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

[Laiste]

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.

private school?

i know some private schools that do this ^^

i agree - its all bit mad.

My youngest is 13 so reception only 8 years ago!

Their reception teacher wine our region teacher of the year, definitely no tests...

This is just wrong.
Reception classes in England have to follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. It is statutory, not optional.
It is a PLAY based framework. Children this age learn best through play.
Testing 5 year olds under a time limit for maths and sending the results home is NOT ok.
Formal teaching of maths is part of the KS1 curriculum doesn’t start until Year 1.
I would speak to the teacher about this and, if necessary, the head of year.

ThereWillBeAdequateFood - jesus How can you be behind when you haven't started!?

Not private. The village school. An academy now.

Oh god no wonder tgere is lot of mental health issues in kids now. They want to start tests for reception kids next year. It is a disgrace, way to put a child off learning!

My dd is in reception. They don't do this, and no spelling tests either. We've had 3 pieces of homework, two of which needed parents input but it wasn't too hard. One was to make a sheet with pix of family and favourite activities etc on, the other was gathering leaves and sticking them on a sheet of paper.

The maths tests and homework are WAY too much at this stage. We only do reading, plus practice numbers (just counting) if dd wants.

I think this just adds to the illiteracy problem we have.

When I was at primary years and years ago.
Primary school was to teach children the basics, reading, writing, spelling, add up, take away divide and multiply and be able to do up to the 12x tables. With a bit of history and geography thrown in.

Now a lot of that is missing and for more and more schools there is no real help for children that can’t read or write when they start reception

If I had left ds in school he would still not be able to read.

DC don't need to be able to read and write before they start reception!!! Primary school is about teaching them. It was bade enough my children starting school days after turning 4 without the thought of spending their year at pre-school being taught the abc basics.

So many countries do learning through play until they are 6/7 and those children have better academic outcomes.

an academy now

Says it all. They seem to run to their own tune

Our school (not UK though) have a system that sounds similar to squashedgrape's. It's called rocket maths and they try to answer as many questions as possible in a set time. I think the aim is getting fluent at basic maths. It's not really presented as a test though, just a beat yourself type thing - they get a personal target based on what they have done previously. I don't even know what they score. I wouldn't be happy with a formal test at this age either.

I think what they should have done is sent an email to the parents of reception saying that they were going to begin the year supporting counting and then in the second half of the school year (can you believe we're in it already!!) they wanted to focus on addition to 10, or number bonds, or what ever they want to call it, in preparation for some written sums. At the very least we would have been slightly more prepared. They said nothing about this on parents evening a couple of months ago. An invitation for some feedback on this idea would have been good.

It's been said but so many of these children can't write numbers and arent't being taught to in school. How are they expecting them to go from ''singing 10 green bottles'' and moving blocks around straight to a written 11 question maths test in 30 seconds?? I just don't get it.

I'll get book day out of the way and then ask the teacher who i need to speak to about this.

Just having a google about academies.

Other types of school like academies and private schools do not have to follow the national curriculum. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, maths and science. They must also teach religious education.

The national curriculum - GOV.UK

It became an academy in 2015. It still has many of the same school governors and PTA members that it's had for years and years. Change of HT in 2017. Last one was crap (i worked there back then) I think it's due an Ofsted inspection next year. The last one was in 2017 and was deemed Needed Improvement. However Early Years specifically was given 'Good'.

It's hard when it's a village. You want your kids to go with all the others to THE village school, otherwise they sort of drop out of the social circle a bit. sigh.

God no. Nothing in year 1 so far either. My little boy is 6 and maths is something he enjoys and seems to be a strong area for him so far but I think the reason he likes it so much is because they teach it very practically at his school.

My DS is reception. He was 5 in December. He has an OLT book 4 times a week (they read it at school during the day and then practiced with parents at home), they choose a library book once a week (which I then read with/to him), and then a maths activity on Active Learn on his iPad once a week. Seems manageable and he's progressing well.