Some advice about starting school please

[lostdays]

My daughter starts school in September and due to her shy personality her playgroup hasn't assessed her ability very accurately in their records that they pass on to school.
They have put her as being under the average for her age. She definately isn't. I'm worried that she will miss out on getting taught at the right level because she is so quiet with her teachers and because her school is in a deprived area with lots of kids with special needs.
Can anyone offer me any advice or reassurance please. Thanks in advance. Also am new so please be kind!!:)

School should be assessing her themselves and not relying on what play group says. They will probably assess the children soon after they start.

Most teachers are used to teaching a varied group of kids of different personalities and ability levels (including SN). It's part of their professional skills to be able to 'differentiate' the lessons to suit the different children.

When my dd started school the teacher gave her very simple books at first. After a couple of weeks she sussed things and gave dd more suitable books.

Please don't worry about it. It took over a term for the pre-school to send DDs file to her school and I'm sure that it didn't alter how she was taught or any ability groups she was in. The school will prefer to assess your DD themselves so I doubt that there will be any ability groups at first anyway.

I know it's a stressful time -but please try not to worry.

Thanks for both your responses.

The nursery is closely linked to the school but whilst the Nursery got an excellent ofsted (but didn't manage to assess my daughter very well) the school is only satisfactory so I have quite a few worries and feel awful I couldn't get her into a better school.

I know it will probably all be fine but we all want the best for our children I suppose and I feel like I have failed on that count.

As you have been told don't worry, school (well our school did anyway) spend the first half term assessing the children to see where they are at, after all in a 4 year old things change quite quickly and in the space of the pre-school report being done and starting school they can and do develop a great deal.
I remember being a little down cast at my dd's pre-school report as it said she could count to 6, I knew she could count much higer then that, I asked the pre-school and all it came down to was that the activity they had used to assess counting only went up to 6 as that is the base level that all children at the end of pre-school are expected to reach so these reports can be miss leading at the best of times. The school should continualy assess throughout your dc school years so no one thing will tell the next years teacher what your dc is able to do, not even SAT's (more so SAT's as IMO they are not a very good reflection of a childs level but thats a diferent topic lol!)

dont worry about the schools ofsted so much. the only thing that makes a difference to ones so small are the following

will they have someone to play with?

will their teacher like them and help them?

will mum and dad help them with reading and stuff at home?

remember, you are your childs advocate. do not hesitate to speak to the teacher if you are concerned.

I'm going to be a first time school mum this September as well, so no wealth of experience to draw on or anything, but I think you should get an opportunity to talk to the teacher about her very early on. In amongst all the important stuff about allergies, friends, anxieties etc. I think it would do no harm at all to mention your concern, just exactly as you have here: that your DD is shy so she may not always show what she can do. Ask their advice on how you can help her with that.

Obviously there is a wrong way to do this (e.g. nursery are too stupid to realise my child is actually a genius) but you aren't saying that, and they will know that.

By coming straight out with it, you will know that you've brought it up, and it won't be worrying you all the time.

roadkillbunny I'm really shocked that the pre school are assessing that way no wonder information passed to schools is sometimes often unreliable

The first term of school is really about getting the kids settled into a routine and getting to know them. I would leave it a week or two to see how your daughter settles into school life. Then have a chat with the teacher so they have a had a little time to get to know your daughter and can provide some feedback.

You will worry it's automatic - but your daughter will probably thrive if it's a happy environment.

Roadkillbunny that is the normal way of assesing, they are just checking that the child has met the minimum requirements. plenty of children exceed them.

Children are then assessed again about 6 weeks into Reception (once they have had time to settle in) against the things that they learn in Reception. In my DC's school we then had a parents evening to discuss the assesment, which was an ideal time to bring up any concerns we had.

I would be very suprised if the school was putting them in ability based sets within the first half term of Reception, so I wouldn't worry too much.

domesticsluttery no it isn't the normal way of assessing them they shouldn't be setting up an activity to "test" them at all! In pre school assessments should come from observing children in open ended play with no limitations.

In our LEA they give us transfer books with certain set tasks in (draw a picture, copy a picture, thread beads onto a string, build a tower of blocks, cut out a circle and a square etc) which the children have to complete. There are then a list of questions at the back to fill in about the child eg how they respond to group activities, whether they enjoy role play, whether they enjoy stories etc. This goes home to the parents then for them to fill in a page of questions, then comes back to us and we pass it on to the Reception teacher.

This is a standard book for all settings within the LEA.

It may be a standard book in your LA but it is contrary to EYFS

I have two very quiet little girls at a large state primary with lots of special needs. Their Reception teacher sussed out their personalities, strengths and weaknesses very quickly. No worries about them getting overlooked.

We're not in England so don't follow the EYFS.

Estyn are perfectly happy with the system so it must be fine within the Foundation Phase.

Thank you all so much for responding. You've helped put a rather over anxious mummy's mind at rest.

I definitely will speak to her teacher about these things unfortunately shyness runs in the family and my DD is like me so I've been a bit hesitant about speaking to her!

It's really interesting that other playgroups assess them as badly. It makes me feel annoyed that they do it at all as I would have much preferred a descriptive report telling me about who my child is when she's not with me.

Or that she is a genius

domesticsluttery I'm sure you are familiar with the Foundation Phase Observing Children chwarae dysgu tyfu document

Yes I am, and the rest of the time we observe and assess continuously. But for the purposes of transfer to school we have to use these booklets.

I probably didn't word it very well to be honest! That particular thing was a game set up in key group time, they had some sort of hide and seak game with the numbers, on that day they had numbers up to 6, that was the day they did dd's observations.
Most if not all the assesments are carried out in free play, dd's pre-school is rated outstanding (not that the rateing is the be all and end all) and have very good practice. when I asked about that thing in my key worker meeting they told me what it was and that all it really ment was that she had met the EYFS standard, there were far more detailed reports sent to school when she started.
I probably wasn't clear about that in my post, I just used it as an example of how the school do their own assessments when a child starts (and through out time at school).
We had a parents night around the first half term I think when the reception teacher went through the assessments and welcomed any questions and opinions, we had an interesting one as dd's techer said that dd was not able to recognise a triangle most of the time, we found that odd, dd's had never had trouble with that before, over the next few days I asked dd 'what is this' holding or pointing to triangles and other shapes, she had no problem at all then dd confided in me that she had been 'playing a game' with her teachers by pretending she didn't know what a triangle was!! Myself and her teacher thought this was classic! We admired her staying power to pull that off, I told dd it was best not to play games like that and from that day forth, no triangle problems!