Am I wrong to be not impressed?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'm not being 'funny', I am phrasing it in a different way to see if it can be approached in another manner. I get the impression that you are like many parents, very keen for their child not to be seen as failing or falling behind.

Whilst this is natural to want the best for him, remember he is only five (260 weeks old; not a lot in the great scheme of things) - it isn't really time for criticising his mark making, as hand eye coordination is a skill that comes with age. With the help the school is prepared to give, I am sure he will flourish and will be proud to show you what he does at school, including list all of his friends that he has made when not sitting in silence under one to one observation. Many children regress a little when they have a little brother or sister on the way - they can be frightened that they aren't as special to Mummy any more.

You want a well rounded, happy little boy, not a mini adult suffering from performance anxiety. Just relax - the school is prepared to help him and, quite frankly, the child you have at home is often a very different one once in school.

Relax more - my DDs are registered gifted and talented but were both barely legible writers until much later. Sometimes they just need support and time, not training.

Rachie_B

i can understand it must have been a shock,the way in which she went about it!

they are our babies even when at that age,so to hear it in this way would be upsetting ,i would feel the same too!

i think you should definitely address all your concerns to the class teacher ,and possibly even the head teacher

good luck,let us know what happens

xx

Nicki

It sounds like the teacher didn't handle this very well, but that the correct course of action is being followed.

You are concerned that your child's performance has fallen off at school, and that he performs better at home than at school.

The school has noticed that your child's performance has fallen off, and is putting in place measures to help him. The only problem is that they skipped the part where they discussed the problem with you sensitively, so you could explain what he is capable of at home and discuss what might be happening at school to make him distracted.

I'd say that you should ask the teacher for an appointment to discuss your concerns, and that at this meeting you could also check out whether the class is really without a teacher 2-3 days per week. This would be very unusual even in reception. So far as I know a higher level teaching assistant can fill in in an emergency and on an occasional basis for a teacher, but a normal teaching assistant may not, and if a teacher is going to be away on a regular basis a qualified supply teacher should be brought in to cover.

Try to go in with a calm and reasonable state of mind, rather than being upset or angry as the meeting will go much better and you'll get far more information as a result. If you go in making criticisms, or accusing the school of not meeting their legal requirement re literacy, numeracy and teaching staff, the teacher is bound to immediately go on the defensive and you won't feel any better after the meeting than before.

montymud

TBH - a lot of children find year1 not more difficult, rather more daunting then year R. My 5 year old daughter was flying in her reading and writing and then suddenly it all went very pear shaped. Suddenly she she seemed to find it difficult to read and she started to write her numbers backwards. The school were very helpful and we eventually found that she knew it so well she started to not bother paying attention and she was bored because they start proper 'learning'. I am not saying this is the case with your child but it may be?

Kippy

I'm sure there is nothing to get too worried about. Voice all your concerns, stay calm. Your little one is only five, Have a good chat with teacher, and in the meantime keep up the good work heaping loads and loads of praise for all efforts.
Let us know how you get on.

bestpud

I agree they are all different and some just need a little extra support in one area for a short while before they take off again.

DD(7) definitely progresses in fits and starts! I find with her times tables, she can do them perfectly one day and the next she will be counting them on her fingers! I don't know if it is tiredness or what really.

But, you need to arrange an appt and speak some more about this as you will only worry (as we all would) otherwise. I don't think it is pregnancy hormones; I think it was handled badly.

However, I think you will find out you are worrying unduly once you have been given the information she should have offered you at the time!

If you are still concerned after that, ask for a meeting with the HT.

BTW, who is telling you about them being supervised by parents and TAs? He says he has done no reading and yet what are the volunteer parents doing in that half an hour?

DD's teacher reads with each child just once every half term and the TA mainly when a parent asks her to for some reason (I did last week as DD seemed to be on the brink of going to the next level and I wanted her opinion). At her school, it is basically us who listen to them read but that is made pretty clear to us tbh. They do have volunteer parents but dd seems to read to one about once every 2/3 weeks, looking at her reading record.

I wonder if you are getting snippets of information and putting them together wrongly, as we all do once we start to get concerns about something.

tw1nklestar

hi just a quick observation - writing in reception can often be of a higher level than independent writing in yr1. In my experience when children in reception class record focussed literacy work they do it within a small group of about 6 children where the class teacher or teaching assistant sits with them encouraging them to use a capital letters - finger spaces and punctuation. The children are also encouraged to listen carefully to 'all' of the sounds in the words they are choosing to write. The results are neat phonetically plausable work. When the children are in yr 1 the whole class maybe recording literacy work at the same time and with the best teacher in the world you have not got enough time in the 20 mins of independent work to see every childs work other than a quick glimpse and hopefully a comment to improve on and another of praise, such as, dont forget your finger spaces and I love the way you have listened for all of the sounds in that word. Children when working at home or in a small group will always achieve neater more accurate work. Small group might get him on track and develop his independence to continue this through into independent work. Hope all goes well for you at your meeting but try to remember nobody is critizing you or your child just trying to provide him with the tools to continue his fantastic achievements independently.
suex

tw1nklestar

Just another comment regarding listening to the children read. Class teachers normally hears the class read daily but in different ways that are not recorded in reading records. Whole class reading of the Big Book in the literacy hour, phonics sessions, children reading back their own work to a class teacher and many more ways.