No sense of where my child is in the class

[Enjoyingmycoffee1981]

I was very anxious about my August born son starting school this year. As it turns out, it has been fine. I am actually gob smacked at his progress. Before school, he knew how handful of letters, no sounds and blotchy counting.

Now he is reading!!!! Not everything obviously, not even close, but if he doesn't recognise the word by sight, he can sound it out and then gets it.

I would love to know how this compares with other children in his class. I want to know if he is doing well for a summer born, or if he is doing well. Period.

I have asked the teacher and she said, yes he is doing very well, but it is a large busy school and that was the sum total of our conversation.

So I would be keen on your thoughts.

He is 4.5, he recognises all letters of the alphabet, he can sound them all out, he can identify a number of words without needing to sound them out e.g. It, is, the, and, go, on, no etc. He can read most 3/4 letter words by sounding them out.

It is this doing ok, or is this just doing ok for a summer born?

Thanks v much

[AmIIndecisive]

I think its difficult to gauge where he is when you don't know how bright the rest of the children are and what his class is like, you could be in a class where 10 of them are reading chapter books or most of the children could also be learning to read.
If he is only one term into Reception, I wouldn't worry too much about where he is compared to the other kids and focus more on the improvements he makes in his learning curve and the most important thing is that he is really enjoying reading and developing a love for books.

[Enjoyingmycoffee1981]

Oh thank you.

I know I shouldn't be interested in how he is doing compared with others, but I am pretty sure that parents of summer borns will know where I am coming from! We are so anxious that the fact he is almost a year younger than others is a real disadvantage for him, so when I hear he is doing well, I want to know whether they are saying that he is doing well despite his age, or if he is doing well for a reception pupil

[MonstrousRatbag]

so when I hear he is doing well, I want to know whether they are saying that he is doing well despite his age, or if he is doing well for a reception pupil

I think it is fine to ask that specific question. However, wanting to have a specific comparison with peers in his class might come across as nosy or overly competitive. In my experience, teachers are wary of giving that kind of information. Later on you may well be told your son is on the top Maths table, or is getting extra reading or whatever.

[Muskey]

Tbh I didn't get a feel for how dd was doing compared to the rest of her class until y3. You'll find as you go through the school some parents tell porkies about how well their little johnny is doing. Sooner or later just by listening you will know what homework different children are getting and which stream they are in. Also IME poo children seem to know where they are in the class. As op have said don't worry about it you will know soon enough

[Mountjoy]

My son as a summer baby, was exactly where your son is now, too, in terms of reading. He was doing fine. There were others..girls mainly..who were way ahead of him, and there were other varying degrees behind him.

Your son is keeping his head above water just fine. Very competent kid!

[greensnail]

Sounds as though he is at a similar stage to my summer born daughter. She seems to be about average or possibly a little above average in her class although I perceive that her class are less advanced than some other friends' reception classes.

[Muskey]

Sorry about poo in poo text my dd has changed my autocorrect so every time I write the poo comes up instead. She's summer born in year 6

[Mountjoy]

muskey

[benfoldsfive]

What you describe is perfectly national average for that age.

Being summer born doesn't have much to do with it really. I have 3 summer babies (June, July and August), once they hit year one is never mentioned that they are the youngest. It's about capabilities and application.

Add for knowing where ist places in the class I'm sure at parents evening she will say. There might be a class of 29 geniuses and your ds. It doesn't matter, national averages do.

[Muskey]

I really need to sort it out but I keep forgetting it does make me lol

[benfoldsfive]

My Dd when in year 6 changed my message tone to yoda saying "you have a message from the dark side " I worked as a Chaplin in a prison at the time.....

[Muskey]

[JaniceJoplin]

My DD is summerborn and in reception too. She sounds similar to your DS, but she can not blend at all, supposedly this takes younger ones longer to master. I can tell others are further ahead in reading as they take books from the other boxes (levels) and are much higher up the sight words lists, ie, they have been given 4 lists to learn and we are still on the first one. I think some parents at her school are a bit full on and so are the preschools that feed into it. Well, I know one mum who sent her child to a church preschool, but felt that in order to keep up she would send her off on some sort of phonics course, so her DC knew all the sounds before starting.

I know DD is doing well with maths though as she came home with an enormous shiny school sticker the other day. Normally they get small stickers about as big as a fingertip to say well done, infact she had one that day for phonics, but the maths one she got was as big as your hand! It was for knowing which numbers were bigger than each other and counting to 100 I think. I knew from the size of the sticker that it must have been something special :)

[fredfredsausagehead1]

He seems to be doing what he should be but please do not start comparing him to others in his class, why would you? I'd die of embarrassment asking the teacher how he compares to other children.

Focus on what he is doing, other kids are none of your business you seem to be doing a good job.

[Bunnyjo]

I am parent of 2 summer born children - DD is late August born and in Year 3, and DS is May born and in nursery.

Whilst I did worry in the early stages whether DD was at risk of being left behind with regards to national expectations (she isn't - she got level 3 in all her KS1 SATS and is definitely a high achiever), I have never compared her, or wanted her to be compared, to her class peers.

Your DS may be well above average for the class - however, in a low achieving cohort that may still put him below average nationally. Equally your DS may be below average in the class, but in a very high achieving cohort he could still be above average nationally.

At this stage I would be more concerned with how your DS is settling and how he is against national expectations. He sounds like he is doing well and you should be proud.

[WillBeatJanuaryBlues]

I know I shouldn't be interested in how he is doing compared with others

I think its important to know where your child is - compared to peers...I don't care what anyone says and its been debated lots on here .

Yes you may get a class where every single child is gifted or struggles...or whatever but it adds to a larger picture of child, of class, of school really....as long as teachers are not giving out specifics about each child who is not yours, I think they should tell a parent who wants to know - roughly where child is.


and its not really their business why the parent wants to know either.

[AmIIndecisive]

By year 1, most kids will be aware of exactly where they are in class so will be able to tell you themselves.

[redskybynight]

Knowing where your child is relative to their class is not particularly helpful as it depends on the makeup of his cohort.

I've posted this story on MN before, but there was a mum in DD's class who used to say that as long as her child was in at least the middle group she wasn't going to worry. Unfortunately for her, DD's peer group is weaker than the average, so middle group actually meant behind national expectations!!

That said, your child sounds perfectly fine for any age of child in Reception, but it is really way to early to judge - children tend to go in real fits and spurts with phonics/reading.

[mrz]

Knowing your position in class is pretty useless knowledge

[WillBeatJanuaryBlues]

To you Mrz, not to others.

[WillBeatJanuaryBlues]

redskybynight Fri 16-Jan-15 17:45:13

It still gives one an idea, and most people have friends with dc at different schools, all different abilities.

Its part of the jigsaw and is helpful to know.

[WillBeatJanuaryBlues]

Op without me asking, our teacher at parents evening gave us a rough idea where DD was in a particular area...it was most helpful to us.

[BMO]

He sounds like he is doing exactly as expected - most children in Reception at this point will know all phase 2 sounds and maybe some phase 3 and will be familiar with many of the high frequency words. Counting to 20 and recognising and writing the numerals, knowing one more and one less, being able to match number to quantity. Most will be recognising and writing their name, forming some recognisable letters and writing some phonetically plausible words.

However, your DS could still be right at the bottom of a very high ability class or right at the top of a very low ability class.

[mrz]

Willbejanuaryblues it isn't useful to anyone unless they also know where everyone in the class is in relationship to every other child of the same age in the country.
As someone said already your child may be top of a particularly low achieving class so that in the school down the road they nay only be average or even bottom of the class or conversely your bottom of the class child could be deemed gifted and talented in another class in a different school.