Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

Original poster

what the school expects from reception childeren, advice please.....

7 replies

iliketosleep · 15/01/2008 17:17

My ds birth date is 26th of august, making him the youngest in the class. He was 4 and 2 weeks when he started reception and all seemed to be going fine, he would play they would read stories etc etc which was great, he was enjoying it.

Since they started back after xmas he has been given flash cards with words and reading books to bring home, the books are just books we read them, but they expect ds to have learnt the flash cards in 2 days (given on friday to know them on monday)

Ok it probably is just me being to precious but isnt this too much for a 4 and a half year to do? hes still a baby

hes also started coming back from school really bad tempered and i was wondering if there may be some association to them pushing him to hard maybe?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

AbbeyA · 15/01/2008 17:28

My DS is end of August birthday, he started when he was 5, the downside being that he missed reception.I think that the government is coming around to the view that schooling need to be more flexible. Your poor DS is a baby-he isn't ready for his flash cards! I was at a talk last week where the person giving it had data on summer birthdays and University performance, I was so shocked by the statistics that I went to talk to her afterwards! It was particularly noticeable in boys.The only answer to me is to allow them to be in the year below. I can't remember exactly what she said, but at some point (not sure if now)all the England football team had birthdays Sept to Dec. It makes sense because they are the oldest in school year so on the whole the strongest at 5 so best at football-gives then confidence-get picked first for teams-make progress.

DrNortherner · 15/01/2008 17:30

Oh, I think reception kids coming home GRUMPY comes with the territory. School makes them grumpy. Look out toward end of term, gets worse

My ds had a terrible time in Reception. Year 1 much better.

Fortunatley his school did not push learning words etc as my ds WAS NOT interested and is only coming round to it now.

Don't worry about it, and tell school he will get there when he is ready.

Original poster

iliketosleep · 15/01/2008 18:56

well im not sure if they actually realise how old he is tbh. He can write his name very well which i think for his age is brilliant!! I was just checking i wasnt being dumb lol thanks for your answers i feel loads better now

OP posts:

kbaby · 15/01/2008 22:30

I think after the xmas term the teachers start to give them more to earn. My DD is 3.5 and in nursery but since after xmas we had a newsletter saying that this term they would be learning;
Letters, number formation, 2 and 3 d shapes, simple time and they now have to write their name every day.

Seems a lot to me for them to learn.

I worry about DS as his birthday is in August which means he will be almost a year younger than some of the children when he starts school.
I did read in the paper that they are reviewing it because of the disadvantage they have.

Ellisa · 16/01/2008 07:41

Talk to the teacher. If you're not sure if she (I'm assuming it's a she!) knows how old he is, you need to speak to her now.

My DS2 will be 5 at the end of march, so is also in reception. At his school, they take all the children in for September, but they go full time in the term in which they are 5 - so DS has now started going fulltime. Not sure if it's like that for you?

DS is bringing home words to review - but he's ready to learn them, AND he's been shown them in class. So, bringing them home is revision, not learning.

From helping in class & listening to other children 'read' (either reading 1 or 2 words a page, or more commonly telling a story from the pictures), I know there are plenty of children in DS's class who aren't recongnising words yet - and that's fine because the teacher knows their pace. It doesn't sound as though your DS is ready to learn the words, or maybe hasn't been shown them in class.

throckenholt · 16/01/2008 07:45

bad tempered is tiredness - and is par for th ecourse when they are little. Just let him have quiet time after school - don't push him to do anything structured.

As for the flash cards - just play iwth them over the weekend - don't make a big deal of it - he will pick it up a bit at a time as he is ready - don't worry about pushing it.

thinner · 16/01/2008 14:57

My DS reception teacher told me that the flash cards are just for fun at home. the real learning is in the classroom. Told me just to play games with the words. Bingo and stuff. Hide the cards and ask child to find a specific card. She said that when the child or I became aggitated then to stop the game.

Flip