What age would you put this child at?

[Cbeebiesisdifferentonasaturday]

For writing etc? Any teachers to give feedback would also be very helpful 🙏

4 or 5

Looks like my 4 (almost 5) year olds writing

@mathanxiety What’s wrong with them? I quite like them 😁

Surely it varies from child to child - I would guess that was done by a 4-5 year old. With regards to reading - I think it’s very hard to compare this - mine were very early readers, but it all evens out and I didn’t think they were anything etc - just early readers.

I do too! The ones for older children ( time chronicles) are quite readable really!

It looks to me like copying too but I suppose if OP has held back on the formal handwriting instruction that’s pretty much what it is!

Biff and Chip are fantastic for kids to learn to read - they introduce concepts in the right order, are comprehensive, give adequate practice and repetition and the grammar and punctuation is perfect, and so that is all learned naturally. The series goes right up to the more advanced stories such as the time chronicle ones which introduce interesting and accurate historical facts and concepts - eg there is one about the enigma decoding machine and another about how zero was introduced into maths. Reading them will allow the child to go on to read pretty much anything they wish to, with the help of a dictionary.

A lot better than most of the stuff aimed at kids nowadays. And gives a much better grounding of grammar and spelling.

Bring back Biff and Chip for all schools!

The one about the drunk horse is an absolute classic 🤣 I honestly don't know what they were thinking with that one...

It is almost impossible to find the Biff and Chip series or Time Chronicles etc on Amazon or ebay these days - where can you buy them?

Year 1

Mine is year 1 summer born, also biff and kipper 4. She's OK op, exactly where she should be, don't worry. In the UK.

@Calliopespa Not copied text, she won’t let me do that anyway as wants to do it all herself (her words) she’s a child who can’t be told (my parents would say ‘I wonder where she gets that from 😂)

I remember my boss at the time (based in in South America) seeing this at and being surprised by it as they don’t start writing as early but this was my 3 year in her nursery year. She’d have been not quite 3 1/2 at the time and she most likely copied it to send with me on the trip as I was away for my birthday. It took ages before her writing was any better and frankly it’s still messy now so being able to write something at 3 is no guarantee you’ll actually be good at it.

Hopefully the tonne of replies are helpful OP - I don’t think this is a worry at all. I have a UK educated 4 and 7 year old. I guessed 5 from the picture. My 7 year old’s writing wasn’t good until 6.5 and her spelling is still dodgy. My 4 year old can’t hold a pen properly or write his name legibly. They are both bright kids (top third of respective classes). I wouldn’t be concerned in the slightest with this.

@Okaaaay Thank you 🙏yes everyone has been a great help, it’s just difficult to know not being in the U.K.

I’m in the US, my kids all went thru the US school system. My DD and DSs both had writing like that at 6. In the US, they baby the kids in Kindergarten, and proper writing instruction doesn’t happen until 1st grade.

They’re now a tween and 20somethings, and have perfectly lovely handwriting.

Some countries do writing practice at a later pace than other countries. Certainly for my kids, I saw the difference between my children’s education and the UK was quite noticeable. Kindergarten was still a lot of play, circle time, colouring, and the UK cousins were doing more seat work, writing.

It's similar to what our reception children are writing, though some are better. Our Year 1s at school (who will be Year 2 in September) mostly have pretty good handwriting, starting to join up, writing in sentences using noun phrases, commas. They're really good this year. A couple with fine motor skills difficulties have more immature handwriting. We use Read Write Inc for reading/spelling/phonics. Most of our Year 1s are moving on to the Blue level of RWI after Easter. A lot of British schools now use the RWI reading books so you might want to look at their website.

3

If research has shown that 6/7 is the optimal age to start reading/writing, why don’t the U.K. look at this? I know my Dd still prefers to be playing all day basically

Only read first post. I’m a TA in KS1. That could be anywhere between Reception and Y2. Would be a good Reception and low Y2.Better than average spelling of ‘one’ and ‘you’ and ‘mummy’ would lean towards y1 and 2.

Those saying their child could copy and write like that is meaningless. Copying means nothing. It’s just mark making. It’s more relevant if it’s independent sounding out and writing.

Because the UK is crazily incompetent when it comes to policies for everything and that includes education - badly researched, badly implemented. When it comes to how we have taught English to our children in the last 50 years, insanely incompetent. Which is why we are the only developed country with 55 - 65 year olds having higher levels of literacy then school leavers. Pretty darn scary really.

Depends how much support/input from an adult.

End of reception relatively strong. Its all spelled well, including "you" not "yoo" etc

Or first term year 1.

Reception or year 1

Lostinaforeigncountry
Eh? But loads of kids are ready to start reading at 4. My DC is late aug and has been absolutely fine with reception phonics & writing curriculum.