What should a 5 years old know

[Amygreenh]

Hi,
My 5 year old is due to start Yr 1, they didn't attend reception as we had to move around a lot so we taught them at home. I spoke to another mother who said her child already knows how to read and write? Surely they don't teach this in reception? I thought it was mostly play based so haven't covered anything like that. My DC knows how to count to 20 and some letters, can write their name and some letters that's about it.
What should my DC know before starting so I can work on it over the summer with them?

There’s an expectation that you support learning to read at home anyway, because no state school has the resources to listen to each child individually often enough for them to make good progress. All the other children in the class will have had daily phonics lessons (learning the sounds, blending, letter formation, common exception words) for a year. Have you spoken to school about how best to catch up? I’d get hold of the resources they use for their reading scheme to get some practice in over the summer. I’m sure your child will make rapid progress with 1:1 tuition.

Your child is going to be some way behind the majority of children as he has missed out on a year of learning pre-reading and early reading skills. I really would find out which phonics programme the school uses and see if you can catch him up a bit or he’s really going to struggle in September.
When is his birthday?

I’m sorry if this sounds harsh - but should you not have researched this a year ago? Personally I would speak to the school and see if they can put them down a year to start in reception in September. They will be so out of their depth going straight into year 1 and really behind the other children.

The Early Learning Goals for the end of Reception are here: https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/parkhallinfantwalsall/UploadedDocument/9aeb0aea-6093-4952-b9b0-f0c60c55a7b0/early-learning-goals.pdf
About 75% of children will be able to do all that by the end of Reception.
The aim is definitely that children are reading and writing simple sentences but not all will be able to.

For example: "Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words"
"Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others."

My 5 year old is typically reading sentences like 'Yes I can help, said Wilf' / 'He got pink elf dust from his silk bag'
and writing 'I went to the parck on Munday wiv my Mum'

Just to check, you do actually have a confirmed y1 place, don't you?

@Amygreenh please, as a teacher, I beg you to change your attitude to reading! Teachers don't expect you to do phonics lessons at home with your child, but we do expect you to read with them to aid progress. DD (just coming to the end of reception) reads her reading book to me and her Dad, and we also read her school library book and books from home (we tend to read these to her). On that note, we also love it if you read to them. I'm sure you do this, but more and more parents don't read to reception age children.

My ds is just at the end of reception, about to go into year 1. They use read write inc for phonics. He can read full sentences, knows the alphabet, all of the individual letter sounds and is working his way through the set 3 sounds, and he can recognise quite a few of what they call red words, those that can't be sounded out using phonics. On the read write inc book scheme he is reading pink level books.

He can write short sentences and if you ask him to, he can write three to four sentences on a topic, with some encouragement (he doesn't like writing). Practicing letter formation is an ongoing thing.

Maths wise he can count to 100, knows number bonds to 10, and is working on to 20, knows doubling, odds and evens, more than, less than, and dividing something out equally.

Hes reasonably average for his group, doing better in phonics than some, not doing as well in writing as others.

If your child is going straight into year one, I would suggest a chat with the teacher/head as they might have some catching up to do, especially if you're not prepared to teach reading and writing at home.

OP, if you don't read with your child then they will be behind. They are already behind considering they have missed YR and have missed the core phonics learning and their teacher will help them catch up, but if you don't read at home you will prevent them from doing their best and they will end up more behind.

Coming from a Y1 teacher, I'd expect an average child starting Y1 to be able to write a simple sentence spelled mostly correctly, e.g. 'The cat wos on the rug.' and to be able to read trickier/longer sentences than that. That's only the average; there will be children reading chapter books and children who can't write their own name.

Teachers differentiate the learning so that all children are appropriately challenged/supported so it's never truly 'as a group'. I've taught column addition + subtraction to some children in my class and they are working on adding/subtracting 3 and 4 digit numbers. There are other children in my class who are still using their fingers to work out 3+2 and who need support for adding/subtracting anything above 10. I don't think my higher achieving children are bored, but I do think my lower achieving children struggle with self-confidence when they regularly can't do things independently and are seeing other children constantly doing things they can't do.

That's great but were you not worried your kids would be a bit bored? The point of school is to learn together as a group, if they already know a lot what did they do when everyone else was learning?

I'm definitely not going to be teaching my DC to read at home surely that's what school is for. This year we've been lucky to spend time outside playing and exploring the world around us like a 4 year old should

This is so sad to read. Teaching a child to read is definitely a parent thing as well as a school thing. No one thing is solely the schools to teach. Reading opens up a child's world and their imagination goes wild. It's a beautiful gift, the ability to read. Never boring and never too young.

You need to Google Phonics Phases 2-4 as these are the main ones in Reception and is quite a lot. They are sponges at this age and take so much in it always amazes me. Year 1 focuses on Phase 5 phonics and is quite a big chunk. I recommend finding Phonics Family on Instagram. She has so many fantastic, fun ways to learn phonics / reading at home that I have used with kids that I tutor who find phonics hard. It is worthwhile doing as much as you can, as the others will be hitting the ground running with new digraphs, split digraphs and new tricky words. It would also be worthwhile looking a White Rose Maths Reception and Year 1 Schemes of work to see what they have missed and what they will be doing this year. Good luck x

Your attitude is bizarre. You've deliberately chosen not to send your child to school under the guise of 'home schooling' but then haven't actually taught them anything that they should be learning in reception? How could you homeschool a child and not know they should be learning to read?

My DD is in reception. She knows all the letters by name and sound (Ah, Buh, Cuh) she can read simple books and writes (terribly spelt) sentences. She can add and subtract simple sums.

Oh and don't forget about tricky words. They make you realise how hard our language is to learn!

Also, READ, READ, READ. To them, with them and them to you (when they can). I can’t emphasise how important this is. It unlocks a whole new world to them and always gives me so much joy when they ‘get it’. It will be your responsibility to read with them every night and, over time, it is really reflected in their learning. Don’t forget reading is used in EVERY part of learning and in every subject, especially as they get older. It is very obvious to teachers which don’t read regularly or haven’t had parents read to them x

It’s also worth perhaps noting that year 1 is key stage 1 and very much more structured learning whereas reception is the early years curriculum and much more play based. My DC is in reception and this term they have been prepping them for year one with much more table based, teacher led learning. This might be a big step for a child who is new to the school environment

Are you serious?

I'm definitely not going to be teaching my DC to read at home surely that's what school is for. reading is meant to be one of the enjoyable activities like play etc. Are you really not going to help your child learn outside school? They'll get homework and even if they don't it's helpful to go over school work at home. It's not about hot housing or intensive home schooling or anything like that. Just help your child learn - they enjoy learning when they are young their little brains thirst for knowledge.

My son is going into Reception in Sept and is currently at nursery FT. They are doing basic phonics with him and he can read and spell basic words. He's quite advanced when it comes to maths apparently and he does lots of work on things like fractions and concepts like multiplication and division. He also does music and drama there so learns songs/little plays which he then acts out. He's writing isn't great (he's not yet 4) but his fine motor skills are developing. He can write his name, most of the letters and numbers but prefers to spell things out using flash cards (or typing them on my computer when I'm trying to work!). He's not massively independent at home but much better at nursery.

I think to start school ideally they really need to know how to go to the toilet unaided and to get themselves dressed. And they need to be able to follow simple instructions. Having some numeracy and literacy is an advantage as is knowing days of the week, months, seasons, colours, shapes etc.

But children all learn at different rates. DS2 has autism and ADHD. He couldn't write his name until he was 7 years old. Never really mastered the times tables until he was about 12 years old. He's just been told he will be awarded a First from a top Russell Group uni in a humanities subject. Stealth boast alert. But I used to worry so much about his delays. He caught up.

(I should add that we also go a lot of reading and word/letter games with him at home because that's what he enjoys)

As everyone else has said my childre. Learnt to read and write basic words and sentences in reception. They also learnt basic maths.

The “teach your monster to read” app is what we were advised to used during covid. This teaches the basics of phonics. Might be useful for you to do with your child. It’s learning phonics via a simple game.

Is your child summer born? If so possible a summer born admission into reception might benefit them?

I don’t personally think there is anything wrong with your child not having learnt these things at age 4 in itself. Many other countries do that learning a year or two later. I think the issue is that the education here for year 1 is geared towards children who would have learnt these things in reception.

Yes, it’s school to teach reading but you chose to home educate instead so it’s your role. Even when they are in primary school a huge amount of teaching to read is done by parents listening to their child at least several times a weekly but ideally daily.

In my DD’s school they are expected to read CVC word by the end of nursery and starting on the reading scheme in reception. They are expected to write a sentence with support in reception and independently in year one. All schools will have slightly different expectations.

You opted out of an entire year of school so your child is quite far behind others they will be joining in Y1. They won't be learning it in a group, they will be behind all the others.

As many other PP have recommended, reading daily with your child is the greatest gift you can give them. I also second the recommendation of finding out what they school have taught the reception class and covering some of it over the summer with him.

I'm definitely not going to be teaching my DC to read at home surely that's what school is for

Well no, actually that was your job while you were "teaching him at home". But seeing as you couldn't be arsed then the school will have to try to catch him up.

It's all well and good to think that dc's start formal education too early in this country and that they should just be playing at that age (which I agree with btw). But if you plan to send your child to school then you have to accept the system. If you want to go against that system then your options are to move to a different country, or home educate long term. If you knew your dc was starting school in Y1 then you should have researched the curriculum for reception and taught it.

This happened to me as a child. My parents home educated me without actually teaching me basic maths and English and then sent me to school. Being so far behind within a class of children I'd never met before was soul destroying. Please try and get your dc caught up over the summer.

Don't set up a school/ home divide.

Learning to read is a huge milestone in a child's life. They need plenty of encouragement and support as they learn.

The point of school for kids aged 4-5 is to teach children to get along, follow rules, regulate emotions appropriately, develop a relationship of trust with the teacher, and use their self help skills (toileting, dressing, tying shoes, eating lunch and not being completely distracted, carrying their own bags, cleaning up materials they've been using). Social-emotional stuff is very important. A sense of competence at basic skills will be encouraged by the teacher.

On the academic end of things, children whose parents are actively involved tend to progress farther and quicker than those whose parents leave it all to the school. They will not be as bored as you think they will in academic terms because all the other stuff takes energy and effort, and you can always diverge from the reading schemes at home with books they enjoy.

I used to listen to children read when my DC were in year R and the majority of both of their classes were reading and writing to some extent by the end of the year.

Did you know there's some legislation about flexible admissions for summer born children (April-August birthdays)? So if your child is summer born there might be a possibility they could join year R instead, although it's quite late in the year but might still be possible with a sympathetic school/headteacher.

Mine was 5 in April, get the impression she's thoroughly in the middle of her class. She had no interest in reading or writing when she started school in September. She can

• Name and write all the letters (sounds, not letter names although she knows most of those too)
• Read simple books ("Look! It is here. No it is not here." type stuff)
• Write simple sentences
• Count to 100, just about
• Count in 2s up to 20
• Simple addition and subtraction up to 20

If school is still on I'd get in touch as ask for advice and some resources you can use at home over the summer.

But mostly, yes, those social skills - listening, sitting still, turn taking, answering questions, clearing a plate, shoes and coats on and off.