that teaching namewriting in nursery is just wrong

[BrexitentialCrisis]

It just gets on my tits.

3 year old is being asked to trace his name with a board pen onto a laminated template and sound out the letters. Every day. He hates it and it apparently takes him many minutes to do it, but he has to before he is allowed to go and play. His grip is all over the place and he says it hurts him. But his name is realllly long and the letters don't look like they sound. I'm a teacher and I really disagree with the way it's being done but don't want to sound like an arse if I flag it up. I've overheard the teacher talking about how ofsted recommended they do it so that kids are ready to write in reception. I don't want my son to learn about writing this way.
Whatever happened to painting with water on patios, threading, drawing in shaving foam and all those other fun pre-writing techniques? It's all just so lame. I just need to man up and complain don't I?

[Beeziekn33ze]

So punitive, just 3, expected to perform a task he dislikes and finds difficult every day before being allowed out to play. No! Poor little boy.
It's their damn tick boxes and check lists isn't it?
As a supply teacher I went into the nursery class of a popular successful state/faith school where there was a great atmosphere. Frequent breaks for
refreshment or going outside. No child being told or forced to do anything except cajoled into a little tidying up of toys. Confident happy busy kids.
I've taught reception a lot going back to days with bigger classes and few TAs. We played lots of games with our large name cards, such as finding them around the room, as a beginning of reading. Those who were getting the idea had their cards less obvious than those who weren't so sure.
As far as writing was concerned we began with simple patterns, as big and wobbly as they liked, with fingers, chalk, paint and fat pencils. As the child gets older it all evens out and gets smaller anyway. The whole staff room rejoiced when I brought in a SN little girl's first recognisable zigzag. By July everyone had made a start at reading, enjoying books for pleasure and information.
So having removed the fun from primary schools, current regulations (as interpreted by nervous teachers) are now even crushing the spirits of 3 year olds. Where will it end?

[drspouse]

until he can draw a person as 2 circles with eyes and mouth and put arms on the body (not the head) then he cannot conceptually differentiate between an 'a' and 'b', and an 'n' and an 'h' and so they are not ready to write.

My DS (4 1/4) has quite poor fine motor skills, especially around writing/drawing, and cannot draw a person that looks like this. However he knows all his letters by sight and can point out to you where an 'n' differs from an 'h' and is starting to tell you how to distinguish 'p' from 'b' (which is more advanced than 'a' vs 'b')

So while we are still trying to get something other than a fist grip, using special crayons for scribbling drawing, working on threading, manipulating things, he is well able to begin some phonics, is good at rhyming and initial sounds, and can even identify the beginning, middle AND end sounds of some simple words. He even knows one digraph ('oo').

I don't think this can be a recognised developmental check that you MUST pass before writing or working with letters, and some children will not be that bothered by drawing people but really keen on writing. I know that generally, children who have more advanced skills will draw more advanced people but it's not necessary to do this before working on letters.

But some of the children in his nursery room can write their names without help, and copy letters well enough to make recognisable signs for things around the room.

However I bet some of them love drawing but couldn't care less about writing so the OP INBU in saying that they should not be forced to practice writing in this specific way. Other motor skills practice, and other pencil skills practice, will be more fun and just as valuable.

Incidentally if you tried to get my DS to do this he'd trace part of his first initial, scribble over the rest and run off. He would, however, sound out some of the letters if asked.

[LumpsMum]

I'm from Germany, started school at seven. I am fully bilingual, able to read and write in both languages. My "late start" certainly doesn't appear to have had a negative impact on my writing skills. I live in the UK and am absolutely scared witless of my little boy starting school at 4yrs old next year. There seems an awful lot of pressure on kids here.

[drspouse]

I have to say I'm not that concerned about expectations in Reception - my DS will meet some, and not meet others, that much is plain already, and his nursery have been low key (possibly too low key) about preparing them.

I am more concerned about the transition to Y1, 5-6 years is quite a common age to start school worldwide and there are a lot of places where this is just as formal (I've heard awful things about US Kindergarten classes) but where it's the first year in the school environment so I guess a year to practice isn't bad.

Incidentally in France and Spain, and I believe Italy, school classroom attendance starts at 3 - that's large size, Reception or in some places Y1 style classrooms. I don't think that there is much literacy expected but that's not really the point.

[QOD]

Dd is ancient now but her fave nursery had a board, their names were on magnets and they had to come in, pick out their name and stick it on the board on arrival.
if they played outside they'd run to move their name to the outside board and then at home time, take it off and put it in a box.
tiny ones had a picture with their name so they could kinda look for the flower not just Emily for example.
worked amazingly well and dd started doodling her name age 3 whenever she drew etc.

[Natsku]

They have the names written on the children's pegs, baskets and cupboards at DD's daycare and the children learn to recognise their name from that, and the other children's names as well, which then leads on to them recognising certain letters (DD will see a H and say that's Hanim's letter, or a V and say that's Veeti's letter) all with no pressure at all.

[hazeyjane]

Poor little boy.
It's their damn tick boxes and check lists isn't it?

There is no tick box or checklist in the EYFS that requires this