Weird school report?

[sambaba]

DD, just turned 5, has been able to read since 2. She can now read for example Harry Potter. She will ask about and respond to punctuation in text. Comprehension is amazing.
She started school this Sep and her first school report says underachieving for language and communication.
Both her nurseries identified her language was very advanced.
For context DH and I are both teachers and were also both GAT at literacy.
Is this a bit odd? I don't really plan on saying anything but I'm just a bit baffled.
It's two form entry and there are a lot of challenging kids I think including one whose been a bit violent at time, I suspect she's a gentle soul and doesn't say much.

Not really an answer but "The Mysterious Benedict Society" is wonderful as is the "School of Good and Evil" though that has same more adult themes.I think a lot of the HP adult issues would glide over the head of a 5yo,
Anyway, I can't talk I let my then 11yo play Call of Duty on xbox, set up his own youtube channel at 5yo ( only stipulation was that he couldn't show his face or give his address) and there are very few movies I wouldn't let him watch,( if it is too violent for me then it's too violent for him is about the only rule) and I'm struggling to think of a book I wouldn't let him read - he is 12yo not 5 though! Mother of the year here. 😂 Everyone should really get the "benedict Society " books. Best for reading a chapter a night as well.

Oh, and OP just ask the teacher,

I agree about Harry Potter. I read the first one with my dd (also a very good reader) when she was 5. I'm a complete Potterhead so couldn't wait 🤣. She read bits to me fluently and understood what was going on in the book. However I've recently re-read it with her now she's almost 7 and she understood some of the more subtle humour and plotlines much more easily and appreciated it more. I will get her the next couple of books for birthdays/Christmas but will probably try and leave it until she's nearer double figures until the later ones as I feel that whatever her reading age they're just too mature.

OP if you want a challenging read that's more appropriate read I'd suggest some of the classics. We've read wizard of oz and alice in wonderland for example and dd loved both. I would say also though just let her love reading and read what she enjoys. Mine loves the Claude books, Mr Men and she still loves a good picture book. We're repeat reading the grinch at the moment. They are still young kids at the end of the day however well they read

I wonder if she is bored and switches off. I could read from an early age and know that occasionally I'd disengage due to boredom and I have been known to do this throughout life (I just liked learning). So I stopped talking in class, as it got to the stage that I was ignored for trying to engage too much, so I stopped contributing. My parents received a report, in primary school, where it said I was too quiet very surprising, as I never shut up at home or since!

Parents are sometimes the last ones to see more unusual presentations of neuro diversity.

This is often because their child is just like them so nothing seems different to them.

She may be different at home, but at school perhaps she is shy or not communicating the way other children are....

I knew a child (now teen) who had a very high IQ, not just generally bright. Definitely SEN due to this. The primary school were bringing in secondary teachers to teach her maths by Yr 3. Her parents eventually moved her to private school and put her up a year but she was also taught subjects with older children still and took exams years early. She really struggled socially when younger though because she ‘operated’ at a different level to her peers but didn’t have the maturity to fit in with older children (hence only being moved up one year group at private school). Her mum said she was the same at school and had really struggled socially.

DD's reception report suggested she needed to spend time understanding other cultures and expanding her experiences or similar, can't remember the exact wording.
Her Dad has non English heritage, we own a property abroad, speak 4 languages other than English between us, DH travelled extensively at that point (MD of an Indian based company) and I went to a Boarding school so we had friends who knew DD from literally all over the world, her best friends outside school were of Irish and Pakistani heritage, by age 5 she had been to a few different countries as well.
When I queried it the teacher mumbled something about how she thought we were of a certain religion as we had been seen at a church - where DD went for Brownies!

If the OP is still reading, I suppose the main thing I'm wondering is why this is only coming up now at the end of the autumn term. As two qualified teachers her parents are presumably familiar with the content of statutory EY curriculum. What exactly do they think their child who can confidently read Harry Potter is doing all day while her peers learn phase 2 sounds and shape recognition? She must be bored rigid.

if it is just a option selected on the report then maybe question it in a non smug parent way.
DS2 had something like working towards on his report and when I asked his subject teacher at parents evening what he needed to work on she was confused and turned out he was supposed to be exceeding, so mistakes do happen.

However I had something similar when my eldest child started school. He could read fluently, comprehend etc but they 'had' to start everyone at the same level and work through the phonics system. he did fly though it though and became a free reader very quickly - he was also assessed by Ed pysch. His reading age at that time was 14 and his spellings were 8+ because that was the highest the test went.

But that's not what the op said. She said her dd understood it all.
Enjoying it and having a slight understanding is fine but not what was said.
I was being tongue in cheek with my experience as we all, with no malice, believe are chn are different to others. But what we see at home and how our kids are in school can be very different. As a teacher I'd expect op to know that. And first port of call talk to her dd teacher.

Reports at that age can be really be just a box ticking exercise - they might not know her very well yet?

DD got "is learning to throw and catch a ball" at age 5 when she had been throwing and catching at 18 months (and now plays county netball!) - it's not always meaningful.

Firstly the teacher has expressed concerns re her language and communication, not her reading and comprehension, which are very different.

Why won't you go and ask the teacher? You sound very scornful of her being young and inexperienced, but there is a lot of research evidence to say that NQTs do often teach better than those qualified a long time.

Our DD could read brilliantly but her communication skills were poor as she was an August birthday and was very timid at speaking up in front of her peers.

Your comment about "standard armchair diagnoses of ND" is just snotty. You asked a question and people were trying to help. Many of the posters who suggest ND will have ND children or be ND themselves.
They most definitely aren't using it as a criticism and you with your degree in psychology and your DH with his Senco role, would do well to remember that.

Pretty much like every other poster - talk to the teacher find out if there is a mistake or an actual concern.

If there is an actual concern - you don't have to agree but keep it in back of your mind as she gets older see if anyone else has similar concerns. It may be they think they've seen subtle ND traits or that she just behaving differently in the classroom environment - possible the classroom doesn't suit her or she switching off as too far ahead - so talk to the teacher and find out.

This is a reception report - it whole purpose is to convey how she doing - it has no impact or meaning beyond that - so use it to help your DD and talk to teacher to find out what is going on.

We need a 😮 emoji in the reaction bar - I mean, WTF?!! she assumed you were christian so therefore bigoted towards other cultures and faiths? there is just so much to unpick in that assumption!

I'm confused why you've posted. Is it just to brag your child has great reading ability? Because that's how this post comes across. The only comments you're entertaining are ones that are saying it's on error.

It may well be an error, but you're coming across as so rude! You ask a question but snap at anything that says your child is anything other than perfect.

It sounds like this is an argument you need to be having with her teacher because you're not going to find the answers you need here.

I completely agree with@WarmingClothesontheRadiator about giftedness (in the proper sense of the word, not the old school top 10%) being a form of diversity. I've had a LOT of lived experience with gifted children over the last fourteen years and of the very gifted ones, every single one has also had some other kind of neurodiversity.

Also agree on the standard deviations being a good measure of ability - one standard deviation is the difference between a very able kid and average in class. Two standard deviations is gifted. Three standard deviations - which would be my rough guess as to where OP's child sits - and you are in the realm of really not fitting well into school.

Also, can we please not chuck the word hyperlexia around with no reason. What it means is early reading without comprehension. It's perfectly possible for a 5 year old to read the first 3 books of Harry Potter and understand it, at least on a basic plot level. Mine did- but then also got more out of re-reading them later.

I only have 4 emoji options? Thank (clap), love (heart), like (thumbs up) and laugh?

You do realise Mozart was composing sonatas at 3 years old?

i misread. Totally agree with you.

My dd had learned all of her phonics sounds and was reading confidently by the middle of reception, as were about a third of her class... None of them were bored or acting up as far as I know because they were also being nurtured to sit nicely for the 15 minutes of the day that they have phonics lessons and they were being nurtured to play and socialise with their peers alongside their maths and english lessons. Being able to read Harry Potter isn't massively helpful if you're not capable of basic social skills, creativity or resilience. Any good early years curriculum is about developing all of this and however advanced somebody thinks their child is there will definitely be things they need to work on in order to do their best for the rest of school. It's not about racing them ahead in one area.

General biographical agreement is that he started playing at three, with first compositions at five.

There are parts of the Bible that are definitely not appropriate for a five year old 😬 what’s your point?! Ezekiel 23 springs to mind!!

No it doesn’t, at all. Even if you’ve taught the same stage a while, teachers moderate within the school and within a wider group of schools ALL THE TIME because their individual judgement of standards varies. You may be right if the OP has taught THIS STAGE and is very familiar with how average pupils show achievement of specific skills at this stage, but she hasn’t specified that. Believe me, having taught Early Years a lot, I’d need a few occasions of moderation to have the confidence to perfectly trust my own assessment of Year 6 standards. Intervention work is different too, because you’re not seeing the application of a specific literacy skill across contexts and only in the intervention setting.

Yes, I know. I work in the sector and I'm very familiar with the EYFS. That wasn't really my point.

Is there any issue raised by a parent onMN that isn’t greeted with an onslaught of posts putting it down to neurodivergence? One poster even diagnosed the op too on the basis of her posting style. In support of the OP I can recount that when my DS1 was just 6 the first Harry Potter book was published and as a voracious reader he both read and understood it. A few of my colleagues at the time had a similar experience. It is so sad that parents now seem to have very low expectations of their children.