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Education

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Original poster

What are children in reception doing at your school?

53 replies

Mog · 02/02/2006 09:51

I've noticed since coming on the education threads that there seems to be an enormous variation in what children do at reception level. At our school it seems to still be heavily play based and although dd brings books home she can't read or write sentences. There doesn't seem to be much push on them to do so either.
I wondered what others have experienced at reception level. Could you also say what age your child is, as I think there is a big difference between age 4 and 5 at this level.

OP posts:

cod · 03/02/2006 12:04

Message withdrawn

GDG · 03/02/2006 12:07

level 2 codster? of what?

I'm, er, not worried about ds1's books but they are a bit easy for him and I've seen teh list of books they go through and they don't get harder for aaaaaages. Kind of annoying that he's not being given something more challenging to read but OTOH, he reads his own books at home anyway so I'm keeping him going myself. Plus he reads everything he sees around him.

gosh I'm not sure waht they are doing numbers wise. His writing is fabbo but it's not joined up yet - cursive but not joined up as yet. March b'day if that helps

Feistybird · 03/02/2006 12:07

what are number bonds?

cod · 03/02/2006 12:08

Message withdrawn

cod · 03/02/2006 12:09

Message withdrawn

GDG · 03/02/2006 12:11

I know you are not competitive mum!

I am.

RTKangaMummy · 03/02/2006 12:11

4+2=

6-3=

9-4=

1+7=

they are number bonds to 10

RTKangaMummy · 03/02/2006 12:12

yes also like coddy says

cod · 03/02/2006 12:14

Message withdrawn

Albert · 03/02/2006 12:18

This is very interesting to read as DS has only been educated in the Italian and now Brazilian education system (very similar)He is 6 in March and is only now being taught letters and numbers (although he knows all this and is quite good at addition because we've taught this at home). Both these systems seem to be waaay behind the British system and in fact in Italy children don't have to even start school until the September in which they are 6, not sure about Brazil. He is also doing Science, Music, Art and being taught to read at the same time as they learn the letters (don't ask me how).

LIZS · 03/02/2006 12:23

dd is almost 4 1/2 has been full time since September. Her timetable includes music and pe two or three times a week, a dancing lesson and swimming once a week, toy afternoon , arts and crafts and RE with time devoted to numeracy, literacy and free play every day. In good weather they go for walks around the school and visit animals. There are still toys in the classroom - mainly construction and role play - and they are doing Space as their topic atm. they also do putside playtime at least twice a day and assembly a few tmes a week.

She is the youngest in the class by over 2 months (also an August b'day) but seems to be doing ok with writing (forming letters a' la JP and "writing" a journal entry each Monday, reading at ORT stage 3 (a couple of the older boys are on 4 I think) which seems in line with the majority, phonics and sight words, counting/basic sums and basic maths ideas.

RTKangaMummy · 03/02/2006 12:24

Albert just me asking a nosey question

How many languages can your DS speak/read etc ?

cod · 03/02/2006 12:24

Message withdrawn

Albert · 03/02/2006 12:28

RTK, he can speak 3 languages fluently (although I think he is rapidly losing the Italian since we left Italy) and is learning to read in English and Portuguese (at home and at school) but I wouldn't actually say he can 'read' yet.

RTKangaMummy · 03/02/2006 12:37

WOW that is DEFFO BRILL

geogteach · 03/02/2006 12:52

This week is geography week at my son's school so I have been in a couple of times to help which has been quite enlightening. The ability range in reception was massive, one prodigy who I swear knew more about Australia than I did, A few fairly keen and confident to share what they knew, loads who wanted to contribute but had forgotten what they wanted to say by the time it was there turn and a few lost souls who were obviously finding it a bit much at the end of the day.
In a normal week though DS1 brings home a book a couple of times a week, does pe once, lots of role play and some quite inventive stuff outside exploring maths concepts or basic science and stuff. He gets 2 15 min sessions a week with the sn teacher to work on blending (which he finds difficult as he is deaf)

Arabica · 03/02/2006 13:09

DS is 5 in April and has been in reception since January. He's also on the second level reading books (they are colour coded) but I don't think he's really reading them, it's simply that he hsa memorised the contents! He can read simple words like of, and, it, the, can and knows all his lettersjust hasn't got the blending concept yet. His teacher is lovely and very experienced. They do some reading every day, but the rest of the time is taken up with a variety of other fun activities. Yesterday was 'passport day' and parents from other countries came in and led activitiesDH read them a story in Icelandic and told them about geysers!

anorak · 03/02/2006 13:31

My ds is 5 yrs 4 months and is in reception. He is given fun homework in the form of flash cards with signs you do to help remind him what the word is, and first reading books.

They are taught to read with pictures to give clues to the text. He can read twenty or thirty basic words now and recognises many letters individually.

He can count to about 30. He can write his own name and copies other words almost legibly! He learns songs and stories and they use sound boxes to help them learn the sounds of letters. They have individual time on computers for a few minutes each week, learning the basics.

They also have lots of creative play, they grow plants and vegetables, they occasionally cook, they are taught about cultural events (last week it was chinese new year, they were taught to eat with chopsticks amongst other things) they do PE and dancing.

I think we are very lucky, it is a great school with a wonderful foundation department.

Bozza · 03/02/2006 19:28

Hmm still don't know what DS does but my friend is the same - her DS is January birthday. And he's not taking books home either. Also no other form of homework either except for today - a costume for World Book Day. Great!

tortoiseshell · 03/02/2006 19:34

Ds is 4.7 and is reading pretty well now - he brings home 5 or 6 reading books a week, some to be read by us, some he's worked on already, some for him to read to us on his own. Also gets Phonics homework to illustrate the letters. Lots of number games. PE once a week, lots of singing, they've done cooking etc.

Furball · 03/02/2006 20:34

Ds was 4 in August and started at the end of September.

He can read well and we have to keep prompting his teacher for harder books. He can also write some words including his name and he likes to write the whole class's names out at home so I then get roped into to playing schools and he's the teacher.

He's being doing subtraction and gave us an example of 15 - 8. DH and I were gobsmacked when he said 7, even though he'd obviously learnt the sum. But we were amazed at how big the numbers were for a beginner.

He does PE once a week and today they acted out 'The good samaritan' and he came home in someone elses really manky socks, yuck. DH said it was lucky he put them on inside out LOL.

He's also learnt abit of French and wants to be a French teacher when he grows up.

He loves school and goes running into the playground every morning which is great.

Orinoco · 03/02/2006 21:07

Message withdrawn

SoupDragon · 03/02/2006 21:34

Having FUN.

GDG · 03/02/2006 22:34

I'm confused by those who say their children are doing JP, reading well but still bringing home homework about letters. If they can read well, why do they still need to learn letters - they must know all the letters and sounds surely?

Ds1 doesn't do any homework on letters anymore - that was in the very first half term and it's been reading since then (unless they do it in school?)

puff · 03/02/2006 22:41

Making good progress I think.

Am sending dh in to parents evening next week fully briefed

If I go I will ask too many annoying "I am a KS1 teacher" questions and be a complete PITA.

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