Reading as a preschooler - experience of reception

[Sausagesinapan]

My just turned 4 year old is starting reception in September. She can read, and at her preschool they’re taking her to the reception class for reading. She loves books and words and always has, which is great. She’s doing basic sums and understands basic maths concepts.

Appreciate there’ll be eye rolling at this which is why I’m asking on an anonymous forum not in real life…

I’m curious about her starting reception and whether she’ll be bored. She’s obviously bright but I’m sure she won’t be the only one there who’s started reading, however would be interested in hearing other experiences and the sorts of things that were done to keep kids engaged. She’ll likely be going to a different school to the one her preschool is attached to.

My son has always been above what is expected. They always included him with the next class ups activities ie rather than put him in Y1 RWI he was in Y2 English. They assess children all the time so will make a judgment based on her ability. Classes are very fluid.

Schools try very hard to meet all the children’s needs, whether that is extra support when learning is a challenge, or whether it’s supporting them at a more advanced level. You’ll be able to assess how well you think this is being done once your child is there and will have a parents evening and the teacher’s insight into how they’re doing fairly early in their first term. From there you can discuss other options if you feel they’re needed. And of course your dd will provide lots of feedback. But I’d wait and see initially and the focus of the first term is very social and helping them form friendships.

Tjey spend most of their time playing in reception. Most of the learning is done in small group so they will just put her in groups with higher ability. Reading is done 1-1 so they can give books at her level.
Remember lots will catch her up pretty quickly and some will likely leap frog her.

She will be fine. Phonics is a pretty small part of the day of in reception, most of its play based. By yr1 there will be quite a few kids who can read and I am sure the teacher will differentiate the work for them.

Thanks. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the school I’m hoping she’ll go to so hopefully she’ll enjoy it. And @Himawarigirl you’re right, I will get a lot of feedback from her 😂. I’ve just got memories of sitting in reception learning the alphabet and being bored silly.

My DS was taken out of the class for phonics in reception and did reading comprehension exercises with a TA. Once a week he was paired up with another child and he read to them and then listened while they read to him.
He was allowed to choose books from Yr 2, and he also did maths with Yr 2.
After reception it all stopped and he had to work with the rest of the class (which was very boring for him, and he spent a lot of time reading when he had completed the work).

She may well still benefit from the phonics as it also teaches them about spelling rules and patterns. It'll also teacher her the terminology they use. My 5yo will happily talk about split digraphs and phonemes.

Reception worked pretty well, as DC1 rather liked being in a reading group of one, and it focused on the social/playing skills she needed to work on. She preferred the ‘sitting at desks and doing work’ approach of Y1, but YR was good for her! As others have said, phonics was very good for her spelling.

In some types of English (eg comprehension) school did find it hard to differentiate sufficiently, so she got a lot of time to read while she waited for others to finish the work, which she liked. That happened less for things like creative writing, where she could extend herself.

Only issue we had early on was her occasionally reading slightly age inappropriate things left lying around, as people working with YR just assumed they couldn’t read much, and she really could. I also had to put some books on top shelves at home to keep them out of her reach, and do weekly trips to the library to keep her stocked up with the right sort of books. The children’s librarian was a fantastic help in that.

My other DC hated being in a reading group of one, and wanted to not be different, so that was much trickier. It took until Y3/4 for others in the class to be at the right level for them to be grouped together.

Our school asked them to do a Summer diary before they started with drawings and parents writing for them. I got DD to do the writing instead. I was pulled aside after the first day by the TA and she said they would skip the first few book bands with her and that the teacher was asking about sending her to year 1 for phonics. At parents evening the teacher said that the year 1 teacher wouldn't have her so the TA would teacher her harder phonics in a group of 4 and she could have some year 1 homework.