Nursery teacher has completely undersold DC in report - do I say something?

[alificent]

I pick my nephew up from nursery school everyday. He is taught by a qualified teacher and turns 4 in August. He received his report today and his teacher has given him the levels 40-60b for everything. However, I think this is far from correct. He can do sums with numbers up to 20. He draws pictures of people with ten features and background details in his pictures. He can do 100 piece puzzles in a few minutes. He can tell the time more so than his seven year old sister. He can spell around ten words and write most letters clearly and do on.

I would say he's brighter than my 5 yo who I was told in her report is exceeding in everything at school. His nursery teacher has never seemed to take to him and I feel like she's done him a disservice by giving him these levels. Would I/my sister being wrong to query it?

I teach Year 1 and I sincerely doubt he is able to understand the year 1 work. being able to write ten words is nowhere near year 1 writing expectations. Nursery should be about him playing and learning through play at his own pace, not pushing him to imitate work that he probably has no deep understanding of.

He's 3. He should be running around eating dirt and annoying the hell out of you all with jokes about poo.

DD just got her school report. She's 8 so going into yr 4. She's below expected level in maths - that's dh's department and despite me telling him he should be setting time aside, he hasn't. Now I've given the ultimatum to sit down with her regularly or I'll get a tutor. He's got a masters degree in econometrics and taught maths at high school. Am I worried? No.

I have been a reception and a year 1 teacher. At this age it's important children are learning by playing and developing lots of skills there is plenty of time to become academic they are little more than babies let them enjoy it and have fun.

It makes me so sad that these reports are even written for such young children. Total madness. If my kids had had reports about levels etc at nursery I wouldn't even have bothered to read them, let alone complain about them! Next there'll be progress reports grading crawling ability in babies!

Well I think he sounds like an A* student who is being unfairly held back by his nursery teacher. Disgraceful. Please say she at least included the details of Mensa in with his report? If not, I think you should have her struck off.

You need to calm down, he is 3 it doesn't matter.

OP, I do understand why you are upset (and don't fully understand the hard time you are getting on here, apart from the fact that the idea of preschoolers doing any kind of academic learning seems to make some people furious, despite the fact that almost all preschoolers of my acquaintance seem to enjoy it and to already have developed various skills in literacy and/or numeracy).

My dd's end of nursery report is a load of rubbish, in terms of both the levels (she was "developing" in 40-60 reading, for example, although she can read, and a target set was to start to try to learn to read CVC words, with the example C-A-T given).

I was upset, as it will be sent to her school,and I didn't want them to start her off on the wrong levels of reading book etc - this may make me some insanely pushy monster, but there you go. However, I showed it to my childminder who has worked in early years education for ages in various capacities, and she said that while she agreed it was wildly inaccurate, it will have been written like this because nursery simply have not given dd the opportunity to demonstrate what she can do in the different aspects, and that the school will discount it because they will realise it was written by carers, not qualified teachers. (These were her words, not mine).

To paraphrase, she essentially told me to let it go. So I will. I will complete the bit at the bottom for parents comments though, and say it is inaccurate in my view, and why.

sorry but that is really silly.

Let it go. The reception teacher will look at all the children with fresh eyes and make her own judgements in the first term. Once the reading books start coming, you could ask the reception teacher to check what level your DS should be on.

Oh dear, I really hope this is made up.

My DD also just got her nursery report. Thankfully her school didnt feel the need to put levels on it.
Instead we have a lovely, detailed report on her as an individual with lots of really specific examples of how she has developed her skills and used them and some lovely photos.

I did notice, as any mum would, things like 'can use numbers up to 10' and 'can recognise some 2D shapes' when I am well aware she can use numbers up to 100 and knows lots of 3D shapes too, but I realised that these must be specific milestones the teacher is required to address.

The funniest part of this thread though is that it's not even your child. I seriously fear for this child at secondary school if his entire family are already this over invested with such high expectations!

You would be wrong to query it as he's your nephew

You were wrong to read his report as he's your nephew.

You are way too invested in your nephew's education, he's not your child, you are simply collecting him from nursery. Let his parents read his report first, let them decide if they want to ask any questions about it.

He's not your child. Why are you even reading his report? What do his parents think?

60 months is 5 years. So 40-60 covers quote a range and indicates he is ahead of expectations. His reception teacher will see he is at the top of the band and act accordingly.

Off topic slightly but those wondering about 10 features:

eyes x2
eyebrows x2
eyelashes x2
mouth
nose
ears x2
= 10 features in total

When mine were at nursery i recall them excelling at ‘sticking pasta on to paper plates’. They were also great at ‘producing multiple large messy paintings’ and ‘eating all the snack’. I don’t remember any levels. Both are university material now. I am not sure these ‘low’ levels will hold your nephew back OP.

I remember a child and parents like this when my ds went through nursery and primary school. The child grew to be very very clever, he was however an obnoxious, rude superior little brat with an awful attitude, no social skills and no friends from 10 up to adulthood. He went to Oxbridge then had a massive breakdown.

There is a lot to be said for playing in the dirt.

Ds2 recent nursery report had him developing some levels rather than exceeding at first I was a bit annoyed but then remembered :-
They have to clearly observe it several times to mark it
Children change very quickly
The report only needs to really worry you if they are consistently not meeting expected stages and you can help support
The report is for them and school will assess themselves and you can speak to them about schools levels if you need to
Some children don't go to nursery and manage to do perfectly well at school without being assessed !
And most importantly - ds is happy and enjoying nursery and well looked after and that is what I pay for not for him to be hot housed!
Op calm down!!

I wonder if this child can do all the other things that a child of three should be learning?

Recognise his own shoes ? put them on?
Can he take himself to the toilet?
Does he use cutlery with dexterity?
Can he pedal a trike?
Can he safely amuse himself for 15 minute?
Fetch and carry for you if requested?
Does he play nicely with others?
Understand taking turns?
Can he do all the other things that a three year old should? or have these gone by the wayside ?

Learning at three is about far more than the three R's.

When my DDs were at infant/primary level their very detailed reports bore very little relation to reality. I used to ignore it all except the class teachers hand written comment.

Is this really your nephew? You seem way over-invested in this to me.

Discusfish wrote a sympathetic and thoughtful response.

It's easy to make fun of people like the OP, and very dull to do it so repetitively.

A nursery report will have no impact on how he is treated in school. If he has a good teacher in reception, s/he will get to know him quickly and make sure he has a wonderful, enriching time. If he has a crappy teacher, s/he will be crappy regardless of the nursery "report".

What a waste of time that nursery schools have to do "levels".

With this poor foundation I predict he will never complete his second PhD, he is better off giving up on education now.

Or relax and let him be. Is he happy at nursery? That is the main thing at that age.

He got the highest they can give him. He's done what he should be capable of. There are no issues. That's all the report need to tell the parents.
School will assess him themselves. He's not yet 4.
He might be bright but useless at other things and not able to share and get himself dressed.

He hasn't got the highest they can give him, nurseries can assess against the early learning goals. However, I can't see anything in the OP that suggests that he's working within the early learning goal except possibly in maths.

The shocking thing about this thread is that nursery schools are forced to do these types of assessment at all. And it will only get worse in reception and throughout primary. Poor kids:(

Also have to say I'm really pissed off that anyone thinks this op deserves a "calm the fuck down" in response. Completely out of proportion and uncalled for.