to think the expectations about children starting Reception are very low?

[mendimoo]

I look after my nephew a lot because his parents both work long hours (NHS.) Today he had a home visit from his teacher before he starts school next week. She bought some things with her as 'ice breakers' and, in her words, was 'absolutely amazed' by DN. She bought some five piece peg puzzles that my two year old has been able to do for months. DN showed her the 100 piece puzzle he'd completed that morning and she was gobsmacked. She asked some leading questions to see if he knew his colours and again was shocked that he did. Again, my DD can pick out colours and colour sort and she's two - DN has known his colours since around 18 months.

DN also demonstrated that he could read numbers 1-10 (he can read 1-20 but she didn't have the resources to stretch that far), read CVC words and use words like more, less, bigger, smaller, the same to compare objects and groups. She asked if he could recognise his name and was really shocked that he could read and write it.

I think reading the CVC words is a little ahead but don't most children know their colours and numbers by reception age? The teachers expectations seemed extremely low.

[mendimoo]

I also don't see the problem with a home visit. I think it's good for the child to see the teacher away from school and for the teacher to find out a little about each individual child. Six weeks from settling in sessions to starting in September is a long time and the home visit breaks it up nicely.

[JellyPlum]

It might not have been for your benefit then but she teaches very small children, I'd expect praise and encouragement (even to adults) is fairly natural to her. Willing to be corrected by reception teachers!


Either way, children vary for all kinds of reasons. The child who can't recognise a single letter at this age may well grow up to get a first in an extremely difficult subject at uni, the child who seems way ahead of peers at this age may well fail academically. They all find their way and, I think, we need to just let them do that. No pressure or expectations.

[mendimoo]

I get that she was being nice but it doesn't change the fact that my two year old could complete 80% of the activities and therefore shows the Base expectations are very low. The school distributes a list of things they'd like the children to be able to do when starting reception and knowing a few colours and knowing how to operate a book are on the list. It saddens me that any child could reach 4/5 without knowing how to turn pages or without colours having naturally been learned through conversation but I recognise that it does happen.

[WorraLiberty]

How many home visits have you been present at OP?

[kittymamma]

To respond to the posters mentioning the not wanting a home visit. I like to think I am very honest with myself. I found the idea odd and there was that moment that a paranoid thought flashed through my head: "Do they want to check up on us?" It is totally irrational, I have nothing to hide anyway, and ofc they are not. The same way I felt that way when the HV turned up for the first time.

Us people can be very odd sometimes! :)

[MoonriseKingdom]

Is this a stealth boast about your two year old

I think these visits are really about getting to know the child and putting them at ease rather than a formal assessment of abilities. I think you are reading far too much into this. I'm sure your DN will find plenty to learn in his reception year.

[LucyBabs]

Yep stealth boast about the two-year old
How about we have a thread about all the things our four and five year old can't do?

[JellyPlum]

Go for it Lucy mine can make an incredible mess and reduce me to tears with the ability to not eat anything that isn't yoghurt

[ftw]

I think most 100 piece jigsaws have 96 pieces (12 long x 8 high maybe?).

50 piece ones are often 48.

[WorraLiberty]

That's nothing to be smug about Jelly

You've just described my 17yr old DS

[Ditsy4]

The reason for home visits is so the child feels comfortable and confident in his home environment. It also means the teacher can talk to him about an object, a toy or his house at school so the child can link the two.
I think she was being positive but would have expected çhim to do at least some of the tests. Some children will not have been able to complete any. This information will give them a starting point for each child and affects the grouping etc.
To not allow them in would set alarm bells ringing. Why wouldn't you want them visit your child in the environment where they feel most confident and comfortable. It takes a lot of time for teachers to do this and it helps give your child the best start to school life.

[JellyPlum]

Damn it worra I thought I was doing well but fiiiiiine you (and your yoghurt eating DS) win this one. Off to prod mine now to see what she wins at, I'm a competitive parent don't you know?

[chocorabbit]

I agree that it was politeness. And ... he can read!!! Most children at his age can't. Congratulations

[elliejjtiny]

I agree with previous posters who said that the teacher was being encouraging. They are all so different at this age. My now 10 year old was doing 80 piece jigsaws without help at just under 2 years old but wasn't potty trained until nearly 4. My 3 year old can't do any of the things that your DN was tested on but he is good at other things.

[NoobThebrave]

The EYFS guides are available online and are the targets teachers (and preschools) use. Some children are just 4 when they start where as some are 5. The range at this age is huge as 2-5 are learning so much; social skills, physical co-ordination, etc etc! The teacher is being encouraging (and probably relieved there is one that will be easy to tick off on the government can-do list). Age 7 is where children start to balance out (which is why Europe does it so much better!)

[JellyPlum]

While choco has a point that reading at that age is fairly uncommon (I think) please don't assume that he's a child genius or destined to be in the highest flying career possible. I had this from learning certain things quickly very young, as an adult I'm not illiterate or anything (no correcting SPAG please ) but I'm not MENSA material either. Too much pressure because "OMG you're so smart and you have to go on to study a difficult subject because of it" is really difficult for a young person to deal with. Let them figure it out for themselves, no pressure, praise is fine but don't fall into a trap of expecting the next Hawking from how well they do at the age of 5, pressure helps nobody.

[JellyPlum]

And I do know what a paragraph is

[Irelephant]

I think it's fab he's reading op.

Don't know about anyone else but that comment about children not knowing how too turn pages of a book has really upset me.

[manicinsomniac]

I've never taught children so young so not sure of the norm but I imagine they would want to aim home visits at the bottom end of the spectrum rather than the top, or even the middle, so that children and parents feel as encouraged and comfortable as possible,.

I can understand why people would be uncomfortable with the idea of a teacher in their home. I don't like it when I have to have parents in my home so I can well imagine it cuts both ways!

(a parent of a child I teach that is, not any parents at all!)

[GiddyOnZackHunt]

Well plainly the teacher is going to cart a whole classroom around with her to cope with the brighter child.
Yes your family (with doctors in) is above average. 50% are. So they'll have clocked that. Hurray. Some children they saw will have been utterly baffled by the whole thing.
My ds took the opportunity to show them his favourite toys, bat his eyelashes, get them onside and count to 20.
We didn't have one for dd (thank you God) but it would have been a shocker. She's gifted (in Yr5 and laughing at Mr Gove's lack of ambition).

[MrsTerryPratchett]

There's fairly robust science that shows that whether children are gifted at a young age bears no relation to whether they will be later. Children are all leaps and plateaux.

Good job because my DD couldn't do half of that, needs speech and language support and has ADHD. But congrats on your incredibly gifted two year old.

[GiddyOnZackHunt]

MrsTP Blessed be his name...
Dd has HFA so alarmingly good at academic stuff. If they'd brought 29 children round, now that would have been interesting

[MapleandPear]

When did the home visit thing start? DD2 is in Y3 and we were never asked about this. I'm not aware that the school does it even now.

[LittleLionMansMummy]

I should think that at that age it's not about what they know but how they know it - their likes and dislikes and their learning styles. Ds's school is great at this and that was what the home visit was focused on because children vary so greatly at that age. Put a jigsaw puzzle of any size in front of ds now, even at close to 6 and it just doesn't engage him - he's simply not interested, never has been and never will be. He could easily count to 10 but wouldn't have recognised the numbers written down. He recognised his name, but that was the limit of his literacy, despite us reading to him every night. Yet his knowledge of the world was and is amazing - he can tell us all kinds of things about animals that most other children don't know. And physically he's very capable and can climb a 60 foot climbing tower. He has a great imagination too. He's just not a theory learner and his school knows it and have been absolutely fantastic in engaging his interest in learning about things he's not a natural at.

[Brokenbiscuit]

If she was genuinely surprised, OP, then perhaps your nephew lives in a particularly deprived area where educational attainment tends to be very low? Certainly, I can't see teachers at my dd's primary school having been surprised at the things your nephew was doing - the skills you describe would have been pretty common amongst reception kids in her cohort.

The academic "expectations" for starting reception are inevitably low. Schools don't want to make children or their parents feel like failures before they have even started.

And yes, there are children who won't have had the same educational opportunities as your nephew at this stage in their lives. They won't have loads of books and puzzles at home. That's not to say that they aren't bright kids who are capable of achieving later on.