If ds can read in pre-school, how will he not get bored witless in reception etc?

[Aloha]

Ok, i know this is a PARP subject for lots of people, but it's a serious concern for me.
Ds is at pre-school - he's one of the oldest kids in his year as he's September born so he's 4.4 yrs. He's dyspraxic with some Asperger's like traits so he has his problems.He is very bright though, and I think we are only just realising, though talking to his senco/ot etc just how bright.
He can breeze through all the 45 sight words he's supposed to know by the end of reception, and I'm pretty certain he can also read all the words he's supposed to know by the end of yr2.
I really love his school, and the Senco is wonderful and they are talking about the Gifted and Talented register and extension work, but does that actually work? I really want him to love school and he adores learning and I don't want him to be bored witless and go off the whole idea of school. Does anyone have experience of what will actually happen?

DS1 didn't go onto any G and T programmes, but he taught himself to read at 3. His head teacher was really helpful and steered him towards books that he could read that were appropriate for his age.

He still loves reading now and wasn't turned off of school.

But what did he actually do while the teacher told the class that this letter is an 'a' etc?

Well, reading is only a small part of what they do in Reception. DS2 went into Reception aged 4.4, also v bright although not reading at that point, and was never ever bored at school (he is G&T in English now, aged 12).

Yours sounds like an excellent school, Aloha, really tuned in, and I'm sure they won't let your DS get bored either - there is so much for them to learn at this age. IME they do so much more now in the infants than we ever did - including geometry ! - don't panic!

DS is of pretty average progress, i think, but he is experiencing this atm - he can't read, but certainly knows all the letters and their sounds, and can writie them, and here we are starting from scratch, with 2 'new' letter sounds a week...he is quite enjoying it, though, as they are doing it in a different way to how it was at pre-school, and he gets on with the social aspects and being amazed at what he learned about reptiles, instead.

Oh, he might love geometry! I tend to assume reading is a HUGE part of the curriculum but I could very easily be wrong!

Depends on the school, Aloha. Really well-thought out, imaginative G&T provision can be a wonderful thing, but it is only an hour a week in most cases. As important is knowing about the differentiation work that will go on in class.

For us, it has been a depressing experience. Will spare you the details, but it has variously featured teachers not assessing reading properly, reading books poorly matched to actual level, and yes, boredom, disillusionment and cynicism.

You could be lucky (roisin has had v. good experiences with her boys' school) but you may well not be, particularly in London, where priorities may be elsewhere. If they're talking about G&T at this stage, that's a good sign. But no way of telling until you suck it and see, really.

Ds told me he was giving me the shopping reptile the other day - it was his reading of receipt! I am still giggling about it.

he practised his writing, read other books did extension math. I know...extension math at 4 lol.

He was rivetted by countdown today! OMG - the horror!

I honestly don't want to push him at all. I do want him to enjoy himself.

we love countdown in this house.

Some kids don't need pushing. DS1 didn't. Pushed and continues to push himself. I'm always telling him to lighten up lol

I don't think they get onto geometry in Reception, btw, lol! But there really is plenty of other learning to be going on with, and a child who is well on with reading is going to get on faster with History and Geography and RS and all the other non-maths subjects which they also do in KS1.

How is he with Maths?

Aloha, I've been worrying about that with DS2, who is only a month older than your son, but scraped into this Reception year by 4 hours.

Our sons sound (from posts) fairly similar in where they are reading wise, though I have a feeling that your son sounds more numerate than mine (though even recognising numbers up to 100 was seen as unusual and numbers up to 1000 caused eye-rolling).

In the whole class sessions they are doing stuff like "Who can spell 'it' and 'dog'?", and counting up to see how many objects are left when one has been taken away from a small group. If my DS's teacher thinks he is G&T (or should that be G or T?), in another year your DS will be way off the scale.

That's not much help, is it? For what it's worth, DS2 doesn't seem bored as the whole class sessions are quite brief, but I don't think he's learning much in those bits of the day. On the other hand, he is having a great time playing and improving his handwriting and drawing skills, and making friends.

He is also young in the class (which your DS will not be) and therefore possibly socially more immature than many of his classmates, which gives him his own challenges.

I started another post about how much differentiation is really possible in a large class. We have got stuff to do at home if we want, but he is very tired, and I would like him to do it during the 6 hours he is at school, not the 3 hours he has for play.

Mmm. Not sure if that was at all helpful. Excuse my witterings.

Please remember that full-time school for 4-year-olds makes this country something of a freak! They don't need to be doing academic stuff all day!

A friend's DD with a November birthday went through school in the conventional way, was never bored, got a gold medal at A-level and is currently at Oxford - no G&T, no hothousing, no fuss, just a very clever girl who was a delight for all her classmates and teachers.

Actually that should be the gold medal

I was never bored at school either, but I guess we worry about our children. And I absolutely agree that there are loads of other important things in the life of a four year old.

Well, to be fair, the brilliant girl was following an equally brilliant brother who was hothoused a bit - was moved up a year in Reception (I think - maybe Y1) and stayed up. He also got fantastic exam results, and went to Cambridge (after a gap year, so he was 18 when he went); but because of his experiences the parents decided she would be better staying in her own year, and because of following him no eyebrows were raised at her ability.

Dd1 certainly did different work from many others in Reception but that was before the new Foundation stuff. No 4 will be taught to read before she starts school. It is an advantage and if that's the way your brain works I can see no reason to be held back.

My ds1 is also very bright and has had a ropey time at school (he's now in year 1) because he's bored. The books he brings home are way belowe the standard of the books he has been choosing to read at home. I was horrified at the worksheets and pictures he brought home at the end of term.
The 'work' he does at home is far better.
I have looked seriously in to home edding and was all set to de-register him and his sister at the end of last term, when events overtook us and so the idea is back on hold.
His school is great socially, but he's bored and stifled and I see no way round it given the set up at state schools, despite the best of intentions.

At the moment I'm keeping him at school because it's a good school and he's meeting the other kids who live in the neighbourhood. I'm not sure if this will be enough to stop me de-regging when he gets to juniors.

Sorry Aloha, but this is my experience.

my dd was reading when she started reception,she hovered for a bit in reception but wasn't bored.

This was quite a while a go mind you,she's in yr 9 now!

She used to get given different work than the reat of the class,there was one or two others aswell depending on whether it was reading and writing.

I do remember that when she started at the junior school she was always made to sit with and help the kids who were behind or easily distracted.Did question this a few times over the yrs but was told she was benfitting from it.Not so sure myself.She had extended lessons for maths and english throughout juniors but was amongst a fair few.

I think she was bored at times but overall she hasn't suffered.She's now at local senior school doing well in fast track sets but no way is she a budding genius.

Sounds like your school know of his ability so you're at an advantage there already,just beware of him being used as a mini teachers helper.

Reception teachers are used to having children of wildly different abilities and ages. Some cope better than others with children 'on the extremes'. Very able and September born is obviously going to make things doubly difficult.

We are delighted (as Frogs said) with the boys' school, but we are lucky in that they are both summer birthdays, and hand on heart I have to say if they'd been born a couple of months later it would have caused problems. (Ds1 esp socially immature - so would never be appropriate to accelerate him a year.)

However, if your ds is already dx dyspraxic and you already have contact with the SENCO this could help. Some schools find it easier to find ways to support SEN children, than G&T children. So, for example, if your ds finds carpet time a real struggle because he isn't challenged, then he might from time to time carry on with some writing he's doing, or work on some other activity under the guidance of a TA.

IME the most difficult years are YrR, Yr1 and Yr2. After that there seems a bit more flexibility to the curriculum, and possibilities to take things to a higher/deeper level seem to occur more easily.

I had good experiences with both DS1 and DS2 who both have autumn birthdays. I was initially very worried about DS1 as the reading books seemed well below his level. I wrote details of what he'd been reading at home in the reading record so the teacher would know. She picked up on it really quickly (by the time of the greeting meeting) and gave him appropriate work to do. At one stage he had a classroom assistant doing comprehension exercises with him, and the teacher really encouraged him to write more (as others have already said, it's not all about reading). In Year 1, he and another child had special sessions with a G&T teacher while the rest of the class were doing things they would have found insufficiently challenging. I have to say that on the whole the specific G&T provision was a little patchy and ill-directed, and what class teachers have done to extend my children has been of far greater significance.

I've had rather more problems over DS3 (summer birthday, a bit immature and economical with effort) as his talents took longer for the school to notice. And I should add that not all very bright children at this particular school were catered for as well as DS1 and DS2. One was found to be bright following ed. psych. assessment when the school thought there was a special needs issue, moved up a year and the parents decided at the end of that year to go down the private education route to avoid problems later on over him being out-of-year.

Oh, and I'd love my very own shopping reptile! Do they bite unhelpful shop assistants?

Aloha my ds was the same he was reading fluently by reception

He was bored witless in reception and yr 1. They talked about putting him up a year which I was against. The G+T program he went on in yr2, simply let him do reading alone in the library and do maths with older class.
He has been happy but understretched since then pretty much. It has done him no harm though and he breezed into Grammar School.
WE were told by an Ed Psych when he was 9 that we should consider a private school for numbers and academic stretching. WE could not afford it, so we moved house to a grammar school area, this has been a perfect solution. He is finally at age 12. Happy at school!
I found lots of extra curricular stuff kept him sane, plus library books and buying lots of books for him and allowing him to read without limits. Drama class, music etc
Good luck, you have a bright litle button on your hands, they are hard work but so rewarding

Can I ask those of you who had children who could read before reception, did you teach them or did they teach themselves? If themselves do they just start recognising words or work out the sounds - I can't quite imagine how a child does it for themselves. My middle ds is fascinated by books so not sure whether to try begin letting him learn to read or not (he's nearly 3).

Mog, my ds2 could read by the time he started school. I did not teach him at all and was astonished when he came home on day one of school and insisted on reading the book to me (word perfectly) rather than allow me to read it to him (as I was supposed to). I can only assume he learnt by listening to his older brother learning.