My DS has just started year 7 and is regularly bringing work/homework home now. At junior school we saw his work twice a year at parents evening only.
But, now that I see it everyday I realise his spelling, punctuation and writing is well below what it should be. He doesn't write in cursive. He gets very simple spelling wrong and is still sometimes writing a "b" for a "d" and vice versa/ starts a word with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence. He doesn't even seem to copy down words correctly.
Throughout junior school I raised the issue of spelling and writing with teachers many times. He was tested for dyslexia but they ruled it out. Staff all said it "would just come" one day and one of them even tried to reassure me by telling me that her husband even at his age couldn't spell very well!
Finally in year 5 he had ten minutes three times a week with the TA doing spelling. We thought that he'd improved. He got a 5 in his SATS this summer which we were pleased about - but how did he score a 5 when his writing/spelling/grammar/punctuation is so poor? He is bright in other areas (got a 6 in Maths).
I was shocked when I saw the quality of his writing.
He says it's because he has to work quickly that he makes mistakes. I don't know - but he's always been a slow worker. I am very concerned that he will no longer get any help with this aspect of his learning at secondary school. His English book is littered with corrections. How can he do history/geography etc when his basic literacy is so poor? I don't want him to fall behind.
With hindsight I do feel his primary school let him down badly, and so wished I had kept a closer eye on it. I feel he's got a mountain to climb and this should have been addressed at primary level. How can primaries send out children to secondary school without a firm grounding in writing and spelling?