Preschooler and Extended Learning (Reception - KS1)

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DD is 3 yrs 4 months.

Preschool teacher informed me today that they would like to start something called Extended Learning with DD as she is apparently ready for KS1 learning materials.

I’ve always known that my DD is bright but with this confirmation from a professional, for some odd reason, I’m starting to feel anxious about this, going forwards.

AIBU? TIA.

KS1 lead teacher here

This sounds like an absolute disaster. There's absolutely no way a 3 year old needs to be pushed on academic stuff in preschool. Yes she may be bright but that needs to be incorporated into the normal day at preschool - lots of stories/books being read, learning rhymes, solving problems etc

Is she extremely able in all areas? Social skills, listening to others, sharing and cooperating, physical development, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, understanding of the world etc? If not, these should be worked on rather than pushing academics.

If she really is ready for all of that, then the preschool need to be extremely careful that they follow the same kind of teaching that she will have when she starts school (same phonics scheme, maths scheme, handwriting formation, etc etc) because it's extremely detrimental if a bright children is 'taught' a load of things only for them to have to be unlearnt at school because the child has many gaps in the building blocks of their learning (e.g parents/nurseries teaching column addition/subtraction far too early, using letter names not sounds, allowing children to write in capitals all the time, etc!)

Be extremely cautious with this. Bright preschool children can be challenges and stimulated in a wide variety of ways without resorting to teaching 'academic' stuff. The other skills that a 3 year old needs to develop are of far greater importance.

I'm an eyfs teacher and this is lazy bad practice. She needs to continue mastering what she knows and having practical experiences. What the teacher is trying to do is hot-housing and will potentially backfire, they should be extending her through their usual provision not starting KS1. Education is a marathon and these years should be spent preparing solid foundations, not rushing off the starting line.

I'm a retired eyfs teacher and agree with the two previous posters. The teacher has probably been set a target 'to improve learning for more able children' so it's a box to tick. I was once told to do this and the parent rightly objected. I hate this target culture and believe young children should be allowed to be young children and develop all aspects of their lives rather than being hot housed in one area.

@careerchange456

This sounds like an absolute disaster. There's absolutely no way a 3 year old needs to be pushed on academic stuff in preschool. Yes she may be bright but that needs to be incorporated into the normal day at preschool - lots of stories/books being read, learning rhymes, solving problems etc

Thanks so much for your reply. I agree with you to a certain extent. In terms of what you’ve suggested in terms of incorporating lots of stories/books being read, learning rhymes etc, I also agree with this, although she is pretty much fluent in all of the above.

Is she extremely able in all areas? Social skills, listening to others, sharing and cooperating, physical development, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, understanding of the world etc? If not, these should be worked on rather than pushing academics.

Yes to all of the above. I’ve always thought she was beyond her years in this respect but with a professional confirming this, in essence it gave me validation of what I already knew. I absolutely believe DD is capable of all of the above and then some.

Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

Thank you so much for your replies. I will proceed with caution going forwards. I really appreciate gaining feedback from actual teachers. Your advice is priceless. Thank you 💐

I have a bright one (not in the gifted and talented area by any means) who is having a tortuous time in reception. She’s moving faster than the class and is bored. Her behaviour is suffering and deteriorating daily. Although not disruptive she finds it too hard to sit though lessons that just don’t match to where she is.

I would be very very wary of pushing academics prior to reception and intentionally helping create this type of situation.

I see. I am sorry to hear your DC is having such a difficult time. I will bear this in mind going forwards with my DC. Thank you for your input and advice.

The thing is, if she's bright, she's very likely to be interested in and pick up reading, numbers etc naturally. It is the preschool's job to spot this and provide the correct resources and opportunities for her to develop this. It doesn't need to be formally taught in the scenario you have described which as a PP mentioned sounds very much like hot housing.

A skilled EYFS teacher would be able to incorporate this into the learning environment and provide opportunities to develop this further, possibly with a little one on one time or small group session on phonics, numbers etc throughout the normal week.

"Extended Learning" sounds made up (by them, not you). It's not an official thing in EYFS, as far as I know. Are the nursery saying they've assessed your daughter and she's already met all the Early Learning Goals across all topics? Even the brightest Reception children I've taught needed support in some areas to either meet or exceed by the end of the year.

You say your daughter can read. Who taught her phonics?

@careerchange456

It doesn't need to be formally taught in the scenario you have described which as a PP mentioned sounds very much like hot housing.

I completely agree.

A skilled EYFS teacher would be able to incorporate this into the learning environment and provide opportunities to develop this further, possibly with a little one on one time or small group session on phonics, numbers etc throughout the normal week.

Exactly this and I am hoping this will be the case. I will never push DC to do more than what is within her capability both mentally and academically. I just hope that I am making the right choice in agreeing to this change in her curriculum/schedule, so to speak.

Thank you for your reply.

Just to confirm, in terms of the votes, do 88% of you feel that I am being unreasonable to feel anxious about this going forwards? This isn’t clear. Please clarify. TIA

I think you’d be bonkers to have a 3yo trying to tackle ks1 material. I have a bright year 1 and a bright 3yo. The cognitive difference between them is massive. The gap between the reception and year 1 curriculum is also massive. 3yos just need to be happy and learn and develop their social skills. If they pre-school are just talking about doing a bit more counting/phonics that is very different to the ks1 curriculum.

Id also say be very careful in terms of pushing on too much. We’ve had a lot of issues this year with my 5yo bringing home school books with content well beyond her age. One day we had a book back with lots of reference to suicide which just isn’t appropriate for a 5yo.

It seems quite a jump to move on to the KS1 curriculum when she won't be starting KS1 for over 2 years. Like the PP I have a year 1 child and a 3y3m child. Both are bright, but my youngest is nowhere near ready for KS1 work. For example he can count to 60 and is beginning to add very small numbers e.g. 1+2, but he has nowhere near enough understanding to do the manipulation of numbers DD does in year 1.

When my eldest was in nursery, they started to give her a reading book from Reception, but this was from when she was nearly 4, so basically 6m early. In class it was the same as normal. Of course your DD may be more advanced than this. (Did you say she was reading?) I would find out exactly what they are doing. Is it really KS1 work or just extending what she is already doing, so probably more advanced EYFS work. Also it being done age appropriately, as even if my 3yo could manage the academics of year 1 work, O wouldn't want him doing the formal sit down learning.

Rubbish.
We get children into reception assessed by their nurseries as having met all of the end of reception early learning goals. They cant do any of them and have no understanding.

BTW if it is a funded setting with 15 or 30 hour funding they have to deliver the EYFS- sounds like they wouldn't be complying.

I see. Thank you very much for this information. I will most certainly be taking this on board.

@FloweryCurtainTwitcher

BTW if it is a funded setting with 15 or 30 hour funding they have to deliver the EYFS- sounds like they wouldn't be complying.

No, it is not a funded setting. Is that what you mean? If so, then no, I am paying for DD’s preschool.

?

Tbh it's pointless as all they will do in a state school reception is effectively hold your child back to the academic level of her peers.

DS was similar, not pushed but picked up phonics regardless before school and was very good at number based play.

His reception teacher just fudged baseline assessments to ensure the paperwork suggests he has made adequate progress, while actually expecting little from him all year and teaching him nothing he hadnt already mastered.

@InChocolateWeTrust

Tbh it's pointless as all they will do in a state school reception is effectively hold your child back to the academic level of her peers.

I see. This is what I’m afraid of. Ok, thank you for sharing your experience. This has helped massively.

It can be done well - but probably best if child initiated

D's started reception phonics in preschool. He came home one day and said he didn't like preschool because they wouldn't teach him to read. Flippantly I told him to tell his preschool teacher. Next day she went to the reception teacher and started borrowing materials!

They did it gently and D'S was not significantly ahead of his peers going into yrR but he was very confident. He still loves reading and in yr 5 is the best reader in his class.

Sounds like a bit of a rocky start, but pleased to hear DC is doing well and thriving now in Year 5. That’s lovely. Thank you for sharing your story.

DD decided aged 3 years 2 months she was going to learn to read just like her reception age brother, and was bright enough to be capable of doing it. I entirely went with her interests - we did reading but no writing for another year, and no maths at all.

She's now in reception, and on a higher book band than at least a quarter of DC1s year 2 class. However, because we only did this one aspect, she's not bored and there are other children better than her at other aspects - which is motivating her to work hard on those, which I think is an important skill to learn.

DC1 took a few months to get going with reading but than made very rapid progress. When I compare the two, some of the bits she has made much slower progress on are around having the world knowledge to understand some of what she is reading, not having as broad a vocabulary being younger, and picking up some of the higher order skills like inference more slowly. Unless your DD is very driven herself to learn them now, I'm less convinced of the rationale for introducing something now she'd pick her much more rapidly if it was left until she was at school?

You say your daughter can read. Who taught her phonics?

You do know that children can learn to read without the holy grail of phonics, don’t you?

I'd instead focus on child-led learning. What is your DD interested in? What would she like to learn more about and try doing?

School learning can become so narrow, even in end yR/y1 it's mostly phonics, writing and maths and there's not much v space for child-led learning. I'd rather they used this time to foster a great understanding of the world and skills other than those she'll learn at school.

I taught her to read and I taught her phonics. She understands the alphabet as Ay Bee Cee Dee rather than Ah Buh Cuh Duh and so on. I’ve been reading with her every single night since she was about 6 months old.

So when I ask her what a word begins with, she responds with Ay Bee Cee or Dee.

She can also almost count to 100. She’s currently struggling on 80 to 100.