School Days – parents evening and dinosaurs
After last week’s short week, this one was about getting back into the proper routine. After a long break you forget how hard it is to do a full week at school. And that’s just the parents – fitting everything in, remembering everything that’s going on and geeing up the children. We’re definitely back into the routine again.
Reading
Whoop, finally N had (we think) moved up a level in reading. He’s now on level 6/orange and is going up to Class 2 to get his reading books now. He loves this because he’s the only one of the year 1’s in his class to go up for his books.
Reading was hard going this week though. There always seems to be a lag – where his reading goes downhill, even on words he was reading before with no problems. He didn’t want to read, took nearly an hour to read 1 book, not helped by him bringing home random reference reading books. ‘Heating Food’ for a title anyone? I’m hoping once he gets back into the swing of reading again, it’ll go better and he’ll keep improving at the speed he was before.
At parents evening I dd have to ask about 121 reading. N doesn’t do much at all because it’s based on parent volunteers going in and there are none in his class. Instead they do reading pairs or group shared reading. Hopefully this will change at half term with a TA shuffle round. But then N complained to me that another boy in his year then had 121 reading time the next day. He’s very much for fairness but when I’ve been told one thing and he’s saying another, I just tell him what the teacher told me, and that if he wants to read to someone, he’ll have to ask them at a quiet time. I don’t like that it’s different across the 2 classes their year group is in. Personally, if I was the school, I’d mix the parents around so every class had the attention.
Maths and tokens
N loves maths and did well doing his homework this week, although the colours on the print out ddn’t match the written colours, so hopefully it still gets marked correctly.
This week he told me he had 2 tokens to put in his house team’s tube (they get tokens for being IP, learner and star of the week). It seems that if they also do good work they may get tokens for that as wel. His were for working hard at maths, and working even harder.
He is funny about learner of the week though. This week he was put out because the person who got it was ‘naughty all week’. It’s hard for children to realise that it’s not just based on them doing well, but also relative to others. It’s hardest in their year to get learner of the week because theirs is the largest year group and the only one split across 2 classes.
Naughty children
According to N, there’s now more of his year group playing up. It seems another boy has been led astray an caught up with the naughty boys. At the moment it seems N and his friend are staying clear so I hope that continues. It’s another reason why I want him to be moved up – so there’ll be more focused learning, more of the year 2s level of work rubbing off on them, and less chance to mess around.
Parents evening
Usually at parents evening I just look at N’s books and get a vague update on how he’s doing. But this time I had a list of things that were worrying me. Hopefully the teacher wasn’t too put on the spot but most of my worries have been put at ease. I still don’t have a firm confirmation of when he might move up. If literacy and writing improves consistently, then it might be half term, or it might be the summer term. But it sounds like he could have to wait until all are ready to go up.
With writing it sounds like it’s putting his thoughts to paper, and giving N a process of thought to work through when asked to write about something. He still struggles with where to start when he’s told ‘describe xyz’. So that’s something he needs to work on.
Tennis, tennis and more tennis
N does enjoy tennis but when I asked him how Monday’s after school club went he wasn’t happy. ‘I didn’t do well, I don’t like tennis anymore, I’m not going back’. Oops, and I’d only just paid for both his Monday and club tennis sessions until Easter. Hard luck, child.
Thankfully he was happy enough after Friday’s club lesson after adodgy start. But it seems that it’s their turn this turn to play tennis in PE on Fridays. Outside. Brrr. So 3 times a week he’s playing. At least his consistency of play will increase but I hope he won’t get too bored of tennis.
Dinosaurs
This week they’ve been doing work around a dinosaur book. N came home from school saying they would be going to the dinosaur museum. So far I’ve not seen any information about a trip but they are probably due a school trip. N is really excited anyway.
What have your children been doing in school this week?
That’s amazing that his reading has come on so much. I can’t wait for Alice’s next parents evening to see how she is getting on. Her first one was really all about her settling in and now I am keen to know how she is progressing. It’s so hard to know how they are getting on. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
It is really hard to know how they’re doing. It was a real shock going from nursery with daily updates to nothing. Thanks for stopping by
I have to admit I wouldn’t fancy tennis outside in this weather either! That’s great he’s moved up for the reading – I remember being the same, I was always so proud that I was allowed to go over to the Junior School to choose my reading books, as I’d exhausted the collection in the Infants. I remember the heating food book from your instagram though – I think that would struggle to hold anyone’s attention! Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
Thanks Katy. I remember playing colder weather tennis and having to prise fingers off rackets. They’ll be outside after half term, but that’s still going to be cold for them. Thankfully the heating food book went back unread, and never came back after 2 attempts!
Well done on the reading level improvement, it’s great to see them getting better at such an essential skill.
Thanks Rachel. He just needs to do a little every day now. It always amazes me how quickly they improve
Primary education is a toughie isn’t it, I was lucky with my daughter she was alway a book worm and still is at 14. Sounds like you have all areas covered and are progressing so much with help from you at home. Wonderful read.
It is. You just never know what level they should be at or are at. There’s not a lot more we can do. I guess I’m pleased he likes maths so there’s something he’ll happily do. (I was a book worm and academic so it’s a mystery to me when a child finds it hard or doesn’t want to do it – although we didn’t get proper homework until secondary – just spellings and times tables)
Well done on the reading and going up to orange, that’s really good! Our year is a bit frustrating as they get one book a week and won’t change it even if Z flies through it. It means they’re kind of controlling the whole class at mostly the same level which is a bit odd. Zs loving to read though so we’ve just bought some Roald Dahl joke books!
My brother used to love joke books. I was only debating those the other day for N. Anything to encourage him to read home books. We are quite lucky with reading books. Depending on length, he gets 1 or 2 books 3 times a week. They come home again if he hasn’t done them at home. Other schools do like you. In reception it wasn’t so great – a mum who had 3 kids go through the school before, removed her twins from the school largely because of reading. The girl could read before starting school, but she was given the same level reading books as her brother who was starting from scratch and struggling. This year’s been more realistic I think, although drives me mad that they read about 4 different book ranges across the level so you think you’ve finished, but you’ve got another boring set to read.