Does your school offer extra help for 'below average' children?

[pacinofan]

DD1 is year 2 at our local primary school. Went to see her teacher 2 weeks ago to see how she's getting on - she has had some settling issues in year 1, a dreadful year in fact for her, and obviously I am keen to check on how she is progressing. When I asked how her maths/english is coming along, her teacher reluctantly told me her maths is 'below average' and she is struggling. I have been doing what I can with her at home but to be honest I struggle myself so am not best placed to teach her the maths, even though it's simple stuff the way she is taught is completely different to how I was taught many years ago.

I have since asked for extra help for her at school, only to be told unless she is gifted and talented or very very poor at maths, there is no extra help. We have now traded school meals in order to pay for tuition.

What does your school offer, if anything?

In year 4 dd1 was struggling with literacy, her teacher said that in an average class she'd be fine, but she happened to be in a particularly bright class. They gave her some one to one help and she soon caught up with everyone else. She's now in top sets for everything.

Considering that she wasn't actually officially behind for her age etc we were very pleased. It sounds like you may need to make a fuss.

You are describing the children who fall by the wayside IME. Until/unless your DD falls so far behind, the school does not have the time or the resources to help her. Plus I have found, especially in maths, that there is no time within the curriculum to make sure the whole class "gets it" before moving onto the next subject.

she is yr 2 and still very young to be making a decision that she has a problem with maths...the school won't do anything until she is yr 3 and beyond.

At my DC's school - an outstanding school in an affluent area - the focus is very much on supporting those students who are struggling. Students who are behind where they ought to be are taken out of class for extra numeracy and literacy support. The teachers ALWAYS sit at the table with those children who are struggling to keep up to give extra help. Conversely, G&T students get no extension or extra support.

There are a wealth of intervention strategies available for school to use for children who are just like your dd - a little bit behind. They are specially designed to give pupils a little push up to average. Ask the teacher who the intervention manager is in your school - most schools have these strategies up and running from Y1 onwards.

At our school there is a lot of help available for children who are struggling or who (for whatever reason) aren't thought to be making the progress that they are capable of.

There are usually extra groups running through the day for children who need help. There are also various schemes like the ones Feenie mentions. Some are for children who are falling behind. Others are for children who either need to go back to the basics or who need a confidence boost.

Ask your teacher to give you appropriate activities to do with her at home. It may be that practising number bonds with her or times tables, for example, will help. Be careful that the tutor you use knows the current methods. I am currently tutoring a Y4 child (in school as part of the one to one tuition scheme) who had a tutor who has done the old fashioned methods with him making everything far more difficult.

Thank you all for your replies. DD's school is deemed as 'outstanding' which is partly the reason we selected it, coupled with the fact it is the school we are closest to. When we were choosing schools, we were aware of common 'gossip' that berated the school for offering a disproportionate amount of help to those who were academically gifted and not much to 'average' students. We dismissed all this as idle gossip, and went ahead with our selection. I don't regret not making a decision based on gossip, but I do wonder if there is any truth in it all. In my, albeit limited, experience of asking the school anything, I have found their 'open door' policy to be anything but. Will ask about intervention stratgies with a big smile on my face, but am dreading the conversation.

Ds was behind in Maths in year 1 - a level below expected but it was not enough to get extra attention, not even enough to sit at the extra attention table - he complained to me that no one would ever helped him, even though he asked.

I was told his Maths wasn't bad enough to warrant extra help but his confidence in Maths was sinking lower & lower - so I decided I couldn't trust the school to take care of his needs so I tutor him now and he's not only progressing very well but he's actually enjoying the subject, which is half the battle - the other half is confidence.

As far as I'm concerned Maths is one of those subjects that if you fall behind it gets harder and harder to catch up - you need solid foundations, firmly in place before adding to knowledge, I wouldn't let failure to grasp Maths drift unchecked, in the hope that they are not getting it because they are young - it's too risky.

Call me cynical, but in my opinion the school is probably deemed ourstanding because most of it's children do well. If the majority of the children do well, they will not need to make much use of intervention materials and the school's focus/ resources will not necessarily need to be on the small number of children who fall behind.
Go back to the schhol and again politly ask for some more help for/ ideas to help DD. As previous posters have said, so much of it is about confidence.

My experience is exactly the same as MrsMatey's.

Would love to have my kids in some of these schools - our school is great at extension work for the most able and one-to-one/remedial work for those really struggling but nothing in the middle, sadly.

am puzzled by ingles comment. in our school parents had regular meetings with teachers to talk about literacy, maths problems. not moving up levels quickly enough in reading, not being able to do some of the basics in maths. this continues in year 1. And a few of the children in ds's class are having extra one-to-one time on both reading and maths.
maybe too young to specify that there is a "problem" . but not too young to offer a bit of extra help.

or is it just down to the mum ? maybe its down to us OP ? maybe you need to be firmer with teacher. and ask for extra homework, or ask her EXACTLY what you should be doing to help your dd.
does seem like a bit of a cop out by the school/teacher, to me.

In most schools there is a wide range of what is considered 'normal' attainment. I would have thought that if your dd was very below average the school would offer extra support. The fact that they haven't suggests she is only slightly below average within the class.

Onebadbaby - I take your point, however, it's very easy for 'slightly below average' to develop to 'way below average' and beyond. The opposite could be said too, but only if adequate help and support is given early enough. In my opinion, maths is one of those subjects you really need to get on top of early enough. The teacher has already said dd1 is not poor enough at maths to be considered for extra help. My worry is, just how poor does a student have to be before they get help?

I work in a Y1 class in an infant school, as a TA. I work with the children on IEPs and try to spend at least 3 lots of 15 minutes a week doing one to one work on specific areas. At the moment I am doing a lot of literacy support.

I get less chance to work with those who are not quite IEP level, but who are struggling. I try to whenever I get the chance, but my time is very much taken up doing the IEP work, Talking Partners for my EAL pupils, etc.

One thing we do do though, which did have an impact last year, was my Study Support Literacy group. I do it for a term a year and focus on KS1 children who are not quite hitting their targets in literacy - so not the very bottom groups. They then come to school for half an hour before school 3 times a week for the term and we do some fun literacy activities. The assessments before and after, both inside and outside of the class, showed a good jump in their literacy levels too. I am just getting ready to start it again after Easter.

I appreciate your concern for your daughter, but it is unlikely that she would receive extra help other than that already in place as schools resources are limited. There will always be some children working below average, that is how an average is worked out, it would be impossible for all the children to be at the same level. Of course, none of us want it to be our child that is the below average. The teacher has a responsibility to support and differentiate class work to meet the needs of all the children, and helping them all to attain as much as possible, regardless of ability.