion as its something she definitely struggles with - thank you

My child was working below at that stage (the pandemic meant missing large parts of Reception and Y1, with several isolations in Y2). In Y6 now and working at greater depth in most subjects. They can catch up and the increased maturity as they get a bit older will also boost their academic performance.

She is still very young and time for things to click but I would be a bit wary about her not meeting expectations at the end of year 2 as from what I’ve seen in my school, they use those scores as a baseline for ks2. Eg child working towards remains there for a long time and that is just considered to be the trajectory but they’d be a lot quicker to put in interventions for a child who was meeting expectations at the end of y2 who then slips for y3/4.

The range for ‘expected’ is also very wide which shocked me. I have one child with a very spikey profile- very bright but poor phonological awareness. We always knew spelling was tricky for my child but took some comfort that she was ‘expected’ so assumed she was on track. It became apparent though that she literally couldn’t spell or do grammar but she was still ‘expected’ as she was scraping the very minimum needed to tick off some of the criteria. Her difficulties were hidden by the breadth of the expected band and we should have intervened much earlier. School wasn’t that bothered because she was ‘expected’ so I took matters into my own hands including doing subject access requests to access internal assessment results. To be frank, the standard for the bottom of expected is pretty low and we have been working hard at home with a standalone spelling programme as this is an area that will always be a weakness.

I have also learnt to take the categories for the non-core subjects with a pinch of salt. I think you often get expected because it’s the easiest thing and less work done/criteria to go by. My child randomly got an exceeding for French once when she couldn’t speak a word but would still get expected for history when it was clearly an area she excelled in. I don’t think those ‘expected’ scores can give you enough reassurance against the WTs for the core subjects.

My daughter is Yr2 July born, and the difference with her October born best friend is wild. Mine is WTS and they returned her to yr 1 phonics for extra help - she passed the test but it’s all about really settling the learning. her best friend on the other hand could run for Prime Minister in a year and have a high chance of success!

shes in an infant school and moves to a junior school in September. I’m not concerned, but I am aware that we would want to see more balance as she prepares for high school. If she needed a tutor at that point I would pay.

for now - building her resilience and confidence have been great achievements this year, she’s really grown emotionally, has lots of friends, she’s gaining ‘global understanding’ outside of just herself - the other day she asked me to buys some food for the homeless man. She gave it to him and had a little chat. I’m happy that’s enough at 6.5 yrs old.

There are word search makers free online and you can put weekly spelling words into that. We did that a lot in y2 when my son was struggling.

I would go in to parents' evening with a specific list of questions about what your daughter is doing and what mid level of 'expected' looks like so you have that awareness when you are interacting with her. The previous poster is correct in that 'expected' is a very, very wide band.

Don't be disheartened though. I think my son still has a few 'emerging' in Y1 and I've put above that he's well, well beyond that now. He hasn't learning difficulties which would change things. Differences are most marked in Reception and Y1.