What to say at pre-school interview?

[PumpkinRisotto]

We have an admissions interview at our local state pre-school. My DS (now 2.10yo) will be able to start in August, all going well.

My concern is that DS has taught himself to read fluently and likes numbers and music. He can read a page out of a chapter book for 6-7 year olds and only have to ask me what one word says. He can count up past 400, and count down from 100. Count out 90 objects at least - we ran out of things to count. Add and subtract 1 from any number from 0 to 100. Double numbers up to 128. He can play a couple of simple tunes on piano, and is beginning to ask about music notation. He's fascinated with maps and globes and knows lots of countries, etc.

I know that what he can do will not be exceptional compared to some children on these boards, and that other children will catch up with him.

We regard the socialisation at pre-school as a vital part of his education that will help him throughout his life, so we see plenty of non-academic benefits to him going to pre-school.

I was an early reader, though not as early as DS, and I was kept back at school so that I would be the same level as my peers. There was nothing positive for me at school, and I would like DS's experience to be very different.

My concern lies in how to present his current status so that he gets interesting things to do at pre-school but is not treated so differently that other children notice.

The alternative would be to send him to playschool for one or both of the preschool years.

when we had a pre-school home visit it wasnt an interview, it was so the teachers could meet dd and myself and give her a name tag and school folder and help her settle in.
they didnt ask what she could do and i didnt tell them.
preschool is more about socialising and becoming part of a school and mixing with different children.

Thanks familyfun that sounds like a nice way to approach things. There's been no mention of a home visit, just a letter inviting us for an "interview". I'm rather hoping that the "interview" will be about form-filling and meeting the teachers.

I completely agree that pre-school should be about socialising and getting ready to be at school, learning to play and work with different children. I really hope that DS gets good experiences that will help him socially and prepare him for school.

However, the pre-school does phonics and numeracy, and there are weekly language lessons with a specialist. While DS has no other languages, he is very likely to show that he is bored if the phonics and numeracy is mostly stuff he has already taught himself.

I could read fluently at 2.5. I loved preschool and nursery. I did think all the other kids were a bit thick but I never felt bored at that age.

Getting GCSE's easily by teaching myself the whole curriculum the night before the exam is what ruined me. Spent two A-Level years chasing boys and then failed them attempting same to realise it wasn't possible and so failed.

StarshitTerrorise thanks.

I enjoyed playschool too but they made no attempt to teach anything academic at all, not even the alphabet, so no one noticed I could read at 3. I was outraged when I started school at 4.5 and was kept to reading one sentence a day for the teacher.

I suppose my concern is that they notice DS can read and count during phonics/numeracy and that he isn't treated positively.

I still don't know whether if they ask at the interview, I should tell them what he can do or downplay it a bit and say something like "he loves books and numbers".

I just want DS to have a good experience of early education.

I just saw this in active conv so may have a different view but DD started preschool at 3.5 (last Aug ) and I was worried because she has no interest what so ever in numbers, letter or structured learning and I didn't want her forced. The Early Years should be about free choice. My DD loves to play on the piano but hates being made to go to story time. She is only there for 2.5hrs a day, for her its her fun time to hang out with her pals. The rest of the stuff we do outside school. If its a good preschool they should be able to support his learning whilst fostering his social skills.

I think most of what you say at interview gets taken with a pinch of salt anyway so I would try and not worry too much.

Hope that helps

pumpkin, the teachers soon pick up on what a child can do, when dd had a library book from nursery she read it herself, while some kids draw a smily face some draw a full person and lable it "this is my mommy", what im saying is that although they might all be doing the same topic/theme they are all working at their own capabilities within the topic and given appropraite stuff to do.
once in reception there is a lot more differentiation and at my dds school they work in ability groups for the entire ks1 rather than age for numeracy/literacy but still get to play/swim/pe/plays with their peers.

Generally we found that preschool were much more able to cope with a range of ability than school seem to be

Thanks everyone, it sounds like things are more positive than when I was young which I must admit was rather a long time ago . I think I've been a bit put off by the meeting being labelled an "interview" which sounds very formal to me.

onesandwichshort that sounds good for pre-school, I'm sorry that school doesn't seem so good for you.

Do you think he will be bored? My DS sounds similar in terms of maths ability (not reading etc - he is 3.9 now and can just about read early reader books, but that's only in the last few months - I think he is quite good at literacy but not outstanding). He LOVES pre-school. He has never once complained about being bored. his pre-school seems to be a very fluid environment, so he has the chance to move between activities and doesn't need to do "too easy" numerical activites etc. They are given a free rein on construction type activities, so he can make it as hard as he wants to. It has actually been great for making him more rounded - he does a lot of sand / water / messy play that is probably not what he would choose to do at home.

I did worry before he went about him being bored, but it just hasn't been an issue at all. His pre-school is not that sort of environment. We might have an issue when he starts school, but will just need to cross that bridge when we come to it. When he started he could do complex sums (adding and subtracting in 000), division, could work with negative numbers, multiply in multiples up to 10 etc. I said nothing to the teacher. It took her about 3 days to call me aside at pick up time to talk about his numerical ability - they definitely noticed quickly. But so far they have done nothing more than to comment and encourage him in the context of group activites, and actually that approach is working well for him. He still does lots and lots of maths at home with me (his choice) - maybe that stops him looking for this as an activity at pre-school.

My DS could read early on in pre-school (not as advanced as your DS though, he sounds amazing) and he joined in everything as normal during free play as of course regardless of ability they never get bored of that. When it came to keyworker time, so a structured activity, each session they gave him something suitable for his ability.

All pre-schools do some numeracy and literacy but they shouldn't ever be in 'taught' lessons so hopefully it shouldn't affect him really. I agree with onesandwichshort it is when he goes to school that will be more difficult as they will do whole phonics/numeracy lessons and you never know how a school will deal with bright children.

I was lucky as DS was in a class of 17 in YR so it was fairly easy to provide harder work for him.

I think DS will love most of the activities and will love being with the children. I think he'll have a ball, except he may not co-operate with phonics and numeracy if they're taught as obviously separate subjects.

lou2321 it's good to hear that 'taught lessons' are not usual. I had been thinking they would do the phonics and numeracy in a group (I know they do this with the visiting language teacher).

My concern is that if he does not co-operate he will be treated as naughty. btw he is not perfect - he is very much a typical 2 year old, great fun most of the time with the occasional melt-down. He does notice and tell you if you have told him something before or he already knows it.

wheniwasone your DS's maths ability is fantastic, it's great he's being encouraged.

I think the choices available to us for school for DS all have large class sizes, so that may be a challenge later.

There are advantages to large class sizes though - your DS may find it easier to discover a like-minded friend in a larger class. And a larger school can also have more resources too. But when you go, don't be afraid to ask about provision for the more able/advanced. We did and it was pretty easy to tell which schools were going to be the more helpful/flexible.