Do you feel like your Reception child is getting ready for Y1?

[bigroundbrush]

I am a P2 teacher (equivalent to Y1) and I feel at the end of my tether with the P1 teacher. She has full time TA support, and I have none. She will not contemplate making any adjustments to her teaching to prepare the children for formal learning.

What I've asked for

• all children to complete a sit down morning task, so that coming in and sitting straight down to work is less intimidating in August.
• more independence in writing (currently they only write sentences if sitting with her)
• a big push on looking after their own belongings

AIBU? What happens in other schools?

I'm sure your colleagues would be fucking delighted to loan you some resources if you said you wanted to incorporate continuous provision in your classroom!

Also they don't all need to sit at desks. Some children actually work better sitting on the floor or against beanbags etc.

Your thinking seems so linear. If you genuinely wanted to do the best by your class surely the very minimum would be to look at current best practice and see how you could apply some of it to your own classroom.

I’m in England but I know a lot of Early Years teachers feel very strongly that the children’s time in EY is their time in EY and it shouldn’t be about preparation for Year 1. I have sympathy with their point, especially in schools that offer little to no CP in Y1, but I also know how hard that makes it for Y1 staff. It must feel almost impossible for you if you’re the only adult in the room.

I think in your position I’d focus on one of your three wishes and push for the teacher to focus on children’s independence and ability to look after their own belongings. That’s part of the early learning goals down here anyway.

Year 1 is the first year of formal school.

I don't want that pressure and formality pushed downwards into Reception and Nursery, children constantly working on 'being ready' for the next stage. Little children should be playing.

Make your class ready for the children. Don't try to steal away their time in early years to make your life easier later.

The amount of resources I'd need to run continuous provision successfully and alone is way beyond what my colleagues could offer me.

I am a good teacher and I get good results. We don't go straight into formal learning and use lots of games, sensory experiences, crafts etc.

They struggle because there's no similarity in experience between P1 and P2. All I'm asking for is for them to make small changes to their day that would make the transition less of a leap.

If you really have no play resources it must be a very big change for the children. I would aim to get more play based activities.They should still have opportunities for role play etc. Surely all Scottish primaries are not so different from English ones. Our year 2 has a sand tray, role play, puppets and lots more. However I appreciate how hard it must be without a T A.

We use individual little sand/rice trays and schedule role play/ puppet time. It's not all textbooks and ink pens.

I imagine your p1 teacher has been working on making children more responsible with their resources since day one! It's a long, ongoing process because they're five! And if it could be taught in the last 3 months of p1 there wouldn't be a huge pile of aged 10-11 school jumpers in the lost property pile. Also, the teacher is literally teaching writing. That's why they sit with them. Your p2 writers will be better from being scaffolded well rather than left to it. It's tough OP. I'm infuriated when I get kids who can't zip up a bag or turn an inside out sleeve the right way or put a lid back on a glue stick! But it's my job to help and teach them. As it is yours.

Agree with everything the PP have said. It is the job of the Y1 teacher to ease them into the transition to the KS1 curriculum. Much harder without a TA as the children are still so little but still needed. You need to talk to your headteacher about this and having some play resources for your classroom so it can be set up initially with familiar things they would have had in their EYFS setting. Dont have the expectation they will all be sat working at tables together straight away, half a term at least should be spent supporting them in this transition. Some classes might need longer.
A good book to read is by Alastair Bryce-Clegg and is called something like Successful Transition into Year One.

Absolutely this!!!

Our P2 classes still have play based areas within the classroom. P3 classrooms look more formal.

P1 should stay play based.
Asking children to put their jumpers in their bags isn't a big ask though. Our nursery does that already. They watch the child take their jumper to their bag if they take it off. The nursery also encourages as much independence as possible before going to p1.

The amount of resources I'd need to run continuous provision successfully and alone is way beyond what my colleagues could offer me.

It really wouldn't take much. What are you imagining you would need? Most classes in England are beginning to adopt continuous provision into KS1 and some even into lower KS2 because of the research in how effective it is.

My point however stands that you have not asked and if you did I'm sure the staff in P1 would be thrusting resources at you left right and centre because they know the value in children accessing these resources.

well this was all a very long time ago for me, but since you ask no I wouldn't want P1/YR to have anything like that level of formality. I'm sorry you don't have a TA, you should have, but that shortfall mustn't be addressed by curtailing the play-based learning stage. there's the best part of 3 terms left of the year. any transition work to prepare for next year should be limited to the last 2 weeks of term 6. The remaining transition should be part of what you do in term 1 next year. we know you can't work miracles and there's limits to what you can achieve given the learning skills (or lack thereof) that children start your year with, and that's ok. the children will have a better overall learning experience across the whole span of primary if you let YR/P1 teachers do their thing their way, without trying to make them start your year early and take things at the right pace for them. you don't have to hand them on to the y2/P3 teacher having fully achieved everything in the KS1 curriculum, just having made a reasonable level of progress from where they started.

Your school may have a Senior Management Team problem if this isn't understood of course. again, my sympathies, but don't take it out on your colleagues.

As a P2 teacher you need to work with the P1 teacher to adjust your practice imo so that what you offer is correct!!!

She hasn't really. She will do things like staying in the lunch hall after the bell rings to put away their lunchboxes for them and collect all the forgotten jackets. If they leave something outside then the TA goes outside to get it for them.

It's very caring and gentle, but it's not sustainable and it doesn't teach them good habits.

I really agree with this. There has to be a transition - after the long holiday and with a new teacher is a much more natural time to do it than when they're all six months younger and have only just adjusted to school at all.

You definitely don't know my colleague. She wouldn't even let you borrow the chunky pencil sharpener.

P2 teacher here. We work closely with the P1 teachers to ensure smooth transition. They add in some more "whole class" formal sit down lessons (would be VERY short) in the final term of P1. We ensure that play similar to continuous provision is offered daily first thing in the mornings of P2 during first term and often beyond. More formal literacy and numeracy happen daily too. However, we all have a TA. I really feel for you having to manage so many little ones on your own, not least because clearly P1 and 2 are so different and will take a lot of getting used to!

This.

OP stop expecting the P1 teacher to do your job for you. There’s no point her doing transition work with them this year they’ll forget it over summer anyway.

Then go to your head and say best practise shows you resources!! Ffs!

Although you could...

Make playdough weekly (it's cheap, quick and easy to make).

Scour the free Facebook groups for dolls houses and furniture etc..

Junk modelling is great for this age group...

Then speak to the head. It's best practice and benefits the children to have continuous provision so she has no argument to say no to sharing resources.

I teach P5 and have play timetabled into my week! It sounds like a very sad place for them if there’s very little toys or fun after seemingly having lots of play in P1?

We use playdough daily and junk modelling is available on the afternoons we don't have PE.

I repeat, I am not expecting them to sit down and write in ink from textbooks. It's games, crafts and sensory based activities in a carousel.

Formal lessons in reception is poor early years practice. Year one should include transition. When I’ve taught year one we are play based until Christmas so it’s not a shock. Looking after your belongings is a gradual process (as anyone who has taught KS2 will testify!)

I'm really glad you're not my child's y1 teacher. You sound results and control obsessed and not at all interested in their welfare or what is actually achievable for them at such a young age. My yr1 is youngest in the class and reading your replies makes me feel a bit sick to be honest.