Should nursery have picked up on this on the 2.5 yr report?

[Reastie]

Ahem, slightly worried I'm one of those parents now. DD was given a 2.5 year report from nursery (which actually was more like a 3 year one as she's only started in the past month or so).

It was generally a really positive report but with lots of standard comments about how she's settling in well, good co-ordination, responds well to questions, knows 'under' and 'on top' etc etc.

Thing is, it makes no mention of things I think she is relatively advanced for her age with like she knows all of the alphabet very well, can count to over 20, do some simple plus and minus calculations etc etc. I thought this would be the type of thing they'd pick up on and comment on?

I realise I sound like a pushy parent, and I'm not as DD is really keen to learn all these things which is why we've done it with her, and I feel if this isn't something most children her age can do (can they?) then it is worthy of a mention in a progress check in preference to the more basic stuff? I guess I just feel a bit disappointed they've picked up on more basic things she can do rather than more advanced stuff. It's a small private nursery so they spend lots of time with the children and know them well.

I've just read that back and sound incredibly picky and fussy . I guess I feel we are paying alot, they should notice these things...

But surely they are testing her against a standard list and the list only includes things they'd expect children to know at 2.5?

I think my ds is advanced too (don't we all?!) but his reports have always noted that he is doing the typical milestone stuff- and that is what I expected them to do- to pick up on problems rather than too focus too much on the 'over and above' stuff.

I don't know it's just a list of titles (e.g. communication and language) and a little sentence/paragraph under each title.

Some nurseries focus on whether the child meets milestones appropriate to te their age - if they achieve these then child is progressing in line with expectations. Reports often follow a similar format. It does not necessarily mean they have not noticed your child's 'advancedness', or that they are not challenging her. May be worth having a word to make sure they are seeing the same things as you. Children often perform less well in nursery than at home because the setting is very different (lots of people around etc.). DD may not be counting to 100 in mandarin often, but will probably be developing important social skills.

Good point Trapper .

My dd could do all those things at that age too, nursery were great and they started teaching her to read at the age of 3.5 as she was reading at home ( I didn't push her, she self taught), if she enjoys learning then she will find ways of doing it herself, just keep doing what you are doing and give her opportunities to learn when at home without being pushy ( push her too far and she will get fed up).

My dd is now 10 and is working at a 12-14 year old level with maths and literacy , she enjoys learning and at no point have I pushed her, if they are bright they will do well without being pushed to hard .

Remember she is still young, is at nursery ( where learning is based around play and new experiences ), I wouldn't worry too much about what she is or isn't doing at nursery.

She may be concentrating so hard on settling in that she hasn't had a chance to show her other skills yet. You should be invited to give some feedback on the report and then you can see what it says next term.

That type of thing was mentioned on my dd's report. I.e can say own name, count to 5 etc as part of the criteria

That's interesting nevercan . Maybe like HSM said she hasn't shown all of her skills (although I know they know she's good with alphabet and numbers...) or maybe it's just it was done in a hurry and I'm thinking too much about it.

marne too true.

Nurseries are obliged to report on the Prime areas, physical, communication and language and personal, social and emotional development. It would nice to touch on the others area, but many don't as the prime areas are their focus. That said her learning journey should accurately show what she can do, so planning can be matched to her development. Ask to see her learning journey and next steps, this should show activities to help her progress.

grump her next step was non specific to continue working through Early Years syllabus (or whatever it's called). I looked through her book with comments on what she's done etc (which I assume is her learning journey) and picked up on something where there was a note saying she counted up to 5. I mentioned she could count alot higher than this and nursery replied they knew this but this was the observation at that time they wrote down....

Is there any chance this is the 2 year old progress check report? In which case they will only report on personal, social, emotional skills, physical development & communication skills. It focuses on these areas because they are the most important at this young age. It is also a time to highlight any concerns or worries. So if you report does not contain any- that is great.

There is no way it will ever be a complete report of everything your child can & can't do. The nursery will also report on what they have consistently observed. They will not be testing, just observing your child in a range of contexts and recording.

teacher she's had a 2 year check. Apparently it's a 2.5 year check which I assumed was something different [clueless] . Yes, no worries bought up so this is good.

Oh, I assumed it was her 2 yr check, was this done by the nursery too?

she wasn't at nursery when she was 2

The 2 year check just has to be completed sometime between age 2 and 3, so it's probably that.

Agree that's likely to be it, nurseries have to do one, in addition to HV ones. Poor communication from them though if you are not clear on what the check is for.

OK, thanks. It was given to me as if it was a formality she had to do rather than anything important.

I think the main purpose of it is to check there are no problems. Sometimes Health Visitors do them. It's not for academic stuff, and shouldn't be at that age.