My 7 year old has been assessed as Level 1 for KS1 in English - should I be worried?

[Mytholmroyd]

DD3 who is seven next month is apparently working barely at level 1 in English. She came home delighted a few weeks ago because she got to play while everyone else did a test - I am guessing she was pulled out of her KS1 tests. She hates reading and writing, bursts into tears when made to do it (even does this all the time at school with no apparent embarrassment) and just says "I cant I cant". She just isnt interested.

I dont know if I should start worrying or not by now. The thing is, she has a huge vocabulary, can hold an eminently sensible conversation with any adult (in fact, I think she thinks she is one), loves to sing and dance (although refused to continue at dancing class because she "had to stand in a line with everyone else and do what the teacher said and couldnt do any twirling or leaping and anyway, didnt need to be taught because she already knew how to do it"). She carries out her own "scientific experiments" at home and can sing virtually the whole score of Calamity Jane and loads of other musicals.

Her teachers say she is lacking in confidence and immature but thats not how I see her - I think she is a drama queen and simply thinks learning stuff she doesnt see the point of is simply not worth bothering with. When I watch her with her class mates she doesnt relate to them very well at all, in fact, she gets on much better with the teachers - she doesnt seem to understand how 6 year olds interact and spends all her time being indignant at their behaviour or crying because they have pushed her or called her names. When she goes to swimming lessons all she wants to do is spend the lesson talking to the teacher (a constantly open mouth is not the best approach when learning to swim!!).

But she HAS to learn to read - she is still sounding out individual letters in a tortuous manner and just doesnt "get it". How long should I leave her before I seek extra help? I am beginning to think she would be better off in a Steiner or Montessori school but I cant afford it.

I have two older girls plus a 3 year old DS who were average at primary (although are expecting good A levels and GCSE's this year) but they could both read and write by the age of 7!

Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved - I just dont know what to do with her - I seem to have tried every tack and gotten absolutely nowhere.

Hi,

I would suggest a private tutor.
My sister is a private tutor and she gets amazing results with children whose parents come to her in desperation. Make sure the tutor you choose is quite animated, smiles alots and gives out huge encouragement and praise as thats the best way to the best out of the child. With soem children they loved the one-to-one attention they get from a tutor and it only takes a few sessions before you start to see results.

Good Luck.

It's time to get worried I'd say. Start by talking to the teacher. Some kind of intervention work is almost certainly needed. They should have told you before. Good luck.

agree with NKF and Cory. Ask school how they can help with the social/attention issues as well.

Your dd sounds like my ds. He is in yr 2 (was 7 last january) He was just assessed as still working at level 1. He has had an IEP since he went in to year 2. This has helped and if I was you I would ask the teacher if they can write one for your dd.

In our school children are expected to reach level 1 at the end of year 1 (although summer born children may still be at level W)

Hi everyone

Thank you all so much for the info and reassurance - have read everyone's replies - its good to hear she is not the oddball I have been thinking!!

Hey Romy7 - sorry, sorry, wasnt thinking when I said a statemented child was an admission of failure - I certainly DONT think that about other peoples children - am not judgemental in that sense - so sorry if it came across that way. Never meant any offence .

I was just talking about my own guilt really - I just never expected to have a problem with her and never saw it coming - there was no warning she would struggle at school before she started she always seemed so bright and switched on. She will be staying at the same school (its an infant and junior combined). But DH and I have decided to make an appointment - you have given us the push to at least find out what the plan (if there is one) is.

Have lined up an audition for her with the local youth choir and she is already practising the song for her audition with great gusto!! Picked one of her favourite spirituals . She was downright scornful of my suggestion she might want to stick with a simple nursery rhyme...

I know I am ressurecting my old old thread but I just wanted to come and say - in case it gives hope to other parents who are worried their child isn't 'normal' or making the progress they are supposed to make at a specific age - that despite all these worries we had nine year ago and how far behind she was in primary school, once my DD got to her wonderful secondary school with fabulous teachers who understood her she has made huge improvements and this week PASSED all her GCSE's! She even got a level 6 (I nearly fainted!) in maths, a level 7 in English Lit and, her pride and joy, an A* in music.

She is aiming to do music at University, plays three instruments, and spent part of this summer holiday at a conservatoire studying classical singing - still a drama queen - but channels it towards perfoming now!

Basically, with hindsight, she just wasn't ready for formal schooling until she was about 11 years old. It was interesting though reading my thoughts from nine years ago.

What a fabulous update!
Well done to you and your DD. You must be so proud.

Reading your update has just made my day. What a lovely ending. Massive well done to both DD and DM. So pleased for you !

Thanks both! that is very kind of you.

I am proud of her of course as any mum is of their kids - she has just ploughed her own furrow I guess and eventually we plucked up the confidence to accept she just wasn't going to conform to the system. Almost takes a perverse pleasure in not doing so!`She just needed to find music. Now, watching her, I am rather wistful that I spent my youth being a mouse, or possibly a sheep, and a total conformist!

What a wonderful update!
Thanks for sharing a great news, and well done to you both!
It really made my day too, and I can't stop smiling.

I love it when there's a happy update! So lovely to read through the thread and get then get to see how everything worked out.

This is one of the nicest threads I have ever read on here, it's made me quite teary! Thank you so much for updating!!! My 7yo going into yr 3 struggles hugely at school (he's just scraped an early level 2 in maths and writing, but barely), but he is very definitely one for ploughing his own furrow and doing things in his own time and his own way. Reading your story gives me great hope and encouragement that things will indeed work out for him!

Well done to your daughter.

What a brilliant update OP.

What a great outcome. Thanks OP for updating, and well done to your DD!

This is amazing!!! Congratulations to your wonderful daughter

Yes thank you. Having similar struggles with my Ds 6 so lovely to hear your fabulous outcome! well done to you both!

Thank you everyone - am quite teary myself that anyone cares!

I got some great sensible advice and support on here from some lovely posters which I was very grateful for at the time. It really made a difference and gave me courage to trust my gut feelings about my child rather than make her fit into a predetermined academic mould. (and a teensy bit of relief it all worked out okay! )

Now I just need to keep my nerve whilst she works towards being a professional singer/musician when all around who have never heard her sing are telling her she can't earn a living at that.

All best wishes for your sons frogsoup and Laura - here's to the uniqueness of yours, mine and every cherised child!

Indeed! Tell your daughter, not to listen to anyone and follow her dream! I just said the same to our babysitter last night. There is always time to retrain to do something else later on in life so whilst you are young give what you really want a shot! My husband gets on the train everyday to do a job which he hates-he wishes he had followed his dream!!

What a lovely post
Did you go down the tutor route or just let her pick it up when she was ready?
One of mine sounds similar and I'm unsure of how to proceed

Oh that's just lovely! I think I have something in my eye

What a lovely update! Really pleased for your DD (and you!), I wish her every success x

awwww how lovely to hear :)

No, we did not get an academic tutor - we got her a singing teacher - in fact I told school that she would not be doing any more homework because it was doing more harm than good. She scraped through her KS2 SATS (in a private room with a teacher and a box of doughnuts from what she said ). And we accepted the idea that she would just have to do something practical/creative in life and that was fine and she hadn't to worry any more. If she got a GCSE or two we would have been happy at that point.

At secondary school she took mainly arty/creative options and did well in those - she has a lot of confidence in her ability to design and make clothes/sculpture/act/sing and so we concentrated on encouraging and developing those and embracing what she was good at. This was hard for me as I am a scientist and hopeless at such things!

But her school teachers were wonderful and allowed her to express herself - like when instead of writing an RE project on the Creation - without telling me or checking it was acceptable - she made a necklace entirely out of loombands with seven pendants one designed to represent each day of the creation - the teacher wore it for the rest of the lesson and gave her a commendation! And each year she moved up a set in maths and English.

And when she was 11 we found the most amazing singing teacher and mentor who 'got' her and taught the whole person - truly I will be grateful to her til the day I die. She has coped with all the trauma's and 'I can't do thats' and basically taught her that she could be a musician and that she had to realise herself that she could and make the decision to try because she wanted to.

Sorry, blithering on here, but I am so glad (and I admit, relieved) that it was all fine and collectively we didn't crush her - and she spent her spare time doing things she loved rather than extra schoolwork - she learnt to read in the end because she needed to read the words for choir and it seemed to come easier to sing them than to read them out loud.

That is amazing and such a lovely way of dealing with an issue that as parents we don't know we are going to face until it happens!