To be worried about the new Reception baseline tests

[Piratepete1]

My DD has just turned 4 and starts Reception in September 2016. She attends Nursery for 4 mornings a week and appears to be doing well.

My issue is that my DD has a very severe speech disorder. Long story short, she was 2 years behind 8 months ago with her speech and had her latest assessment last week. It was a wonderful day when we were told that her speech was now classed as average.

Obviously, it has taken some doing to get her speech up so much in such a short period of time and I am worried that we have neglected the other areas of learning.

A friend of mine has said that if they don't do well on the new baseline assessments on entry to Reception then they are marked down as 'failing to reach appropriate milestones on entry'. She swears this is what was written on her sons report.

Embarrassingly, I was a teacher but mainly Key Stage 1 and it was quite a while ago. I have no idea if my child is working at an average level or could do with some more support in different areas. One mother has hired a tutor for her 4 year old which seems barmy to me!

We like playing outside in the forest and the mudkitchen, and going on trips to museums and places of interest. Maybe we do too much of this and should do a bit more 'formal learning'. We read at least 3-4 books with DD every day. She knows all her letters but can't grasp rhyme or blend any letters together to form 3 letter words. She can only sight read names of the family. She can write her name and has a go at writing herself which is just a mix of the letters from her name.

She can count to 100 with a little help at each changeover e.g. 39 to 40 rather than 30-10, can recognise written numbers to 20 but can't really write any numbers.

I think what is concerning me is that we agreed to send her to a private school as they have an SEN teacher who would have given her 30mins 1 to 1 speech support every day, something which she wasn't going to get in the local state school. But now I think she (and me) would be happier with her in a less academic, pushy school.

AIBU to suggest to DH that I want her to go to the local primary?

[TeaT1me]

I wouldn't send a child to any school where reception is sat at desks doing lots of formal work! My first daughter is v brighy and I wish more of her infant school time had space to be creative, but at least yr r was!