Find out what your child should be working towards & where they are at the moment!
Where do we go from here?
I’m not going to promise you a free assessment as you’d get that before a lesson as standard anyway so that I can pitch the learning at the right level.
I will signpost systems and resources that I know work because this will give you results and save you time if you are concerned and can’t afford or don’t want to go down the route of online classes.
If at any time you want advice or support with your child’s learning you can contact me and I’ll happily listen to you and give you my opinion without the hard sell.
Something you can do now! Find out what your child should be working towards & where they are at the moment.
This is the essential road map to subject coverage laid out by the Department of Education and used by teachers and companies that provide resources for teachers to use. It does use jargon and it goes into subject coverage in some depth but it is very understandable if a little long.I’ve read it a few times and if you just want to get started and get the gist of what it says, I’ve tried to condense it below.
The snapshot version for the end of Key Stages 1 & 2.
Key Stage 1
Reading: 1. Pupils should be able to read around 90 words per minute of an age appropriate text. 2. They should be able to show they understand what they have read, by talking about it and answering questions about it.
What could you do? You could use this free resource from Twinkle as a rough guide to see what your child can do. Get them to read the text and answer the questions. Time how far they get in 60 seconds without it being a race and look out for hesitations and confusions when answering questions.
Spelling:
1. Pupils need to spell and read the high frequency words
2. Pupils need to spell most common exception words.
3. Pupils should spell words with suffixes ( -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly ).
4. Pupils should be able to use apostrophes for contraction most of the time, for example do not changes to don’t .
5. Pupils should spell singular possession some of the time, for example Sarah’s bike, the cat’s tail.
6. Pupils should be able to spell groups of words specific to years 1 & 2.
What could you do? You could see if your child can read and then see if they can spell the high frequency words.
Links:
Writing: 1. Pupils should be able to hold a pencil properly,this isn’t assessed but will have an impact on their handwriting, stamina and speed. 2. Pupils should build stamina in their writing, this isn’t defined but I would look for them being able to write a minimum of 10 sentences by the end of year 2. Good writers will be able to do a page or more easily at this point and it’s more about quality not quantity. 3. Pupils should plan their writing, they should learn how to make planned notes to reduce jumping in their writing and to build description. 4. Pupils should edit their writing, they should learn how to edit for accuracy in their writing and to add description. 5. Pupils should accurately use: capital letters, fullstops, question marks, exclamation marks & commas in lists. This means that they need to be able to identify what makes an accurate sentence and that they can write sentences to ask questions, make statements and make commands. What could you do? You could take 5 minutes to ask them to write a simple sentence for example
The cat sat on the mat.
Look to see if they use a capital letter and a full stop. From there you have several avenues to explore. You could ask them to add description and see how they do this. You could ask them to re-write it as if they were telling the cat to sit on the mat. You could ask them to re-write it as if they were asking if the cat was sitting on the mat. You could ask them if it’s a sentence and then ask them to explain why it is a sentence. If they don’t use nouns and verbs in their explanation and simply say because it has a capital letter and a full stop then I would think that they are not 100% on how they’re forming sentences.
Maths:
1. Pupils should be able to understand, read, write and order numbers from single to three digits. They should be able to work with 0 - 100s. 2. Pupils should understand the concepts of addition & subtraction and be able to understand calculations using addition and subtraction using 2-digit numbers. They should be able to write and use the following systems
75 41 + 46 - 22
3. Pupils should understand the concept of multiplication and begin to understand division as grouping and sharing, they should know their 2, 5 and 10 times tables. They should be able to share an amount out equally or group items by a certain amount. 4. Pupils should be able to tell the time using o’clock, past and to, they should use half-past and quarter-past / quarter to but I would get them to use the whole clock if possible. They can practice answering questions about how long until dinner etc. 5. Pupils should accurately use measurements & read scales. They should recognise mass (Kg, g), Capacity and Volume (L, ml), Length / Height (m, cm) & money. They need to be able to use a ruler accurately so see if they can draw a line of 8cm and look to see if they start at the end of the ruler or from where the 0 is. When cooking, ask them how much more of something they need to pour in if you’re happy that they are measuring amounts accurately. 6. Pupils should accurately identify 2D shapes and talk about their features. 7. Pupils should use the language of position and directions and work with reflections and lines of symmetry. Everyone remembers naughty elephants squirt water to learn the compass points and making a butterfly painting by squishing folded paper don’t they? There’s more to it but that’s the basics.
What could you do? You could take 5 minutes to ask them to draw 3 x 10cm lines underneath each other leaving enough space for them to write numbers. Ask them to put 0 at one end and 10 at the other end on the first line, 0 at one end and 20 at the other end on the second and 0 at one end and 50 at the other on the last. Then ask them to mark where 5 would be on each line.
0___________________________________10
0___________________________________20
0___________________________________50
Look to see if they can put 5 in roughly the correct place on each line and watch to see if they use a strategy to place the 5 e.g. 5 is in the middle of 0-10 so it’s half-way on the first line and 10 is half of the second line so the 5 will be a quarter of the way along. On the last line they will have to adjust this approach as the half-way point is 25. This will give a rough idea of your child’s understanding of how the number system works, whether they can use this knowledge to solve problems, if they have some understanding of fractions and if they can use a ruler and read from a scale. It’s really quick, painless and tells you quite a bit.
Key Stage 2
Reading: 1. Pupils should be able to read around 120 words per minute of an age appropriate text. 2. They should be able to show they understand what they have read, by talking about it and answering questions about it that require them to retrieve data, give explanations and interpret inference using the text.
What could you do? You could use this free resource from Twinkle as a rough guide to see what your child can do. Get them to read the text and answer the questions. Time how far they get in 60 seconds without it being a race and look out for hesitations and confusions when answering questions.
Spelling:
1. Pupils need to spell and read the high frequency words
2. Pupils need to spell most common exception words.
3. Pupils should spell words with suffixes & prefixes.
4. Pupils should be able to use apostrophes for contraction, e.g. do not / don’t .
5. Pupils should spell singular & plural possession, e.g. Sarah’s bike, the cats’ tail.
6. Pupils should spell words with hyphens.
7. Pupils should spell words with homonyms.
8. Pupils should spell words with silent letters.
9. Pupils should be able to spell groups of words specific to years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6.
What could you do? You could see if your child can read and then see if they can spell the words on the word list for the year they have just completed.
Links:
Writing: 1. Pupils should be able to hold a pencil properly,this isn’t assessed but will have an impact on their handwriting, stamina and speed. 2. Pupils should build stamina in their writing. Good writers will easily be able to do upwards of a page at this point. They will need to have detail and therefore length to texts in their portfolios but it’s more about quality than quantity. 3. Pupils should plan their writing, they should learn how to make planned notes to reduce jumping in their writing and to build description. 4. Pupils should edit their writing, they should learn how to edit for accuracy in their writing and to add description. 5. Pupils should accurately use all punctuation taught at key Stage 2. What could you do? You could take 5 minutes to ask them to write a simple sentence for example
The cat sat on the mat.
Look to see if they use a capital letter and a full stop. Probably the quickest question is to ask them what class of word each word in the sentence is. It won’t tell you about their writing flair or construction but it will tell you what they know about grammar. You could ask them if it’s a sentence and then ask them to explain why it is a sentence. If they don’t use nouns and verbs in their explanation and simply say because it has a capital letter and a full stop then I would think that they are not 100% on how they’re forming sentences. You could ask them to start the sentence with an adverb or add speech or ask them to add a clause and see what they do.
Maths:
1. Pupils should be able to understand, read, write and order numbers. 2. Pupils should understand the concepts of addition & subtraction.They should be able to write and use the following systems:
2305 4602 + 4696 - 2338
3. Pupils should understand the concept of multiplication and division, they should know their times tables. They should be able to answer calculations and reasoning problems using standard written systems (use long multiplication and division as a question and as a word problem). 4. Pupils should be able to tell the time & answer questions involving time. 5. Pupils should accurately use measurements, read scales, convert amounts and solve puzzles involving mass (Kg, g), Capacity and Volume (L, ml), Length / Height (m, cm), money, temperature & degrees. 6. Pupils should accurately identify 2D & 3D shapes, talk about their features & use this knowledge to solve puzzles. 7. Pupils should use compass positions, directions & co-ordinates (in all 4 quadrants) and work with reflections, lines of symmetry & translations to solve puzzles and answer questions. 8. Pupils should understand and be able to work with fractions, decimals & percentages. They are asked to find / represent a percentage, decimal or fraction of an amount, shape or chart. They are also asked to add, subtract, multiply and divide using fractions, simply them and convert them into decimals and / or percentages. 9. Pupils should understand and be able to work with all diagrams, charts and graphs. 10. Pupils should be able to solve 1 - 2 step equations e.g. 2n = 20, 2n + 4 = 24.
What could you do? You could take 5 minutes to ask them to draw 3 x 10cm lines underneath each other leaving enough space for them to write numbers. Ask them to mark where 5 would be on each line.
0___________________________________10
0___________________________________40
0___________________________________50
Look to see if they can put 5 in roughly the correct place on each line and watch to see if they use a strategy to place the 5 e.g. 5 is in the middle of 0-10 so it’s half-way on the first line and 10 is a quarter of the along on the second line so the 5 will be an eighth of the way along. On the last line they will have to adjust this approach as the half-way point is 25. This will give a rough idea of your child’s understanding of how the number system works, whether they can use this knowledge to solve problems, if they have some understanding of fractions and if they can use a ruler and read from a scale. It’s really quick, painless and tells you quite a bit.
For further advice or support please feel free to contact me.
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