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.

Why does it matter? You are confident in her communication. She’s only 5.

Let it go.

When my daughter was five, all I cared about was that she happy and secure at school, was she keeping up with the work and did she have friends to play with. She's been on the planet five years!! She's been at school less than four months. Give her a break.

Harry Potter is not suitable for a five year old child.

Odd one this. Clearly not here to gather any advice, as you are at pains to point out you and your DH know it all.

But haven't considered simply asking the school first, and happy to slate the fellow teacher for being young. Did you not start somewhere, once, Almighty One?

Well as a teacher myself, I would question your choice of reading material for a 5 year old, as IMO, Harry Potter is totally inappropriate for a child that age. Just because she can read it, doesn’t mean she should be doing. You come across as extremely arrogant.

Just ask the teacher!

You come across as slightly arrogant on this thread and it would be better all round if you were a bit more humble. There is something in the school report that doesn't make sense to you so simply ask the teacher what the issue is and you will get more information and hopefully clarity.

what made you teach her so young
i would have thought you would have shown more restraint

Why don't you just talk to the school, preferably in a more polite manner than you've been responding to people on here?

Why didn’t you make a big deal of it? When you met with the teachers??

I also think it’s probably best to not try and insult others in your questioning though. Because I think once you insult someone you’re lost the respect immediately

Oh dear. Well as OP's family are such quick learners, I'm sure OP has now learned that coming onto MN with a humble-brag about her super-intelligent child is less productive than addressing the problem with the school, like us parents of sadly ordinary children do.

Whilst we nurse our jealousy of precocious 5 year olds like OP's little genius, of course.

Retired teacher here with decades of experience in the classroom. I agree with this poster.

Book 1 Harry Potter is not inappropriate for a 5 year old, follows a fairly normal theme of hardship followed by finding your tribe and overcoming adversity.
I mean Snow White is pretty similar.
Nasty family, threat of murder, finds and befriends the dwarfs, tricked into poisoning, overcomes adversity.

Anecdotally (although I also happen to be a psychologist), I could also read most things by 2, and chapter books by 3. I always got very average school report cards, similar to your daughter. I found school really boring in the early years and was unfocused and easily distracted (not easily observable). I 100% had ADHD. It’s not really an armchair diagnosis, but if your daughter is not showing the teacher what she can do, there is likely a reason.

This. Odd that two such gifted, talented and eminently informed professionals who know it all should pay a moment's attention to a first-term report from a young, unprofessional teacher. And post on here and then dismiss absolutely everything other posters have offered.

OP, with all due respect, please stop the defensive, 'but I'm a teacher'. My recent experience is that many teachers believe they know everything about neurodiversity etc, but in reality, they have a very stereotyped insight - SENCOs included. If you feel the report is strange, ASK your child's teacher. They may be seeing something different. We all see our own children differently to how others see them.

At the moment, your own defensiveness and refusal to consider what is being shared, leaves me curious about your own social skills, and what you would expect a parent to do if they didn't understand a report you sent.

Perhaps because she’s coming across as incredibly rude and arrogant in repeating her qualifications?! And no, I still don’t agree her skills enable her to assess her own child - for the reasons I gave - she simply cannot be objective about them. If she was so brilliantly experienced, why on earth would she be posting on mumsnet? What is she looking for? To get strangers to agree the report is wrong (thus satisfying her own arrogance with absolutely no basis for doing so) / to get strangers to agree she knows better than the teachers (again, to satisfy the arrogance) / or what? Just ask the school!

@sambaba I wonder if it’s more a blanket statement, rather than a direct observation of your DD? My DD had an identical statement in her report that 2 of her friends also had (and which had also zero semblance to my Dd anyway!). She sounds like a clever little girl and, as you say (repeatedly, but which some posters don’t seem to grasp) you have the experience to know if there were any concerns (of which there seem to be none) in terms of her literacy and comprehension.

OP, you seem a bit over-invested in your child being ‘gifted’. I get it, it’s nice to have a kid who is good at something.

Maybe the class teacher made a genuine mistake. Half of the time the reports are copy and paste because they just don’t have time.

Maybe they haven’t seen your DD reading skills yet. She’s only 5! Why not just talk to the class teacher to get more info? you don’t have to go in all guns blazing - just a “I was surprised to see X written because at home she is quite good with reading and comprehension” then you’ll see if it was an error - or the teacher can say what they have noticed.

@Herewegoagain84 sorry but your post stinks of jealousy. The op isn’t being arrogant - it reads to me that, time and time again, she is having to list her qualifications as some posters try and undermine her and tell her that her child has autism / ASD or some other issue when @sambaba has clearly, and repeatedly, implied that this is not the case. She has the experience and qualifications to know that her DD is hitting targets in terms of her reading and comprehension. I wonder if you would make the same remarks to a paediatrician, who was asking for objective advice on the health of their child??

OP, I don't understand why some people are giving you such a hard time! My son also had a really bizarre first report when he was in Reception class (he's now Year 11 and doing incredibly well - predicted straight 9s). They put that he was behind age related expectations for a few things when I knew he absolutely wasn't and was in fact well ahead of where he should be (like you and your husband, I'm also a primary school teacher and senco). When I questioned them on it, they justified it with things such as he wasn't "yet" showing an interest in role play in the dressing up corner, when in fact he had grown out of that long before reception and was much more interested in chess at that point 😂 It really frustrated me at the time but I didn't want to be "that" parent so I let it slide. Similar things happened when he was in Year 3 as well. He just never fitted into quite the right boxes at the right time and some teachers seemed unable to see past that. Given how bright your DD is I wonder if it's something similar. Once he got to grammar school things have been much better! Your daughter sounds amazing and I'm sure you and your husband would have realised if there was actually a problem.

I would want to know what they mean! I had initially thought they hadn’t spotted that she can read, which would be a bit concerning, but it sounds like they do know that. So presumably it’s something to do with her not speaking up much?

My child could read when she went to school but the teacher kept sending her home with biff and chip stage 1. She was very nice when we discussed it but said she could only work with what she could see.
We ignored the school books and read at home and one day the teacher came to me and said 'I see what you mean she can read, she's just read this to me perfectly'. Turned out my dd had been pretending she couldn't read because she wanted to be in the basic reading group with her friend! Sounds ridiculous but she really did this for a term.

She is bored.

Gifted children may clam up if they're talked down to or patronized and may not be particularly interested in socializing with same-age peers if there's a large disparity in development and interests. She may socialize much better with kids who are a couple of years older.

Hyperlexia is distinct from precocious reading. True hyperlexia is a splinter skill associated with autism. Precocious reading by a gifted child is not hyperlexia. Children with hyperlexia read compulsively but usually without comprehension. Gifted children comprehend pretty much everything they read.

The first 3 HP books are fine for younger primary children, though I think there's a case they'd enjoy them more at 6 or 7 than at 5. But they need a reading age of more like 11. From book 4 onwards the themes become increasingly unsuitable, so best left till late primary, regardless of reading ability. There is a difference between can and should.