Is this normal in UK primary schools, or is my child's school unusual? (New to UK education system)

[ThatKhakiExpert]

Is this normal in UK primary schools, or is my child's school unusual? (New to UK education system)
Hi everyone,

I am relatively new to the UK education system and I am trying to understand whether my expectations are unrealistic or whether some of the things I am experiencing are unusual.

I migrated to the UK and my own education was across different countries, so I realise that school systems can work very differently.

My daughter has been at her current primary school since Reception and is now in Year 2.

There are a few things I have noticed that I am unsure about:

• I receive lots of general school communications, but very little information specifically about my daughter's progress. I normally only get to speak to her teacher at parents' evening, which lasts around five minutes. Is this typical in UK primary schools?
• We do not see her exercise books or day-to-day work until the end of the school year. Is this normal? I find it difficult to understand what she is learning and where she needs improvement.
• When I see her books, specifically English, her writing looks more advanced than what we observed at home.
• Her end-of-year reports feel quite general and mostly positive, but I don't always feel they explain clearly what she needs to improve, particularly around behaviour or areas where she could develop further.
• My daughter enjoys maths and I have been teaching her additional concepts at home, including fractions and more advanced problem solving. At one point, she was told at school that she shouldn't be learning those topics yet. Is it normal for schools to discourage children from learning beyond the year group curriculum, or do most schools try to stretch children who are interested?
• I have also noticed that children appear to be placed into different ability groups, but this is not communicated to parents. Is this normal? Do schools usually tell parents what group their child is in and how they can support progress?

I would really appreciate hearing from parents:

• Is this typical of state primary schools in the UK?
• How much feedback do you normally receive about your child's individual progress?
• Do schools usually provide more information about ability groups and areas for improvement?
• How do schools normally support children who are ahead of the curriculum?

Thank you.

Sounds pretty standard, yes.

Primary teacher here, and yes, sounds very standard. Flexible grouping means there are times when ability groups are useful, such as guided reading.

If you are around for pick ups and drop offs I find this helps with communication with teachers.

Our newsletter details what each year group is learning that week in different subjects.

But apart from that I’d say yes it sounds pretty typical.

I would add that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sending an email and asking extra questions, like about the maths or areas for improvement etc.

All sounds very normal to me

That sounds exactly like my kids school (private non selective primary school) although when we’ve asked for more specific updates, or updates during the year they’ve always given them to us.

It sounds like your child is doing well. If there were behaviour or academic issues you would hear from school outside of parents’ evening and reports. As they move up the school weekly homework will give an opportunity to see what they are working on and feedback from the previous week.

With maths the thinking is to achieve a good foundation of the basics before moving on to more complex concepts. Adding in new elements early on can be confusing and whilst it may seem that there is a lot of repetition of the basics they look to achieve “mastery” of those key principles and techniques to reduce mental load when kids move onto more challenging stuff.

Otherwise it sounds very normal.

We are always told at the start of the year what they plan to cover across the year. We get three parents evenings a year to discuss progress plus a report at the end of the year. If there are specific issues i.e. behavioural issues or learning needs then there are additional meetings to discuss these. If your daughter is doing well across the curriculum and behaves well then it's unlikely you will get much additional information from a UK primary school. However I found parents evenings are a good time to ask if there are areas to work on.

In terms of teaching ahead, it's not something schools especially encourage as it's not necessarily helpful - the maths methods are often taught differently so it can be confusing. If she is keen can you get her to do stretch questions on the maths concepts she has been taught. However the biggest ask in primary school is normally to encourage them to read lots.

Yep, sounds very normal. If you have specific concerns you can always ask for a meeting with the teacher. And if they had any concerns about your child's learning or behaviour they would be in touch and ask you for a meeting. The general principle is very "no news is good news".

Do you want more updates about your daughter and where she is up to and areas for improvement. Is this what you had in the schools you attended?

Yes, parents' evenings are short and not very frequent. You can ask for another one but it may be hard for the teacher to fit in, a call might work better. I would ignore comments about not covering topics but I wouldn't be using textbooks at home, more doing real life maths concepts by talking etc, and loads of reading. Schools in general aren't that great at supporting children who are ahead, particularly if it's just in one or two areas. Mine could read before starting school and this was largely ignored by school so we just continued with suitable books at home and ignored the reading books. If you have reason to be worried about behaviour, definitely ask so any minor concerns can be nipped in the bus.

Fairly standard. You could always ask for a meeting with your child’s teacher if you want to discuss their progress further following their report. If it’s largely positive it doesn’t sound like you have too much to worry about.

Schools do stretch children but may discourage them from learning at home content that hasn’t been taught at school yet in case it is taught in a different way that will confuse them when it is covered at school. Stretch and challenge is provided by deepening their knowledge of what they have already learnt with problem solving and reasoning tasks (called ‘mastery’) rather than pushing on to new content.

Also, writing will be higher quality in the classroom when scaffolded and modelled by the teacher. That’s very normal.

Yes, to everything. Sometimes to the more advanced topics.

Out primary is quite good in that there is an hour session once a term that we can go in during the school day and see what they're up to and join in with some stuff.

The more advanced topics - for instance, if you were teaching her times tables and they're still on addition, and she's e.g. solving 3 baskets with 3 apples in each as 3x3 from memory rather than 3+3+3 using a number line then it can mean she's not solidifying the learning she needs as a base for the next things they learn. It's also about the 'way' they teach. If she doesn't need to use a number line for small stuff because you've taught her already, when she gets to bigger stuff and needs a number line she may not be confident with using it.

Feedback we get a report at one end of the school year and a face to face meeting for 10 mins at the other end. We can stop and speak to the teacher in the playground at the end of the day if we want to.

Yes all normal. If she’s doing well at maths by first instinct would be to let her be because she’s only 6/7 and personally I’d only tutor a child that young if they were really behind but if you must then look to build on the concepts they’re learning at school- by jumping ahead you might make it harder for her in the long term by not ensuring the basics are solid first or by teaching a different method to school.

All very normal. If there was an issue, you’d hear about it.

The reason that they don't want you to teach her fractions is that you may use a different system which may confuse her. They would prefer you to stretch her in more general ways (eg taking her to a maths or science museum, enrolling her in coding club etc) rather than actually teaching her bits of the syllabus.

Assuming your child is young(Reception, Year1/2) that is typical. I doubt your child was told not to learn , just that it was not relevant to the class work. Ability grouping is usual but tables are often reshuffled or groups may differ for different lessons so it is not possible to keep parents updated or good for children to be rigid. If you have concerns ask the teacher, they will respond.

I think the difference compared to systems I myself came from had more regular homework and kids brought their books back home. So it was easier to follow how the child was doing. The school portals do show what they are thought more generally but gauging specific problem areas seems more difficult in the UK.

The issue I worry about is either of gaps being clearly handled (we have seen signs of this) and the child being stretched to their full potential.

Primary teacher. Yes that's normal. We do a parents evening in each of the first 2 terms (10 min slot) and a written report at the end of the third term. Parents can look at maths and english books while waiting for their appointment at each of these. If everything is normal progress and behaviour is fine, you won't hear from us otherwise. You can, however, ask to chat to the teacher at any other point if you have concerns. Information about what they learn should be available on the school website. Maths - we don't teach beyond year group curriculum content, but will offer opportunities for problem solving using the stuff they are learning, which challenges them. Writing in english books - this will be modelled, they will have studied a text linked to it, have access to word banks and they will have a list of things they have to include in that piece of writing, so generally it will be higher quality than random writing at home. Over time rabdom writing quality increases as a result of this. I hope that's helpful x

Being stretched to her full potential - we do our best, but in a classroom of 30 with so mamy SEND needs, it won't be perfect. State education offers a foundation, but if she is very capable, you will need to do some of that stretching at home.

Yes, all normal. Teaching maths ahead of the curriculum not a great idea because if you teach different methods you may confuse her, plus she may feel less engaged when they learn it at school. Maths isn’t a race - there is no advantage in starting fractions earlier, it’s better to have rock solid foundations. Practice adding and taking away - eg in shops, do cooking and weighing but focusing on reading will be more useful.

some primary schools have parents maths classes - one of lessons for teachers to explain how and why they are teaching the way they fo

this means parents will help in the same way at home / ask at your school if they do this at any stage?

Yes v normal

Yes, all sounds normal.

While I applaud any parents teaching their kids skills above their year group, I can also understand why teachers discourage it, as often the methodology is different and teachers then have to unpick that and start from scratch. The methodology with more advance maths will gain test marks as well as a correct answer, so it’s not arbitrary.

Sounds normal. If you want to stretch your child at home for maths I highly recommend the nrich website. It has problems to solve and open ended questions. There are similar other resources out there but the principle is to get them to think about why and how the maths works not just have more methods they can apply.

Totally normal for our school.
FWIW I would ignore the advice not to access more advanced stuff at home. They may learn differently at school, but I don't think it's a reason to discourage learning at home.

Interested to hear what your experience in other countries is?

The school system, like everything, is chronically underfunded so teachers just don't have the time or resources to be updating individually on a regular basis for classes of 30+.