Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

Once they've hit their early learning goals then what?

113 replies

SkyWalker95 · 26/07/2017 20:44

Just received my son's latest progress report. For half the early learning goals its the normal this is where he's at, this is his next target to work on. But the others say he has achieved the early learning goals so there is nothing for him to work on. Is he just supposed to not have any goals for the next couple of years? That doesn't seem right. What's the next thing after ELGs? Shouldn't he just be on that?

OP posts:
user789653241 · 29/07/2017 09:57

mistoffe, my comment was meant for littlefish!, (Forgot to bold her username.)

Mistoffelees · 29/07/2017 10:31

Ah ok!

mrz · 29/07/2017 14:17

The writing ELG actually says "writes simple sentences" plural and some examples are multiple sentences others are a single sentence ...it's the problem with the exemplification and why different teachers/moderators expect different things.

Original poster
SkyWalker95 · 29/07/2017 20:52

Ok now I'm just confused. I'm just worried now he's finished the early learning goals they won't try to push him to learn or teach him anything.... Not that they taught him much to begin with

OP posts:
Mistoffelees · 29/07/2017 21:09

What is his reading/writing/maths like Sky? To be fair nursery is the perfect setting for developing the prime areas of PSED, CLL and PD which they should be prioritising over the specific areas anyway so that he is well rounded and ready to start school. That's not to say the more academic areas shouldn't be encouraged but not at the expense of adult input in the prime areas.

Littlefish · 29/07/2017 21:23

Mistoffelees - The exemplification materials show a wide range of examples, from a single sentence, to multiple sentences. If we have a child who has only ever done a single sentence, or phrase, then we wouldn't consider that to be ELG. As Mrz has commented, different moderators and teachers do expect different things. We have been moderated, and our judgements were found to be sound. I also, in my first message wrote "amongst a lot of other evidence", which would obviously include typed work, messages, labels etc.

user789653241 · 29/07/2017 21:37

I don't think you can actually "finish" the ELG. And at that age, there are so much to learn each day.

Mistoffelees · 29/07/2017 21:54

Little I wouldn't accept a single example as enough evidence but a child who regularly writes standalone sentences would get it, we had an average cohort this year and if we only gave it to children who were writing 4+ sentences in one go our GLD would have been very low. We were also harshly moderated last year and even they said a range of standalone sentences was enough. But sorry for hijacking the thread!
Irvine that's what I meant in my first post, the ELG is too broad and wide ranging for a child to achieve it then move onto Yr1 expectations

Littlefish · 29/07/2017 22:09

That's really interesting *Mistoffelees", because we were told that a child needed to be writing multiple sentences to achieve ELG! It's no wonder that the system is in a mess when the Local Authorities doing the moderating can't even agree! Smile

Original poster
SkyWalker95 · 29/07/2017 22:17

Mistofelees I don't really know how to quantify his writing but almost everything he writes is legible and makes sense. He writes cards and notes for people and sometimes my shopping list. He's better at spelling when he texts though, I don't know why. I think they ticked that one off because he drew a picture the other week and labelled it " This is my mummy this is 'his full name'. wats that? Is a cat sily!!!!" (He just learnt about exclamation points 😂 )
Reading they ticked off I think because on the last day he took in one of his favourite ORT level 6 (might have been 7?) Book and read it to his class
Maths. I'm not sure why they ticked it off but I know he can count in any denomination forwards or backwards using a hundred square and in 1 2 3 5 and 10 without. Can add or subtract any one digit to another one digit number or 1 digit to 2 digits. Hes kind of knows his fractions and can × or ÷ small numbers but only physically. Oh and he knows his shapes so I assume they heard him do that at nursery

OP posts:
FlowerFairyLights · 29/07/2017 22:26

Certainly he's doing fab academically so can focus on social goals and all the lovely learning through play which he can use to stimulate his imagination and creative writing further. :)

Mistoffelees · 29/07/2017 22:48

Little I know, we were moderated three years in a row due to an admin error and were told different things each time Hmm

Sky he is certainly ahead for his age and it sounds like he has more than met the ELG. Agree with Flower that he can focus on all the other stuff. But if you want to encourage the academic areas we would start them in making up and writing their own stories, we start with a basic structure of "Once upon a time there was... (Character). One day they were... (Activity) Unfortunately...(problem) Luckily... (Solution) And they lived happily ever after." And take things from there adding adjectives and settings.
With reading don't forget to do lots of comprehension work and picture books are invaluable for age-appropriate stories for younger readers as the words are designed to be read by adults so often aren't dumbed down. Also make sure he has the skills to sound out unknown words.

With maths we do lots of problem solving e.g. one of my children this year was confident when asked "Half of 18" but when I said "I had 18 candles on my cake and only managed to blow out 9, how many were still lit" he was completely thrown so lots of opportunities to practise known facts in different scenarios. Hope this helps!

Mistoffelees · 29/07/2017 22:51

Also, his spelling is probably better when texting as he isn't having to remember how to form the letter so can concentrate his efforts on spelling, another reason why Phys Development is so important to take some of the effort out of writing.

FlowerFairyLights · 29/07/2017 23:05

You could do a gym class or kiddie music class or just loads of outdoor exploring.

user789653241 · 30/07/2017 09:27

Musical instruments? Foreign languages? Art? Computing? Sports? Lots to explore.

This site has programming course for 4+.
studio.code.org/courses

Original poster
SkyWalker95 · 30/07/2017 22:15

Mistoffelees Thanks that very helpful. I think I'm just going to have to have a talk with his new key person when he starts his preschool year. Hopefully he gets one that is willing to still work on his English and maths with him, and trys to set him some appropriate goals. I don't think he's ever tried a word problem in maths so that would be interesting to see, probably confuse his little brain.

OP posts:
user789653241 · 30/07/2017 23:13

Just realised you are the OP from primary thread about a month ago. Sorry, I wouldn't have commented on this thread if I had realised it earlier.

user789653241 · 31/07/2017 07:23

Now I feel stupid taking this thread seriously. If you purposefully push him further ahead using ort books etc and complain school/nursery are boring so ds behaves bad, just home ed. Or go to ss private.

user789653241 · 31/07/2017 09:06

Just pursuing academic skills and disregarding all the other areas at age 3 is just totally wrong, imo.

Mistoffelees · 31/07/2017 09:24

I've just read the other thread Irvine, angry now that I gave the OP the benefit of the doubt that her DC is where he needs to be with social skills and these are being encouraged too. Angry

FlowerFairyLights · 31/07/2017 09:52

I didn't see that thread what was it?

And agree no need to keep pushing the maths!!!

FlowerFairyLights · 31/07/2017 10:35

Oh :( Will quietly withdraw.....

HorridHenrietta23 · 31/07/2017 10:54

Ok op so, the first thread does shed a little light on the nursery's reasons for saying he is "finished" in certain areas of the curriculum and not setting new targets. It sounds as if you have a bright little boy and you are very proud of him, which is great! But, it also sounds as if you're doing a fair bit of pushing and it also sounds as if his social development and behaviour is quite problematic. This being the case I'm guessing that the nursery want to relax on the academics and focus on the social/behaviour side of his development. That is often necessary with young, able children. Otherwise all that happens is that when other children start catching up (which they will) he will really struggle as you and he have focused so hard on being "the best" that you've neglected other areas.
Chat with the nursery and be prepared to have a rethink.

Original poster
SkyWalker95 · 31/07/2017 11:31

You're crazy if you think by saying he's finished these 5 ELGs that I meant he's behind in anything else. He's absolutely fine. You can't force a 3 year old to do anything they don't want to, they just do what they are interested in. He's interested in words, numbers, puzzles and science. While it's not the most common of interests at this age there is nothing wrong with it.

OP posts:
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.