Parents Eve - Livid at School - Son's Literacy Well Below Average

stressedoutmum

My son is in Year 5 at school (10 years old). When I do his homework with him Ive always been a bit worried about his numeracy and literacy levels. I have discussed this with the school but they have always said he chats a bit and is easily distracted but he's average. Last year I was told he was above average. Tonight I find out that he's average at numeracy but they are really worried about his literacy levels. His reading is fine and spelling but his handwriting is very poor and he barely writes anything on the page in fact they can't assess him because he doesn't write anything. It seems to take a long time for him to get started and even then there's not much. I burst into tears through anger and frustration and said I was appalled that I've voiced these concerns over the years and now they have decided its lower than average - 5 years into his schooling. Apparently he is almost a level 2 but should be around level 4 at this stage. He is in the lowest literacy group and after my rant the head is going to get him one to one teaching for 10 weeks for an hour at a time but this means he will be missing out on something else for that one hour a week. If needed they can do it again next year as a child can only be funded once per year. I feel really sorry for my son as he has a lot of catching up to do when this should have been noticed earlier. I also commented on the fact that his mental maths was not great and he was still counting with his fingers etc. His teacher said this seems to be a problem across the most of his year and they are trying to address this. His teacher only qualified last year and this is her first job and she seems to have noticed everything the school has missed so I am very grateful to her for that but feel the school and the head have let my son down. I try and get him to write short stories about things he is interested in but he starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop - nothing in between. His handwriting is extremely messy and untidy (whether its for literacy or numeracy) Getting him to write anything is a real struggle and he always strops when he has to do it. We've just had his eyes and ears tested to make sure there was no problem there but they were fine. Is there anything at home we could do to encourage him or any websites for practice.

mrcow

For handwriting, you can print sheets off here:

http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/workbooks/writingworkbooks.html

De Nealian print and de nealian cursive are the two I use. Pick a topic that he likes and get him to write one or two pages per night - no more or you'll scare him off.

Writing wise - what about encouraging him to have a pen friend. Does he have any grandparents or cousins etc who would write to him? Kids love letters, or postcards etc. He doesn't have to write loads - just a bit each time say once a week.

Also - what about getting him to keep a diary. Again - just three sentences or so per night.

You can always offer an incentive too - say - write three sentences per night for a whole week and you get a pack of world cup stickers for the 2010 book.

My son doesn't always produce a lot of work at school. I've been having the same problem with him for years. Last parents evening I agreed with his teacher that if she's not happy with the volume that he's written, he will take the book home and finish it with me. That way, he's not "getting away with it" which I think sometimes he'll think he can.

Plans_all_plans

Hi, I would recommend that you read to him A LOT. If you allow him access to the computer/TV, I would also limit the time he spends on these until you notice an improvement. I would also recommend asking his current teacher exactly how you can help him address his writing skills at home.

I believe some schools use the soundwrite program, this may be something you can look into http://www.sounds-write.co.uk/ but I think his class teacher should be the first one you ask how to help him.

BitterAndTwisted

Have you investigated Kumon?

dizziblonde

OK OK step back a little bit and calm down.

If he's just hitting level 2 then yes, he is behind where he should be - did they mention any a/b/c bits of the levels to you? Basically the differences within a national curriculum level are huuuuuuge - so they're divided up into c/b/a (c lowest end, a top). The ideal (remembering that children don't tend to fit into the conventional Governmentally ordained boxes) is that children are meant to make two sub-levels progress a year - so if they start the year on a 2c they're expected to finish as a 2a etc etc. In the year 6 tests they're aiming for a level 4 (5 if they're good). I'm just mentioning that so you get some idea in your head of what these numbers and letters they use in school actually mean.

They're talking about getting him onto the one-to-one tuition scheme (the Govt released blocks of money to pay for this for kids they think will benefit from it - it's all delivered by fully-qualified teachers who get paid some extra time to plan and prepare for each session) and I wouldn't fight it (especially if they're prepared to do it again in year 6) - the quality of learning you can get in a one-to-one session is so much more in-depth than what you can ever hope to achieve in a whole class setting - I'd be biting their arms off grabbing that chance to be honest - especially if he's the sort to be chatty and distracted in lessons. I privately tutor and it's completely different to the work I do in whole classes - you can progress so much quicker, jump forward and backward and really really target where things are weak. If he's doing this in school time - just try to make sure it's an afternoon lesson he's missing and not literacy or numeracy - or that they rotate the timeslots so it's not the same child missing the same thing every week... and it won't make that much of an impact him going out for an hour really - honest!

With the mental maths thing - lots of the kids I tutor, even very very bright year 6s heading straight for level 5s still have their fingers whirling like windmills on occasion. If it's a problem across the whole year group then the school will have a push on it as a class target anyway - but there are a load of maths games on things like the bbc site (I think it's the Skillswise part of it but my work links are on the other computer that's buried under a pile of junk on my desk so it's a bit of an excavation to get to it) or sites like Mr Nussbaum (I think that's the correct spelling - but Google it to doublecheck and get there) that can practice things like times tables anyway.

With his literacy - is it actually his phonics that's weak (can he sound out words to spell them... things like ch-ur-ch, c-a-t) or is it his sentence structure and grammatical understanding, or does he just not like writing? (I was definitely the latter at school!). If his handwriting's bad - it might be something as basic as him having an uncomfortable way of holding a pen that makes writing actually painful for him - you can get some pens designed to help this (they're very strange looking - Staples sell them) but I've tried them for me and found them minimal use. Would letting him type work onto the computer help getting him over the writing barrier (lots of my issues with writing disappear when typing and working with the text at a screen angle) - it's not an ideal fix but if it gets him getting words down on paper then you can work with improving other issues than painfully trying to drag words out of him and setting into a batttle of wills.

The other bit that struck me is stories - try getting him to write something non-fiction related? Things like instructions, recipes, recounts, explanations - they're all text types too, in fact they're the ones that seem to come up more than pure narrative in Sats, and they might be a bit more boy-friendly than just the "oh heck here she comes wanting me to write a story again"... it might be that he'll happily write reams into a Powerpoint presentation or something - it's still writing, just for some reason lots of kids seem to be nicely fooled by the fact it's on a computer and you can use disgusting fonts and word art it to death.

dangers

mrcow - what a fab website!!!! Like the OP, my son (Yr 4) is struggling with his literacy and they don't have much homework at his school - just extended home learning projects.
Anything I can do to help him at home is a bonus (don't really find the books from WH Smiths much help)

stressedoutmum

Don't know how to do the link thing so will try and reply to everyone. Thanks for your help so far:

MrCow: Fab website will have a good look at that. We have asked for any work to be sent home in the past but never received any so though all was OK

Plans-all-plans. We do read to him a lot and also listen to him read every evening as part of homework. He will read magazines that he's interested in but not really into novels.

Bitterandtwisted. Willing to try anything.

dizziblonde. Sorry about the way I came across but I was livid as we've had concerns for the past year or so. He is a 2c and they said they are really very worried about him. His reading and spelling is absolutely fine (hope they got that one right) but his structure and grammatical is shocking really. He also hates writing even if its about a subject he likes. With the recipe thing do you mean just copy something that is written already? His mental maths can be as simple as adding/subtracting 2 figures under 100. He can't seem to do it in his head and often when he works it out its wrong but it does take him ages to work it out to the point that he's sometimes forgotten the part he has worked out. Do schools not focus on times tables now. When he tries to work out a times table he always has to start from x 1 then x 2 etc - he couldn't go straight to 8x7 for example.

Spendless

Hi- I also have a 10yo yr5 son and I struggled getting him to read/read fiction for many years.

He started with non-fiction moving onto the Horrible History books before venturing onto fiction that started with Horrid Henry,then Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and yesterday started the first Darren Shan book. I'm surprised how much my own son ahs come onr eading wise in a short space of time-there's time for yours to catch up before secondary school.

Writing - well my son's not wonderful either, but it's better if he writes with a fountain pen which his school has the pupils do.

The extra tuition -brill mine got it in yr 1 and it made a fab difference. Don't worry about what he's missing instead.

floss2

My brother used to write out the shopping list for my mum to practice his handwriting, and my DS2 did the same for me as I was always "busy looking to see what we needed and didn't have a spare hand to write with". Neither of them ever realised why

Maybe he could write lists of other things - x-box games, dvd's, toys, things he wants to do or places he'd like to visit.

floss2

Spendless wrote: »

....He started with non-fiction moving onto the Horrible History books before venturing onto fiction that started with Horrid Henry,then Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and yesterday started the first Darren Shan book....

DS2 did this too - he loved the Horrible History books, snapshots of info that got regurgitated back into conversation!!

Blackpool_Saver

sounds like the same disgusting carry on that went on at my sons school, If I had my time again I would REALLY make my presence felt, make sure YOU DO, good luck