What's normal to achieve by the end of reception?

[Myst97]

I only ask as I have been told nothing about dd's progress all year other than 'she's fine'.

[Mopmay]

Ate the early years goals not on your school web site? They are standard across schools

[whereismagic]

It's completely normal to ask her teacher to elaborate. She is fine in comparison with what or whom? You don't need to go to a forum to find this information. I would be concerned if a teacher was reluctant to share this information. In your case it might be that the majority of parents would only want to know if there were problems so the teacher is working on this assumption.

[BarbarianMum]

IMO what is average includes:

-being able to get changed for PE and back again (buttons excepted)
-being able to put on and do up coat
-being able to do normal school things like sit and listen, share resources, line up, put your hand up before speaking, most of the time without lots of reminders.
-knowing the letters of the alphabet phonetically, plus simple blends
-reading to ORT level 3
-being able to count and order numbers 1-20
-being able to add and subtract no.s 1-10
-being able to make a fair attempt at writing a sentance (with phonetic spelling).

Lots of variation though - some kids reading at level 7, some not at all. By Y2 not easy to see which is which necessarily, things tend to even up.

[Myst97]

Thanks for your info. It's not on the website. Well, she can do about half that list. Interesting.

[mrz]

examples of what is expected at end of reception

(If schools are teaching simple blends please question it as it's not phonics)

[JammyGeorge]

Ds1 is in reception that document is great, I know this seems a dumb question but are they the levels to be attained by the end of reception?

In year 1 do they start key stage 1?

I'm new to this!

[JammyGeorge]

I've just re-read the name of the link and answered my own question!

[mrz]

They are examples of evidence of "expected" achievement in reception.
In Y1 children are in Key Stage 1

[whereismagic]

Sorry, one more question. What is simple blends? What is it in relation to Oxford reading tree?

[BarbarianMum]

Im not a teacher so may have used the wrong terms. To me, a simple blend is knowing that certain combinations of letters give certain sounds. So things like th, ch, sh, ow plus some vowels combinations oo, ee. No direct relationships bw phonics and ORT that I found cause the ORT books we had were not phonetic, although they were banded with other books that were.

[mrz]

A simple blend (noun) is learning 'br' 'st' 'fl' etc as whole units whereas in phonics they would be taught to "blend" (verb) the two separate sounds /b/ + /r/ +/ow/ /n/ to read brown (blends are part of onset and rime and add a whole additional level of complication to learning to read).

Not sure if I dare ask which ORT books the school uses ...

BM /ch/ /sh/ /ay/ /or/ etc are digraphs - two letters but only one sound.

[Myst97]

Thanks a lot for that link mrz. It was most enlightening.

[whereismagic]

Thank you. Really interesting. I think they learn digraphs. Just checked and DC has a Rigby star (level 13?) book in his bag.

[sleeponeday]

The school report will have a list of early years targets, and the child given a score from 1 to 3 for those. 1 means below the average for the age, 2 as expected, 3 above the average.

I really don't think it matters much at this age as long as the child is happy, unless there are SEN of some kind. Happy children will learn long-term, and thrive. I actually wish they wouldn't rate them in this manner as I think it just tends to set up anxieties for the parents.

[mrz]

The school must provide parents with a summary they may choose to provide scores but they don't have to.

[sleeponeday]

Really? That surprises me, because the playgroup and both primaries my son has attended provided scores. I think they led to a lot of insecurity/varyingly stealthy boasting, tbh. And when a child is that young I doubt it tells you much unless they are dramatically at the end of either spectrum.

[sleeponeday]

Sorry, that sounded doubtful when I meant it to sound surprised - I don't for a moment question the accuracy! Just the desirability, in an ideal world.

I suppose I am a bit of a hippy when it comes to young children. I like them being allowed room to grow and explore, and tracking applies pressure to schools to achieve set targets to a set timetable. We are lucky in that his playgroup and current school allow for a child to be a child in learning at a pace that suits the individual, but OFSTED seem to place enormous weight on charted levels of attainment, so the settings fall into line as far as I can see.

[mrz]

At the end of reception year, parents should receive a written summary reporting attainment against the ELGs. Practitioners may use the information provided by EYFS profile assessment as a basis for their reports to parents. Reports should be specific to the child, concise, informative and help to identify appropriate next steps.

Did your child attend receotion part time sleeponeday?

[SluiceSloosh]

My ds report is graded by months of age and then met eyfs goals and exceeded efys goals. We had a meeting with the teacher and she said ds wouldn't achieve exceeding for writing because he wasn't always using full stops and commas!!! At 5! The world has gone crazy

[mrz]

The whole point is that full stops and commas aren't expected at age five which is why he isn't exceeding age expectations

[sleeponeday]

No, mrz, he attended fulltime from the off. He was in preschool three days a week in his second year there, and 2 mornings and one day the first. I love his current school, and the preschool were great. The first school is/was just a shockingly bad one, with the only apparent priority impressing OFSTED. The children (and teachers in fact, other than the head) were collateral damage to that end. Hence my jaded tone.

[mrz]

Then why were playgroup completing using profile scores? Sorry I'm confused?

[poppy70]

The exceeding guidelines do not mention fullstops and commas. A child should get exceeding in eyfs writing if they can use form correctly I.e story language, use sophisticated language is increasing amounts of 2 syllable words. I have certainly given it to children who don't use fullstops consistenty because the writing is sentence structure and is above and beyond what would be expected. Writing in receptions gradings is unconcerned with much of the mechanics. That is the latest guidelines

[sleeponeday]

I don't know, I'm afraid - I don't have a background in early years. It was originally a community playgroup, is now effectively a preschool (takes kids the two years prior to school). His learning journal had a final page with scores against the EYFS targets, as did his Reception school reports (he moved school in year, so had two).

[saadia]

It is impossible and pointless to grade children in this way. I am a Reception teacher and have just finished writing up assessments for my class. I have done my best but in the end it is mostly a matter of opinion, unless a child is at one extreme or the other, and children develop at different rates so some of them could very well show progress even in the last two weeks which will not be reflected in their final assessment.