Long story short, I have a 7 year old daughter who is severely behind at school as in her reading level is 1 where it should be 13, she was in the Montessori program but we moved States from Queensland to South Australia and they didn't have the Montessori program available at her school so should be put back into mainstream school, and to be honest I don't think you should have ever been put into the Montessori program. I work with her each night and we are trying hard to get her ready for grade 2 but her teacher believes keeping her down is the best option, my question is has anyone had a child kept down a year? how did it affect the child socially and emotionally? and do you regret keeping them down?
7 Replies
My son repeated grade 3. He was severely behind in reading. He’s is grade 8 now, and still serverely behind, as he’s reading at a grade 4 level. Did him no harm socially, but not much good academically.
Honestly if she hasn't learned what they learn in year one in school then its best for her development and confidence to go back and learn it where it will be explained clearly and patiently and practiced repeatedly until she gets it in her own time. Explain it that shes not going back, shes doing it for the first time.
Best to build strong foundations than have her trying to keep up, catch up and be dragged along trying.to do things she hasnt yet learned to do.
We had our kid go from a Steiner school for the first 3 terms of prep to a public school for the 4th term. Our kid was over a year behind all areas of education and the school recommended repeating prep. We decided not to keep our kid down, asked the teacher to give us everything we could possibly do to catch up from home, and did homework religiously daily for a good hour. The school offered a spot in a before school reading class to help as well. Our kid was totally caught up by mid year 2, and is now ahead of their peers.
If you can put in the time and effort it is absolutely possible to catch up.
My child repeated Prep and yes it has done wonders for her education but emotionally it has really affected her seeing all her friends go on to grade one and she has stayed behind she struggles as she says she is supposed to be in grade one and kids tell her no she isn’t and make nasty remarks like she must be too dumb to go to grade one. But in saying that my eldest repeated grade one and it worked wonders and there was no grief or nasty comments made.
I work at a private (Catholic) school and we get a lot of kids come from the Montessori school here. They are ALL very behind in reading. Apparently they don't even teach reading until their adult teeth come through??? Why, I have no idea?! Is reading the only thing she is behind in? I think you could probably catch her up if you continue to work hard with her like you are doing. However if she's behind in everything then keeping her back may be the better option.
Let her go and if she doesn’t pick up next year then maybe think about it. My son was like this in his first year, it wasn’t that he couldn’t learn, it was anxiety. Let her move up with everyone else. If she doesn’t do so good in the next year then maybe think about it but I’d give her time to grow and pick it up as she goes. They are still so little at this age and so much is expected of them. My sons reading levels weren’t good either but he could read great at home, it was anxiety preventing him from reading to other people at school, he would freeze. Reading levels are crap anyway at this age. Year 2/3/4 they seem to click and pick things up a lot easier. I wouldn’t stress at that age just keep an eye on her over the next few years, by then you will know but she is still young. She has also moved states and changed the way of learning which is a big thing. Let her go at her own pace for now. You will be amazed at the change after another year.
Our boy does 2hrs in school time with a tutor 2 days a week.
He was reading level pre prep at the end of last term year 2.
We put him in a private tutor 2 days a week in school hours.
He is in year 3 now and reading at his year level.
He still has a lot to do, but he was only just under the national average for naplan, and has improved leaps and bounds since.
He has Dyslexia
His sister is in the year below, we couldn't repeat him into her grade.
The painful thing is we run a business, I have to physically get him from school at lunch and take him to the tutor, then go back and do normal pick up for our girl and then get him again twice a week.
But..the improvement is beyond what schooling could do for him.