To think this is too much in nursery?

[nothingbyhalves]

Dt's are in nursery in Wales (they can start half days from age of three here) they have a new teacher since September, and they have weekly homework, this has consisted of learning letters, colour by numbers, fill a page in their homework book with anything to do with dinosaurs for example. On top of this parents have been asked to help them write their name in what us practically joined up writing, and learn to identify about 10 words such as mum dad and kipper, chip, floppy etc. I am starting to feel its too much. The last homework took them an hour! There is a parents evening next week and I thinking about bringing up these concerns. Or is this normal for three year olds in nursery?

Just had meeting with teacher. She said if they didn't do their homework it was gone as long as I sent a note! I Also explained I was concerned that boys were starting to dis engage and think they couldn't do things. Also mentioned that they were doing the same as other schools do in reception. She just said school had reputation for excellent literacy to maintain. Then she went on to outline boys targets! At this point I told her targets at the age of 3 was excessive in my mind. She did agree with me on this and said this was directed from head teacher. I repeated targets at such a young age was bonkers!

WTF? My eldest also got homework at nursery and I told them "no thanks".

She just said school had reputation for excellent literacy to maintain.

She should be aware that putting pressure on 3YOs like this will damage the school's reputation for excellence in literacy, not support it.

There is a serious lack of understanding of the fundamentals of early years teaching in this nursery.

Are you sure you want your DCs to continue attending?

There will always be learning targets in the EYFS but they should be about playing cooperatively, being resilient, sharing well, understand the uses of text, asking for help, knowing how to access resources, accepting the views of others, joining in with familiar stories and rhymes, etc.

These are the things that equip children to be confident, resilient and competent learners later on and that's what helps them learn to read at a more appropriate age.

1. Targets. Including to recognise and write numbers 1-10, to read and write their names, to learn phonic sounds of letters. To be able to put coats on and do zips and buttons ( fair enough)

My four all went to different nurseries in the dim and distant past. I was lucky enough to be able to go in and help one morning a week in all of them. Their main aim at that time was to be able to put on coats, zip and button them up, to dress themselves for gym and afterwards.

The rest was the usual learning colours/shapes/pencil control/sitting still/identify and write their own name.

That's enough for any three and four year olds surely?

I work in a pre-school and am responsible for the whole learning environment.
Our pre-schoolers have targets, but they are all individual targets, depending on their age and development and individual needs.
Our targets are things like putting on coats and wellies, finding their name for self-registration, being able to sit and listen to a story, recognising and controlling their feelings, being able to take part in discussions, being able to tolerate delys and wait their turn, being able to join in with singing and dancing, being able to go to the loo independently.
We also teach numbers and counting but wouldn't dream of writing numbers yet(it's not in the EYFS) and we do awareness of phonics.

buttons and zips - yes, reasonable. Recognise name - there is some merit in this certainly, as with starting to write their name BUT this is only appropriate for those children who are showing an interest, have developed the fine motor skills etc. It would be wrong not to encourage writing name if a child wants to do so - I've known several 3 yo's who can do this already every year when they start at Pre-school, and many can do it by the end of the pre-school year, but it is certainly not appropriate as a blanket target for all.

Recognising numerals to 10, well again some may want to do this, have an interest or facination with numbers, but not all will be at this stage yet by far. TTTE meant my DS could recognise numbers at

exactly insancerre, your setting sounds similar to mine - target for a child might be put arms in coat independently, and pull up zip when adult has attached it at the bottom.

I just can't get over the idea of calling a girl child 'Biff', and boy children 'Chip' and (wtf) 'Kipper'! The dog has the most sensible name of all of them

How do you know ? Are they revealed once we reach books with words of more than one syllable.