SATS, streamed tables, reading levels etc

[squashpie]

Hi, Apols in advance for long, involved post

I have recently been pressing over the level of my YR 1 DS's ORT reading books which were level 7 and far too easy for him. He had not been read to by a TA or teacher for almost two months; only a parent-helper.

He has now been put on a more appropriate level 9 (but it seems a bit erratic as he came home with level 7 books on Monday that he'd been given a couple of weeks before the Easter break!). The TA has commented on how well he is progressing. I had begun to wonder if they were keeping him on level 7 because it was difficult administratively to move him out of his reading 'group'. He had exhausted all the Biff Chip books and was on every type of level 7 book!

I know they stream for the other subjects but am not really clear where he is in the class and the teacher is very very vague when I try and pin her down.

What I am now beginning to wonder is this: I've heard there is little movement between streams because it would mean other children would need to 'go down' and that is not a course of action most teachers favour. And I've heard other parents on here say: just do your own thing - read your own books etc and not fuss too much about what they do in the classroom.

But does the level the teacher perceives them as being, stay with them for their school life (with the odd exception)? When they take their Yr2/ Yr6 SATS, are they assessed according to their stream, when in reality they might be more advanced than this.

I know that at 11+, if children have passed the exam, prospective (I suppose only private) schools look at reports from their primary schools. What are they looking for? Behaviour? Or what their previous school thought that child's abilities were (which might be lower than their performance in the 11+ indicated) IYSWIM!

I suppose, in a nutshell, I'm wondering if what happens in Yr 1 really does matter in the long term and I am right to keep pursuing my DC's teacher/ TA (which is uncomfortable and exhausting) for my DC to be given appropriate work; or whether I shouldn't care and just pursue my own reading/ number work etc with him at home/ in the course of our daily lives.

Deep breath! So sorry for long post - just anxious!

I really don't think DS's year 1 class has fixed ability groups for anything. They have group work and sometimes will do work with children working at a similar ability to them but a lot of the time it is groups based on other methods.

As far as reading goes, children read their books and move on as appropriate. I listen to children read in his class and the majority of individual reading happens to a TA or parent helper but they do guided reading with their teacher once a week or fortnight.

I think the real problem is that the schools are not supposed to stream at all.
The government has made it very difficult for more able children to get extra help as the teachers are so focus on the the children who are not achieving.

DD1 should be on G&T but isnt because her school do not seem to recognise it. I had to constantly push for more work which never came.
We eventually got the Student Support DVDs and she does those happily.
DD1 was free reading by the end of Year 1.
Give your son age appropriate books from the library. There are lots out there that you can read with him or that he can try for himself.
Good luck.

Hopefully we will get a new government which recognises that bright children are disadvantaged as well as the not so bright!!!

Our school's groupings are really fluid from what I can see.In the classrooms all tables are mixed ability usually determined by personalities than anything else. They are streamed for numeracy and literacy though across the four y1/y2 classes. Certainly from what dd says children enter and leave groups according to the assessments each term.
My older dd struggled in ks 1 so was in the less able groups but in ks 2 she became the most able in the school and had plenty of extension work and was obviously in the top groups. Now she's an Oxbridge candidate so being in a low group in year 1 didn't influence her outcome.

DC have not had fixed ability groups at all. They get reassessed every 3 months or so and I often hear about their classmates getting moved down a group (happened to DS at the start of Yr1, too).