Any reception teachers? How can I make sure my son stays engaged

[Otter46]

Firstly I’m really not one of those parents who thinks her kid is a genius! And I’ve not pushed him either, he’s just a sponge. But we’ve got a kind of introductory meeting with the head of early years coming up at the school my son will attend in the autumn. And I want to know whether to mention some of my son’s abilities/issues then and see how they will stretch him (he’s bored easily).
He’s reading more or less fluently since last autumn, my mum is a retired teacher and tested his reading age not long ago at about 10yrs old. She’s retired so not sure they test reading age now. Anyway he loves reading, very fluent, rarely gets a word wrong. Obv he won’t be the only one reading in the first few months.
He’s v numerical will trot out all the odds and even numbers on and on, works out some basic sequences etc, knows the various ways to make a number eg 8 you can do 4+4 and so on. He’s got a great memory and only has to be told something once eg car number plates and other collections of numbers/letters.
He can match a letter to its corresponding number instantly and vice versa and is tickled pink by the idea of code so I write him a word or sentence made up of numbers and he translates that to letters and then reads it (hope that makes sense!).
He’s not a great player with toys. He plays well with kids but v much follows their lead.
Not sure what to say to the school, I just want to know they’ll keep an eye on him and stretch him a bit so he doesn’t get bored and disengaged. Or lost in a class of 30. Thanks

[Yvemen]

My daughter sounds a lot like your son Otter!

Has been reading fluently since 3 and is v good with numbers and also spanish. It all comes quite naturally to her.

I had parents evening at our nursery this week and they have said that they will be sharing information with her school and will inform them of her abilities etc. I will also let them know once we have our first meeting!

Im sure they will get to know your sons abilities quite quickly, but I definitely think you should still inform them of where he is at so they know!

[Otter46]

Thanks Yvemen. I'll talk to his nursery teachers. I just want to avoid at all costs it looking like I'm swanning in saying 'how are you going to challenge my genius child' as it's not that at all, I just don't want bored and disruptive which he can be on occasion (a right pain in the arse!). He's got some quirky interests and the letter-number matching thing and back again in an instant plus the love of the code, would be good if they have a way to keep him stretched!

[sirfredfredgeorge]

Have you actually looked at the EYFS syllabus? Reading and Numeracy are only a very small part of it and far from the focus. It's very unlikely that he's going to completely disengage with school due to the few minutes a day they spend on phonics games or counting games.

It may well be that he has other challenges to meet the Early Years goals (if he's easily bored and disruptive he certainly will) Stretching him in codes may well be part of it, but really he's likely to be challenged in the other areas of early years. It's quite likely his interests will change in any case.

In DD's school, the problems those who could read on entering school were not about being challenged, it was about managing their own emotions when the others "caught up". They'd got a lot of self esteem built up in "being the best reader", which obviously couldn't be sustained once lots of kids could read. Of course your DS's experience is very likely to be different, kids and schools are very individual, but school is challenging without a narrow focus on reading and maths.

[Helix1244]

My lg could read cvc words and wasnt bored so they do lots as well as phonics. Unfortunately they never checked if they could read so we ended up reading every letter etc. I thought they would realise but not until may/jun did they and she ended up as only met at the end of yr r but by then was probably free reader level.
So a lot depends on the school.
So i would after that experience just tell the school.

[Otter46]

Interesting, thanks. He’s been bored a bit at his preschool because they’ve been doing basic phonics and letter names when he’s reading whole books quickly. So that’s all I meant. He’s switched off a bit and rolls around on the floor/lolls around, very much four year old behaviour just don’t want it to get too much.

[BlackcurrantJamontoast]

Does he play with other children at all? Initiate play?

[Otter46]

Yes he plays really well with lots of different children so socially he’s ok I think (we used to have more concerns). Not at all into role/imaginary play though! But some aren’t I guess.

[PantsyMcPantsface]

He'll be fine honestly - DD1 was very good with reading and numbers when she started... but she still benefited from learning the school environment and developing a lot of social skills - coasted a bit toward the end of the year but it wasn't the greatest reception setup in the world (moved my kids in the end). My younger one's reception class did lots of things like finding animal tracks, and following human laid tracks in the woods, baking (oh my god the flour mess from a bunch of 5 year olds allowed to tackle a child-appropriate recipe in a group relatively independently! - obviously not the hot oven part), had animals in to handle and learn about... all that other stuff that isn't directly letters and numbers.

The imaginary play came later with DD1 - she wasn't much fussed with it until probably this year (she's just turned 7). Her sibling is just never on this flipping planet so I think one got the gene more than the other!

[Otter46]

That’s interesting about the imaginary play coming later, I hope so for my DS as I spent hours as a child creating elaborate worlds and runs for my hamsters etc, writing stories. But we lived somewhere with literally nothing to do and my parents didn’t want to play with us too much so perhaps it was boredom that led me down that path!

[ShopoholicIn]

Hi OP, I would mention it if they don't get the same from the nursery your son goes to.
I would however ask the school head how they engage kids who might already know of what is being taught or are lagging behind. As some schools send kids from reception to year 1 if they are already at year 1 level so the child is more engaged in class...