Child going backwards in what was by far the best school in the area.

[OHBollox]

I spent bloody months researching Ofstead reports, looking around schools etc
Anyway finally decided on a church school, we are religious, with a single year entry thinking the children wouldn't be overwhelmed by too many other children and would be known by the teachers and the head.
However they seem to be going backwards from what I'd taught them before they even started school in terms of reading and writing and I was hardly that involved.

I don't do much outside of school because I feel they should be enjoying hobbies, horse riding, tae kwon do etc, not reading boring ORT boos and re enforcing maths etc, the school have them for 6 hours a day I only get 4 before they go to bed so I want to enjoy them too, have I got it all wrong ?

Sorry should say they are 6 and 4 so reception and Yr2

Backwards how? Give more specific example?

Just with her reading and writing I guess, I sent off a child aged 4 years 4 months who could read and I do mean understand not just recite the basic letterland books and the early stage ORT books, now she seems to struggle with SHE, TOLD, THE, she'll read the sentence but miss out the small easy words.
I want to bat her around the head with the book and say you read that when you were a baby.
I would have thought she'd have progressed beyond level 6 by now too, am desperately trying not to compare her with my eldest who actually really struggled, but both the little ones are behind where she was at that age and yet I'd would say they are both brighter than her.

Oh and the 4 year olds handwriting is clearer and more legible than the 6 year olds, again when she was 4 it seemed neater and more age appropriate.

Do you do reading most nights? I think reading is one of those things, especially int hese early years, needs to be a ery consistent thing. And definitely needs to happen at home and not just at school.

How mny hobbies/activites are they doing? Are they perhaps doing too much and getting tired, so not fully going for it at school maybe?

I do think schools and parents need to be working together on such issues, so maybe chatting to their teachers would be a good start.

Does the school teach them a different way (from how the learnt before) to do letter formation (writing)?
I wonder if the way they sound out the words is what's thrown the child struggling with 'she', maybe before she was recognising the shape of the word, not sounding it out.

I am not a teacher, btw, I suggest you bump this up Monday around 10am, see what more people think.

I gather that missing out small words when reading aloud - as long as it doesn't hinder comprehension - can actually be a sign of a confident reader. Can't remember where I heard that, mind.

Yes, missing out or misreading words such as the, it, and, a, an, etc. is not a problem at this stage and very common - and yes, often a sign of a confident reader when reading out loud.

Try it yourself - it is suprising how common even adults do it when reading out loud, esp if not used to doing so.

Oh edam I hope you're right. I like that theory.

I don't read more than once a week with the older two and the little one will start bringing a book home every week as of 5th Jan.

They do something most nights, in all honesty they were getting a little tubby so I upped the physical activity, plus they weren't sleeping until 9.30pm at night so they need to swim or ride or something to tire them out for bed. The 4 year old is a night owl, can stay up to 11pm given the chance and then won't get up for school.

Rightly or wrongly I consider them mine after 3.30pm, the older one doesn't love school so in order to make some part of the child's day pleasurable I've got to do these activities otherwise she'll be miserable too.

Hula I do that all the time, I just thoguht I was think lol

How do their teacher's feel they are doing?

DD is in Y2 and reads daily - sometimes to herself and sometimes to me. We have school reading once a week this year. This seems fine.

ds loves to make me read his flipping prehistoric animals books because there are SO many long, unfamiliar words - not just dinosaur names but everything bigger than an amoeba - that I end up tripping over them, sounding like someone who is learning to read. He thinks this is hysterical.

(I could try to learn all the names but there are hundreds of them, honest!)

The teacher was surprised she wasn't further along than she is, this was back in October, no solutions offered mind.

She has an excellent vocab, very interested in life generally.

I guess I have to get the books out more often for her then, there are books all over the house, in her room, the living room etc and they each get a magazine every week.
Maybe I need a kick up the jacksy but I was just rather hoping once they started school it was over to them and I could enjoy the fun stuff with them.

f you are concerned speak to teacher again and push for a solution.