Reception age DCs. How many of yours are having to do timed maths tests?

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Mine is. They give them 30 seconds to do 11 addition questions. Marked and the results sent home.

DD just turned 5. She got 1 out of 11 in her last one.

She's got her 40 sight words which we practice every day, and we read a book every day, and fill in the daily record for these. and there's sponsored reading this week and bloody world book day.

AIBU to think maths tests and notes home about them at this age is bit full on? Maybe i am. I don't remember my older ones doing this.

That's insane I wouldn't be happy about that.

My dd doesn't start until Sept so hoping it's not the norm!

As a teacher, I would be deeply unhappy about this. I object to the relentless assessment culture for juniors/seniors, let alone reception children. Is it a regular test or just a one off? If a regular occurrence I would be questioning keeping my child there. There is no faster way to kill a young child's confidence and natural thirst for learning than constantly testing them.

My eldest is in reception and hasn't been done a single maths test. The focus has been on exploring and using numbers. I wouldn't be happy with what you describe at that age.

Thank you. Yes it's regular. I get the feeling it's going to be weekly at least.

Totally agree TitchyP that over testing is a blight. SATS are bad enough. (i was a TA at primary for years and had to deal with a lot of anxiety from the DCs in my classes). This just seems bonkers for the little ones.

I'm gauging opinion here because i know it's easy to be a bit funny about your own DCs.

In our school they do a timed maths test every Friday. All school years apart from nursery. The younger ones only have the same 10 questions to answer in 30/60 seconds every week but the older kids have 40 questions to do in the same timeframe.
I’ve told my DD not to worry about it and just answer the ones she knows.

I would definitely be challenging it then OP. What can possible be gained by sending results home for children to stress about? You can tell some children not to worry about it until you are blue in the face but they still will, sadly.

I believe there is a direct correlation between league tables/OFSTED/assessment culture and the rise of mental health issues in our children.

My reception age ds doesn't have this, thank goodness. No spelling tests either, though several of my friends dc have them. I thought reception was supposed to be play based? Ds has 3 reading books a week and a 'homework menu' each half term which is basically stuff you would do at home with kids this age anyway, model making, baking etc. He has 10 minutes of phonics a day and 10 minutes of numeral but the rest of the time seems to be playing.

Ds has this. It doesn’t mean a thing because in reception he couldn’t read or write.

Didn’t stop them from calling me in to tell me how worried they were and that Ds might need to go to a special school.

My DD in Reception doesn't have this. They do Maths at school every day but it's seems to be very much based around learning through play. They have a reading book that comes home and we have to fill in their reading record daily. They have one piece of "homework" every weekend but it's a small tasknthat takes 20 minutes at the most. They don't have any homework over the holidays as the school feel this should be family time and the kids need a break. I wouldn't be happy about weekly Maths tests at this age.

I'd struggle to do 11 addition questions in 30 seconds & I'm a quantity surveyor!! That is beyond ridiculous and I would certainly bring it up with the school. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from it either as there will be a lot more than just your child scoring a low score

Oliversmumsarmy - Oh god! How ridiculous. You must have been furious. And worried! DD can't confidently form all her numbers to 10 yet to be honest. So yes there's that as well! It might well take her 30 seconds to remember how to write a number and get it down on paper ...

InDubiousBattle - we have long term food homework too. I'd forgotten that. This time it's over 3 weeks and involves producing written work at home about nutrition, favorite recipes, researching the origin of a particular vegetable, and making notes about family food traditions. At the end of the allotted time for this sort of homework the children's work is all displayed on tables one morning for all the parents to walk around and look at. I'm not sure about it.

Titchy - exactly. I'm not sure weather to challenge this via the reception teacher in the morning (who is lovely, and seems unsure of the point of all this homework ect. but is usually up to her eyes in parents needing to tell her something or kids showing her something) or to write an email to the HT. Or both!

This is just so alien to me at this stage. My oldest 3 went to the same school and were still doing half days and just coming home covered in paint and mud saying they all practiced putting their wellies on at this age!

It is probably the curriculum.

Aren’t reception supposed to be able to read and write before they get to school now

TellerTuesday4EVA - same here! (i'm not a quantity surveyor i mean i'd struggle with 11 in 30)

Sounds really strange, let alone ridiculous and damaging to a child’s confidence. Is the teacher young and inexperienced? Sounds as if you need to speak to her and ask if this is necessary as you thought children of this age were more involved with hands on (concrete operations) than abstract thinking.

PS Then speak to the Head and ask what the thinking is behind these maths tests.

DD is currently in Y1. I'm pretty certain she didn't have maths tests in reception - I'm also pretty sure she'd have scored low if she did (I'm not certain she'd get 7+8 right now). The written work sounds crazy too - to give you an idea, recent homework for DD (bear in mind this is in Y1) was to find out about an explorer and write about 6 sentences about him/her. She did it (we found a suitable book for her to do her 'research' from), but she couldn't have written that much a year ago. Can you speak to the teacher?

It’s absolutely ridiculous and so against everything that reception (and all of ks1) should be.

Luckily my reception aged ds goes to a school where they absolutely do stick to a play based curriculum but they’re hard to find - our other 2 local schools are very formal from day 1 (& parents choose those schools because they have an ‘outstanding’ rating based on nothing but results ie are exam factories with very narrow curricula).

I can understand why schools feel this pressure - the year 1 curriculum is so overloaded now and a lot of it is beyond what 5 year olds are actually developmentally ready for.

It’s heartbreaking really and as a teacher I feel so conflicted about it (and am much happier in ks2 as at least I’m not asking children to do things they physically can’t like I felt I was in y1).

My ds is slightly older as is in year 1 now, he is in an outstanding school and has just this term started having a weekly spelling test of 4 words per week which they are tested on each Friday, they are also encouraged to try and read 4 times a week at home. There was no requirement to do anything at home whilst in reception and all work was play based although they do learn a lot through this. I agree with this method and think to much pressure at an early age can have negative effects rather than encouraging a love of learning. You might not be able to get 5he school to change their approach but if it was me I would be reassuring ds that it wasn’t something to worry about and just do what they can

Teaching ideas change and fashions come and go.
I remember reciting tables in reception (very old) but never had homework at primary school.
My DC in reception 15 years ago did a weekly spelling and maths test but they were never given homework in primary school other than to read.
It seems that when the mud and paint method of teaching came in the amount of "homework" increased.

I don't have a problem with timed tests but a note home seems unnecessary work for the teacher and pointlessly critical.

I'm quite shocked by this! DS had a reading book to practise each day and that was it for Reception. No tests, no written homework.. they were doing mostly play based learning with short sessions of carpet time for numeracy and phonics. Now in year 1 it's just the addition of a weekly spelling test.

I agree this is absolutely nuts.

Reception should be about getting used to the school routine, making friends, playing, and learning very basic phonics, numbers and writing.

Not maths tests, spelling tests and homework (apart from reading books)

That would rile me up. DS in reception has no homework besides reading (at his own pace, no target amount). The maths they are doing now is practicing writing numbers, learning what a number sentence is and using numicon to write some (eg 10+5=15) He actually counts the holes in the numicon for each number in the number sentence, not expected to just know the answer. Practicing '1 less' and '2 less' and halves by folding paper, cutting pizza. But nothing brought home. I would refuse any he brought home anyway. It's not compulsory. The in school test i would complain about. Way to knock a kid's confidence!

Mine does, they get 3 seconds per question. They’re also optional... she’s in a mixed yr 1/reception class (she’s reception age) and they’re compulsory for the year 1’s but optional for the reception cohort.
She enjoys them and chooses to do them but I wouldn’t be happy with them being forced.

Sounds intense!

My eldest is in Y1 and didn’t have timed tests in Reception. This year they have occasional ‘surprise’ tests for spelling and maths, by ‘surprise’ I mean they don’t tell the parents about them at all and don’t tell the children in advance. But they’re not tests like exams and they’re pretty relaxed from what I can tell. They’re tests in the sense that they’re being asked a series of questions (maths Qs or spellings) to see how they’re doing, in an on the spot type of situation rather than their usual class work. They only talk to the parents about it if a child appears to be struggling, so that they can give some tips and support for how the child can be extra supported at home and let parents know what they’re doing in class to support them.

That in itself is relative to the child’s progress - eg my DC1 has SN and is behind in all areas of the curriculum, they’ve never spoken to me about him not doing well in tests because overall his progress has been great, so it doesn’t matter if he’s not aceing the surprise tests. However if another child is quite strong with spelling for example, but keeps struggling with a particular set of words which is also demonstrated in the test, then it helps to highlight that and the teacher can then tell the parents so they can build in practice at home, eg letter magnets on the fridge and so on, they don’t just suggest sitting and writing again and again. So tests are part of the overall teaching approach, as opposed to an end in itself.

Their homework is reading and a couple of spellings, but it isn’t checked or marked (the parents are expected to check of course and read with children), it is more like home practice. They have a termly project but it’s not intense, eg scrapbooking on a theme or making something from household recyclables.

Thank you so much for all your insight into who's doing what. It's very interesting and helpful.

For info it's a village school which 99% of the village kids attend. So from a social point of view it's important that she goes to it. Max of 30 in a whole year group. Sometimes less. Split into 2 classes usually. Put in special measures apx. 8 years ago, now good and improving - but has recently become an academy. Not a particularly popular decision in the village.

Atmos. in the school is good. I still know a couple of the teachers to talk to informally and they say it's way better than it was. New HT seems nice. Very 'keen'.

I think i would like to challenge this.