Starting school as an advanced child

[Mummymegs]

Reaching out to connect with other parents of advanced kids. My 4 year old has just started reception class. She has a reading ability beyond her age (at least year 2 standard according to my retired teacher friend). She could pick any book from our bookshelf and read it herself, and her maths is very advanced too.
My question is how to get the school to recognise her abilities? Her nursery report mentioned she was academically advanced and I have told her teacher that she can read. She is only on week 2 of school so I know it takes time. Her first reading book is a picture book which I know is compulsory as part of the curriculum framework, but I just want her to be challenged. I feel a big responsibility as she has so much potential, so I want to do the right things.

Just relax and let her enjoy settling into school. Don't set her out to 'stand out' from such a young age. Let her be just one of the pack. Encourage her to read, to make friends, to enjoy sports and activities and just play a full part in Reception life.

She will still have loads of other things to learn - social skills, motor skills etc. Reading is really just a tiny part of what reception children learn.

When you have an opportunity I would mention to the teacher than her reading is quite advanced and would it be possible for her to be set some harder books.

Don’t bother probably. If she is really far ahead the school will struggle to differentiate work enough for her, they teach to the average student, and differentiate for top 5-10 and bottom 5-10. But your daughter sounds way above that. So really she is just going to school for the social side.

Also, give them a chance with the reading books, there are 30 students in the class and only 1 teacher. If it’s not fixed after half-term maybe say something.

Focus on what you can do outside of school instead to broaden her knowledge. Science days, coding, getting great books that she is really excited to read out of the library etc.

Relax!! The teachers will still be assessing the children and working out when they’re at.

My eldest was already reading when he started reception, and also advanced in maths. The teachers just want to get to know them - you’re only a couple of weeks in.

DS was soon getting more appropriate books and his reception teacher was great at stretching him a bit and setting him extra homework - at his request because he loved it (now yr8 and not so much 😂)

If you get to Christmas and feel like they are not working to her ability level address it then.

In the meantime just read books she likes at home. Reception is about so much more than formal learning.

I wouldn't worry about it at all at this stage. My DD is similar, but although she can read in the sense of word recognition, and the story, she's not got the reading between/beyond the lines, so I'm sure going through the stages with everyone else will help develop this. Similarly with the maths, neither is stuff she's been taught so although she can do quite complicated things there's probably some basics that she could do with some help with.

So I'm leaving it in the capabilities of the teachers who will be used to working out how to stretch children of this age if needed, and how to fill in any gaps they have.

Also, definitely encourage her interests but I wouldn't get too excited at this age, often things even out so at secondary you'd have no idea who was the child who was reading before reception etc.

Obviously ignore the picture book and let her read whatever she likes at home. The school will assess and then it will be blindingly obvious she’s miles ahead of the pack.

In my experience the first year is ok - Reception is still largely play-based and free-choice of activities.

Soon you can get her ranked as a free reader, and she can have access to any fiction or non fiction. She’ll still have plenty of room to improve at handwriting and grammar, creative writing, art. Maths and science will probably bore her, you may push a bit for extension work.

If you are lucky she won’t be the only bright child in class. but beware you may find that if she is bright and nice and well behaved, she will be put with disruptive kids so she can help calm and teach them. That was my dd’s fate, and my own. Luckily my dd didn’t mind, as it was a distraction from her soul-deep boredom 😂

To add. There's a difference between the ability to read words and the ability to retain the information in the book, understand what it means and question what might happen next, why this or that has happened. The reading of the words is not the end goal.
As others have said, there is much more to learn at school than the curriculum.

Give the kid a break and let her play in the mud?

How is she socially and emotionally? At this age that is just as important

Just relax. She's good at reading. There will be a few others in the class who are also Y2 standard readers. Tbh there'll be another even further on. There will be others who can draw decently. Another who can jump super high. Just let her read at home and catch up on the things she's not so good at yet at school.

Thank you. We are definitely doing all of those things too. She absolutely loves art and being creative and she is enjoying making new friends too!

It does take some time. School is largely going to be about the social experience for a bit.

You can read the picture book once and then move on to your normal home reading.

Our school had a reading log and I just faked it. It was beyond obvious that I was lying and the teacher did not care. She was aware dd was reading different books because eventually she got permission to bring them in from home.

for now, wait until your child actually complains about the work being too easy or being bored. her main learning right now is social. If she is like most bright children, this is actually her biggest challenge.

If she tells you she finishes her work and has nothing to do, then address the issue. This is when dd started getting free reading time. One teacher also allowed her to write stories and read them to the class.

Oh for sure! She definitely has plenty to learn in all areas and socialising with the other kids is massively important for her too!

My son was similarly advanced but he still needed to learn phonics. His teacher said that so long as he read his school reading book then he could read anything else he wanted to at other times. They also got to pick a library book that wasn't on the reading scheme so it could be at any level.

DO NOT ignore the picture book.

Get your daughter to go through the picture book telling you all about it. If she can reliably do that over the next couple of weeks, then by all means mention it; but don't just assume she'll be able to.

This is true…at the moment she is definitely there for the social side. Which is actually a really good thing for her.

Totally understand about being patient with the teachers. I know they have a hard job and have to juggle a lot of things.

She is getting a lot of extra activities outside of school (I just follow her lead and try to nurture what she shows interest in). Coding is a great idea, and I know she has shown interest in learning other languages.

She's 4. Let her be 4. Great that she can read, they will want her to learn phonics regardless. And they will also focus on comprehension. You might struggle to find age appropriate material that will challenge her as the content of chapter books might be a bit old for her. She might be academically advanced but it's also not unheard of for 4 year olds to be able to read at the level of 6 year olds.....hopefully school will know how to challenge her in an age appropriate way. She'll still be learning a lot from school from a social point of view.

Please relax. Kids learn at different paces but advanced kids often have bits they still need to learn. My eldest started school able to read chapter books and maths and as even further ahead but she needed to learn so much in terms of social skills, current methods etc

This sounds very similar to her school. She was very excited about the library book she brought home this week, not so much about the reading picture book haha.

Her Grandma is a teacher, so even though she is naturally a sight reader she has done a lot of phonics at home.

Oh 100% she still has a lot to learn in all areas. It has certainly pushed her outside of her comfort zone being at school all day in a new environment.

Being technically able to read at a more advanced age doesn't mean being able to comprehend the context and content of the text.

DD has always been a great reader, but at 4 while she could read the words, that's all it was, words. It's important to strike a balance between giving something challenging while making sure it's age appropriate. Early reading skills in school focus not only on reading the words but also on picking up on the clues within the text, making assumptions based on your knowledge of the subject, pulling out key facts.

So the book says that 'Tiger wore a blue skirt and blue trousers that day. She was feeling very excited about her first day at school and couldn't wait to see Wolf.' They will ask questions like 'what do you think Tigers favourite colour is? If it was Tigers first day of school, how old do you think she is? Why do you think Tiger is excited to see Wolf?'

The teachers will still be assessing and will quickly pick up on her strengths and weaknesses and will set work accordingly.

My sons school was sending him home reading books that were far too easy for him in year 2, and they did eventually start borrowing from some higher classes. but whilst they dragged their feet I bought more books for home and borrowed a lot from the library (you can take home 20 at once, so I didn't even need to go that often).
I think reception is a lot about play and social relationships. I wouldn't push for any extra recognition academically yet. If you want to stretch them it might be a good time to try a music or language class outside of school.

Yes definitely, I’m not the type to ignore it! From some of the replies I feel my post may have come across not as I intended.
I know there is still benefit to the picture book and all other areas of learning in the classroom.
We’ve been going through the picture book tonight and she is very good at describing each page. We’re just going to work on extending her vocabulary whilst doing it I think.

Don’t get your hopes up about having vastly different reading material after any assessments. My child’s reading is far ahead of what is brought home but I believe there are limits in this particular phonics scheme and individual children cannot progress too far ahead of the class.

We work on vocabulary, expression, and comprehension. We continue to read plenty of other books as we always have done. I don’t see any reason to push ahead so we did not bring it up with the teacher. There are many other things to learn.