O/T Any teachers around? help needed please

Hi, Not a teacher, but a wannabe who spend a lot of time in schools to get experience!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/

Check this out, it has educational games which the child is more likely to do after school!

It's difficult as SATs are done in Yr6 so most good resources might be a bit advanced for her. Would you like some of those links anyway?

I'm a secondary teacher but I can look around for primary stuff.

Thanks Mrs Spink to be, i'll take a look.

Froggy, some links would be good anyway thanks. Might give me a starting point at least.

Http://www.emaths.co.uk/KS2SAT.htm

Thanks froggy

Hi - Primary teacher here ?

Hi. Firstly 'dont panic!'. It wasnt clear from your message but is your stepdaughter ACTUALLY behind in her learning? Have you been told this by the teacher? Or is it that you are just comparing the amount of work she comes home with with what she got before? If you know she isnt actually behind I wouldnt worry too much. However, if she is behind or she is keen to do extra work the best thing (also the point of homework) is too consolidate what has already been taught - so find this out from teacher or your daughter and try www.primaryresources.co.uk - loads of sheets all put into topics and years, but need to keep it relevant and in context.

also great for maths games www.mathszone.co.uk

hope this helps.

Hi Charlied

Thanks so much for that, i'll take a look at that site.

She isn't too far behind at this stage, but she's not quite achieving the levels we're told she should be. We just don't want to get to the point where she's too far behind for us to help. R isn't keen on school and can rarely tell us what she's done at school (for example today she says she did an experiement but can't remember anything else). The teacher is completely uninterested and is extremely vague. OH once saw a child walk out of her class and she didn't appear to notice. We just want to be able to give her a small piece once a week to try and help her remember what she's learning.

Thank you for your advice.

Hi- another primary teacher here!

I agree with Charlied.

Another site is http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html which is interactive. Education city is a great interactive site as well. Another is http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6317 which has differnt numeracy problems with solutions attached.

hope some of this helps x

Hi, another teacher here,

One website is https://www.schooljotter.com/coxhoe/Curriculum+Links which is really good. Also www.primaryresources.co.uk which someone has recommended.

Even if you ask mental maths questions when you've got spare time, timetables and telling the time etc can be a great help. Also asking comprehension questions when hearing her read can be a great help.

I have parents who do very little, so anything you can do is always a positive!

Hope this is of some help.

Ex deputy head here.

My thoughts are that if she isn't too keen on school now, you could make it worse by making an issue of her being behind. I commend you on being concerned but there are better ways to help than others. 'Soon to be Mrs W' had a good suggestion such as doing discreet learning (times tables, comprehension, mathematical things etc) around everyday things and making it a game and fun. I've always been anti homework.....which in my experience was often worksheets to reinforce what was learnt in class.....but oh so boring and enough to put anyone off school and learning for life. Hope that helps.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Sandy, we're not making an issue of her being behind - we don't discuss the 'levels' with her (as long as she's doing her best that's what's important not what she actually achieves) but we can't not do anything when her teacher appears to be doing nothing (even during the day). As far as R's concerned, at the moment, homework is normal. We both feel its important for her to have some homework so that in a couple of years when she's going up to secondary school homework isn't a huge shock to her (OH's son is in year 8 and gets quite a bit). It doesn't have to be loads. I'm not some wicked stepmother trying to make her miserable ?

We try to do things discreetly too, she uses her pocket money herself to buy things and we let her work out what to give and then ask her to make sure she's got the right change. On the whole, the shop assistants are great at counting the money back to her so she follows and she has a telling the time game, but she does need to do some written work too (if only for her handwriting).

Hopefully we'll be able to get a good combination of both to help her through the rest of this year. Thanks for your advice.