Australia: 3-year-old child received a report card from daycare - is this normal?

[purpleapple1234]

We moved to sydney and got DD into a daycare at extremely short notice. It is a montessori nursery, so I was happy with it. She was 3 and a half when she started and has been there for 3 months. She loves it and that is the most important thing.

As it is the end of the year, we have been given her report card, which I was at bit surprised about as she is only 3! There are 32 catergories going from "sense of discipline" to "ability to write own name". Basically, is this normal?

I am not sure how feel about it, as she loves going and learning things, but it feels like that she has started school already. We come from a country where schooling begins at the age of 7, and I believe that 5 is too young for school for kids. I am not sure if I am annoyed, if I have anything to be annoyed about or uncomfortable as due to lack of research and hast I have put my daughter into a school environment too early. (Although I do know that the portion of the day spent learning is only half the day and it is mostly child-led.)

[dementedpixie]

I'm sure ours got a report at nursery plus we had a parent/teacher meeting too to discuss how your child was getting on. (This is in the uk).

[MyFriendsCallMeOh]

We've had similar at daycare in the UK and Singapore.... It's more benchmarking their development than anything else.

[tomatodizzy]

We had that too for both UK and Brazil, like Oh said, I would think they are just benchmarks, not requirements.

[NewBallsPlease00]

It's observational in uk rather than marking but is useful to identify any potential areas of additional support required eg hearing etc

[GrinAndTonic]

It completely normal. All Montessori schools (preschool and above) issue reports. At preschool it's more an observational report than grading report.

[HearTheThunderRoar]

Yes this is normal, we got similar here in NZ with DD all the way through creche. She left creche back in 2003 so not a new thing either.

It was just some observations on what she was doing well (writing, understanding objects, toiling etc), what she could improve on and generally what stage she was at development wise.

IME what they learn at school at the age of 5/6 is just basic maths, reading and handwriting so not too taxing. There is still a lot of play.

[Crunchyontheoutside]

Our kids don't get a report, perhaps it's more a Montessori thing. But we do get a folder of observations using the early years framework.