Reception and differentiation - your survival strategies please!

[onesandwichshort]

Hello, me again.

The situation in short is that DD is in reception with a reading age several years above that and good writing ability too. School have promised some extra sessions for her, but these keep falling by the wayside because the teacher's sick/it's the nativity play/there's a new boy with SEN. And so on, until she has probably had 2 sessions this whole term.

It won't get better, either, as they've had a trainee teacher for this term, but he's leaving at Christmas. Plus her teacher is also the SENCO so we can't really appeal to a higher authority.

DD herself is losing her enthusiasm for school, and is also starting to hide what she can do in order to fit in. While at home she will - of her own choice - sit down and write a poem or read factual as well as fiction books. She'd fly, I'm sure, if school would only give her the opportunity.

We spoke to the NAGC, and one of the things that they said was that reception is really hard for gifted children. Because of the way it is structured, schools do find it difficult to differentiate, and basically implied that we'd just have to put up with it for the next two terms.

Is this true? Or can some schools do it better? And if so, how? We have another meeting with the teacher on Thu, but I don't know how much we can ask for, or what. I would like to take DD out for some time to flexi-school her at home, but DH doesn't think this is a good idea.

DD's in reception and while they endeavour to do the one to one sessions with her, they are tough to fit in sometimes so I can appreciate how hard it is. But they also let her go to lessons in other years a couple of times a week, she's on a different reading scheme to her friends and they have a pretty good system going with parent helpers who work with her too. We do a LOT outside of school too and they encourage her to take things she's done at home in with her and they look at ways of expanding on that. They're really very good actually.

DD's not g&t btw, no clue what that really means. She's just working ahead in some areas.

keep asking them about the one to one sessions they have promised. they will start doing them just to shut you up! funny how we got our book changed every week after I asked a couple of times on a friday for them to be changed as she hadn't had a new one this week.

I think you survive by keeping things ticking over at home. dd went backwards in maths in reception as she was not able to practice it. a couple of questions on the stuff she knows once or twice a week keep these things in her head. also rerading library books in addition to the school book, and encouraging a bit of writing at home once evry week/couple of weeks to keep it all going. bribing dd to write in her independent book helped a little, though I left it a bit late in the year for it to make a difference to how the teacher saw her.

Curiously the teacher seems much more happy to have regular meetings with me than to actually do anything much. I am clearly not as annoying as I think I am.

SoH, please can I move DD to your school? It sounds fab. We got DD to take some extra work in, and all they do is stick it in the back of her 'memory book'. I'm losing the will to do it any more, goodness only knows what DD thinks.

I can sympathise, sandwich. When ds was in reception we never seemed to really get anything for him. Tbh though I don't think I appreciated what he was really capable of anyway. I knew he was bright, but as hes my oldest I didn't really have anything to compare him to, so when he was on level 7 ORT in reception, I thought that was great, but I didnt really appreciate that was a year ahead of average & that he was actually being held back (he was put up to free reader after a couple of weeks in yr1).

The main thing about reception is that as they are still doing the early years curriculum it's still about learning through play & that doesn't really suit most g&tkids, who are ready for more. If she isn't getting the challenge from school now, then focus on what she is getting out of it,enewetak friendships, different sports, after school clubs etc & just keep her interest on the academic stuff going at home. All children still love to play whether they are g&t or not, so you could even explain to her that that is mostly what school is going to be about this year; Letting everyone settle in, make friends & enjoy playing together & next year, (hopefully,) she'll get more challenging work & that if she wants to carry on learning at home you'll support her with that in the mean time.

i think the only way dd2 was differentiated for in yr r was just letting her access reading books from other yr groups tbh. we were quite lucky (!) in that she had some 1-1 as she (coincidentally lol) has cp. so she sort of worked to her own schedule anyway. it was really yr 1 before any concrete differentiation in terms of curriculum was made.

Our school did a great job with DS in reception. He read books at his level (from the library - some were his choice, some were picked out by his teacher, e.g., she gave him longer and more interesting books about their topic subjects). For maths they were using individual workbooks and he skipped some and was given books from higher up the school. His writing wasn't advanced, but all the children were being encouraged to write as well as they could and in a variety of contexts. This school was well-resourced (small classes, TAs) but I don't see why any school shouldn't do those basic things. 1-1 sessions might be nice, but I don't see why not being able to resource them should mean not being able to do anything at all.

Your DD sounds very much like mine. School have been fantastic with her though and she goes to a year 2 class for phonics and literacy lessons. Is there a chance your DD could do that?

I spent a morning in my ds's reception class the other week (it was lovely, the parents have all had an invitation to 'come and play in Class 1') and it was interesting to see how well and subtly they differentiated.

Admittedly they do have excellent pupil:teacher ratios due to being a teeny village school, but without making a song and dance about it, children were working at a variety of levels. Eg ds1 was playing the same game as others but the teacher was getting him to add numbers where the others were just reading them out, one child was working by herself on a laptop but since there were several different activities happening, she didn't stand out as doing something different. I absolutely agree that if they can't do 1-1 with her or send her to another class for some subjects that shouldn't be an excuse for not differentiating.

At the same time, ds is doing some stuff that is 'below' his level (eg Jolly Phonics actions when he can already read) but he is clearly getting something out of it other than the obvious learning goals, so I am fine with that.

I am really surprised at NAGC saying it's hard to differentiate in Reception actually - I would have thought that because it is so fluid and the learning through play set up allows children to choose their own activities a lot, it would be easier to do it then than later on.

Thanks everyone. Of course as soon as I come on here to complain, she does in fact get a differentiated activity today (writing a letter to Santa, and learning to spell because in doing it). This may perhaps have something to do with our meeting on Thursday but it's still a welcome development.

Taking on board what you've all said, I would be content to let her coast and play were it not for the fact that she is a) going backwards in some areas and b) clearly disengaging from school already. The difference in her today after school when she'd done something interesting was extraordinary. Hopefully that will have convinced them too that she needs to do more of this kind of thing.

School books are an annoyance - they can't seem to find suitable stuff at her level and haven't changed the book for two weeks (!). But she reads plenty enough in her own time for that not to be the problem. Although symptomatic of the way that school doesn't have a whole heap of initiative.

And yes, she will go into year 1 for guided reading next term, which will be some improvement. Once she is in year 1, it's whole-school phonics, so she will be working at her level then. I'm also going to see if she can do some workbooks at school as well, which shouldn't be too organisationally challenging for them.

Elderberry - your set up sounds very much like DD's wonderful nursery where they managed to differentiate with no problems at all. I am very envious.

Oh I feel for you onesandwich! Your DD sounds just like mine, and reception was HORRIFIC!!! The school asked at October half term if they could send her to yr1 for guided reading as she was so far ahead of her friends on all things literacy, and I thought we might be on to a winner as they were obviously willing to help her be herself. By Feb half term, she wou;dn't play at home, always wanted to be given anything maths or literacy based to sit and do. Then the dreaded 'I hate school'. Turned out she was so sick of playing and wanted to be in yr 1 permanently. I met with the school and after the obligatory 'you're a pushy mom' meeting, we agreed that she could spend mornings in yr1 and afternoons in reception so that she didn't miss out on time with her friends. It worked a treat. She's still loving school, still miles ahead and stretching further every week it seems, but we are now enduring the tedious yr1 spellings she can do with her eyes closed. Still, you can't have everything.

My advice (apologies for the length) is to do what your child wants. If your child needs to be in a more formal environment, approach the school. Do it in a non-agressive mode and you're more likely to secure the outcome that you and your child want - it can be done!!

Good luck xxx

rachel, how old is your dd? is she older or younger for the year? [nosy bugger emotion]

she'll be 6 in two weeks so in the older for the year bracket I guess

sorry just realised I got your name wrong. you were lucky. nicey nicey got me nowhere with school and dd went backwards in maths during reception, however, she made enormous progress over the summer holidays playing on the computer!

Ds1 had an amazing reception year. Year 1 was slow to get going but he's getting more interesting differentiated work now, after a fair bit of discussion. I think the problem is that my timescale is different to the school's - ds was grumpy and upset and I saw that each evening so I wanted everything sorted instantly. The school works at an understandably slower pace.

In reception however he had a fantastic teacher who instantly understood him and heavily differentiated work from e get go. Also a lot of assessment to see where he stood and to benchmark. Had a reading age of 11 and was at a 2a in practice sat paper for reading and spelling. The reception teachers mother used to come in twice a week to help out and would spend some of each time she was there doing one to one stuff. Also there were more TAs.

Also ds1 now goes to year 4 for guided reading and does year 4 spellings and sme other literacy work. In reception his teacher said that while she was keen for him to get books from year3, she felt it would be too strange for a new starter to be launched in with significantly older children (plus his sister was in year 3 - sorted this term by him working with the corresponding year 4 class). I agreed.

Susan, I thank whoever for the computer and DS - fabulous tools for children that want to learn, DD loves her brain training game, and plays on that more than any other.

Pooka, unfortunately I think your school is the exception. When DD went into yr 1 I thought everything would be great - she would be allowed to be herself and fly. Don't get me wrong, her targets for the end of the year are above the NC expectations for year 2, but still she has to sit through the going over and over the same thing when she got it first time. They still don't get how quickly she soaks up information...maybe one day

Thank you again - this is all really helping me work out what some of DD's difficulties with school might be.

Racheal - I think you're right about what DD wants from school being important. It's made me realise that while learning through play is all well and good, one of the problems with reception is that they're only offering a part of what she would naturally 'play' at if left to her own devices, in particular writing and reading (and, if she gets the chance, doing worksheets of almost any kind). Which is why I think she's not as engaged with school as she might be right now - and why I think they're having problems providing the right kind of work for her.

Also, how did year 1 work out for your DD, or is it working out, given that she had done a lot of the work already?

Pooka - DD's teacher had the same feelings about it being too strange for DD to start their whole school phonics this year. I think she's right too, but I think she's too concerned about DD seeming different, and this holds her back from differentiating as much as she might.

One more question - do any of your children have a 'peer group' of similarly able children in their class? A friend's child did last year (there were 4 of them across 2 reception classes) so not only were they forced to differentiate, but there was no problem with the children being isolated. This is one of the things I want to ask about when we meet the teacher tomorrow, as I think it makes a difference.

DD is happy to be in yr1 now! Loves her teacher, and by and large it's going quite well (apart from the going over and over the same thing). She goes to yr2 for guided reading, so is still with the children she was with last year for that. She does have some lovely friends - 1 who is her 'equal' (and I don't mean to sound snotty when I say that) - DD is better in literacy, friend is better in numeracy, and they egg each other on to better things. Her other 'best friend though is very middle of the road (again don't mean to be snotty), quite babyish in comparison to the other 2 and a good balance I think.

I hope this will help you get what your DD needs. The only other thing I would offer is that it helps to do your research. I find that teachers will try to befuddle you, but if ou know a bit you can bluff your way through it. They tried to tell me that reception and yr1 were incompatible as early years is all about learninbg through play, but f you are able to go into a meeting saying that you understand the reason for early years play, and provide the reasons why your child requires more, they should have no reason to disregard your (and DD's) wishes.

Hope I haven't waffled too much xxx

not really. but as well being so far ahead dd2 also has cp, and that means most of the other kids treat her like a leper!

just as a point though - there are always books, paper and pencill available, so if dd wants to read and write in yr r, no-one will stop her. and it will pretty much be accessible most of the time. and she can be writing the notices in the shop, shopping lists, being the teacher in the school role play, and all sorts of things that will be letting her get on with as much writing as she wants to do?

usually in higher year groups they play about with different subjects, and can move them up for one or two (like the guided reading thing, but for entire subjects). and one of ds's years they had an extension group which was a percussion club. great for math! by invitation only to the more able kids.

lots of kids start school reading and writing years ahead of their peer group though. and schools do cope, by and large. sometimes you just have to let it go a bit and then ask more pointed q's at the next parents evening. some years are better than others tbh. as time has gone by i have essentially become used to writing off a school year here and there!

pencill? pencils, obv.

No - with reading ds1 has to be in a different year group because there isn't a peer group that could form an appropriate guided reading group. He was doing trickier spellings and literacy work at the start of the year, but not 'tricky' enough. Now not in a group for that. With maths, they have different tables and he is above average but with normal range so that's good - personally I would have found myself worrying about his integration with his peers/class if he was being taken out too often.

He enjoys reading with year 4 and sometimes gets to join them at playtime if going to their classroom has meant he missed year 1 play. I think he likes that because he gets to go on the apparatus an extra time :) (though dd said that when it first happened all the year 4 girls were talking about him, that seems to have calmed down and it isn't commented on any more).

I had a couple of pretty detailed discussions with his year 1 teacher. Part of the problem was that there is a job share and the 'lead' teacher was sick for the first half term (better now thank goodness) and I think that rather stalled progress because the remaining teacher covered and just wasn't keen to make decisions. Anyway - he was given hideous homework involving making sentences with the words from the word cards being used by the rest of the class, with a view to him working through the box of cards. So week 1 had to write sentence/sentences including "I, You, it, is, of, an, and". Which made me and him . Was a bloody nightmare and so booorrring. He started getting very frustrated. After 2 weeks of this, I spoke to the teacher and we adapted a homework that he used to have in Reception, to write a few lines about each book he reads, or about what he has been up to at the weekend. This is much more satisfying and is useful in making sure that his comprehension of the books he is reading is adequate.

I think part of the problem is that whereas some teachers (like his reception teacher) relish and enjoy the challenge of a clever child, others perhaps are under enthused. Certainly got that impression initially from one of his year1 teachers, though the other was much more positive. I can appreciate though that in Reception, his teacher had only 15 children for the september term, then 27 for the rest of the year, with a permanent HLTA in the classroom, and external visitor help twice a week, whereas in year 1 the two classes share a TA and there are 29 children in each class and it's a different setting.

Typing this makes me feel/sound like hideous pushy parent. I'm honestly not. Year 1 was such a comedown (and it hadn't been for dd at all) and I was really upset by ds1 starting to get upset going into school and saying that he hated it, that I really needed to get pushier than I would ordinarily feel comfortable with.

Golly this is long. Was so wrapped up in the whole thing for the first 8 weeks of the term but now seems a long time ago.

pooka, we just refused to do ridiculous homework. fortunately our yr 1 teacher was great and applauded us for our common sense. she also tried for the whole year to get her moved up, and the ht blocked it every time. he left a yr later.

DD's school has been pretty good, they've kept moving her up their reading scheme till the books she brings home more or less match her reading ability - we're just having a slight problem that she objects to reading books when the pages are "grey", rather than bleached a bright white colour :o

They've also started giving her a non-fiction book every week as well as the chapter book things, which has been interesting as she's not really read non-fiction before and it's definitely a different skill.

I don't know whether there's an appropriate guided reading group for her, I know she's considered the best reader in the year at the moment and that there is a boy in her class who is also "ahead" but of course we don't know any details about him so can't compare. Fortunately she is enjoying school immensely, and seems to have spent the last 2 weeks mostly dressed as Santa

Her teacher has given us a sheet of suggestions for maths games to play at home, but they're really too easy for her and we've not bothered about them much. We've also been given a sheet of cursive words to practice writing. Since the words came from the sparklebox website and she could already do them, I just got the rest of the set off the website so we're practising those as and when.

They've (the whole school) all been asked to draw a picture and write about their dog/the dog they'd like to have - I thought this was an interesting idea, as clearly it can be expanded to show what each child can do, but covers the same topic IYSWIM. It's a fundraising thing but it'd be nice to see this sort of thing more regularly.